Post by jocls on Feb 22, 2013 9:19:14 GMT
This fixture had been re-arranged because of adverse weather conditions in December. It was a match that, in view of the grading advantage, we should really have won, especially as we had home advantage and won the toss. We lost the first two games to finish, which put the top two boards under pressure. The result was in doubt with only minutes left in the last game to finish: a win in that would have given us the match on board count.
The invidual scores were:
1. Bob Elliston (W) 174 1-0 Richard Welford 136
2. Mel Young 162 Draw Matthew Britnell 138
3. Omer Namouk 134 0-1 Keith Osbourne 131
4. Jonathan Finn 114 0-1 Minori Davies-Arai 125
On board 1, Bob played an English opening to which Richard answered with the English Defence. Bob won the exchange and traded off queens, but, as he said afterwards, he relaxed slightly and allowed Richard back in the game. Further exchanges produced an endgame in which he had a rook, bishop and 5 pawns against Richard's 2 knights and 5 pawns. Bob's rook and a-file passed pawn were better than the Black's two knight and h-file passer which looked vulnerable and was duly captured on h3 by the white king. Richard came under serious time pressure in the second period and lost another pawn, which led to his resignation after Bob's 42nd move.
Board 2 was the last game to finish. Mel faced a Smith-Morra gambit but contrived to find himself a pawn down in fairly quick time. He did, however, seem to have some compensation with the bishop pair on e6 and e7 and his queen on c7. He then posted two rooks on the open d-file and then both on the 7th rank. Matthew defended well, however, and relieved the pressure by exchanging off a pair of rooks, leaving a drawish-looking position. The time control was reached with both players having just over two minutes left from the first period, the position having resolved itself into Mel's Rook, bishop and 5 pawns versus Matthew's rook, knight and 5 pawns. For a while it looked as though Matthew was going to lose on time, but after 48 moves Mel offered the draw, saying he couldn't see how to win. If anything, Matthew's knight gave him an edge over Mel's bishop.
On board 3, Keith played a Taimanov and quickly won a pawn, which seemed to put Omer on the back foot, particularly as his king was rather exposed on g1 with just a pawn on h2 and bishop on g2 for defence. Omer became behind on the clock and lost another pawn. Keith seized control of the c-file and forced resignation after only 23 moves. Two down!
Jonathan was under the weather with a cold and made rather hard work of a standard Giuoco Piano. The position was equal until Jonathan advanced c5, which allowed a grateful white knight to jump into the hole on d5. The knight captured its opposite number on f6, leaving Jonathan's king horribly exposed afer gxf6, the pawn being pinned against the black queen by the white bishop on h4. Minori seized the opportunity, his Nh2 opening up the position for the white queen, which captured the loose pawn on h6. Jonathan conceded defeat after only 16 moves.
A disappointing result, leaving us wondering what would have happened if the match had been played on the original date when Conrado Quintos (ungraded but estimated at 150) had been available.
The invidual scores were:
1. Bob Elliston (W) 174 1-0 Richard Welford 136
2. Mel Young 162 Draw Matthew Britnell 138
3. Omer Namouk 134 0-1 Keith Osbourne 131
4. Jonathan Finn 114 0-1 Minori Davies-Arai 125
On board 1, Bob played an English opening to which Richard answered with the English Defence. Bob won the exchange and traded off queens, but, as he said afterwards, he relaxed slightly and allowed Richard back in the game. Further exchanges produced an endgame in which he had a rook, bishop and 5 pawns against Richard's 2 knights and 5 pawns. Bob's rook and a-file passed pawn were better than the Black's two knight and h-file passer which looked vulnerable and was duly captured on h3 by the white king. Richard came under serious time pressure in the second period and lost another pawn, which led to his resignation after Bob's 42nd move.
Board 2 was the last game to finish. Mel faced a Smith-Morra gambit but contrived to find himself a pawn down in fairly quick time. He did, however, seem to have some compensation with the bishop pair on e6 and e7 and his queen on c7. He then posted two rooks on the open d-file and then both on the 7th rank. Matthew defended well, however, and relieved the pressure by exchanging off a pair of rooks, leaving a drawish-looking position. The time control was reached with both players having just over two minutes left from the first period, the position having resolved itself into Mel's Rook, bishop and 5 pawns versus Matthew's rook, knight and 5 pawns. For a while it looked as though Matthew was going to lose on time, but after 48 moves Mel offered the draw, saying he couldn't see how to win. If anything, Matthew's knight gave him an edge over Mel's bishop.
On board 3, Keith played a Taimanov and quickly won a pawn, which seemed to put Omer on the back foot, particularly as his king was rather exposed on g1 with just a pawn on h2 and bishop on g2 for defence. Omer became behind on the clock and lost another pawn. Keith seized control of the c-file and forced resignation after only 23 moves. Two down!
Jonathan was under the weather with a cold and made rather hard work of a standard Giuoco Piano. The position was equal until Jonathan advanced c5, which allowed a grateful white knight to jump into the hole on d5. The knight captured its opposite number on f6, leaving Jonathan's king horribly exposed afer gxf6, the pawn being pinned against the black queen by the white bishop on h4. Minori seized the opportunity, his Nh2 opening up the position for the white queen, which captured the loose pawn on h6. Jonathan conceded defeat after only 16 moves.
A disappointing result, leaving us wondering what would have happened if the match had been played on the original date when Conrado Quintos (ungraded but estimated at 150) had been available.