CLOSER THAN IT LOOKS
A 4-1 score line suggests that it was an easy win, but the fact is that the A Team’s victory over the B Team was comprised of several very close individual encounters, all of which might have gone either way or resulted in a draw. It would be unfair to ascribe the result solely to luck, but Capablanca’s maxim that “A good player is always lucky” never rang truer.
The first game to finish provided the shock of the night as Keith Maudsley defeated Marek Mazek on Board 1 and arguably Keith’s triumph owed very little to luck and was testament to his enduring great skill. (I asked Keith for some insight into this match and he shared the following:)
“Unluckily for Marek, after a dozen moves we had a position from a game between Anand and Topalov that I happened to have been looking at on the morning of the match. Marek diverged, but in a cramped position found it difficult to organise effective counterplay. We both agreed he should have exchanged off a Knight that landed on f6 (though even then Stockfish gives it +0.8 for white). After that, White developed a dangerous attack that resulted in winning Queen and 2 pawns for 2 Rooks, but still leaving black’s position cramped, with White’s pieces dominating the board. Eventually black dropped a Bishop, leaving Marek trying to conjure tricks with 2 Rooks, and white just having to play sensible moves. When one of the Rooks also dropped, Marek resigned.“
The scores were levelled on Board 4 where Ilya Dubov eventually prevailed over Jonathan Miller in a hard fought game where Ilya was running short of time.
On Board 2 Nick Burriss was putting up stout resistance against Jonathan Smith in a Kings Indian Defence set up. Afterwards Jonathan stated that he felt subjected to a bind for much of the game and had a slightly inferior position. The engine bears out his assessment and he felt he absolutely had to play 25. e5 to break the shackles at the initial cost of a pawn. In the ensuing complications both sides missed golden opportunities and exchanged oversights. The compensating errors kept the position more or less equal but the deciding factor was the clock and Nick’s consistent failure to manage his time in ‘sudden death’ time controls once again cost him very dear. He resigned in an equal position with just 1 second remaining on his clock.
Board 5 staged a battle royal between Bryan Slater and Tom Vout. As the clocks ticked down both sides were getting short of time as Bryan pressed hard on the K-side. It looked as though his attack might break through but a desperately unfortunate blunder cost Bryan a rook and a game he might very well have won or drawn.
And finally on Board 3 John Reyes was holding his own against Damian McCarthy. Once again the clock was a major factor but Damian found a series of attacking moves in a Rook and minor piece endgame causing John to stumble into an irresistible mating net.
So 4-1 it was and the A Team continue to press successfully for top honours in Division 1. Meanwhile the B Team need to maintain their high standards of play to scavenge vital points from stronger rivals in order to avoid relegation.
