Culcheth Chess Club Blog

Opportunity Lost Authored by Nick – B team captain

This match was of particular importance because not only was the B Team in need of a point or two to ease our relegation worries, but also it provided an opportunity to improve the A Team’s prospects of winning the Division 1 title by denying their closest rivals a victory. The fact that we very nearly succeeded in winning, never mind drawing, the match only to be frustrated by the archaic default time control imposed by the WDCL made for an exasperating experience and an opportunity lost. So, what actually happened?

Well we got off to the best possible start when St. Helens could not field a full team and had to default on Board 5. Somewhat irritating for Alex Robinson who had taken time off from his normal Wednesday evening work activities to play in this encounter, but his mere presence was enough to secure the point.

Martin Brown has been described to me by another very strong player at the club as a ‘class act’ and there is no doubting his immense chess skills which have earned him a master-strength rating of close to 2200. Therefore, Rob Furness as Black had quite a challenge to overcome on Board 1. Despite Rob’s aggressive intent Martin steadily built a positional, then gained a material, advantage when Rob opted for a complex line rather than make a simple recapture. Unfortunately Rob’s position collapsed shortly thereafter, forcing him to resign after 31 moves . All square. (1-1)

On Board 3 Keith Maudsley faced Phoenix Lamb who recently won with a terrific combination against Damian and is clearly developing into a strong player with a great future. Against Keith’s Sicilian Defence he played the Alapin 2.c3, a variation which is gaining in popularity at this level and is not without venom. In the face of White’s initiative Keith held firm, deliberately avoiding the sort of complications that he felt would suit his opponent better. But eventually Keith had to chance his arm with a K-side pawn advance coupled with a Bishop and Queen manoeuvre which threatened checkmate. The initiative had changed hands and the winning chances were well and truly owned by Keith. But what he did not have was sufficient time to bring home the win so a draw was agreed. Still all square. (1.5-1.5)

On Board 4 Andy Coe was always well in control of his encounter against the St. Helens captain, Ray Smith. He thought long and hard before capturing his opponent’s loose pawn on c4 which gave him the slightest of material advantages but Black was not without his own resources. It is still open to debate whether it was Tarrasch or Tartakower who first coined the phrase “all rook endgames are drawn”, but a brief look at the closing moves of this game would lend weight to the axiom. Rubinstein might have been able to win for White but even he would have required more time than was available to Andy by this stage. So a draw it was. Still all square. (2-2)

And so finally to Board 2 where Tom Vout was confronting ‘the man in the fabric mask’ aka Steve Potter. Tom had typically taken and maintained the initiative building a very solid position in the process tying a Black Knight to defensive duties on the b8 square. Steve’s attempt to drum up attacking chances on the K-side were relatively easily neutralised and Tom’s patient build up bore fruit as he invaded Black’s position via the c file. But Steve is a very resourceful player and good at muddying the waters – especially when his opponent is short of time; and Tom was very very short of time. After the exchange of Queens and with only about 30 seconds remaining on Tom’s clock Steve offered, some would say ‘sportingly’, a draw which Tom declined, some would say ‘surprisingly’, believing he had sufficient time to win the obviously won game on the board. But the regrettable truth was that Tom did not have sufficient time and his flag fell so he lost even though, as it transpired afterwards, he had a forced mate in 6 moves. (3-2 to St. Helens)

It would be churlish not to congratulate St. Helens on their victory – especially after defaulting a board. But somehow it feels as though the true winner was the clock coupled with an anachronistic WDCL rule.

The A team faced defending league champions Atherton for the second time this season knowing that a win would but us two points clear at the top with a game in hand. We had a strong lineup for this one with all of our main players being avaliable.

Atheron also had a strong line up which was shown by the fact that their bottom board Paul Doherty had just recently finished in 1st place in the Blackpool Major.

As usual most of the games we’re very close during the early stages, Furness V Doherty on board 5 and Smith V Mulleady on 3 had a similar symmetrical English pawn structure with pawns on e4 and c4 for white and e5, c5 for Black.

Board 5 was the first to finish as Robert agreed to an early draw against Doherty 0.5-0.5

On board 3 Jonathan’s position began to deteriorate, I didn’t get to see the finer details but I wondered if one factor may have been that White’s Knight on f3 impeded the f-pawn wheras Mulleady’s was free to be pushed. Usually the knight’s are better on e2 / e7 in that Botvinnik type structure. Resignation came for White in the early middlegame as the opposition captain gave Atherton the lead. 1.5-0.5

On board 4 Damian equalized early on in the Black side of an Alapin Sicilian, Lythgoe headed for early exchanges and offered several draws. Unfortunately for Damian he overpressed in a position where he thought he had a winning move but miscounted and it turned out it was Black who was queening first! Ironically the game was probably still technically a draw when Damian resigned in disgust with himself. 2.5-0.5

Lythgoe V McCarthy (bigger screen)

This left the top two boards to try and salvage something from the fixture. On board two Marek was facing Lee Kay as Black. Marek adopted a Stonewall setup against Kay’s Catalan opening. After a balanced Kay managed to turn his weak backward pawn on c3 into a strength on c5, Marek gave up his Bishop to try to create counterplay against White’s King but there was to be no compensation for the loss of the Bishop. 3.5-0.5

Kay V Mazek (bigger Screen)

On top board Tom Quilter was up against Ethan Norris. Tom adopted an aggressive setup against his opponent’s Najdorf. Ethan defended accurately when a very small oversight from Tom resulted in a dramatic shift in the game as Black’s d6 pawn began to run down the board.

In a worse position after this Tom did everything possible to create complications but Ethan held firm to bring home the point for Atherton. 4.5-0.5

Quilter V Norris (Big Board)

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.