Metropolitan Chess Club 4NCL Team

A bad weekend for the team although there were some very good performanaces - Nick scored 2.5 / 3 against 3 players averaging over 2200, for example. Outgraded by some way in each match, we were nonetheless able to run Brown Jack and Poisoned Pawns very close.

Against Brown Jack, the first result was Ian's, who tried out a new line in the Portuguese variation, and made a quick draw. Andrew's game petered out to the same result fairly soon afterwards. We were at this stage looking bad on the top two two boards. It got worse when Zaf went down on board 4, having overpressed from what was at first a promising, and then a level, position. His opponent finished things off skillfully.

Nick had reached a bad rook and bishop endgame, and decided to head for a pint. A good decision, as it turns out - perhaps his opponent took this as an sign of surrender, perhaps not, but either way, his position began to look up a bit, and he was able to grovel his way to a draw.

The match was lost after that, though, as Alan went down after a tough game on board 2 - his exposed king being the decisive factor. Most people had abandoned George's game as drawn, having reached a double rook endgame with a very reduced number of pawns, some sort of perpetual check seemed to be the most likely result. Nevertheless he managed to keep his winning chances alive, and ended up with a surprising mating net around his opponent's king.

Sunday's game versus Poisoned Pawns started in a similar fashion to the previous day, with two draws, this time from Ian and George. Nick got into some hot water in the opening, but a blunder from his opponent in time trouble turned it around, and we were leading 2-1.

Alan had looked to be doing well in a queenless middlegame early on, but his opponent was able to get his queenside pawns rolling quickly, and reached a winning endgame. Zaf likewise had a good position at about move 20, but this vanished after he rejected a decent opportunity to simplify towards the endgame. A blundered pawn then sealed his fate, and we were 3-2 down.

Andrew's game could not save the match - in a chaotic position he had already turned down a perpetual check becuase of the match position. Probably the position was then lost, but fortunately he was able to hold for a draw in the end anyway.

Our "reward" for two losses was to be drawn against the strongest team in the divison - Cambridge University, who averaged over 200 BCF across all 6 boards.

In the circumstances, it is perhaps kinder to draw a veil over the games we lost: generally, there were a few optimistic moments, but ultimately we were outclassed in these games. George's game looked to be heading the same way as the others, but he was able to salvage a draw in the endgame, despite his crippled pawn structure.

The big upset was on Nick's board, where his opponent played inaccurately in the opening, and was severely punished.

Another two wins this weekend see us leading the division with 5/6!! We're closely followed by Brown Jack on the same score, and Oxford 1 and Slough 3 on 4.5/6. We've mangaged to avoid most of teams at the top end so far, aside from Oxford, so we'll inevitably meet them over the next few rounds. Our next match will be with Brown Jack, and the pairings have reverted to a round-by-round basis, (as opposed to double round).

The first match - against Nottinghamshire, was a tense affair early on, as George ran into trouble in the opening and had to jettison a pawn, while rather uncharacteristically for both, Andrew found himself in a drawish Petroff position, while Ian had come out of the opening with a slight disadvantage. Things were going reasonably well on the other boards, although all three were complex and progressing at a slower pace.

Things began to turn our way after a couple of hours - Zaf made a promising exchange of a piece for four pawns, considerably better than his usual return on a piece. Andrew agreed a draw and went out in search of a cure for his aching head. The two top boards both won as the first time control approached, Alan with a thematic knight sac on e6 in a sharp Sicilian, Nick by more positional, but equally devastating means.

On Sunday we faced Hilsmark Kingfisher 2. Their first team was one of our main rivals for promotion last year, but their team has strengthened considerably, and their 2nd team this year has quite a lot of overlap with last year's 1st team. Needless to say, we were keen to reverse last years result!

This time it was the lower boards that made the running early on, Andrew winning a Benko-like position as Black with considerable style, and Alan showing how to win the Black side of the opening he'd played as White on Saturday! George also looked to be doing well with a space advantage in a closed position.

We had run into trouble on the higher boards, though. Ian's game had started off as a symmetrical exchange Slav, which Ian had livened up with a ..g5 thrust in an attempt to gain some advantage. Ian's opponent played calmly, returning a pawn to ensure he had control of the key squares and lines on the kingside, and built up a winning attack. Zaf had run into a murky position as White, and had to make his customary piece-for-pawns exchange, although this time for only 3 pawns, and strictly as a (probably last) chance to draw against his opponent's troublesome passed pawns. Nick was out to avenge a loss to the same opponent last year, and seemed to have started out well, but overlooked a clever piece sac in a confusing position, after which his opponent had a strong passed pawn and tactical play against Nick's pieces. Fortunately in the complications that ensued, and probable mutual time shortage, his opponent recaptured the wrong piece, and Nick was able to simplify into a won endgame.

In the end, George was unable to win, as his opponent was able to exchange off his bad pieces, and carefully defend, and Ian could only beat off his opponent's attack by going two pawns down in a rook ending. But with wins on boards 1,4 and 6, we were over the winning line, and the final game was agreed drawn to win the match 4-2.

Two solid wins this weekend have pushed us up the standings to the chasing pack on 3/4, behind outright leaders Oxford 1 on 4/4, and Brown Jack on 3.5/4. Remarkably, Oxford appear to have played all the teams on 3/4 already, or to put it another way, every team Oxford has played has won all their other matches..

The first match was tense for quite a while. Two early results - George winning on board 5, and Ian's draw on board 3 put the score in our favour. Nick's game on 1 was also looking fairly level. However, on the Black boards things weren't so clear. Alan had was looking like he was going to get mated in the middle of the board on around move 25, while Andrew had chucked some material at his opponent, which is generally a good sign, but was causing concern among the more faint-hearted spectators.

It got worse when Zaf, who was an exchange to the good but under some pressure, failed to take a chance to simplify, and then got into serious trouble whe he overlooked one of those pesky backward bishop moves. A lost opposite coloured bishop endgame ensued. Meanwhile, Andrew had won, and Alan had found an exchange sac which netted a pawn, and moved his king safety level up from totally dire to just dodgy.

Nick had reached a rook ending with 2 pawns each, and agreed a draw, putting us at 3-2. Alan's position had been improving, and we thought a draw was likely, but he even managed to squeeze a win in an exchange-down ending because of the strength of his connected pawns.

The main highlight of Sunday match against Pontypridd was Alan "Wild Dog" Dunn's game against Dai James. From the opening it was obvious that Alan was looking for a quick sacrificial win so that he could devote the afternoon to cultural pursuits. Having given up a rook to expose his opponent's King, it looked like mate would follow as Alan chased the King across the board from g8 to a5, but Black always seemed to be able to defend, although not to beat White back altogether. A draw seemed a fair, albeit unlikely, result.

The other games went well and were won on the lowest 4 boards, Ian beating off an attack and reaching a winning endgam, Andy again with a sacrifice, George and Zaf finding tactics at the right moments. Nick pushed hard for a win with an extra pawn in the endgame on board 1, but his opponent held on for the draw, making the final score 5-1.

We kicked off this year against Sussex Mindports - a team mostly comprising of talented juniors. We'd met them last year and were held to a 3-3 draw, and of course, this year they're a year sharper and we're a year more senile. The main excitement of the round was provided by Kieran, who had holed up in a pub to watch the rugby world cup (as had we all), but got stuck on route to the venue, and arrived an hour late, just at the limit of being defaulted. Happily he won a quick game. Norbert also cruised to a fairly comfortable win after his opponent went wrong in a tricky Sicilian line. On board 1, Al had a promising attack, but ran a bit short of time, and finally had to accept one of his opponents multiple draw offers. Zafer missed a win in an instructive bishop endgame, and Ian rather unusually came unstuck as White. With George's win the final score was 4-2, not as decisive as the ratings would have suggested, but a reasonable result against a rapidly improving team.

Our Sunday game was against Oxford 1, the third seeds in this competition. As is often the case when facing strong opposition, we found easier to obtain promising positions than to convert them - particularly in the endgame. Norbert played a fine game on board 2, reaching a good rook endgame, but his opponent just managed to hold on. Ian exchanged down to a completely level bishop endgame, which became a lost pawn endgame after a miscalculation. Finally and most tragically, Kieran's opponent sacrificed a couple of his pieces to remove Kieran's last pawn, leaving him with the unenviable task of mating with bishop and knight against king - only easy if you know how already - and the process of learning it guarantees it'll never come up! Kieran conceded the draw after about 40 moves of the allocated 50. The only endgame which seems to have been played correctly was George's, who held a slightly worse looking rook endgame and secured the draw.

The other two games were somewhat wilder, Al playing from the flanks in the style of Mike Basman, with ..b5 and ..g5 as Black - a very tactical game came down a time scramble where both kings looked to be in great danger. Zafer had a promising position from an exotic opening, but it started to go downhill fairly quickly when he got distracted on the queenside and allowed his opponent to become too active.

The final score of 4.5-1.5 meant we finished the weekend just under par with 5.5/12, and in mid-table.