Gonzaga lose an Armstrong match, the Heidenfeld and Ennis march on, and the Bodley B sign off with a win.
The Armstrong have a great chance of their best finish in 20 years after extending their winning streak to six matches. First off was the conclusion of their game against Gonzaga, which had been delicately poised at 3½-3½ with just Kevin’s game to come. But he chose a great time to record his first league win of the season and, in doing so, helped inflict a first Armstrong defeat (over the board anyway) on Gonzaga in 5½ years. That’s not the last time we beat Gonzaga in the Armstrong – that’s the last time anyone beat them. It’s so long ago that the victors that day were Phibsboro, who have since been relegated and whose top board that day now plays for us! Our own last win against Gonzaga was in 2007.
The team followed that up with an unbeaten 5-3 win over Kilkenny; Zdravko and sub Ben recorded the wins, with Zdravko now assured of ending the season as the Armstrong’s top scorer, although even if he wins his last match, he’ll fall just short of a grading prize. Trinity’s unexpected defeat to Bray yesterday means we have a two-point gap back to fourth; we both finish with matches against relegation-threatened sides – us against Rathmines, and Trinity against Dublin. A 5½-2½ win for us will ensure a highest finish since coming runners-up to Crumlin in 1997/98.
The Heidenfeld also had one game outstanding after our last update; that was mine against Bray which I won in part because my opponent started going in for a main-line Poisoned Pawn Winawer with Qg4, and then spent nearly 40 minutes on the next move (QxP), decided he couldn’t remember what he was supposed to do and played the highly unusual Be3 instead. I didn’t play too accurately after this – it turns out the main-line idea of castling queenside is just bad now – but in the end my opponent hung a rook in time trouble and I took the win.
We were in Dún Laoghaire last week; the two Ciaráns had particularly wild games which earned us 1½ points, though Ciarán M’s opponent – a former Olympiad player – gave out to Ciarán for accepting his draw offer when he looked to be just winning a complicated position. Other Ciarán was facing the exchange sac line of the French Tarrasch – fortunately, he’d made a complete mess of it in Bunratty, and was consequently much better placed to deal with it in an important league game, and after much gratuitous hanging of bishops, he came through for his first win of the season.
Subs William and Felix had varying fortunes; William lost a piece when he seemed to have a nice position, while Felix turned down a draw offer to win a B+1 v B ending where he had a wrong-colour rook’s pawn and same-colour bishops, and where he still had to win a QvB ending which he’d never played out before. I lost an exchange to a tactic, but my opponent very kindly hung an exchange of his own straight back, and then lost a couple of pawns to allow me reach a won rook and pawn ending. Michael and Dylan added draws – Dylan’s was apparently entertainingly wild – while Brendan got carved open down the queenside and lost. But still, a 4½-3½ win ended a three-game winless streak and brought us back to 50% for the season plus the Inchicore hammering.
Yesterday then saw the visit of Enniscorthy, who with a full team (which they had yesterday) aren’t remotely as bad as their league placing makes them out to be. I opted for their bottom board, knowing it was likely to be one of their two sub-1000 players – to try keep my board prize chances going, and I duly won to move to 7½/10 for the season; a win against Malahide in the last round will get a board prize. As an added bonus, I was finished just in time to make it down the pub for kick-off in the Ireland match, although by half-time, I wasn’t thinking it was a bonus at all…
Dave got a passed pawn which earned him his first win of the season, Brendan had his uncastled opponent in all sorts of pins and duly won, Michael was defending a position but suddenly won an exchange and converted from there, while Ciarán R had a nice attack but had to settle for a draw after it petered out somewhere. But we lost the last two after piece sacs both went wrong and with the final board to be played on Wednesday, we’re 4½-2½ ahead.
It’s been a very tight division all season, and while we’ve only lost twice all season, this match could yet be a ninth 4½-3½ or 4-4 result of the season. For now, we’re second in the table, though others have games in hand; seven teams have scored between 53% and 57%, which would mean just 3 points covering the top seven teams going into the final round, with us in sixth. We finish with a tough game, though, against Malahide.
EIther way, it seems that the Heidenfeld’s first match next season will be against St Benildus – either we get promoted and play the Armstrong A, or we don’t and we play our Heidenfeld B. The Ennis aren’t quite there yet, but recent results have certainly gone their way. A 3½-1½ win against Phibsboro confirmed Lara‘s board prize on 8½ from nine blacks, while Kavin – whose game against Phibsboro is the one yet to be played – could also got a board prize if he can end with 2½/3 or better.
Meanwhile, nearest challengers Cavan lost their round 10 match, while Skerries could only draw with Rathmines A and even Drogheda have been slipping up, having gotten only 1½ points over 50% since the turn of the year. So the team now know that a 4-2 win against Cavan on the final day will ensure promotion even if we lose 6-0 against Trinity, while we could be promoted with a match to spare if we win the Phibsboro board and then beat Trinity 5-1. The reality is likely to be somewhere in between – but if we take 4 points from those seven boards, then 1½ points on the final day would be enough for promotion. If we can get 5 points from the seven games, we would go into the final round level with Drogheda, who play Trinity on the final day.
The BEA A have had mixed fortunes in the past fortnight. A 3-2 win over Rathmines was a decent result given Ben lost two pieces in the space of a couple of moves on the top board – though he then won them back on the next couple of moves and a wild game became a meek rook and pawn ending, which Ben won. Fearghal and Danny were the other winners. Then at the weekend, we travelled to Kilkenny without a full team for the second time in a month; this time Ben drew on 1 – he’s now on 7/8 and needs just a draw to take a board prize – while Danny won on 2 and Dmitry lost on 3.
Both our teams have to play Celbridge, while the As have to play bottom-of-the-table Dublin and the Bs have to face Rathmines A. It’s unlikely we’ll get promoted – the two Kilkennys, Rathmines B and Celbridge should all be ahead of our two teams once games in hand are caught up on.
Finally, the Bodley B ended the season with a 4-1 win over North Kildare who were unfortunately hit by withdrawals on the day and only travelled with two players; Carl won for us while Ryan lost, and Karel technically got a win on walkover which sees him up to 4/4 for the season.
The O’Hanlon face Inchicore on Wednesday probably just needing one decent result to pull away from the drop zone and have a comfortable last day of the leagues for once; their last two games are against the current bottom two and even if we lose both, we should still pick a nice few points while also denying rivals points too. Ronan and Finn are top scorers on 4½.