A later-than-usual round-up of how our various league teams are doing.
Starting at the bottom, and the BEA South racked up their third and fourth 3-2 results of the season at home to Curragh and away to Dún Laoghaire. Graham kept up his 100% winning record with a another great win against Polly McCormick – who had won the Sligo Major section the previous week – while Yanbo launched a nice opposite-side castling attack and mated down the long diagonal. There was no joy on the other boards though, as Alex, Paddy and Lorcan all went down to defeat, with Paddy missing a draw by repetition late on which would have earned a match draw.
Later in Feb saw a trip to Dún Laoghaire. Again, Yanbo came away with a win, this time when 450+ points out-rated. Theo added a second on the bottom board for his first win for the club. Defeats for Paddy and David brought the score back to 2-2, which left just Max on top board, also 450+ points outrated. A piece up but facing a passed pawn on d2 and a slightly open king, he managed to untangle his position, swap off a set of rooks, win the pawn, and then get in at his opponent’s king to deliver mate and pick up what’s also his first win for the club (in over the board at least!).
We still have a struggle to stay up, with the top two to come next and points presumably at a premium. Top scorer is Graham on 4/4.
The Ennis are plodding away in safe mid-table after another two matches which saw just short of 50%. Against Lucan, we started off with three draws on the top boards, two of which make our top ten draws of the season. Fearghal and Dimitri added further draws on bottom boards, while Danny went down in a tough ending as it ended 2½-3½. Next up was Phibsboro at home, where a 3-3 draw was as expected for two mid-table sides. Danny got a nice win, saccing material to carve open his opponent’s king. Seán took his third win in a row as he gets back to form after a few years away, while Fearghal took his fourth draw of the season. Wenle and Jack went down to defeat on the top boards – Wenle after missing a defensive resource to end up in a particularly bad middlegame a pawn down, and though his opponent seemed to go backwards more often than not, Wenle was never quite able to equalise and in the end, a zwischenschach cost him decisive material. An opposite-coloured bishop ending draw on 6 earned the match draw.
The team has a break for a few weeks now, as the next game should be against Drogheda, who’ve withdrawn, so instead it’s Skerries at the end of April. Top scorer is Fearghal on 5/7 (including a walkover), or Dimitri on 4½/8 if you take just over-the-board results.
The Heidenfeld‘s promotion push came rather spectacularly off the rails since our last update. Having won four and drawn one of their first five matches, the visit of struggling Knights of Éanna didn’t look particularly daunting, especially when they turned up with only seven players, giving sub Wenle a walkover win on board 8. Slightly unusually, their board 8 then turned up 20 minutes later, but as Wenle had already gone home, there was no choice but to record the walkover – which at least negated the fact that Wenle was only needed as Slavko had already been tapped up for an Armstrong sub game at the same time.
It’s as good as the Heidenfeld have gotten in the next 17 games though. Brendan C had chickened out of a French Poisoned Pawn Winawer as white which his opponent hadn’t played very well either against myself in the John Bolger the previous weekend, or against John in a previous game I’d used as prep; instead a French Advance was played, and despite getting an early advantage, Brendan went down to defeat. Yubo lost his first game of the season, veterans Dave Willow and Jack Killane played out a draw, Eddie took his fifth draw in a row, and Odhrán – who else? – held a draw late on. But four draws – Karel on board 1 the other – was our lot over the board as we went down to a 5-3 defeat.
And it got worse two weeks later when we played the first of our top-two double header, against Blanchardstown. Dave Willow played early and got us off the mark with a draw. But it all went wrong when the main games were played, and even with a full team, only William, in the only game where we weren’t at least 100 points outrated, took a draw. Brendan made it into a late middlegame level enough against John Delaney, but things then went south. Eddie lost his first game of the season on board 8 against an opponent who outrated our board 4. 7-1 was how it ended, a rather definitive end to any promotion hopes.
We’ve the other team walking away with things, UCD, next, before finishing with two mid-table games. Fourth is still a reasonable target and would still represent a great season. Dave and William‘s Blanch draws mean they join Yubo as top scorer on 4.
The Armstrong B continue to keep their heads just above water in the relegation battle. Our belated match against Ballinasloe – postponed due to the various weekenders on in the last while – finally got underway at 10am on a Saturday in March, allowing Ballinasloe travel to Dún Laoghaire for an afternoon game. This made it one of the first Armstrong games to start absolutely bang on time. Dylan sacced a piece for a pawn or two and a promising-looking kingside attack, but Rory Quinn FM defended well and the attack faded away, leaving Dylan just material down. On the bottom two boards, myself and Zhengjun were struggling against two 1300s, where we really had to target two points as we were well out-rated elsewhere. Zhengjun’s opponent had sacked on f7, winning four pawns for the piece, with one pawn making its way to b7. But then, as his opponent looked for a way to kill the game off, he missed a tactic where he couldn’t take Zhengjun’s rook with the queen, because a bishop check would uncover a defence on it and cost him the queen.
So an escape there, and an even bigger one for me on 7. I’d built up a big edge early on and was +3 at one stage but missed the best continuation here –
I played 1. Qe4, but after 1…Ba6 I’m back to level. How should I have proceeded? Answer at the end.
Then, struggling to find the way forward, I simply hung an exchange. Fortunately, my opponent hung it back a few moves later, but I then dropped a pawn and ended up defending N+4 v N+5, where my only edge was a more active king. Then things got interesting as we reached tablebase positions, and the result started swinging instructively with every blunder.
I immediately realised I’d blundered here – now 1…Ng4+ is obvious; I can’t stop the f-pawn and I can resign. Instead, the game continued 1…Ke5?? 2.NxP+ (I’d spotted Ng4+ by now) PxN?? (this loses – black had to play Kd6 to contain the a-pawn) 3.KxP?? (a draw again – the f-pawn is going nowhere, so a6 wins) Kf5?? (the last and decisive mistake;the king had to go after the a-pawn as the knight already has the h-pawn covered)
Elsewhere, Ciarán lost, John continued his good season with a 2000 draw, and Kavin held an IM on board 1, who pushed so hard for a win that the game didn’t finish until about 2:10, meaning he was almost certainly late for that match in Dún Laoghaire. Kevin’s game is still outstanding.
It was a solid haul, though Dún Laoghaire getting a 4-4 draw off them in the afternoon negated that to an extent. We had Dublin next up, and again the bottom three boards were where we were slightly stronger overall and had to maximise points. Karel beat Luke on 8 to get us up and running, but Ciarán hung a rook, thinking it was verboten, but his opponent called his bluff and was right. I never really got going against a player already on 3/3 and probably underrated after a few years away. Elsewhere, Ben had a nice attack but hung a piece, Dylan went down to a heavy piece attack on his king against Oisín Benson, while John took another excellent draw to end his season on a 2050 rating performance. The last game was a third Benildus v ex Benildus tie, with Kavin holding R+1 v R+3 against John Kennedy. The following week, Kevin McHugh went down to defeat against Jonathan O’Connor after a couple of queen moves too many meant that his rooks never got into the game, and ultimately one got trapped and he resigned.
We won’t have things much easier against Elm Mount tomorrow, so we’ll have to hope for a solid final couple of games to keep us clear of the drop and ensure we can keep our B team up in the Armstrong for the first time in 30 years. Top scorer is John on 4½/8.
Finally to the Armstrong A, who ended a four-match losing run with victory over Dublin. Leon had a nice win against Oisín, who made one mis-step and got punished with a series of tactics in the centre of the board. Slavko, Stephen and Gerry added further wins, and while Dave, Brendan and Tim all lost, Lara held a rook and pawn ending a pawn down to earn a 4½-3½ win. They followed that up with a game against Elm Mount which we’re currently trailing 3-4, with one match postponed because of the European Individual Championships in Serbia. Brendan L got our only win, and it could have been worse only that Gerry by his own admission scammed a draw on board 4 in the last match to finish. We do finish with a reasonably easy run-in – two relegation battlers plus Gonzaga B – but hopes that this might be our long-awaited title push are long over. Stephen and Gerry are top scorers on 5/8 in a season where we have nobody in contention for a board prize, and no-one seems interested in taking ownership of the top scorer trophy; those two and Fearghal are heading things so far. Indeed, most of our players are settling nicely in and around the 50% mark, albeit often while playing up rather than down.
Finally, my game to finish off, and the correct move (which, typically, I’d been looking at but convinced myself there was a defence somewhere) is 1. Ng5. If 1…Ng6 2. Qh5 h6 3. Nxf7 Nxf4 – this is where I thought I had nothing in this particular line, but I can continue 4. Nxh6+ PxN 5. QxR+ Nf8 and though I have rook and two pawns for two knights (and in fact after black plays Bb7, g2 is falling), the computer scores this much better.
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