We’re making a bit of a habit of dramatic finishes in the NCC, be it throwing away a draw in the very last game in 2018 to come sixth (though we still travelled to Greece), to stealing a win in the very last game last year to win the title outright. The 2024 tournament had a finish to match either of those, and the upshot is that, pending withdrawals, the club won’t be travelling to Serbia this autumn.
We were second seeds in the 15-strong field, 80 points per board higher than the sixth seeds, with the top five teams to qualify. Of course, in a team tournament it just takes one tight match to go against you, or a good draw (like we got in 2017) and the seedings list can be turned upside down.
Indeed, we nearly cam a cropper at the first hurdle, against Dún Laoghaire. Leon had a big early edge, but in this position, he’s blundered that all away. What should black play here, and what should white have played instead of Bg5-f4?
Fortunately black missed the best reply and was almost immediately completely lost. Brendan L was offered a draw when two pawns down, which he snapped up, Lara managed to hold a tablebase lost R+2 v R+1 ending where her king was cut off (her opponent blundered badly in letting it back in to the game), and Gerry was also lucky to hold a B+5 v B+6 ending when his opponent missed a chance to get a pawn to the second rank. Ben was the only one to have an uneventful draw, and Stephen won when pinning a piece to mate – though not without a scare for those watching online, when he failed to recapture in a queen exchange, moving his rook one square short! Dún Laoghaire could feel fairly hard done by to have ended up on the wrong side of a 4-2 defeat.
To Leon’s game before we move on to round 2, and he’s left too many pieces hanging – now after the simple 1…e5, he can’t save them all. Instead, he could have swapped off the pieces – 1.NxB+ QxN 2.BxN BxQ 3.BxQ and everything works out; he’ll end up in a rook and pawn ending a pawn up and with a 3v1 majority on the queenside, which should be enough to win.
4-2 was as good as anyone racked up in the first round, and indeed the sixth and seventh seeds both lost as well, so the start ultimately was about as good as we could have hoped for. Round 2 saw us up against Malahide. Kevin took an early draw by repetition against the player he’d lost to in the final round last year, and Kavin settled to a similar draw on top board. Brendan won a pawn and then converted a 2N+5 v 2N+4 ending; it took 40 moves but it was mostly a matter of technique. Ben lost an exchange against Jacob Flynn but then played more actively than his opponent, first of all getting back to a level position, then winning a pawn to give him a passed pawn which saw him win a rook and get to a won N+3 v 3 ending. But Lara lost to Patryk Brozynski – where have we heard that before?! – and Leon also lost to Andrey Ivanov as the game ended 3-3.
Still, without Stephen on board 1, it was about expected score and wasn’t a bad result. We just needed to ensure we followed it up with a good result in round 3 – against Gonzaga… For once, we were higher-rated too – by about 20 points per board, so this was looking like being quite a tight one. Stephen had a quick draw on top board against Killian Delaney, and Kevin added a second on bottom board. Ben then won a Poisoned Pawn Winawer where unusually it was the f-pawn, not the h-pawn, caused the damage. Kavin added a draw, and we were looking at good positions in both the final two games, although time was running short. Leon had earlier had a let-off in this position – black to play and win?
Instead, Leon came out with two pieces and two pawns for a rook, and though he had three heavy pieces pointing at his king, he held off the pressure in time-trouble, got a pair of rooks off, and then his opponent nicely allowed a rook-queen fork, which decided on the spot, though Leon was winning anyway. That left Lara, who had a level minor piece ending, and though she had to give up a piece, both players promoted and the resulting Q+2 v Q, N+1 was still scored as level – though it only needed one wrong step and the position was gone. Which unfortunately is exactly what happened – though it mattered not, as for the second year in a row we had picked up a 3½-2½ win over the old enemy.
Again, we’ll head back to Leon’s game before moving on to round 4 – here black wins with 1…Rxg2! 2.Kxg2 Qxf3+ 3.Kg1 Rg8 is fairly straightforward, while 2.BxP Rh2+ 3.Kg1 Qg5+ is mate in 5 at most. The computer gives as best 2.Rg1, when 2…PxR just wins a rook and is clearly daft. Black instead played 1…PxR?? and after 2.BxP Qh4 3.Qxc7, white is material up.
So to round 4. We were sitting in second place and were surely likely to play the unexpected leaders Galway, the 13th seeds alone on three match wins. Malahide were on the same points as us and the best team on four match points was seventh seeds Elm Mount, who’d equally be a nice draw as we sought the final match point or two to get us over the line. But instead, the computer put us up against top seeds Ennis. And worse, their two 2250s were back in for the first time all weekend; their absence was a large part of the reason we were up against them. Again, Kevin got a draw to start us off – three draws from three his haul for the weekend – and then things started getting a bit interesting. Leon’s opponent sacced on f7, but when Leon followed up inaccurately, his opponent almost immediately bailed into a draw by repetition. How should white continue here?
Kavin agreed a middlegame draw and we had three draws to start things off, and Stephen’s position, against an IM, was starting to look good. He also had a king on f7, but had a piece for two pawns for the inconvenience. When white took an hour on his 14th move, it was clear this wasn’t any sort of opening prep – and it was a mistake at that. White immediately gave up an exchange for pawn, and now Stephen had the unusual material imbalance of rook for three pawns, and his king had found safety. White did fork two rooks and queen, but Stephen was happy to give back the exchange, picking up a pawn for it, and after another exchange sequence which all worked out in his favour, the game settled to Q, B+4 v Q+6, and Stephen, with the initiative, picked off a couple more pawns to put us in a great position.
That left us on the cusp of victory, but Ben missed a nice knight move which left him dealing with a passed pawn on d6, which caused no end of problems and ultimately defeat. That left Lara, who had lost two pawns against Rory Quinn FM and looked lost from early on. But she generated counterplay out of nowhere and not only levelled the position, but got an attack, with her opponent’s king stuck on g6. Then, playing off increments, she reached this position –
Here, 1.Nxb7 and the computer gives +2; the pawn is under control and the black king is in big trouble. Instead, playing on increments, Lara played 1.f4??, completely missing the reply Rxe4 and then Rxf4+. Now four pawns down, all was lost, until another twist a few moves later –
How should white continue here? Don’t forget that pawn on d3!
Unfortunately she missed the continuation, which would have given us a 3-3 draw, but even though a 3½-2½ defeat dropped us down to sixth and our of the ECC places, it wasn’t disastrous, and we had a final round tie against Elm Mount, who had played four of the bottom five seeds (we had played three of the top four, by contrast). Before we have a look at that one, in Lara’s game, she did play 1.Nd6+ Ke6 2.NxR PxN 3.Bb4?? g5, the game was over. The best line – far from easy to see on increments – was 1.Nd6+ Ke6 2.Kxf4 d2 3.Re7+ Kd5 4.Ne4!!. A beautiful move to find; if white promotes (and if he doesn’t, the pawn is gone), 5.Nc3+ attacks king, queen, rook and bishop; white will have piece for three pawns and should hold.
Or in Lara’s line – 1.Nd6+ Ke6 2.NxR PxN 3.KxR d2 4.Rgxg7 d1=Q 5.Re7+ (it doesn’t really matter which) Kd5 6.Rd7+ (it still doesn’t matter which) NxR 7.RxN+ Kc6 8.RxQ BxR and white will hold the opposite colour bishop ending.
And in Leon’s position, white can just take the knight – black can’t take back because of 2.Ba3+, so white has recovered the sacrificed material and still has a big attack going.
So to the dramatic final round. For the first time all weekend, we had our strongest team out. There were no complicated permutations – a win and we would finish top five; anything else and we wouldn’t. We had an average of 150 points per board of an advantage, mostly pooled on the bottom two boards.
We needed to neutralise them on the top boards, and did so. Kavin took about as dull a draw as it’s possible to take – like Kevin, he ended up drawing all his games – and Stephen took an early draw against their FM board 1. Gerry drew soon after – both were looking at the other three boards, where we already had clear advantages in each.
Then things started to go badly wrong. Leon – whose opponent had lost to Lorcan in the Heidenfeld earlier in the season – had lost a pawn early on, but recovered to win three of his own back, and things looked to be going to plan. But then he got a rude awakening – white to play and win here?
Ben was allowed take on f7, and his opponent’s position quickly crumbled, although Ben missed a chance to end things immediately here. White to play and win?
Instead, the game dragged on with Ben needing to free his knight from b7 before confirming the win.
So it was down to Lara to win it for us. She won two pawns in the opening, and then was rudely awakened here. How should black continue?
This shock cost Lara half an hour of time, but she built up her advantage again – and then for those watching online, the game froze and Lara’s flag fell. It was about ten minutes before anything happened – at which point it was mate in two for black! This was the key moment – how should white continue here?
Here, Lara played the very weird 1.Kf3, and after 1…e5, black is getting right back into the game. We needed a win of course, but unfortunately Lara then hung the bishop a few moves later and it was completely lost, with a brief let-off when black missed mate in two –
It was only putting off the inevitable though; the game is lost from here anyway. So a 3½-2½ defeat to finish off, which dropped us down to eighth and out of things entirely, while giving Elm Mount an unlikely title. A draw would have had us joint seventh and it’s not clear how the tie-break would have worked; a win and we’d have finished fourth (while dropping Gonzaga down to sixth and out of Europe). We may yet get a 2018-style reprieve, but for now the focus turns to Rhodes 2025…
One last diagramme before we look at the solutions to the puzzles posed – here, an IM misses a mate in two of his own. How to continue?
In Leon’s game, after 1.Rc8!, he’s completely lost. We had to rely on a 1050-rated player not spotting a very nice tactic, but no such luck… 2.RxR+ is the threat, when black can’t take back because of Qd8#. Bg6 was Leon’s real blunder, as otherwise 1…g6 would have been playable and black’s fine.
In Ben’s game, 1.Ne5+ wins the queen immediately. Instead, play continued 1.QxQ BxQ 2.Ne6+ Kf8 3.NxB, and the game will go on until white can rescue the knight out of b7.
In Lara’s game, 1…Qb4! threatens perpetual check on e2/h5, and while white is dealing with that, black will mop up the two extra queenside pawns. And in the second position, this could get a bit frustrating looking for a clear win while the clocks ticks down to 2/3 minutes, but there’s a few good plans. The simplest is 1.Nb5 Qd5 2.QxQ NxQ 3.c6 Rc8 4.c7 and black will have to give up a piece on the pawn. There’s still a way to go for the win, but with increments it should just be a matter of technique.
And the two mates in two to round things off. Lara loses by 1…Qh1+ 2.Kg4 Qh5#, while the IM wins with the nice 1.Qxc6+! PxQ 2.Ba6# This is a standard of tactics websites, but it’s a very nice tactic and you don’t get to play it out very often. The IM ultimately lost the game, giving him a second reason to kick himself…