Update!
It’s been quite a while since my last catch up so take a deep breath…
The Iceland match for the U1200 has finally started, a few nudges given to the opposing team captain to have their last player join on. Its Jordan’s first match online with us so good luck to him and I’m sure he’ll do well.
In the U1600 Czech Republic match, despite being a point down (1.5 – 0.5) things seem fairly even. Though Anthony is on the backfoot on board one, Carl (first match for us as well) is hammering into his opponent and we definitely have a couple of points to come flying in at some point.
The Belgium U1400 sees us push into the lead 3 – 2 with stunning games from Carl that took him over 1400 and into the U1600 team and, even more impressive, a beautiful mate from David Lucas with the bishop, queen, knight and rook, giving up his other rook to concentrate on the mating sequence. The remaining games are fairly even, with Clair starting to go on the attack.
Algeria sees us just about stay in the lead 3.5 – 2.5. In this U1800, Jonathan and myself continue steady battles that yet look to take a significant amount of time.
Onward to our U1000 team against South Africa (a match that started a couple of months ago) and here its William that leads us on. 2 – 2 it’s just his two games that remain while he battles someone over 100 points higher. Undaunted, he’s well into the lead in both and, if he takes his time, he can capture another win for Castell Nedd.
Another U1000 match (I usually start sending out new challenges if there is only one team member left playing), this one is against Iran, has us yet again taking the lead 5 – 2. Tomos has just managed to scoop up a bishop that was en pris, a free three points that I’m sure will be very handy throughout the game.
In the Brazil Open, I’m the only one left playing and we’ve definitely landed the win. However, I’m on the back foot in both. Despite a kingside attack that might put enough pressure on, I’m down four points in one, and in the other I’m on the defensive. We’ll see how they go.
The most exciting news is the TMCL league match, where we currently stand 2 – 1 thanks to a classic chess puzzle mate from Andrew Davies. In this match, Anthony is really throwing his weight in, and his opponent is ready to break. Heads up to everyone in this team the next challenge is being sent out on the 1st of August and the second match starts on the 12th. Note that this does not mean your first games have to be finished, and if you don’t want to play in both we’ll pull someone else in.
Finally, we’ve finished off two matches to take some nice wins. Thanks to a hard fought battle by Nicola, we’ve finished off Mali 6.5 – 3.5. They were a tough team for our U1200s to beat, but beat them they did. Can they make it two in a row with Iceland? For the U2000 (a grade level I’m stopping matches for at the moment as it’s the same as our U1800 team) my games against Mexico came to an end and we beat them 8.5 – 1.5. A much weaker team we would expect such results, but my opponent (a 1300) played very well and I wasn’t able to push home a rook and pawn versus rook ending. Still, the match was won.
