Birmingham Division 5 - 2016/17 Update - Chess Forums

DBowcott

Mar 23, 2017

0

#1

It's been an amazing season so far with us dropping only one match to a draw and then only after fielding a deliberately weakened squad. Completely my fault. I wanted to give some of the reserves a game and figured that Kynoch B would be the perfect team to do it against. However, it almost bit me on the arse as we went down to a draw and could so easily have lost.

Losing would have meant that we would need to beat Lichfield just to draw with them for the championship top spot. With just one point separating us and being the last match of the season it promises to be an exciting event. Tickets are on sale from your usual retailers. Be quick though, I hear Carlsen's bought twelve. Nakamura will surely not want to be undone.

We've already qualified for promotion so we can relax, safe in that knowledge. However, we started the season with the belief that we should top the table and Lichfield are trying to take our dream away from us. We can't let that happen.

In our penultimate match-up of the season we had to face bottom of the table and relegation battlers, Mutual Circle. We expected to win the match and the team didn't disappoint with 6 wins, one of them coming from a defaulted board. Unfortunate because it happened to Windsor who had just travelled 30 miles to get there. He seemed fine about going back home, perhaps he had a hot cocoa and a film in mind. Whatever he had in mind, I hope his evening went well.

The rest of us slogged it out over the board. I was on table 1, facing a 108 graded player. He started with a London set-up that I faced down with a Dutch. Here's the game:

Finlay played on table 2 and was extremely lucky to win his game. He earned the win then almost threw it all away with a silly blunder. Instead, his opponent blundered a certain checkmate and lost her Queen. A QG Declined versus a very solid Slav. I'll let the game do the rest of the talking:

If you engine check Finlay's game you'll find that he didn't make a single inaccuracy until the blunder at the end. His opponent also played a very strong game. Incredibly, she's only graded around 100.

John Davis was on board 3 and it was a relief to have him back in the team. I don't have the game to hand, but he played very solidly and won easily.

Pete Banks on board 4 offered his opponent a draw that was refused only to then go on to win with his superior endgame technique coming to the fore.

Board 5 was defaulted by their team.

Board 6 was played by John Southcote and he wiped the floor with his opponent. In his own words, he just had so many things he could do to win, it was difficult to know which way to go. Just a matter of time before his opponent gave up.

I'll be back with a Lichfield update or to post some of the other games if I can get hold of the sheets.

lazaruschopper

Mar 24, 2017

0

#2

Dustin

well done on setting this up. I am keen to contribute but lacking in technical knowledge. Tell me more when I see you at the club. Obviously I am happy to report more about Halesowen winning the 1st division of the Wolverhampton League for the first time ever.

Regards

Malcolm

DBowcott

Mar 24, 2017

0

#3

No worries, give me a brief summary of events from any of the matches, give me any notation sheets that members are willing to share and I'll write it all up here for you. Don't forget I can also add images so any photos taken, even if it's just the frontage from the venue, I'll add it to the site. In the future it'll also be good to look back through the old games. Photos will make things even better.