Sheffield and District Chess Association

Here’s the write-up for the Sheffield D match (with Oskar’s awesome victory against James Adair included… I must point out that I also saw the great Bg5+ move that was the catalyst for him turning the position around, if only because it was the only thing I could personally console myself with after my position collapsed around me!):
With 5 of our top 7 players missing and a last minute default also reducing our numbers, there was a chance we could have frozen like rabbits in the headlights against the current Woodhouse Champions. However, this side are made of sterner stuff and despite being heavily outgraded on every board, we resolved to make York work for their wins.
And work they surely did…for a long time I held out hope that we might even manage an upset or at least push York all the way, and whilst it didn’t quite pan out that way, the team can rightly be proud of putting up such a good fight against such overwhelming odds.
First to finish was board 2 – Paul managed to get pawns deep into the heart of James’ position and a counter attack never really got going… Paul’s Q and N proved once again how effectively they work in tandem as James’ king was forced into a fork and his queen was lost. I followed shortly afterwards; my queen, king and rook stuck on the back rank and my knight pinned to my king as Detlef used his space and the winning of an exchange to expertly press home his advantage.
3-0 became 4-0 eventually…Miles had lost a pawn in the opening to Jean-Luc, who gradually advanced on the king-side and was even able to give up the exchange to create two immense passed pawns on the sixth – Miles gave up his rook for both but that left Jean-Luc with a knight extra in the king + 2 pawns endgame and there was only going to be one winner of that.
The match was then lost with the next result – but this also saw us register our first half point as Tom picked up an excellent draw against Richard. A very sharp opening with threats all around the board eventually reduced down into a rooks and minor piece endgame which looked very, very level.
Three games to go…and things were delicately poised. On top board, Oskar and James had decided that pawn structure, solid play and slow, strategic build up was not the order of the day and appeared to be going at each other with scant regard for the safety of their kings, or for that matter, most of their pieces. Oskar landed a speculative rook sacrifice on g7, and followed it up with a not-so speculative bishop sacrifice on g5 which wrecked James’ position and enabled Oskar to equalise and expose James’ king. A few precise moves later and it looked as though James might pull through…but one inaccuracy was all it took; rook check, queen check, and with the rooks and the queens coming off and Oskar’s handily placed pawn on b7 unstoppable, the game was up. Another stunning victory for the rising star of Sheffield chess.
4.5 – 1.5… and our scoring wasn’t quite complete. With literally seconds left before the time control, Mike played a sneaky king move which, whilst leaving his bishop en prise, was going to force a drawn endgame. Alexander spent 35 minutes trying to find a way to avoid the draw…but failed to do so and despite being K+B+P vs K at the end, he could not force a win.
Which left Stuart and Martin’s game… a French defence in which Stuart’s kingside pawns dissolved to leave him with half-open files against Martin’s king and a target in an off-side queen. Neither proved decisive, however; Martin’s pieces moved menacingly around to the queenside, there was a time scramble, and when the dust cleared Stuart had a few less pawns and a long, lingering defeat to look forward to. He opted to resign instead and the match was over.
James Adair 0 – 1 Oskar Hackner
Paul Townsend 1 – 0 James Bowler
Jean-Luc Weller 1 – 0 Miles Edwards-Wright
Detlef Plump 1 – 0 Andrew Hards
Alexander Combie 1/2 – 1/2 Mike Newett
Martin Carpenter 1 – 0 Stuart Crosthwaite
Richard Mounce 1/2 – 1/2 Tom Wills
Dave Adams 1 – 0 DEFAULT

Here’s the Match report for the IM Brown match today, Hull vs Sheffield E

Sheffield E made the long trip to Hull on a very windy day to face the team currently top of the table. They had beaten Huddersfield 6 – 2, a team we lost 2.5 – 5.5 to in our last match. Things also didn’t look too promising when their team sheet revealed they were led by five 170s! Most of the games were very close with the final score of 1 – 7 perhaps not fully doing justice to some decent positions for our team.

From the bottom, Eric was struggling for play out of the opening and gradually got pushed back. Colin was slightly better but slowly the position turned around the time control. I didn’t see any of Nat’s game but it was quite close. Keith seemed to have at least a draw when his opponent underpromoted to a knight (a position worthy of a puzzle book Keith informed me!) and lost. Srini exchanged off pieces to emphasise the weaknesses in his opponents pawn structure and then marched his king from d8 all the way to a2 to pick up a pawn and later the exchange and out only point of the day. Dave was a little bit worse out of the opening and his opponent managed to get a strong knight on the sixth rank and eventually generated a strong attack. Daniel was a pawn up for a long time and got the position down to queen, knight and five pawns versus queen, bishop and four….grabbed a second pawn just before the time control but there was just too much counterplay and lost a queen and pawn endgame.
Dave Stephenson 1 – 0 Daniel Sullivan
Eric Gardiner 1 – 0 Dave Glossop
Shaun Culkin 1 – 0 Chern Yean Sim
John Thackray 0 – 1 Srinivasa Muthukrishnan
Ian Bell 1 – 0 Keith Davis
Bryan Hesler 1 – 0 Nat Holroyd-Doveton
David Mills 1 – 0 Colin Whitehouse
Richard Callis 1 – 0 Eric McKenna

Milan Zpevak registered for Nomads B.

This was never going to be easy…and with seemingly more players unavailable than there were able to step into the side, I wasn’t able to confirm a full 8 players until mid-day on the day of the match. Huddersfield were relegated last season, and are a strong team, so it wasn’t going to be an easy match by any stretch of the imagination; when their teamsheet was submitted and the top three boards were graded 169, 170 and 170 respectively it looked like this was going to be a very tough afternoon’s chess for our side. However, there’s nothing these Sheffield boys like more than a challenge…
On one, Daniel seemingly worked a decent position out of the opening against Dave, and eventually won a pawn. However, he then went astray – primarily it would appear by not pushing his passed pawns – and had to settle for a draw.
On two, Dave started out by pushing his pawns and played some form of wing-gambit type opening against a Dutch; he won some extra space, but couldn’t find a way to generate a significant advantage and another draw ensued.
On three, Nat was taking on a big challenge facing Tony. He had been material up in his last two games against higher-graded opponents, but had unfortunately lost both. This time around he was on the back foot for a large portion of the game, but performed admirably to hold Tony’s attack at bay and simplify down into an endgame. Unfortunately, Tony’s two minor pieces were aggressively placed and Nat’s condemned to sentry duty…Tony’s king joined the attack, he won a pawn to create an outside passer, and it was game over.
On four, Bill took on Richard’s French defence and fairly soon they were into a minor piece endgame, a pair of bishops versus a pair of knights. One of each came off, followed by a bout of manoeuvring and then a draw. Three draws on the top four boards and a great showing against one of the favourites for promotion.
On five, things looked even better for a while. Shane trapped Robert’s bishop in the middle-game, and although Robert got two pawns for it his king appeared exposed. However, Shane’s pawns were scattered to the four corners of the board and his king was equally draughty; as pawns dropped off one by one he found it tricky to hold the position together and when he eventually lost the piece advantage there was only ever likely to be one winner.
On six, Colin faced an Albin counter gambit and seemed to have negotiated his way through a lot of tricks and traps to come out of the opening a pawn to the good. Josh continued to generate threats, and eventually Colin dropped a piece – 2B + R vs N + R is tough enough – when Josh then pinned the knight to the king and attacked it for a second time with his white-squared bishop, the game was up.
On seven, Eric seemed to have a very similar position to the one he had had for a long time against Rose Forgrove – solid without being aggressive, but with a set of doubled pawns. This time, his opponent opted for a bishop sacrifice against Eric’s king; the sacrifice was initially declined but Brian continued to offer it and eventually Eric decided it would be rude not to accept; a desperate rearguard action was the result but with some accurate play the position held together – he emerged a piece up but four pawns down – often a losing disadvantage but not this time; pawns were collected and Eric ran out the wiiner.
Last but not least, on eight Henry got his first taste of second division action. The game with Eddie was even for a long time; Henry staved off threats against his king and then went a pawn up – but tragically his back rank was under protected and Eddie’s rooks were doubled – an X-ray attack on a loose rook resulted in a rook for queen exchange and it was hard to see how Henry could hold it together after that… he did for some time, but eventually Eddie exchanged pieces and even gave up an exchange to enter a completely won endgame a full piece to the good.
5½-2½ to Huddersfield in the end – but it could easily have been a different story entirely. There was some outstanding defensive play by several of the team, and they can be very proud of this performance despite the defeat. Time to recharge the batteries and relax over the Xmas break, before we come back next year all guns blazing to cement our position in division two.

Daniel Sullivan ½ – ½ Dave Keddie
Dave Glossop ½ – ½ David Firth
Nat Holroyd-Doveton 0 – 1 Tony Pogson
Bill Ward ½ – ½ Richard Boylan
Shane Frith 0 – 1 Robert Sutcliffe
Colin Whitehouse 0 – 1 Josh Blinkhorn
Eric McKenna 1 – 0 Brian Corner
Henry Withington 0 – 1 Eddie Mellor
Here is one of the games mentioned by Andrew in this report.