Following on from the rousing successes in the new 4NCL Online, the club decided to try its hand in the new National Online Club Championship. Instead of being an evening event with one match played every week for several months, the championship went for an old-school approach of the traditional weekend event. This did not help drum up support. Maybe weekend events are better suited when you have to leave home to play, but that's not for me to say. I'm still quite happy to sit in the corner anti-socially staring at a board and screen for a weekend, and much to my delight so were many of the club. Players filed their requests for specific rounds and almost as if they were organising it behind my back, it all fitted together very nicely. Despite the championship later deciding to open the format to "club-friends", we managed to fill all our spots with genuine club members, which is another point to us. Unfortunately, that was very nearly our last point.
Uxbridge Knights 3.5 - 2.5 Downend & Fishponds
As seeding was calculated based on the top 6 players' grades for each squad, we were seeded much higher in the Intermediate section than any of our actual teams would have been, but that's just for kicking off the event. Friday evening saw the club facing Uxbridge Knights and being marginally out-graded. It was a close one, with fighting chess being seen on every board. Perhaps the time control (as with the 4NCL) of 45 minutes with a 15 second increment lends itself to spirited play. For my money (of which there is none) Aron gets game of the round for eschewing development in favour of gobbling pawns with his queen and getting away with it.
Downend & Fishponds 2.5 - 3.5 The Six Horses of the Apocalypse
Saturday morning was against a team with such a ridiculously long name that I had to edit our database (Cumnor would have been a much simpler name, guys!). Again we were to come second by the narrowest of margins. While Stephen did excellently to win enough pawns to earn a draw after losing a piece (or tactically sacrificing it as I'm sure it was), and Dave dazzled us with his opening knowledge, I fancy Samy's win for my game of the round. Cracking open the kingside and mating with a rook, bishop pair, and knight, all before move 20 is the dream.
Hackney 3 - 3 Downend & Fishponds
Saturday afternoon saw a scrap at the bottom of the pack with the points being split in the end. The top 3 of us got duffed up by extraordinarily accurate play, while the lower boards saved the team in style. Ian was calmly dispatching a Smith-Morra, without even needing to grab the extra pawn, while Samy was rampaging, mopping up bits all over the place before forcing a straightforward endgame. Once again however, game of the round (and possibly the tournament) has to go to Aron. Not only did it have his trademark fireworks from an opening of no such reputation, 15. Bh6 being the star of an already packed game (ignore the computer analysis, they'll never beat humans anyway), but he finished off with the dreaded bishop and knight endgame challenge.
Farnham 4.5 - 1.5 Downend & Fishponds
The fighting at the lower end of the table was just as intense as that at the top. By Sunday, it seems the teams were pulling out all the stops to salvage points where they could, thus in the morning we were really up against a tough team that managed 190s even down the board 3. While Bilal showed some excellent technique in a knight and pawn endgame, and maintained the edge throughout game of the round goes to Andrew. First of all he started with 1. f4, which is already points in his favour, but when a piece was sacrificed to quell a black attack, Andrew mopped up the black pawns and nipped in with a mating attack before black could fully recover.
Downend & Fishponds 3.5-2.5 Letchworth
The final round saw our strongest team (mostly because our most keen players had had their fill by Sunday afternoon), but it was going to be a desperate fight to get a win for the team avoid the infamous wooden spoon. Game of the round is too tough to call on this one because there was so much happening, so I'll perhaps wuss out and say they all were. Samy finished in record time with something akin to a Rubinstein trap with colours reversed. Not to be outdone, Oli also trapped his opponent's queen after a disastrous 16... Ne7. Ian, somewhat missing the theme, got his own queen trapped after turning down a draw offer, but got a lot of material for her majesty. Although black was gaining chances, time trouble was causing problems and Ian held on to score the full point. At this point we needed only a draw to win the match, but despite putting in the results as we went along, I had completely forgotten. I was pressing hard with both players on increment alone, but my extra pawn wasn't enough and if you miss the one chance to get to a drawn rook and knight vs rook endgame, it's fair to say a draw is the best you can get.
Notwithstanding the fair-play checks yet to be processed for the tournament, the club finished a hearty 11th out of 12. Full results are available on the LMS System. Well done to everyone that took part, and I'm sure we can look forward to the next one!