I was removed from the team for my woeful performance last week and Bilal joined the squad. For the senior teams that was the only change though it led to a few board order swaps, while The Rook1Es rested Oli and brought back Chirag from his North Bristol duties.
The 4NCL website held its own this time, thanks to some extra server oomph, and with one exception, all the games started on time. Dominique rescued his game from the possibility of being a correspondence game with no time limit before things got too far!
** Downend 1 2.5 - 1.5 Rhyfelwyr Essyllwg**
Martin, Lewis vs Garcia, Jason
Lewis had a bit of a deviation from the main line in the Najdorf, but held is own and currently went in for some theoretical complications involving sacrifices and counter sacrifices. While both players had complete disregard for their material, it was level, but when white chucked a bishop black decided it was time to consolidate the advantage.
Heaven, Peter vs Savory, Richard
After travelling all the way to their computer for this game, white decided to force a quick draw by repetition that's been seen in the Chessbase opening database "Please Log In" times before. (I forget my details.)
Thompson, Robert vs Jones, Derek
Rob managed to hold off on the inaccuracies until move 7 this week. The engine is ruthless, but it's a barrel of fun. The double rook vs queen endgame proved too tricky for black and pawns started dropping until white could force a textbook king and pawn win.
Summers, Charles vs Conterno, Dominique
After the delays, white wasted no time. The relentless hack attack came immediately, thanks to the excellent Blackmar-Diemer and lasted until Dominique was in a winning rook and pawn endgame. With a third pawn dropping or the rooks getting exchanged, white lost on time.
** Surbiton 2 0.5 - 3.5 The Rook1Es**
Tambini, Jasper vs Hosdurga, Chirag
White threw the pieces up the board in an unusual Grand Prix attack, but they appeared to be wrecked on Chirag's rock solid defence. To spice the game up, white then sacrificed (to put it simply) black's dark-squared bishop for a rook, hoping to mop up on the dark squares. To the unskilled human eye, it was a hair-raising attack, but Chirag found a defence that involved running his king away and finding a mate instead.
Walker, Max vs Ratnesan, Rajeiv
If black's idea in the Hippopotamus is to get developed and then see what white does, then Max decided to do what white does before that. While the attack was wild, black could squeak a draw by repetition while both sides had two pieces that hadn't even been touched.
Black took advantage of white's cautious opening and took lots of space. The attack then inevitably came swinging in, on the kingside, the centre, and to finish, the queenside.
Saunders, Aron vs Janota, Paul
It's hard to know what was going on in this game, but it was tremendous fun just to enjoy the ride. Sacrifices were made, pieces were won back and sacrificed again. I know Aron won the point, but he must have been doing something wrong to make the French Exchange so much fun.
** Downend 2 2 - 2 Cabot Blackbeards**
Williams, Stephen vs Rossiter, Alex
The thing about a national (or even international) tournament is that you'll inevitably end up playing your neighbours. Alex started with an aggressive set up, but white exposed the king and managed to invade with the heavy pieces before black was able to complete their development.
Turner, Lewis vs Burroughs, Adam
White went for rapid expansion but black hunkered down, exchanged light bishops and set up a kingside defence of white-squared pawns. While it did mean black's dark-squared bishop should have been powerful, it got caught behind its own forces. After an defensive exchange sacrifice, black was able to invade and threaten mate or the win of another exchange.
Ahmed, Bilal vs Novakov, Oleksii
Sensible openings from everyone, but black found a great intermezzo capture that netted black a bishop in exchange from c-file control and back rank threats. Unfortunately, the material difference counted for more and when a pawn ran through white threw in the towel.
Burnett, Philip vs Benkhoucha, Samy
Phil opened with the Zukertort, with which I know his is very familiar. A cheeky sacrifice opened both kings but it was white's heavy pieces that got in and that made all the difference.
** Mushrooms 2 1.5 - 2.5 CSC 3**
In order to win me back after his betrayal of playing for another team Toby took revenge on the Mushrooms team for Downend 1 last week. Toby caused some havoc on the queenside with some running pawns and then switched play to attack the exposed king, which had to run from its castle.
Points for all the teams! Let's hope we can keep this up next week.