Thursday 8 July 2010

HA2 Succeeds in 2nd Round of Chapman Cup.

Having had a bye in round 1, we were drawn away against Market Harborough for the second round.
A grade difference of 67 meant that we had a bonus of 0.5 points - this would have been 1.5 points if the differential had been 75 or over. MH won the toss and chose white on even boards.

The first result was a draw between Pete and Romily, this was followed by a draw between Haka Dave and Robert King. I had been in a very drawish position against Charles Oppenheim and entered into a knights and pawns endgame - i blundered a pawn and attempted to set up blockades against my opponents queenside pawns with my knights. Meanwhile Ray had been involved in a streetfight with Sean Kennedy - Sean had turned down Ray's offer of a draw and shortly afterwards Ray mated him. Afterwards, Dave summed up Ray's performance rather well: 'He is like something from a horror movie. He keeps coming at you because he doesn't realise he is dead'.

Ray's win put the match out of Market Harborough's reach and so Charles offered me a draw which i accepted.

Market Harborough (1.5 - 3) Heathcote Arms 2
board 1 Ilersic, Romilly (163) Drawn (140) Harrison, Peter
board 2 Oppenheim, Charles (139) Drawn (112) Ross, Colin
board 3 King, Robert (111) Drawn (104) Ricketts, Dave
board 4 Kennedy, Sean (100) 0-1 (90) Beach, Ray
handicap 0-0.5
Final Score 1.5 - 3

No losses and a won match against the team that put us out of the Chapman Cup in the Semi-finals two years ago.

Bloody well done everyone.

Colin

No comments: