Graham B Reports:
Derbyshire v
Leicestershire Minor Open 10th March 2012
An epic battle ensued when
Leicestershire met Derbyshire at Spondon on Saturday.
Leicestershire needed a draw
to qualify for the nationals and a win to become Midland Champions, but a win
for Derbyshire would see them through to the nationals and Leicestershire
eliminated.
We fielded almost our
strongest possible team, but Derbyshire turned up with a stronger than expected
team which meant, with the exception of top board, there was very little in
grade difference.
First blood went to
Derbyshire, Simon Gilmore and Richard Vann swapped all the major pieces very
quickly and once Richard swapped his last knight off for Simon’s bishop it was
a straight forward pawn ending for Simon to win- 1-0 Derby.
Sean Hewitt evened the
score; playing a nice combination to win material he then gave the exchange
back for a won pawn ending. 1-1
A succession of draws
followed, Graham Sharpe, Ray Burgess, John Robinson and Mike Salisbury, of
these only Graham had a slight advantage, a pawn up and heading for Q+P ending
when he allowed his opponent to grab a perpetual check. 3-3
At this point both Alfonso
and Jim Miller were material down and losing but battling on valiantly (so in
effect we were 5-3 down).
Chino and Sean Sheahan then
completed nice wins; Chino gave up the exchange for extra pawns and positional
advantage. 3-4 to Leicester.
Sean got out of tricky
position with 2 pieces for a rook and forced the win. 3-5 Leicester. Alfonso
and Jim finally succumbed. 5-5
We were now basically down
to a 6-board match with wins looking likely from Mark and Patrick, loses from
Alan and Martin and draws from Andy and Brian (8-8)
Mark and Patrick got their
wins 5-7 Leicester.
Martin then managed to force
a perpetual check, an unexpected ½, Brian, who had been defending a pawn down,
in Q,R+ opposite bishops, for most the game got the draw when his opponent
decided to swap off the queen and rook, to an opposite coloured bishop ending
and the draw was achieved. 6-8 Leicester nationals achieved.
Alan Byron then lost to make
the score 7-8, Andy Morley looking slightly better, then had his usual time
scramble and came out of it 2 pawns down and a certain loss, with a hour of
play left everybody else except Ray and myself went to the pub expecting us to
following quickly with a drawn match, but Andy doesn’t give in and spent 20 of
his extra 30mins on the next move, trying to find an answer to his lost
position.
This may have unnerved his
opponent but after a couple of moves by Andy, his opponent had the opportunity
to swop his queen and rook off for a won pawn ending but instead kept checking
to try and get a bigger advantage and eventually used up a lot of his own time,
with Andy 3mins against 5mins, his opponent played a couple more checks and
offered the draw! 7½- 8½ to
Leicestershire.
We retired to pub to
disbelief from all present.
Well done to everyone.
Our next match is ¼ final
against Cambridgeshire, scheduled for May 19th, subject to
confirmation.
Graham B
Midland Counties Chess Union COUNTY MATCH RESULT FORM
Section: minor open
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Home Team:
Derbyshire
|
Away Team:
Leicestershire
|
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Venue: Spondon
|
Date: 10th
march 2012
|
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Team having white on odd boards: Leicestershire
|
Result reported by: Leicestershire
|
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Board
|
ECF Code
|
Grade
|
Home team players’
names
|
Score
|
Score
|
Away Team players’
names
|
Grade
|
ECF Code
|
1
|
110349A
|
200
|
Ray Evans
|
0
|
1
|
Mark Hebden
|
241
|
112455K
|
2
|
210988J
|
195
|
Dave Latham
|
1
|
0
|
Alan Byron
|
200
|
107857E
|
3
|
113695B
|
180
|
Mike Johnson
|
½
|
½
|
Martin Burrows
|
200
|
125697L
|
4
|
107038C
|
177
|
Trevor Bould
|
½
|
½
|
Graham Sharpe
|
181
|
118781J
|
5
|
173444B
|
171
|
Derek Jarvis
|
½
|
½
|
Andy Morley
|
179
|
115787F
|
6
|
120518D
|
171
|
Andrew Toothill
|
½
|
½
|
Ray Burgess
|
182
|
107674H
|
7
|
105582D
|
165
|
Mike Alderson
|
½
|
½
|
John Robinson
|
169
|
118096E
|
8
|
265240H
|
168
|
Martin Howard
|
½
|
½
|
Brian Galligan
|
E173
|
287350D
|
9
|
115852B
|
166
|
Andy Mort
|
0
|
1
|
Sean Sheahan
|
170
|
118836H
|
10
|
105641
|
172
|
Ralph Allen
|
½
|
½
|
Mike Salisbury
|
167
|
118421A
|
11
|
139664H
|
168
|
Kevin Dalley
|
0
|
1
|
Chino Nwachukwu
|
170
|
275461H
|
12
|
111264J
|
162
|
Simon Gilmore
|
1
|
0
|
Richard Vann
|
163
|
163691B
|
13
|
166478F
|
152
|
Luke Alldread
|
0
|
1
|
Patrick Mcdermott
|
158
|
115247G
|
14
|
256196H
|
152
|
Roy Hedges
|
1
|
0
|
Alfonso Jimenez
|
164
|
279527K
|
15
|
112669G
|
150
|
Maurice Hill
|
0
|
1
|
Sean hewitt
|
158
|
112575J
|
16
|
117100J
|
140
|
Dave Pickering
|
1
|
0
|
Jim Miller
|
157
|
116818G
|
7½
|
8½
|
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