Thursday 27 November 2008

Littlethorpe 5 Victorious Against Red Admiral 2

Tonight we moved into the top half of the table.
Dave held on in a King versus King and Pawn endgame.
I ground out a win against Stan over 62 moves.
Ray was in control from very early on.
Aaron met Dominik, the Red Admiral's, rapidly improving, 8-year old secret weapon.

Red Admiral 2 Vs Littlethorpe 5
Paul Wylie (140) Draw Dave Ricketts (100)
Stan Parsons (106) 0-1 Colin Ross (100)
Andy Carter (80) 0-1 Ray Beach (99)
Dominik Marta (80) 1-0 Aaron Engels (82)

Red Admiral (2) 1.5 Points, Littlethorpe (5) 2.5 Points.

Well done everyone.

Colin

Thursday 13 November 2008

braunstone 2 3.5 littlethorpe 3 1.5

with littlethorpe 3 already languishing at the bottom end of division two , the trip to braunstone seemed like a daunting prospect. already though this season our 3rd team have produced some battling performances to gain our cherished two points in matches where the grading would suggest an easy win for our opponents. most notably with the help of our two top board subs steve wylie and graham booley we were able to gain an unlikely draw with table toppers melton 1.
however with steve and graham both unavailable braunstons team of paul (157) shrif (159) mike (159) tony (139) and john (126) looked a daunting prospect , but everyone managed to put on a worthy performance , with a team result that probably flattered our opponents slightly.most notably, possibly , was a battling performance by lloyd clarke against mike salisbury to take mike right to the end in a battle against time and a past pawn.
the third team captain didnt want to get involved in the physical exertions required in a battle against the clock (which he surely would have lost ) and chose to offer a draw with 9 moves to make in 2.5 mins , luckily his opponent had the same dilemma and accepted the draw. george put on a very solid performance against tony to gain our only win of the night , well done george.

paul colburn 1 john manger 0
sherif gonem 0.5 andy johnson 0.5
mike salisbury 1 lloyd clarke 0
tony robinson 0 george sim 1
john oliver 1 dave ricketts 0

Wednesday 12 November 2008

Littlethorpe 5 Do Less Well at Syston 3

We were hoping for something like a repeat of the previous week's Littlethorpe D34 Cup match against Syston which we won 3-1 (as Littlethorpe D). Two of the Syston 3 players were even the same. It was not to be, however:

Ron King (105) Draw Colin Ross (100)
Reg Agger (85) 1 - 0 Ray Beach (99)
Mo Martin (90) 1- 0 Aaron Engels (82)
Judith Mitton (80) 1-0 Herve Tribouilloy (62)

Total

Syston 3.5-0.5 Littlethorpe

Next match is away against Red Admiral 2 on Wednesday 26th November.

Colin

Tuesday 11 November 2008

Littlethorpe 1 3½-1½ Shepshed

We lined up for the third match of the season still looking for our first victory. Chris Gibson had to drop out through work, but Brandon's amazing run of form has seen a grading performance of 196 and so he has been propelled to the heady heights of 1st team board 1 - possibly the first twelve year old to do so in the league.

Battle commenced and Steve Wylie quickly saw himself the exchange up, but at the cost of having to defend a viscious attack whilst the other boards were pretty sedate. Brandon was first to finish, gaining a nice positional advantage which he was able to nurse through to a full point. An impressive win as it shows there is much more to his game than pure tactics which is bad news for the rest of us! I learnt from the master Dave Ricketts how to draw a rook and pawn ending two pawns down. In truth, my opponent let me off the hook but it was my birthday! Steve then won his game, having defended his opponents attack well and coming out of it a clear piece up. Dave Bray's game was fairly even and with both players short of time in a Knight and Pawn ending a draw was agreed.

Graham Sharpe was better, and then won a pawn but ended up in a drawn rook and pawn ending when his opponent obtained Philidors position. If you dont know this position, its well worth learning. In order to defend the position you must do two things, (1) get your king onto the pawns queening square and (2) get your rook onto the third rank like this


Now, whatever your opponent does you just shuffle your rook along the third rank until eventually he pushes his pawn on to your third rank like this


Now comes the clever bit. Shove your rook down to the eighth rank. Why? Well, whatever your opponent does now you are going to check his king from the safety of the eighth rank. The King cant leave the pawn undefended or you will just attack it with your rook and win it, and so the king can never escape your perpetual check as he can't hide in front of the pawn either. Neat!

Littlethorpe 1Shepshed
1Sean Hewitt1-0Robert Henfrey
2Dave Bray
½-½
John Simpson
3Sean Hewitt
½-½
Dave Farrall
4Dave Bray
½-½
Graham Harrison
5Steve Wylie1-0Kevin Bennett
3½-1½

Wednesday 5 November 2008

Littlethorpe 2 2-3 Wigston 1 (Maybe)

It's never straightforward when we play Wigston is it? Probably never will be either!

It all started well enough. We had a decent second team out, although nothing of the strength of Wigston - hopefully we could give them a game. The games all looked quite close and interesting early on. After about 45 minutes of play Alan Byron and I had rattled out 20 moves of a closed Ruy Lopez (I did joke that Alan must have picked up the wrong piece when playing e4) whilst Pete Harrison and Martin Burrows had played 4 moves each! First to finish was Dave Bray drawing with Walter Dehnen. Then Mike Cowley drew with Andy Morley. At this stage I was level with Alan Byron, Pete was struggling against Martin but Graham Booley was duffing up ex County Champion Alan Ward.

Then came the controvesy. Both Alan and Graham were short of time (3 minutes and a bit vs 5 minutes and a bit). Alan played a move and Graham instantly played his reply when a Wigston player stepped in to tell Graham that he had to write Alans move down before playing his own. This intervention didnt go down well with either player but they carried on, only for the watching Wigston player to do it again! This was embarrassing for him on two counts - firstly spectators should never interrupt a game in progress for any reason and secondly because he was completely wrong about the laws of chess (it's perfectly legal to play your move and then write down your move and your opponents afterwards). Hacked off at the destraction, and despite the fact that he was completely winning Graham had had enough at this point and offered Alan Ward a draw who of course accepted.

In fairness to Alan, he was just as disturbed by all this as Graham, and in fact afterwards offered to resign the game (I dont know if this was accepted by Graham who has gone on holiday to recover!). Why does it always have to happen against Wigston? Pete eventually succumbed to Martin and Alan Byron got the better of me at the end after a great struggle but events on Board 5 left a bitter taste - again.

Littlethorpe 2Wigston 1
1Sean Hewitt0-1Alan Byron
2Dave Bray
½-½
Walter Dehnen
3Pete Harrison0-1Martin Burrows
4Mike Cowley
½-½
Andy Morley
5Graham Booley1-0*Alan Ward
2-3
* Maybe! Or it might be a draw.

Littlethorpe D Win in First Round of League 3/4 Cup

Littlethorpe D (aka Littlethorpe 5) travelled to Syston for the first round of the League 3/4 Cup.
On paper, the sides were evenly matched - so no bonuses. Colin, Aaron and Herve all won their games within a few minutes of each other, shortly before 9 o'Clock.

Ray, who had had to race up to Syston at the last minute, looked to have the better position with a Q-side connected passed pawn on the fifth, but then went pawn snatching, putting his queen offside and allowing his opponent's rooks in down the centre.

The results were:

Cyril Johnson (120) 0 - 1 Colin Ross (100)
Reg Agger (85) 1 - 0 Ray Beach (99)
Judith Mitton (80) 0 - 1 Aaron Engels (82)
Julie Johnson (55) 0 - 1 Herve Tribouilloy (62)

Total Score: Syston 1, Littlethorpe 3

Next week, Tuesday 11th, we will be back at Syston (as Littlethorpe 5) playing their 3rd team.
We are clearly a team on form, so hopefully, we can achieve a similar result.