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