Monday, 12 March 2012

Derbyshire v Leicestershire Minor Open 10th March 2012



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

Home Team: Derbyshire
Away Team: Leicestershire
Venue: Spondon
Date: 10th march 2012
Team having white on odd boards: Leicestershire
Result reported by: Leicestershire
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







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