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South Shields B v Reivers

This match was played at South Shields on Thursday April 19th, with the following line-up:

1. Brian Towers (158) v Ian Mackay (137)
2. Ian Maughan (138) v Steve Larkin (116)
3. Eddie Czestochowski (131) v Derek Blair (112)
4. Chris Sayers (133) v Dave Humphreys (82)
5. Asanga Gunasekera v Default

Derek’s game finished first, when the loss of a piece early on proved too great a handicap.

Dave was holding his own till he allowed a lethal knight fork of King and Queen.

Ian notched up what he described as a fairly dull end-of-season draw.

And finally, Steve accepted the offer of a draw in a complex position with opposite-coloured bishops and Steve’s two pawns to Ian’s one.

So South Shields won 4-1 and both sides completed their season. Fortunately for the Reivers, there was nothing at stake, as they finished third from bottom of the division, having played 10 games, winning 3, drawing one and losing 6.

Many thanks to all 10 players who turned out for the side. The season’s statistics follow:

Steve  Played 9 Won 2 Drew 2 Lost 5   33%   Ave board 2.7

Dave H    ”     8      ”     2     ”     1    ”    5   c30%           ”         5.0

Ian            ”    7      ”     3     ”     3    ”    1     64%           ”         2.0

Peter C     ”    6      ”     1     ”     4    ”     1    50%           ”         1.3

Bruce       ”    5      ”     2     ”     2    ”     1    60%           ”          3.6

Derek B   ”    5      ”     0     ”     0     ”    5       0%          ”          3.8

Christine  ”   4      ”     2     ”     0     ”    2     50%          ”          4.8

Derek H    ”   3      ”     1    ”      2     ”    0     66%          ”          1.0

James (1 win) and Tim (1 draw) also played.

Tans v Jesmond Knights

The last match of the season and another fine performance from the Tans, but once again no match points. Outgraded by an average of 39 points, the Tans lost 1½-3½, but it was very even, and although the match score was probably fair, it could easily have been better for the Tans . All fought well and hard, but particular congratulations to David, who was disappointed to only draw with Merim Bilalic, a fide master graded 2267 (about ECF 210).

Thanks also, to Bruce (outgraded 157-111)  for a for a fine fighting display against John Turnock, very even right to the end, when John forced a rook’s pawn through. Finally many thanks to all who have turned out for the Tans this year.

Tans v Jesmond Knights
Played at Corbridge Thu 12 Apr 2018
David Wrigley	½½	Merim Bilalic
Tim Wrigley	½½	Chris Izod
Peter Crichton	0-1	Ed Dodds
Ian Mackay	½½	Andy Trevelyan
Bruce Reed	0-1	John Turnock
	1½-3½

 

Reivers v Gateshead

This match was played at Corbridge on Thursday April 5th, with with the following line-up:

1. Peter Crichton (143) v Denise Mosse (135)
2. Steve Larkin (116) v Bill Noble (126)
3. Bruce Reed (112) v Peter Wells (120)
4. Christine Moorcroft (92) v Alex Johnson (121)
5. Dave Humphreys (82) v Asa Bayram (u)

First to finish was Steve, who dropped a bishop for a pawn early on, and was then helpless to defend against a kingside attack. He was completely outplayed. 0-1

Next up was Christine, who pulled off a splendid victory, turning an even position decisively in her favour by attacking both of Alex’s rooks simultaneously, whereupon Alex resigned. 1-1

Dave, like Steve, went a piece down and struggled on for a while against an opponent who clearly knew what he was doing, before the pressure became too much. 1-2

Peter was two pawns up and looking strong, when an ill-advised knight move dropped a pawn and paved the way for a devastating kingside attack which Peter was helpless to resist. 1-3

Bruce’s game was closely contested throughout and was completely even when his opponent offered a draw, which Bruce accepted, the match result having already been decided. 1.5-3.5

Fortunately, nothing hung on the result, Gateshead’s relegation and the Reivers’ survival in division two having been settled in advance of this match.

Club Championship update

The first phase of the club championship is now over and has produced the following pecking order:

1. Tim Wrigley 3/3
2. Peter Crichton 2/2
3. Steve Larkin 2/4
4. Christine Moorcroft 1/1
5. Bruce Reed 1/1
6. Dave Humphreys 1/4
7. Derek Blair 1/4
8. Malcolm Reid 0/1 and Damian Rudge 0/2

So the draw for the knockout round is as follows:

Tim v Malcolm or Damian

Steve v Dave

Peter v Derek

Christine v Bruce

Morpeth B v Reivers

This match was played at Morpeth on Wednesday March 28th, with the following line-up:

1. Alan Welsh (148) v Peter Crichton (143)
2. Geoff Loxham (143) v Ian Mackay (137)
3. Jose Grueso ( 141) v Steve Larkin (116)
4. Paul Richards (137) v Derek Blair (112)
5. Martin Shaw (134) v Dave Humphreys (82)

This was always going to be a very tough match, the Morpeth side having already qualified for promotion into Division One of the league for next season.

Ian’s game was the first to finish, with Geoff instigating a wholesale swapping off of pieces leading to a drawn ending with opposite coloured bishops. 0.5-0.5

Next up was Dave, who clearly had the toughest job of all of us. For a long time he maintained equality, and the best Martin could achieve was a single pawn advantage plus rather more play than Dave. At which point he offered a draw, which Dave quite rightly accepted, for the outstanding result of the evening. 1-1

On board 4, Derek rather lost his way in the middle game, dropping a knight and pawn, and was under a lot of pressure, which eventually told. 2-1

Peter, who had likewise gone a knight down, looked certain to lose when the endgame came down to his rook against Alan’s rook and two pawns. But Peter never gives up and somehow (I still don’t know how) he contrived to turn certain defeat into a draw! 2.5-1.5

So the match result hung on Steve’s game, which had been one of fluctuating fortunes. Steve had won knight for pawn, only to find himself under huge pressure from Jose’s doubled rooks. It looked as though Steve would lose a bishop and pawns, but Jose pressed too hard, allowing Steve to pin rook on king and eventually emerge  a full bishop up. Once the queens were swapped off, it was just a matter of time before Jose resigned. 2.5-2.5

This totally unexpected result meant that the Reivers had ensured their survival in division two for another season, with two matches still to play. A terrific team performance!

Monarchs v HB

Played on Thursday 22 Mar-18, we saw the Monarchs taking on the league leaders Haydon Bridge at home. Due to lack of players in the Tynedale club, we had to recruit some outside help. Ian Mackay, captain of the Haydon Bridge club, was kind enough to loan us Damian Rudge. As things turned out, possibly not one of his better decisions!

Having lost to the Austins on the 20^th Mar , the Monarchs were thirsting for blood ( AB negative goes down particularly well…..with a nice bottle of chianti!!)

The line-up for the monarchs was as follows:-

Board 1- Pete Chrichton (h/c 3)

Board 2- Derek Blair (h/c 5)

Board 2- Dave Humphreys (h/c 7)

Board 4- Damian Rudge (h/c 9)

Club and team stalwart Pete, with black,  faced off against long term sparring partner, Ian Mackay. These two are very evenly matched, and have done battle many times before. Ian opened with a classic left hook, 1.c4, the English Opening. A flank opening, it it the fourth most popular opening in modern master play. White stakes his claim to the center by grabbing control of the d5 square from the wing [ almost like a Sicilian with colours reversed]. Although the opening can go off into strictly English byways, it is most often used as a trans-positional device that can lead to the Queens Gambit, Nimzo-Indian or Grunfeld, giving the opening a high degree of flexibility.(Ref:-Wikipedia)

Keeping his cards very close to his chest, Pete’s report of the game was  brief and to the point. He sacked a pawn early on, getting some good compensation. Improving his position, he was able to regain the pawn,and, through a clever tactical manoeuvre, won a further pawn. At this stage, there was much reduced material, and, due to some stubborn defense from Ian, Pete was unable to convert his material plus to a win. A draw was therefore agreed.

Derek, with white, banged heads with Phil Walters. Play opened 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nc6, this looked like a Chigorin variation without the 3.c4 thrust. Both sides developed their queen bishops to active squares; Derek to f4 and Phil to g4. Derek played actively in the center, while Phil grabbed the b2 pawn with his queen on move 12. All this resulted in Derek’s pawn structure being severely compromised, with doubled e-pawns and isolated pawns on a2 and c3. Derek, in his usual aggressive style, decided to sack a knight for two pawns, in order to get control of the, now, fully open b-file. By move 28, after an attempted king-side pawn storm by Derek, the pawn structure had changed dramatically. The pawn count at this point was 4-6 in black’s favour, but, black’s extra pawns were now doubled, and isolated on c4 and c5. In addition, black had doubled f-pawns on f5 and f7 which were on the half-open f-file. A queen/knight combination can be deadly. Black started to manoeuvre his queen and knight to more active squares, and by move 34, had succeeded in netting white’s e5-pawn. The queens came off by move 40, leaving Phil with a very active knight on c3, and rook on f8, versus Derek’s bad bishop on f2, hemmed in by pawns on g3 and f3, neither of which could advance due to Phil’s pawn on f5, and inactive rook. At move 42, Derek tried a desperate sack of his rook for one of Phil’s c-pawns, which had started to inch their way ominously down the board. Alas, it was to no avail. Phil advanced his leading c-pawn to the 2^nd rank and managed to pull off a knight fork of Derek’s king and bishop. Moving the king to cover the bishop would have allowed the c-pawn to queen, so Derek was forced to resign at move 42.

Playing on board 3, I crossed swords with Tom Bradford for the second time this season. Having lost my away game to him last December, with the white pieces, I was determined to do better with the black. Tom also went for the English opening. I assayed the Kings Indian Defence set-up. White transposed into the classical KID arrangement with his knight on f3 and pawns on e4, d4, and c4, and his king bishop on e2. White will try to gain space in the center and black tries to hit back with either the …e5 or …c5 counter strike. After exchanges on d5, I established a pawn on e5. This shortened the range of my fianchettoed bishop on g7 but gave me the excellent d6 square for my knight, which was free of any pawn attack. Tom forced open the f-file and gained control of it with his rook. However, I had control of all possible access squares making it impossible for him to invade my position. Meanwhile, play shifted to the queenside where I had established a 3-2 pawn majority. Move 23 saw Tom invade on my weak a7 square with his queen, forking my rook, on b8, and my a6-pawn, but she was a lone raider without support. I defended my rook, he took the pawn, but this allowed me to force the exchange of queens. My feeling was that, if I could drive away his c3 knight, I could get back the pawn by attacking his a and b pawns down the now, half open a-file. Sadly for Tom, when I attacked his knight, he played it to the undefended a4-square, right in the firing line of my queen bishop. Having been in this situation before, when a stronger player leaves a piece en-prise, you have to ask is it a brilliant sacrifice or blunder? On this occasion……………..it was a blunder!! My game plan from then on was simple; exchange down to a winning endgame. This I was able to do, and, when I got my passed e-pawn to the 3^rd rank to support both my bishop and rook, and Tom’s king was trapped on the first rank, he was unable to avert the further loss of material, and sportingly conceded the game on move 40.

Our guest team member Damian, with white, did battle against clubmate Christine Moorcroft. He opened with 1.e4 and Christine responded with the Sicilian defence 1…c5. With 2.d4, it looked like Damian might be going for the Smith-Morra gambit, where, after 2…cxd4, white plays 3.c3 offering a pawn in exchange for rapid development. However, Damian went for 3.Qxd4. This allows black to gain and important tempo with 3…Nc6, which Christine played. Although not very fashionable, I have 88 master games in my database where this line has been played. However, white only scored 29% wins. In dragon-esque style, Christine fianchettoed her king bishop and opted for short castling. Play continued with both sides manoeuvring for central control. The d file was opened, and Christine doubled her rooks there. Damian, after establishing a 3-2 queenside pawn majority, decided to play on the queeside with a push to c4. At move 30, I think that Christine must have missed the pawn fork that hit her queen and rook when Damian pushed on to c5. At move 34, Damian decided to give back a little material by sacking the exchange. I’m not sure what he had in mind here. Eventually, by move 50, Damian had rook, knight and 5 pawns against Christine’s rook and 5 pawns, all on the king side, although she had doubled e-pawns on e5 and e6. She managed to win Damian’s a-pawn, but, with his active rook behind her own pawns, she could not avoid the loss of more material and resigned at move 56.

This win must have been a sweet one for Damian as he was giving away the maximum of 3 handicap points to Christine, and I had no hesitation in naming him the man of the match! This also concluded the Monarchs games for this season. It was also my first season as joint captain, along with Bruce Reed, and, on a personal note, I would like to thank all members of the Monarchs, both regulars and guests, for their support, and it was great to finish the season on such a high note. Long may it continue into next season. Have a great summer everyone!!

Dave Humphreys

 

Austins v Monarchs

AUSTINS V MONARCHS

The line-up for the postponed Austins v Monarchs match was as follows:-

Board 1-Pete Chrichton (h/c 3)

Board 2-Derek Blair (h/c 5)

Board 3-Dave Humphreys (h/c 7)

Board 4-Damian Rudge (h/c 9)

Sadly, due to a mis-communication, Damian was a no show, so the remaining three made their way to Hayton and the Stone Inn to take on the Austins.

Pete, with white, was up against George Glover (rated 143). Opening with 1.e4, George responded with the Caro Kann. The opening is named after the English player Horatio Caro and the Austrian Marcus Kann who analysed it in 1886. It is considered to be a ‘semi-open’ system like the Sicillian and the French, although it is thought to be more solid and somewhat less dynamic than either of them. It can often lead to a better endgame for black due to his better pawn structure. Pete reports that some tactical opportunities were missed on both sides and a draw was agreed, which both players felt, was a fair result.( Ref:- Wikipedia)

Derek, with black, faced Bill Burgess (rated 114). Bill opened with 1.e4 and Derek replied with 1…c5, the Sicilian, the most popular and successful reply. However, Derek chose an atypical central pawn configuration resembling a Stonewall-like setup, with pawns on c5, d6, and e5. The middle game revolved around competing, kingside attacks. However, Derek made too many weakening pawn moves, and, when he castled short, Bill was the first to take advantage, forcing the win of a knight on move 22. The queens came off at move 24. Following a common idea, Bill sort to make the most of his material advantage with further exchanges and steered the game into a rook+bishop+6 pawns against black’s rook+3 pawns endgame. Move 45 saw Bill weave a mating net with rook and bishop, forcing Derek’s resignation.

I played white against an old sparring partner, John Lydon (rated 107). I’ve been studying the Colle System this season, but, I have to say that my results with it have not exactly been spectacular! The system was introduced by the Belgian master Edgard Colle in the 1920’s, and further developed by George Koltanowski. However, I thought I’d stick with it in the hope that my understanding of if would improve. The Colle is more or less the Slav system with colours reversed. White creates a triangle of pawns on c3, d4, and e3, castles short, and he must try and prepare the important pawn break e4, to free his queen bishop. Sadly, there are a number of ways that black can get control over e4 and completely prevent white’s idea! The game then tends to turn down Queens Gambit declined lines. Such was the case here. Black managed to occupy e4 with his knight on move 6. Black opted for a Stonewall formation and the position transposed into a sort of Dutch Defence set-up. I pushed through the center, trying to take advantage of black’s king, which, by move 13, still had not castled. Bill brought his queen out to c6, on the same diagonal as his king!! I saw the chance to force the gain of material. With the duel threat of pinning his queen and forking two minor pieces, Bill sacked his bishop for my h2-pawn. This weakened my kingside as now, both the f and h-files were open and he still had the battery of queen and bishop on the a8-h1 diagonal plus a 3-1 pawn majority. He was able to get good compensation for his piece and managed to generate a winning kingside attack, that led to him forking my king and knight as my clock ran out!! (Ref:-Wikipedia)

With one game defaulted, the final result was and Austins win, 27-17 on handicap.

Reivers v Tynemouth B

This Northumbrian League division 2 match was played at Corbridge on Thursday, March 15th, with the following line-up:

1. Derek Harris (u) v Keith Rockett (151)
2. Ian Mackay (137) v Steve Burnell (145)
3. Steve Larkin (116) v Dave Hair (136)
4. Christine Moorcroft (92) v Dave Jarema (137)
5. Dave Humphreys (82) v Ray Garside (126)

Given this line-up, it looked as though the most we could hope for was to draw the match. After an hour’s play, all games looked more or less even, but thereafter I saw nothing of the other games until my own was finished, by which time Derek had won and Christine, Dave and myself had all lost. Ian’s game was the last to finish, and his opponent conceded when two pawns down. So a narrow loss by 3 points to 2 against a significantly stronger side.

Gosforth Empire v Tans

Heavily outgraded, the Tans went down to a 4-1 defeat. All our opponent were graded above 170, with the top three boards over 200. But all games were well contested, no-one was embarrassed, and Peter & Gary picked up excellent draws.

Gosforth Empire v Tans
Played at Gosforth Empire Club  Mon 19 Feb 2018
Joe Dalton	½-½	Gary Murphy
Andy Lawson	1-0	David Wrigley
James Moreby	1-0	Tim Wrigley
Mick Riding	½-½	Peter Crichton
Michael McBeth	1-0	Ian Mackay
	4-1

 

Reivers v Tynemouth C

This match was played at Corbridge on Thursday Feb 15th 2018, with the following line-up:

1. Peter Crichton (143) v Gary Cornwall (154)
2. Ian Mackay (137) v Chris Smith (147)
3. Steve Larkin (116) v Dennis White (126)
4. Bruce Reed (112) v Phil Jackson (111)
5. Christine Moorcroft (92) v Joe Murray (108)

With Tynemouth C second top of the division and the Reivers third from bottom, this was always going to be a difficult match, confirmed by the respective grading of the teams. However, Bruce galloped to an early victory  and was followed a little later by Christine with another win – the best possible start for the Reivers.

The top three boards finished much later, having started almost half an hour after the bottom two boards. Ian had a dead level position against Chris, only to lose the game by a single error. Peter’s game and Steve’s went to the wire, finishing almost simultaneously. Steve had a small material advantage but was down on time and played the final dozen moves or so on increments, until Dennis accepted his second offer of a draw. Peter’s game was dead level and his offer of a draw was likewise accepted. So to their amazement, the Reivers emerged victorious by 3 points to 2, a win which, with luck, should ensure their survival in division 2.