Keverel Chess

Posts Tagged ‘Teignmouth Chess Club’

The term Amaurosis scachistica is an ailment diagnosed in some detail by the physician, Tarrasch, the main symptom being the making of obvious but uncharateristic blunders, better known in English as Chess Blindness. Tarrasch claimed there was no sure preventative treatment and he had some evidence that it may actually be infectious, calling this amaurosis scachistica chronica communis.

After Exmouth’s final home match of the season yesterday, against Teignmouth in a Division 2 match, we have further evidence to support the infection theory. In a small room with just 8 players, it can be deadly, spreading like wildfire in a very short time, each blunder more profound than the one commited just minutes earlier.

It all started on Bd. 3, where White, tempted by a hot pawn on the other side of the board, took it with his queen, thereby abandoning her protection of a rook that was being eyed up by the Black queen. There swiftly followed …QxR+ and the game was over. The stars on top board seemed to have some natural immunity to this craziness, and Stephens, having recently realised that his strength might lie in rook+pawn endgames, true to his instincts quickly reached such a position and ran his a-pawn to queen, forcing a win. Exmouth at this stage were 2 up with 2 to play, but the infection was spreading rapidly.

On Bd. 4, the Teignmouth player attacked the enemy queen with a bishop. White responded by advancing a pawn, discovering a check by the queen. What a blunder - but instead of taking the queen, Black simply moved his king aside. Both players obviously badly infected and the outcome clearly impossible to predict. Teignmouth reduced the arrears by winning this game, but at least the Bd. 2 game was safe, where the home player was never seriously troubled and the game seemed to be heading for at least the draw required to win the match. They had got down to rook + bishop vs rook + knight, where the former had the positional advantage. But you know what knights are like…… The knight checked on a square where it could be taken by the bishop, the perpetrator fully expecting an exchange of the minor pieces. White saw the check, but not the fact that it also forked his rook. As on Bd. 4 earlier, he moved his king away and was amazed to see his rook snaffled. End of game - end of match. Exmouth had snatched a draw from the jaws of victory.

Several players considered calling in to the local A & E Dept. on the way home, but it would have done no good. As Tarrasch correctly predicted, there is no known cure.

An Exmouth team confident of victory.

The Teignmouth team.

View from the other end.

The first victim of amaurosis scachistica - but not the last.

Exmouth’s Bremridge Cup encounter against Teignmouth was their last match of the season, and there was nothing at stake, except, perhaps, the wooden spoon. Nevertheless, games were played with all seriousness, and although the final scoreline may sound like an end-of-term romp, this was certainly not the case.

Tindal played the White side of a Closed Sicilian very quickly and a rook & pawn ending was soon reached, with Jones 2 pawns up, but it needed careful play and in the end it boiled down to a single pawn that couldn’t be prevented from queening.

The Hurst-Ingham game involved a complex position, but Hurst managed to conclude matters in 19 moves. Hart entered the endgame on the back foot, but Hindom rather lost his way which enabled Hart to negate any serious threat and a draw was agreed. Gosling was the nearest to having a field day, as all his pieces had open lines bearing down on the enemy king, to which there was no adequate defence.

The most double-edged game was Halmkin-Wensley, in which the Teignmouth player got short of time at the sharp end of the game, and Wensley was offering pieces that couldn’t be taken without giving in to a mating attack. In the end he did find a way through to mate the White king.

This left Meyrick “The Python” Shaw with a tight control of the position, and a supported passed pawn on d6. However, to maximise this advantage he had to relax his grip and open the position up, which gave Gorodi scope to break out of the straight-jacket he was in, and make threats of his own. Shaw monitored all threats and with only BvsN it was the d6 pawn that won the day.

So Exmouth thus won their first and last match in this premier tournament, losing to Newton Abbot and Tiverton in between - at least avoiding the wooden spoon.

Meanwhile, at the same time, Newton Abbot were playing Tiverton to determine top spot in the Bremridge Cup, and their captain, Trefor Thynne has kindly sent in his account of that match.

“The fixture list for this year’s Bremridge Cup threw up an extremely tasty last-round pairing with 2010 and 2011 holders Newton Abbot travelling to Blundell’s School to face Tiverton on 21st April, both sides having won all three of their matches to date. The visitors went into the match with the advantage of knowing that a 3-3 scoreline would be sufficient to retain the trophy since they had a favourable “goal difference”. However, the gradings of the two teams were likely to be close so a tough struggle was in prospect.

And so it turned out with hard-fought games on each board. The first three results were all draws, on Bds 4 (Thynne – Duckham), 5 (Kinder- Annetts) and 2 (Homer-Hewson). Only in the final hour, as the time control approached, did Newton Abbot’s players get on top, first on Bd 6 where Paul Brooks, playing an English Opening against Keith Atkins’ Dutch Defence, converted pressure into a material advantage. On Bd 3, perhaps the best game of the match, Alex Billings maintained his fine form this season and kept control in a complex position against Simon Bartlett. This settled the outcome of the match and a good day for the visitors was made better when Dominic Mackle showed exemplary endgame technique to defeat Ben Edgell on top board. So Newton Abbot retain the title of Devon’s top club. The league has been very interesting this year with 5 teams competing. It could be even better and more representative of all parts of the county if Plymouth (who certainly have the players on paper) and Barnstaple were to join in”.

TFT

The match gets under way

Exmouth's Bds. 2 - 6

Nearest: Halmkin vs Wensley.

Exmouth's Bds. 4-6

Teignmouth's Bds. 4-6

Halmkin & Gorodi both involved in tight finishes.

Hurst & Wensley, deep in thought.

Shaw v Gorodi - last game to finish. Norman Tidy looks on.