| Marple A | Holmes Chapel | ||||
| 1 | Daniel Fernandez | 1 | 0 | P Bennet | |
| 2 | Alex Longson | 1 | 0 | J Turner | |
| 3 | Andrew Horton | 1 | 0 | R Clark | |
| 4 | John Bentley | 1 | 0 | WALKOVER | |
| 5 | Michael Fernandez | 1 | 0 | A Raeburn | |
| 6 | Alan Walton | 1 | 0 | I Bates | |
| 6 | 0 |
The night didn't get off to a great start as me and Andrew managed to get stuck on the same piece of road for about half an hour. At one point we were seriously wondering whether we would get there at all. 'Fortunately' we were not alone in this endeavour and a number of Holmes Chapel players were also late. In the end we started at 8pm after agreeing to reduce the time control to 75 minutes each. Unfortunately Mike Hancock had an emergency at work and so Holmes Chapel had to default board 4. At least John could get home a bit earlier.
Alan was first to finish after a comfortable win on 6 on the white side of the Tromp. White had won a pawn early on and also had a better structure so the ending was just a technical exercise in converting. 2-0 Marple
Daniel was next to finish. After employing his trademark Polish Defence 1.d4 b5!? it seemed that he was struggling somewhat in the middlegame - at least I though whites pieces were more active. Pat chose a passive continuation and handed the initiative to Daniel in the endgame after which the game ended quite quickly. A good demonstration of how even a small number of units can create a dangerous attacking force in the endgame (in this case rook and knight). 3-0 Marple
I thought I was a bit better in my game against J Turner but was tempted to offer a draw as it would seal us the match. However, as I couldn't see Michael losing I decided to press on and go for the win, which I eventually achieved. I'm not sure if my play was very accurate, but it followed a nice strategic arc as in the end I had 3 connected passed pawns in the centre which was more than enough to win the rook endgame. The opening was 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.Bxc6 - Rossolimo Sicilian. 4-0 Marple.
Marple was a pawn up in his game from the opening though White seemed to have reasonable compensation, typical for the Sicilian Morra Gambit. Michael went on to convert the extra pawn using a nice tactic along the way (...d5). 5-0 Marple.
Andrew was last to finish - literally with 16 seconds on his clock. He appeared to be under heavy pressure throughout the game, perhaps making a mistake out of the opening (Spanish - Breyer System) allowing white a promising piece sac. It was a very complicated game however and in the end his higher playing strength counted for more. 6-0 Marple
It's always nice to get a whitewash - and against strong opponents such as Holmes Chapel we should feel pretty proud. We are now through to the semi finals of the cup where I believe we play East Cheshire.
Andrews game looked really interesting at the point I left.
ReplyDeleteHe had played Re8 while the white Bishop was still on b3, so white had responded with Ng5 attacking the weak point at f7.
Andrew played d5, and white played exd5 i think.
It looked to me as though white could play for an advantage if black played Nxd5, as white can then play Nxf7 Kxf7. Qf3+ Ndf6. dxe5 winning back the piece with an initiative.
I'm not sure if this is what happened, but it looked like a plausible continuation.
When I got home I looked at it and came to the conclusion that White could gain an advantage with Ndf3
I meant to finish Ndf3, instead of exd5 as he played (if i remember correctly)
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