Marple B vs Altrincham A: 12th February 2015

SDCL: DIVISION 2
MATCH:     Marple  B            v          Altrincham A
Home Team	Scores		Away Team
1       Nigel Livesey	0	1	Yaroslav Kolodiy
2       Andy Jenkins	1	0	Reg Clucas
3       Chris Baker	0	1	Mark Whalley
4       Terry Cowling	0	1	Tony Lane
5       David Preen	1	0	David Hughes
6       Jeff Barlow	0	1	Steve Douglas
MATCH RESULT	2	4	DATE:  12/02/2015

 

 

At the outset I was reasonably confident that we would get something from this match.  While the rest of the team dug themselves in for a lengthy struggle, I managed to throw away my game in very short order, 18 moves in fact, though I was already going to lose at least the exchange after my 11th move, my queen after my 13th move, and after my 14th move it was mate in five!  This might be regarded as the perils of playing an open game, where catastrophe lurks around the next corner, but it is  hard to work out any single outright blunder. My opponent had not played the most critical moves in the first 10, so I thought I had time for the extravagance of a3 to conserve my white squared bishop. I failed to spot that black's white squared bishop can go to h3 after the exchange on f3.  I considered playing f5 earlier to block the egress of black's WSB, I have had good results with this move, but I was chastened by criticism from Fritz for this kind of positional malarkey, but nevertheless, I should have played it.  Later, I could have played f x e5, or I could have played h3 after black's ...Bg4.  There were plenty of better moves I might have played, but the game still felt like I had just tumbled headlong down a very large rabbit hole!

The Vienna game, don't try this at home, it's too embarrassing.

Barlow,Jeff - Douglas,Steve [C28]

12.02.2015

 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 d6 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.d3 h6 6.Nf3 Bg4 7.a3 Be7 8.0–0 Nd4 9.Qd2 Nxf3+ 10.gxf3 Bh3 11.Re1 Nh5 12.f5 Bh4 13.Rd1 Nf4 14.Ne2 Qg5+ 15.Ng3 Bxg3 16.hxg3 Qxg3+ 17.Kh1 Bg2+ 18.Kg1 Nh3#  0–1

Congratulations to Andy and David on their excellent wins.