Match Details
HCA League Division7
26 Mar 2012: St Albans 6 v Barnet Elizabethans 4
| Bd | St Albans 6 | Grade | ECF | Result | Barnet Elizabethans 4 | Grade | ECF | Resumption |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McMahon, Austin | 117 | 115351B | 1-0 | Mohamed, Nadir | 146 | 282052D | |
| 2 | McConnell, Phil | 120 | 285386D | 0-1 | Devan, Matthew | 120 | 241546L | |
| 3 | Pines, Chris | 116 | 253269E | 1-0 | Nunn, Geoffrey C | 106 | 204712D | |
| 4 | Hayward, Peter | 104 | 187852K | 1-0 | Riddoch, Ian | 108 | 179705A | |
| 5 | Baker, Peter C | 92 | 233361C | ½-½ | Osland, Brian | 90 | 105207L |
| Match Score: 3½-1½ |
| Number of games incomplete: 0 |
St Albans 6 v Barnet 4
A memorable night and a win
Author: Team Members
Date: 26 Mar 2012
Board 1. Austin playing black gained all but two of his opponent’s pawns and managed to hold on to several of his own. Although white had a bind on black’s position for a time, a pawn advance on white’s king meant he had to give up his rook to block a mating check. White resigned with his queen and king under attack by Austin's queen and rook with a pawn on the 7th.
Board 2. Phil developed a strong kingside attack, and then bewilderingly, he made a quick move which straightforwardly blundered away his queen! Phil saw the error as his fingers left the piece, and resigned before his astonished opponent had a chance to take the queen. After the game, he and his opponent tried several lines to see his opponent would have had any way out if Phil had made the correct move instead of the blunder - and in each case Phil would have won quite easily. Frustrating!
Board 3. Chris had a tight opening game, but with both having castled King side his opponent decided to advance King side pawns to keep a Knight at bay and thus left his King vulnerable to attack. A weakness Chris exploited, succeeding in trapping the Queen and forcing a resignation.
Board 4. About half way through the game, Peter Hayward’s opponent made a sacrifice of a knight for a pawn. The following exchanges thus left him a piece down, a deficit from which he was unable to recover.
Board 5. After a long struggle, Peter found himself down by four pawns, and then sacrificed a bishop to regain two of the pawns. When it was time to adjourn, Peter had a queen and three pawns against his opponent's queen, bishop and five pawns (three of which had an unopposed advance towards the 8th rank). A pretty hopeless position. However in the kerfuffle of the adjournment procedure, his opponent realised, after stopping the clocks and writing down his sealed move, but before sealing the envelope, that the move he had written was an illegal one (since it failed to get his king out of check). After consultation with Matt Devan, Matt advised his colleague that he had to seal the move as written. The Barnet team knew that this implied a win for Peter, did not insist on Peter travelling for the resumption, informed us what had happened, and conceded defeat. However Peter, not wishing to win in this manner, sportingly offered his opponent a draw, which was accepted.