HAMPSHIRE
CHESS ASSOCIATION
The first part of this report has been taken from Somerset's web
site but I have added my own thoughts at the end. You can find the match
result on the County Results page.
Somerset v Hampshire - Open
Played on Saturday 31 Jan: at King Arthur's School, Wincanton.
16-board 1st team
Jack Rudd writes
As Somerset A had scored just one match-point from our first
two fixtures, I was naturally hoping to see this trend reversed against
Hampshire. The attractions of tournaments (especially the Bristol League
Congress) and an U-14 regional event were not exactly conducive to this, but we
nevertheless turned up with a good team.
However, it did not exactly make the most promising of
starts. Adam Skinner, making his debut for the county, had a fine position in
the ending, but made a fingerslip that gave his opponent the full point. Then
Tony Bamford agreed a draw with Mahruf. At this point it looked like we were
doing worse on a lot of boards, so my old weakness of pushing too hard for the
win displayed itself - I missed a critical move of my opponent’s, and ended up
losing. This was followed by a draw from Littlejohns and a loss from McKinley,
whose experimental opening play resulted in his being horribly cramped. Then
Chris Barratt, who had won a pawn in the middlegame, couldn’t find any way
through in the rook endgame, to make the score 4½-1½ to Hampshire.
Then began one of Somerset’s now legendary comebacks. Mike
Twyble had a piece of good fortune when Dominic Tunks picked up a rook and
discovered every move with it lost the exchange; a few moves later, the first
Somerset win was in the bag. This was followed by Andrew Footner’s sharp
gambit-style play netting him a rook, and Derek Pugh outplaying his opponent in
a rook and knight ending, making it 4½-all.
Iain Stenhouse then restored Hampshire’s lead by grinding
down Dave Wood, who’d been struggling on for a while the exchange and a pawn
down, and the rather confusing game between Colin Winch and Nick Burton ended in
a draw. Somerset then equalized again when Chris Purry’s good endgame
technique netted him the win against John Wilkinson, and Rob Eadie gave us the
lead with a win against Kinsler.
Simon Buckley, who had been making several winning attempts
without getting too far, then accepted his opponent’s draw offer, based on his
and my evaluations of the two remaining games. His namesake on the Hampshire
team then had to concede that he couldn’t beat Gerry Jepps with K+RP v K,
making it 8-7 to Somerset.
That left just the Edgell-Newbury game on board 6. Ben had
tried some tactics earlier that hadn’t paid off, leaving his opponent a piece
for two pawns up, but by careful exchanges, he got it down to B+N+P v N+3Ps.
Eventually he managed to force off his opponent’s last pawn, after which a
draw was agreed. That made the final score 8½-7½ to Somerset.
Somerset v Hampshire (U-150 team)
Played on Saturday 31 Jan 2004: at King Arthur's School,
Wincanton.
(Match reduced from 16 boards to 14 by mutual agreement of
the captains.)
Ouch ! This is where the squad problems really hit. I
hadn’t realized quite how much my second team depended on the various U-14s in
the squad until they were all absent; this left me having to call up four
players from the U-100 squad. Looking at the grades at the start, it was
therefore obvious we were up against it.
Nevertheless, we started off fairly well. Roger Waters’s
loss against Young was the only one of the first four to finish to go against
us; Jim Fewkes won a nice game with the Two Knights Defence, Roy Turner quickly
reached a drawn ending with black against Marshall, and Phil Chapman won a
curious game with the Elephant Gambit, in which his opponent seemed determined
to throw pieces at him.
Then it started going Hampshire’s way. Gillian Moore skillfully
exploited an extra pawn in an endgame against Adrian Ruston, and Ed Prenton’s
long struggle in an opposite-coloured bishops ending proved fruitless - his
opponent just had too many pawns.
The next game to finish was Tony Alsop’s; he had completely
outplayed his opponent and gained a decisive material advantage, only to make a
blunder that lost the entire point. Then Neville Senior’s advantage also
dwindled, and he drew in time-trouble. Alistair Hill then made a valiant attempt
to win a pawn down in an opposite-coloured bishops ending, but also had to split
the point a few moves later.
The next three games were also draws; Lucas Korvin, whose
opponent was 45 grading points above him, managed to find a draw in what seemed
to be a lost ending, and Mark Baker and Geoff Berryman also got half-points from
inferior positions.
This made the score 7-5 to Hampshire, meaning Somerset needed
two wins from the last two games to draw the match. Unfortunately, this didn’t
happen. Michael Livesey’s opponent proved the advantage of two rooks over a
queen by using them to shepherd home a passed central pawn, making it 8-5. Roger
Turner’s game then ended when, near the end of the quickplay finish, he
claimed a draw on the two-minute rule, which his opponent did not dispute.
Graham Stuart writes
I have not posted the game on the Somerset web-site, as it
was one of our losses - better to get someone to post one of our wins!
This was an important game for Hampshire, as it was
originally over 32 boards, which was the first time for a couple of years that
we have said that will do this. In the end both teams agreed to play over 30
boards.
Under 150 Match
Although the Open team is important I was more concerned with
the U150 team, as both Hampshire and Somerset had already qualified for the BCF
stages, but the winner would go straight through to the quarter finals.
Therefore a win would involve less arranging and travelling if we are successful
in this competition.
When we only have to put out just an under 150 team, we can
normally manage to get a pretty strong team, as can be seen from our successes
last year. However if we are getting an A and B team out, this is much more
difficult. So it was very pleasing to seen the team Dominic put together, with a
number of useful players. As mentioned by Jack Rudd, Somerset had problems
getting their strongest team together, so on paper we looked to have an
excellent chance.
I did not follow all of the games, but could see that we had
an advantage on quite a few of boards, especially lower down. Graham Head seemed
to be easily winning, but his opponent kept finding hidden resources. But soon
the wins started to come in and after my game was drawn and then the next three
games were also drawn we only needed one draw from the last two games, where we
stood better on both. These two games were converted into a win and a draw and
Hampshire progressed to the quarter finals of the U150 County Championship,
where we will meet the winners of the Midland Region.
Good luck to Somerset in their match against the North Region
2nd qualifier.
Open Match
The Open team found three players graded over 200 on the top
boards for Somerset, which was a big difference. It looked like we would have to
win lower down if we were to be successful. As can be seen from Jack's report
this was not the case, we managed to hold Somerset on the top three boards, but
lost heavily in the middle boards. We picked up points at the bottom though and
in the end just fell short.
Still, it was an improving Hampshire team, which with a few
additions, looks like it could challenge in the Harold Meek Trophy once again.