Friday, 10 April 2015

Altrincham 5 - EC C 0 (Tue 31st Mar)

Board    Altrincham B    5     0  East Cheshire C 
1  Karl Lockett (142)      1     0  Bill Tait
2  Richard White (134)    1    0 Myles Heywood
3  Bill McCartney (137)  1    0 Geoff Clarke
4  Thomas Hague (104)  1     0  Edwin Cooke
5  Wayne Kranz (63)      1     0   Hartley Oldham
Result  Altrincham B    5     0  East Cheshire C
 
It looks a lot worse than it was! I would say that, wouldn’t I, but we were left slightly scratching our heads at the end as to how from 5 well-poised matches we scored not even a draw.
The general theme seemed to be that our opponents got what seemed an oh-so-slight edge and then converted very efficiently.
Geoff came closest, making mate threats before his opponent found a clever idea to turn the tables. Hartley and Edwin had no better luck – I wasn’t able to follow too much of their games though.
In Bill’s game against Karl Lockett…
to my e4, black played e3 with a QI type defence. I didn't have much difficulty but neither of us seemed to have the initiative - I certainly didn't. I did however try to push forward but neither side got over the half way line until the end game. All pieces swapped off however with his remaining N (5Ps each) he took my QRP. This resulted in his N becoming trapped by my K. (Interestingly this is the 3rd game this season against strong opposition where their N has become trapped in a corner.) In swapping Ns I regained the P however Black had the opposition resulting in a straightforward end game win for Black. No obvious advantage (until the end) in a lengthy game, so disappointing not to get a draw.
And as for me, as black in a King’s Indian defence my mistake was to allow white to build a little too easily and then bolster a fortress with a knight on d5. I tried to create counterplay, a little desperately, with h5, and swing my queen through the centre while white’s back was turned preparing a queenside attack, but with time short, didn’t find the now-essential best moves and the position caved in.

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