The Chess Diary of a hard-worked Club Chairman, team captain and ardent player"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."
Ernest Hemmingway
 Another Season... another log
Andy's log is back for the 2011 - 2012 season, reporting the triumphs, not quite triumphs and ouright not really triumphs at all, of Penrith's chess teams in Cumbria Division 1 (Penrith A), Cumbria Division 2 North (Penrith B and C) and our Whitaker Cup and Northern Counties Chess Union teams (which exist to the extent that we can get our act together).
Andy's log is not a solo effort but we like to make sure that he gets the blame. We aim to cover the majority of Penrith's matches at home and abroad and as many of Cumbria's chess events as we can afford to attend. There's no place we won't send a correspondent to, even Barrow.
Andy McAtear - looking for
a win ... or a pint ... or both.
Sasra take the final bow
Penrith had a handicap of -0.5 points so the adjusted score was Sasra 2 Penrith Whitaker (2) 1.5
Sasra vs Penrith Whitaker 2, 28th April, 2012
It is possible to fail in many ways, while to succeed is possible only in one way. There is no denying it: Aristotle was an old clever-clogs and Sasra are the proud new owners of the Whitaker Cup. In Seascale open the keg(s!) of glory; let fanfares echo the halls, toasts be made unto the victors and crowning laurels handed round the victory-dazed charioteers: let vanquished Penrith withdraw in spear-shattered retreat, back to the shadowlands of dreams, where knowledge of what is mocks hope of what things might become. Or something like that: probably best to get on with the chess really.
Penrith travelled the long and winding road to Seascale for the second time this season to play out the drama of the Whitaker Cup Final. Sasra have definitely been Penrith's bogey team of the year: they inflicted an unexpected draw on Penrith A in the first half of the season and a thoroughly depressing title-pursuit dampening defeat in the play-offs. Surely it would be third time lucky for Penrith; or is it bad things that come in three's? Folk wisdom seems divided on the issue, which says quite a bit about the value of folk wisdom. All one can say is that Penrith started as they meant to go on by handily losing the toss, giving us black on boards 1 and 3. A quick calculation of the grades left us with a half-point handicap, more of a mole hill than a mountain to climb, you might think, but...
On board 1 Phil Almond opened 1.c4 for Sasra and I replied 1...Nf6 and the English Opening duly unfolded after I switched back into a Reversed Sicilian line with 2...e5. A fairly cagey opening contest ensued as we rattled through the first 8 or 9 moves but at some point Phil flung a knight out to the side of the board on h4, which seemed a little pointless and black, with almost a 'free' move, managed to resolve whatever opening difficulties he may have had, emerging very comfortably from the start of the game.
On board 2 Eggert Früchtenicht opened 1.e4 and Mark Mallard replied 1.e6 and the Advance Variation of the French Defence duly marched into view. I'm pretty sure that Eggert somewhat misplaced his dark-squared bishop on e3 and Mark manoeuvred quickly to take advantage. It certainly wasn't fatal for white, but my overall impression sitting next to Eggert's board was that black was doing well, certainly equal, possibly a little more.
On board 3 Lewis McAtear had been looking foward to a re-match with Sasra's James Taylor - with good natured thoughts of revenge in his mind for the defeat James inflicted on him in their previous encounter. However it was not written. Instead he faced Alan Fox, who opened 1.e4 to which Lewis replied I...d5 and off to Scandinavia they toddled. I think things took an unexpected turn at some point as the position looked a little odd but I suspect 'odd' was more to Lewis' taste than Alan's and I had black down for choice.
Dave McMath opened 1.e4 for Penrith on the fourth board and James Taylor replied 1...e6. Et voilà, une autre défense de français - or something like that. Things however went far from bon at least as far as Dave was concerned. An opening muddle led to the loss of a pawn and could possibly have led to worse still. Dave stabilised the situation but there was no denying black's advantage.
Lewis' was the first game to finish putting some points on the board for Penrith. Alan lost a pawn and then another and Lewis needed no further invitation to finish off the job. Our victor - in his very own style - adjourned to the bar to sample the delights of the vineyards and hop fields of Seascale and catch up on the footballing news.
The next and considerably later result was far less welcome. Dave had long been struggling on board 4. James engineered a passed 'a' pawn on the queenside and despite Dave's best efforts to generate play, rather than descend into passivity, the 'a' pawn ponderously plodded ever closer to the endzone. In the end, the end was nigh. One point each and, having lost against the grade, Penrith's task was now much harder.
On Board 2 Eggert, conscious of Dave's difficulties, had already turned down one draw offer from Mark. Truth be told though there was little to play with in a position that remained stubbornly equallish or slightly worse for white. A second draw offer duly arrived from Mark and Eggert, reluctantly accepted after consulting his team mates.
Which left only board 1 in play. I'd possibly been over-pressing my position against Phil as I thought - at that time - that I had an edge. A fit of attacking entusiasm left me a pawn down and behind on the clock as Eggert's result came in. I suppose I should have expected it but Phil fairly quickly offered the draw. Although black wasn't necessarily lost I was pretty convinced that a draw was about the best result I might hope for and, after a bit of consultation and some heart-searching, decided to accept. Overall result 2-2: adjusted for handicap 2-1.5 to Sasra.
Congratulations to the winners.
It has been a sad season for Penrith. Not because we lost out in the championship race after leading at the half way point and not because we fell at the final hurdle in the Whitaker Cup: the real sadness lies not in defeat itself but in the knowledge for each player that it can only be their own fault: but for a move here or there, the won game that wasn't won, the draw put in the toilet under time pressure, the tactical oversight that you can hardly believe, the mistake that you left unpunished... Chess is a torture comprised of both what is done and what is not done.
Truly, it is possible to fail in many ways, while to succeed is possible only in one way. It's Aristotle who takes the real final bow of the season. Wonder if he ever pushed wood?
Guest Blog by Kevin Southernwood
28th April, 2012 Windermere win bigtime!
Windermere vs Penrith A, 21st April, 2012
Let's cut to the chase here. Windermere are the 2011/12 League Champions and by a clear margin. Congratulations to them. Carlisle 'A' having won all their play-off matches might nurse a small sense of grievance but the hard fact was they never won big enough. Windermere did.
I'd like to write something along the lines of 'plucky Penrith pose championship puzzler' (I like a bit of alliteration of the 'full fathom five thy father lies' variety) but nothing could really be further from the truth. Penrith couldn't pull off a houdini-like escape in the face of the mighty Windermere chess engine and, as in politics so in life, those what stand in the middle of the road, get squished. In Penrith's case almost totally.
Robert Patla, on board 1 for Penrith A with the white pieces opted to play a Closed Sicilian against Dave Phillips. Both sides advanced their pawns quickly, Robert attacking on the kingside, Dave grabbing space on the queenside with little to indicate who had the advantage out of the opening.
On Board 2 John Toothill opened 1.e4 and I replied 1.e6 and we entered on a slightly unusual French Tarrasch. John declined to advance his e-pawn to e5 in the traditional 'French' manner and, in the end, I decided to liquidate the centre. So the game entered the typical territory of an isolated queen's pawn position. White had more space, and nice open lines for his pieces, black had a solid defensive structure and - if he could last until the long-term - some prospects against the isolani.
It was obviously an e4 kind of day, as on Board 3 Eggert Früchtenicht ventured a Morra Gambit against Bartlomiej Kaszynski. As Eggert said in the car travelling back he needs to find something else to play against the Sicillian, at least on a first team level. Bartlomiej negotiated the pawn sacrifice well and, coming out of the opening, white's compensation for the pawn was probably insufficient.
Board 4 saw the only 1.d4 of the whole match played by Windermere's Colin Bragg against Penrith A's Lewis McAtear. Lewis often plays the Albin Counter Gambit but on this occasion he eschewed his erstwhile favorite and plumped for a Tarrasch. Pretty quickly this got very messy indeed. Lewis ended up with a majority of pawns 3-2, on the queenside but with a rather shaky looking centre, though the early exchange of queens was probably a help in this regard.
Most of the games pretty much lasted the distance so the results came in a bit of a rush. Lewis on board 4 managed to fall behind on material and grimly played on in a fairly lost position until eventually deciding that enough was enough.
On board 2 John slowly applied the instruments of torture, but I think for quite a while I was doing OK defensively. It was however the sort of position where, as black, you only had to make one slip and, unfortunately, I duly obliged by providing the error. I shall kick myself for a day or two about it as, even as I played the fateful move, my intuition was telling me that it just wasn't right. The end result was that John won a pawn, and more importantly won the positional argument too. Black at the end was left paralysed and resignation was the only route.
Eggert had gone further behind in the middlegame dropping another pawn, but at least he got some play for the material deficit. However, not enough and that, as they say, was that.
Robert's game was something of a case of swings and roundabouts. The middlegame certainly went his way as Dave seemed to over-reach on the queenside, eventually giving up an exchange to try and save the game. But, as a consequence, the endgame went more in his favour as he clawed back the position from Robert. In the very end, a game which either player might have won, ended in a draw that neither was perhaps particularly pleased with.
And so end's Penrith A's league season. We got off to a fairly explosive start with some very early big wins. The less said however about the last four matches of the season the better. In fact we failed to win a single play-off game; it was nice to be in with a shout at the final but you simply can't do this and expect to get anywhere.
Once again it was crash and burn - no crescendo of an ending but just a solitary, lingering, mournful note pulling on a memory of what might have been.
Guest Blog by Kevin Southernwood
22nd April, 2012 Journey's end
Sasra vs Penrith A 7th April, 2012.
Penrith A went to the west coast again (dudes!) in need of a good result. We were all aware that Windermere had beaten Sasra 4-0 and that nothing but a high-scoring win would keep us in real contention for the league championship. Still, we speculated, Sasra were down and out as far as the championship went and maybe they would be still nursing their wounds. Penrith A's string of mediocre results had certainly had its effect on team morale though, with no one inclined to underestimate the task ahead. It had to be serious - even Robert arrived on time.
With the white pieces on the top board Robert kicked-off with the slightly mysterious 1.b3 (Larsen's Opening). Possibly this was an attempt to throw Phil Almond, but if so it didn't have the desired effect, as Sasra's board 1 calmly plonked a pawn or two on dark squares giving the inevitable fianchettoed bishop something to chew on. Coming out of the opening Phil landed a powerful knight in the heart of Robert's territory and black certainly seemed for choice.
On board 2 I had a return game (this time with the black bits) against Sasra's Mark Mallard. Mark opened 1.c4 and the ensuing English Opening headed in the direction of a Closed Sicilian with the colours reversed: and though I had a solid enough position out of the opening, nothing could disguise the fact that I was definitely playing defence. Edge to white, but not an unacceptable one.
Board 3 was more cheery for Penrith as Eggert Früchtenicht could claim a definite advantage over Sasra's Fiona Wright in a nice Italian Game. Nothing too dramatic perhaps but very comfortable with attacking chances and more to the point, exactly the kind of game in prospect that Eggert likes.
Board 4 saw Penrith's Lewis McAtear with black taking on Sasra's James Taylor. James opened 1.f4 (Bird's Opening - it was definitely a day for flank openings) and very soon a fairly complicated position evolved that showed serious signs of becoming messy. To be honest, it wasn't the sort of position you could take in at a glance, though I would have gone with black for choice. But with both King's subject to chill sea-breezes who knows?
Board 4 was the first to finish - and not in a good way. Lewis, who navigates chess-mess well. seemed to have the upper-hand, having given up a piece for a set of four well connected - but unfortunately not far advanced - passed pawns on the queenside. Any notional material advantage was however not enough to counter the hyper-activity of white's well coordinated pieces and, to cut a short story shorter, pieces trumped pawns. 1-0 to Sasra and the hole had just got deeper as far as Penrith A was concerned.
Things only got worse. Sitting next to Robert's board I was pretty conscious of the fact that it was not going well. Robert tried to play around Phil's outposted knight but seemed to end up in something of a tangle allowing Phil a free-ranging attack on a relatively under-defended king. The resulting checkmate - fully involving the knight from hell - was an end to any lingering hope Penrith might have had. 2-0 down and no prospect of the required big win.
Things on board 2 weren't going to my taste either. My 'solid enough' position turned very passive as Mark put me under pressure. Eventually I sacrificed a pawn for something approaching activity but it meant allowing Mark a passed 'a' pawn, though not a very far advanced one. In practice it was a decision that paid off, though whether or not it should have done is far more of a question. I was fortunate to exchange down into what I thought was a technically drawn rook and pawn ending and strangely that proved to be the case. My king had legs compared with Mark's and after winning back the pawn and exchanging rooks my mobile monarch made it back to centre in the nick of time ensuring that a pawn-stand off remained just that. A hard fought draw and Penrith A's first hint of points. 2.5-0.5 to Sasra.
And now for the silver lining (though when glasses are half-empty it has to be noted that every silver lining has a cloud). Eggert hadn't been having things all his own way as opportunity slipped and Fiona managed to generate an attack on the kingside. However, time was not on her side. In the end, over-pressing was black's downfall, and a series of fluent checks saw Eggert take the full point and Penrith A take second place in a two horse race (see Game of the match ) The final score Sasra 2.5 - Penrith A 1.5, and it's entirely possible that we should consider ourselves a tadge fortunate that it was only that.
There may still be certain mathematical possibilities that keep Penrith A in the hunt but in reality a promising start to the season has been followed by our all too familiar crash and burn story. Still (where is that straw to clutch for) there's always the Whitaker Cup against ... oh ... Sasra.
Guest Blog by Kevin Southernwood
9th April, 2012 Penrith 'A' fail to shine in top of table clash
Penrith A, B and C vs Carlisle A, C and D 10th March, 2012.
Saturday March 10th saw Penrith play host to Carlisle - three times over. Though the second division matches were a little 'academic' -with the top spot in the table already being booked by Carlisle C, the A team match was a top of the table clash with everything to fight for. It's a pity then, from the Penrith perspective, that the day belonged to Carlisle.
Things started badly for Penrith A when Eggert Früchtenicht went down to a quick loss in a Scotch Gambit to Paul Rivers. Things improved slightly with Lewis McAtear won his game against David Jackson. But this was not enough: Robert had to work exceptionally hard for his draw on board 1 against Mike Green and I was left with a losing endgame against John Kelly's Dutch Defence. Penrith A certainly seem to have found reverse gear of late!
Penrith B - due to illness - had to default board 4 and so started with a handicap to begin with. Wins from Andy McAtear and Alistair Ridley - coming back from being a piece down and making good use of the only trump he had, a pesky passed pawn - were enough to nick the draw.
The C team could have been Penrith's moment of hope, with strong results on the top boards. In the end things hinged on a close position on board three where Holden Davis was up against Carlilse's Sam McStay. Sam turned down Holden's draw offer, accurately calculating the consequences of a couple of 'pawn races' to level the match.
Guest Blog by Kevin Southernwood
13th March, 2012. 'A' team crash to Cockermouth
Cockermouth vs Penrith A 19th February, 2012
Penrith A's confidence couldn't have been higher on a sunny Sunday Afternoon at Papcastle. Birds tweeted, nature looked greedy to handle an approaching spring; Windermere had fallen 3-1 to Penrith only a short while back and Cockermouth don't seem to be on form this season. An ideal recipe? Except it is just at this kind of moment that you know that the world is about to play a small trick on you. Penrith A's stumbling habits were about to re-emerge.
Penrith's Robert Patla on board 1 - recovering from a stomach bug - was a bit late arriving but quarter of an hour isn't much by his standards. With the white pieces Robert launched into an English Opening 1.c4 against Cockermouth's Roger Hart who replied with a cagey 1...g6. The two of them then explored the notion of chess as a non-contact sport, neither player really taking the centre and both sides gently developing according to their plans.
On board 2 Cockermouth's Ian Stone opened 1. e4 and I replied 1.e6. A French Tarrasch developed and all was fairly standard for about seven moves or eight moves. Then however, things got very ugly, very quickly. I recalled (or thought I recalled) an interesting piece of theory in a very similar position and launched into an early kingside attack. Except... it was a classic b*lls up. As they say 'Every Russian Schoolboy knows' that you have to look at the concrete detail of a position not rely on general principles. It so happend that the wrinkle in this position was important enough to invalidated black's approach, as I realised fairly quickly on Ian's reply. I looked hard for escape routes, tried to create complications but in the end found nothing - and frankly could have resigned by about move 14. Having nothing else to do however, I played on just practicing my ability to make life as hard as possible for Ian (no disrespect intended) - but Penrith A were already effectively a point down.
Board 3 was another French. Eggert Früchtenicht, with the white pieces for Penrith A opened 1.e4 and Neil Jones replied 1.e6. Here the game strayed into the MacCutcheon Variation, a glorious 19th Century innovation, at once deeply suspect and as yet unrefuted. And indeed it was Neil who came out on top as Eggert struggled to find the best line of play.
Board 4 was Penrith's bright spot where Lewis McAtear answered Peter Blackmore's 1.e4 with 1...d5 and a Scandinavian opening ensued. Lewis was in familiar territory and seemed to me to have an advantage out of the opening.
As the match time ran down Eggert's fate was sealed by a neat backrank attack from Neil, Lewis duly won his game, my futile resistance ended and holding a draw was a matter of what happened in Robert's game. Here, unexpectedly matters concluded with a draw - which knowing Robert - must have been pretty much unavoidable.
So congratulations to Cockermouth. On merit the score was roughly where it deserved to be and left Penrith A licking their wounds. Whether or not we are still top of the table remains to be seen, but any thoughts of a cushion going into the final phase of the Division 1 championship are now firmly put to bed.
Guest Blog by Kevin Southernwood
22nd February 2012. Whitaker down to the wire
Whilst it was a certainty that Penrith would be in the Whitaker Trophy final, it wasn’t at all certain which Penrith team it would be. The competition was devised to level the playing field by handicapping the higher graded team and each team had a different strategy. Penrith W1 consisted of Cumbria’s strongest player, Robert Patla (212), on board 1 and 3 other players whose grades were less than 120. This kept the overall team grade quite low. Penrith W2 on the other hand, had less than 20 points difference between top and bottom boards and hoped that strength in depth would overcome the inevitable handicap. So far, both teams’ strategies seemed to be working as each had reached the semi-final stage and now faced the other to fight for a place in the final.
Whether the match was to take place, as scheduled, on Saturday 18th, was in some doubt due to player availability. Penrith W2 captain, Kevin Southernwood was trying to avoid another athritic flare-up about a week before the match but Eggert Früchtenicht, who had other commitments on that day, agreed to play in his place if absolutely necessary. The Penrith W1 team, or lack of it, posed more problems, though. Alistair Ridley was away on holiday. Gerry Rowan was going into hospital for minor eye surgery and, as he’d been on the waiting list for over a year, couldn’t put it off. Richard Farral was chasing birds around the countryside which meant that, as graded players, Robert and Steve were the only ones left that were eligible to play for Penrith Whitaker 1. Richard, by the way, is a beater for his local shooting club. There were, however, a couple of club members who as yet do not have an official grade and, as they were keen to play, I contacted Cumbria’s grading officer, Martin Gawne, for an official estimate of John Grave's and Colin Dixon's grades. It might be worth applying for the post of grading officer someday, if only to find out how these estimates are calculated as, apparently, Colin’s estimate has gone up from 80 to 106 by winning a game against a player graded 51 and John’s estimated grade of 87 was based on only 3 games, all of which he lost, though on the online ECF grading database he is down as winning one of them! I’m not sure that this is the place to bring this up but while we are on the subject, I would strongly suggest to anyone on that database to look back through their results. Neil Jones, if you are reading this, you might be interested to learn that, although my flag fell a year ago almost to the day, I actually won! Howerd Waaldijk of Windermere might also be happy to learn that he beat Robert Patla way back in 2006, nearly 2 years before Robert actually lost a game! Oh and Drew Millar, John won that first game! I’m certain that if I can spot these inaccuracies in the space of about 20 minutes then there is likely to be many more. Apologies to Martin Gawne as I may have just filled up your inbox. Anyway, rant over. Let’s get back to the match. By Saturday, both teams were fully manned. At least they were up to about 4 hours before kick-off. Robert rang to inform me that he was ill in bed with a stomach bug. Fortunately, Gerry rang, the night before, to say that he could play after all. The doctor advised him not to jump about too much but that reading or playing chess, was good therapy for his eye. I was not able to inform Steve Murdoch, Penrith W1 match captain, about this until I got to the Crown about half an hour before the event. There followed furious recalculations of the handicap. When all the sums were done, Penrith W2 were 160 points higher and so had a handicap of -3 match points. This meant that a draw on either board 1 or 2 would result in a win for the Penrith W1 team and if Kevin had accepted Steve’s draw offer on move 1, then we could all have gone off to watch the football. Kevin (as a Spurs suporter) declined the draw but as it happened, board 1 was first to finish. Steve, not keen to be sitting at the board during the Sunderland v Arsenal match, uncharacteristically decided to open up the game with pawn to b4. To a point, he did succeed but it cost him a pawn and left him with an isolated d pawn and a poor position with problems to follow: so Steve resigned. On board 2, Gerry seemed to be holding his own against Lewis’ Sokolsky Opening but I think Lewis had a slight edge. In my game against Colin, on board 3, I was surprised to find myself, yet again, on the black side of a Ruy Lopez, as Colin usually likes to play an Italian Game and as I am fairly familiar with the opening, I thought that I would quickly get an advantage. To Colin’s credit, he managed to keep the position closed and the game was about even for the first 25 moves. Eventually though, I won a pawn and this spurred Colin into action and, after trading off most of the pieces, he attacked with his remaining queen and bishop. Unfortunately for Colin, his attack had left his back door open and after Qa2 threatening an unstoppable mate on g2, he resigned. Dave was a pawn down with white against John, on board 4 and John definitely looked the more confident of the two. By now on board 2, Lewis had managed to convert his slight advantage into a winning one, though he did give Gerry some chances on the way but to fair to Gerry, he was very short of time and missed Lewis’ mate threat. By winning this game, the match was all square and as in the first round against Cockermouth, it was down to the last game. Dave fought hard and he didn’t disappoint his team mates when he managed to regain his pawn deficit and draw the game and the match. It seems a bit ironic but in order to win the match, the game that clinched it, had to be eliminated! With the score at 3-0 to Whitaker 2 on the top 3 boards, the handicap was recalculated at 2 points giving Penrith W2 a 1-0 victory. There were several factors that could have had an influence on the result of this match that didn’t really have anything to do with chess. Had Eggert wanted to play, then I’d have stepped down and the grading difference would have increased by 6 points giving Whitaker 2 a further half point handicap. Then one might also call into question the accuracy of estimated grades. Robert’s unexpected no-show may have had a negative affect on team morale (Whitaker 1 anyway). The debate could go on for a long time but whatever the result, at least Penrith have a team in the final. Andy McAtear 22nd February 2012 Penrith up and 'A'-way
Penrith A vs WIndermere, 11th February, 2012
It was a cold and dreary Saturday afternoon and the atmosphere at the Crown, the venue for Penrith A's clash with Windermere, wasn't enlivened by the usual roaring fire in the bar, the hotel having been a victim of a chimney blaze earlier in the week. Coupled to that a match against Windermere tends to induce a slight sinking feeling anyway: Windermere the league champions; Windermere the local 'chess engine'; Windermere who have regularly done unto Penrith that which Turkeys have done unto them at Christmas. Need the picture be painted further? With the top spot in Cumbria's Division 1 at stake this was the kind of day where paxo was not a word to conjure with. On board 1 – to my slight surprise – Windermere's Dave Phillips was white against Penrith's Robert Patla. Obviously some slight alteration in grading meant a change to the board order we've kind of got used to for Windermere. Anyway Dave played 1.e4 but as Robert wasn't on time he had to wait awhile for the reply 1...c5. When Robert arrived a Sicilian Defence duly followed with Robert looking comfortable out of the opening. It being a home game I had the white pieces on board 2 against John Toothill. After 1.d4 John replied 1...Nf6 and, with a slight move order detour, we headed into a Grünfeld Defence, something that wasn't entirely welcome as I've always felt a bit at sea against this dynamic opening. However, I managed to negotiate the opening phase of the game to achieve the kind of position where white is often awarded a somewhat meaningless 'slight edge' but which really means that the fight is postponed to the middlegame and may the best plan win. Windermere's Colin Bragg opened 1.d4 on board 3, with Penrith A's Eggert Früchtenicht replying 1.d5. Rather speedily an unorthodox Queen's Pawn game ensued, with white gaining an uncompensated for advantage of a pawn with a neat discovered attack. Eggert was clearly not on the fun side of the board and was definitely worse and looking ready to suffer. On board 4 Lewis McAtear was up against Windermere's Peter Shaw and had no hesitation in playing his trademark 1.b4. Peter tried an unusual approach adopting an almost King's Indian style structure that allowed Lewis the chance to seize space on the queenside. Neither side had any opening disasters but looking at the position I thought white was for choice. Unusually, the first game to finish was my own. At first in the middlegame things seemed to drift John's way. Perhaps though he played over-cautiously and as the moves slipped by I completed a reorganisation of my pieces that left me increasingly happy with my position on the board (but less happy with the clock – John being better off by about 15 minutes). Though there was a ton of play in the game I offered the draw and John accepted: neither side wanting to risk breaking the log-jam in an unclear position with time pressure beckoning. Soon after the situation on board 4 resolved itself. Coming under pressure after the opening Peter organised a series of exchanges but these didn't solve his positional problems. That being said however, it probably wasn't Lewis's kind of game and when Peter offered a draw Lewis accepted – though, for what it is worth, I rather liked white's chances. The next game to finish was probably the most critical. Colin had spent a large proportion of it applying the instruments of torture to Eggert's tenderest places and Eggert wriggled and grovelled and then, just for a change, grovelled and wriggled, accordingly. Then, in what had long been a more or less winning position, Colin blundered; or rather Eggert seized upon a discovered attack that his opponent must have overlooked (see Game of the match). Whichever way you like it, the thumbscrew was, so to speak, very defintely on the other foot and the tables were thoroughly rotated. Colin fought on for a while but resigned in due course, in a hopeless position. That left Robert on board 1 determined to finish in style. The endgame, which was all I got to see, was a typical squeeze and grind, with Dave always on the receiving end, only the faint hope of his opponents time pressure to console him. When Robert reached for a queen the end was in sight and soon it duly arrived. So Penrith finished with a somewhat flattering scoreline of 3-1 but, on balance, deserved the win if not perhaps quite the margin of victory. Penrith A should stay top of the table and may even open up a bit of clear water there. Other results will decide that; in the meantime the A team proved to have the right stuff as opposed to the right stuffing. Guest Blog by Kevin Southernwood 12th February 2012.
Penrith B's flickering flame of hope?
Carlisle D vs Penrith B and Carlisle C vs Penrith C, 4th February, 2012.In the penultimate round of Division 2 North, Carlisle C attained an unassailable lead at the top of the table at the expense of Penrith C but Penrith B kept their club mates' hopes alive of avoiding the wooden spoon by keeping Carlisle D on the bottom of the League.The Penrith B v Carlisle D match consisted of 5 boards, though only the top 4 counted toward league points. This was a shame really, as I had barely decided on how I was going to handle Eddie Norris’ Vienna Gambit on board 2, when our board 5, Miles Davis, announced his victory over Dominic Greenup! Miles’ early success may not have done our position in the table much good but it had a positive effect on morale as, before I had a chance to wander around the boards and judiciously assess (or not) the positions, Gerry Rowan shook Camas Millar’s hand and got up from board 3 with a smile on his face, signifying another point for our side. Some time passed before the next result, most of it on my clock. Eddie was moving quite quickly and I was a little concerned that, if I did the same, I would succumb to some nasty Vienna Gambit style mating attack and was somewhat relieved when he accepted my offer of a queen exchange on move 18. I had decided, early in the game, to try to prevent white from regaining the pawn on f4 and, after his Qxe5 dxe5, I was a safe pawn ahead. After the game Eddie said that he thought that the queen exchange was a mistake and although I had to agree, white compounded this 2 moves later with a hasty pawn move that left him with a backward d pawn. Eddie soon realised this could not be defended and after an attempt to gain counter-play with a knight sacrifice failed, he put his king down and resigned. So it was time for a glance around the remaining games. Bruce Wallace was taking a very cautious approach to Lewis’ Polish Opening on board 1, conceding a lot of space on the kingside, whilst developing most of his pieces on the queenside. On board 4, John had used a lot of time against Drew Millar and had doubled isolated, pawns on the e file but as they were passed pawns, his position still had potential. Meanwhile, Carlisle C was playing Penrith C in an adjacent room and by the time I wandered in to look at the games the match was already down to just 2 boards. Alistair Ridley and Holden Davis, on boards 3 and 4, had both lost quite quickly to Bill Hardwick and Chris Royle respectively. This left Dave McMath and Steve Murdoch fighting to save the match. On board 1, although well into the middle game, neither Dave nor his opponent, David Jackson, had felt it prudent to castle and the position looked quite dangerous for both players. Steve and Jason Maxwell, on board 2, had both castled long with Jason’s king looking slightly more secure than Steve’s. Steve also had to contend with a passed h pawn which was beginning to look ominous. It was about now that I decided to see what the Redfern had to offer and about half an hour later, found myself quite reluctant to leave the roaring coal fire that I had, virtually to myself, in the lounge bar. But duty called and when I returned both matches had handily reached a climax. Lewis had sacrificed both a knight and then rook for bishop to leave Bruce’s king defenceless against an inevitable Qg6 check with mate to follow. John was not so fortunate, Drew had managed to win the exchange but John still had play with his bishop and rook and passed pawns: at least he would have, had he not, sadly, run out of time. Still, 3-1 to the B team was an excellent result with Miles winning the extra game on board 5 too. In the next room, the Carlisle C v Penrith C match too, had concluded. Steve not only managed to deal with Jason’s passed pawn but created a couple of his own. Normally he would have been confident of winning from this position but felt that his young opponent deserved some credit for a very good game and offered a draw, which was accepted. Dave managed to get the better of David in a tactical melee, and so managed to keep our C team just above Carlisle D in the league. I mentioned, to Steve and Lewis, that there was a very nice coal fire just over the road. Somehow they were strangely enthusiastic to witness this marvel and so we wandered over to discuss the pleasures of the day’s chess over a pint in front of the merry blaze. Andy McAtear 10th February 2012 Sasra settle some scores
Penrith A vs SASRA, 21st January, 2012.It seems like it’s been a long time since Penrith A’s last outing. Nonetheless hopes were high of putting a little clear water between ourselves and the Windermere ‘chess engine’: all at Sasra’s expense. Perhaps the fact that it was Sasra who held the league’s high-flyers to a 2-2 draw should have given some pause for thought. However, boom and bust, on the evidence of past seasons, is more Penrith’s style, and we certainly did our best to oblige.
Initially it looked as if we would be as happy as bankers on bonus day with not a hint of a crisis of capitalism in the air. Lewis on board 4 lent his speciality Polish opening, 1.b4, a new air of respectability, giving Sasra’s George Nicholson three or four sorts of trouble all at once: under-developed, passive, uncoordinated and very speedily, in a mere fourteen or so moves, hopelessly bankrupt. 1-0 to Penrith. Lewis retired to the bar for a well earned rest, keeping his 100% margin on board four.
On board 2 things were a little different - more like retail banking than trading in derivatives. I opened 1.d4 against Mark Mallard and he took the game into Bogo-Indian waters. I sacrificed a pawn for quick development and then - temporarily - another for the pleasure of totally wrecking Mark’s queenside. This does however make things sound a lot more exciting than they were. Mark’s pawns were something of a sight, with one isolated and one set of tripled isolated pawns. I was confident of munching these in an orderly fashion, but almost certainly over estimated the strength of my asset base, not giving sufficient weight to my own isolated queen pawn. One of Mark’s ‘extra’ pawns fell immediately but after this his defence was stubborn and left me flailing for the tempo I needed to continue the feast. I had to mentally downgrade my growth forecast, admit the error of my ways, revise my policies and go for plan B (Chancellor please take note). What I thought was a plus-ish kind of position was more accurately an equal-ish one, and quickly turned into a “I’m repeating moves here because anything else is just too dangerous” bailout. Too be fair though, it was to dangerous for both sides. So draw agreed, score, 1.5-0.5 Penrith. 'B' and 'C' quick on the draw
Penrith B vs Penrith C 14th January, 2012.Division 2 recommenced after the festive period with our B team trying to make amends for what some might call 'an embarrassing result' against our C team earlier in the season but, despite every effort, couldn’t quite manage it. All the games looked fairly even, half an hour into the match but none of them ended that way. The first 2 results came in more or less together, when boards 3 and 4 finished within minutes of each other. On board 4, John managed to score his first league win and a point for the B team. His opponent, Miles, played a very good opening but John’s determination eventually got the better of his opponent later in the game, despite some very strong moves by his young adversary. Miles’ older brother, Holden, levelled the score for the C team when, in the heat of the battle, Alistair left a bishop hanging and Holden added another scalp to his belt.On the other boards, there was still little in it. Gerry seemed to have got a strong position from his Torre Attack against Steve on 2nd board whereas, on board 1, I, on the black side of a Ruy Lopez, was struggling to defend against Dave’s relentless attacking moves. I was surprised to last longer than Steve and even more surprised when I learned that Steve had actually won! Gerry had failed to find a forced mate but to be fair; it was about 8 moves long and involved a queen sacrifice somewhere along the way. Steve, determined not to give Gerry another chance at it, mounted an overpowering counter attack and put the C team in front.
On board 1 (see Game of the match), it seemed a bit like a tennis match, where Dave was volleying from the net, whereas, I was playing gentle lobs from the baseline. Apart from a quick Bg4 on move 12, I hadn’t actually managed to get a piece into Dave’s half of the board! Having said that, I think my position was pretty solid and I was eyeing up potential weaknesses in Dave’s that he couldn’t ignore. All this put a strain on Dave’s clock and I was about an hour ahead on time when he played a “royal fork” with 27. Ne6+. Had he sacrificed his queen with 27.Qxg6!! fxg6 28 Ne6+ then I think it was drawn but I don’t think that, after a whole game of attacking, Dave was playing for a draw. As it happened, He did manage to denude my King of any pawn cover but he’d overlooked the fact that there was no mating attack due to my queen on my second rank. After the dust settled I ended up with a piece for 2 pawns which was enough to win the game and draw the match. All in all, for a drawn match, it was very exciting one!
Andy McAtear
16th January 2012 Whitaker cup full to overflowing
Whitaker Cup Matches - Round 2 - 11th December, 2011.Now that the draw for the 3rd round of the Whitaker Cup has been made, I can safely say that it will not be an all Penrith finale to the competition but we will, for the first time in many years, have a team in the final. Our 2 teams, imaginatively named Penrith I and Penrith II, both made it through to the semi-finals but by completely different routes. Just to recap: In the 1st round, Penrith I played Carlisle 1 and won quite comfortably after Carlisle had to default on board 4. Penrith II, on the other hand, had to fight tooth and nail against a strong Cockermouth side and the match was only decided in the dying seconds.
In the 2nd round, Penrith I was drawn at home to Arnside but, unable to raise a team, Arnside reluctantly had to default the match. Compared with this relaxed progress, Penrith II were not quite so lucky; we had to make the long journey to play Barrow. Upon completion of the match score sheet we discovered that our total grades were 56 points higher than theirs so our task became clear: with a handicap of 1 point, we had to score 3 points to be sure of progressing to the next round. As if that wasn’t daunting enough, not long into the match, Kevin approached me and stated that he didn’t think that he could play on, as he had an excruciating pain in his upper back and could not concentrate at all. He'd been having some problems on the way up but had put his faith in some pre-match painkillers, which, unfortunately, didn't do the business. No one quite knew what to do in the circumstances. I immediately worked out that defaulting or resigning on board 1 would mean that our boards 2 and 3 would have to win and I would need at least a draw on board 4. It was a bit early in the match to tell how we were doing on the other boards but I felt that my opponent, Mike Mason, had a good position from his King’s Gambit so I certainly could not guarantee getting anything from my game. I asked Kevin how he would assess his position and he said that he thought it was about even and that, under normal circumstances, he would have said that his position - at least on the board - was complicated but comfortable. So I suggested that he had nothing to lose by offering a draw and Jim Woodburn, who had obviously noticed Kevin’s discomfort, accepted Kevin’s early draw offer like a gentleman.
As the match developed, Penrith began to take control. On board 2, Eggert had to fend off Trevor Blower’s attack but emerged the exchange ahead and began a counter attack. Trevor didn’t have enough material to put up much resistance and soon Eggert’s queen and rook won the game. By now I too had a clear edge. Still a pawn up from move 2, I managed to exchange off most of the pieces and gained another pawn in the process. With a rook and 2 pawns against my rook and 4, it wasn’t long before Mike resigned. Lewis, on board 3, was obviously unaware that we still needed at least a draw from him, as he speculatively sacrificed a bishop for 2 pawns in order to expose Neil Foxcroft’s king. Lewis was a little fortunate that Neil missed Qg7! on move 26, playing instead 26…Qf7 which allowed 27. Rf7 threatening mate and so, forcing Niel to give up his queen for a rook. Neil still managed to get some play with his rooks and knight but eventually Lewis picked up a stray rook with his queen and won the game and match for Penrith. As we headed for the bar, we passed Kevin stretched out on the seating in the games room with a bag of ice cubes. No he wasn’t drunk. It was the only bearable position he could find to alleviate the pain in his back. Eggert offered to drive back and even though Kevin’s Fiesta doesn’t have quite the power of Eggert’s BMW, the journey home didn’t seem quite as long as the journey there. Final score: Barrow III ½ Penrith II 2½ (1 point handicap deducted). Had Lewis lost then the result would have been: Barrow III 1½ Penrith II 1. How? I hear you ask. Well, after deducting the 1 point handicap from Penrith, the result would be 1½-1½. So, the bottom board score is eliminated leaving the score at 1½-1½. Then the grade difference is recalculated, using only the top 3 from each team, leaving Penrith with a ½ point handicap and therefore only 1 point. Simple. Now Penrith I play Penrith II in February so a Penrith team will meet the winners of the SASRA v Carlisle II match in the final. Andy McAtear
23rd December2011 Carlisle carve up 'B' and 'C'
Carlisle C vs Penrith B and Carlisle D vs Penrith C, 4th December, 2011.
Our division 2 teams were hoping to repeat the success of our first division team at Carlisle last weekend but, alas, it was not to be. Carlisle C seems to be on a roll this season, so far conceding only 1 draw from 8 games but when play got under way against Penrith B, Marco Ho, their board 2, was nowhere to be seen. Bill Hardwick said that he had spoken to him on his mobile earlier that morning but the line was not good: though he was sure that he intended to play. Anyway, before long, the first result was in(!) and it was not a good one for Penrith B. Richard Farrall, on board 3, was sure that he’d seen a way to win Jason Maxwell’s bishop. All he had to do was play h3 followed by g4 and Jason’s bishop, on f5, had no escape. Richard’s plan, however, backfired somewhat when Jason instantly gave up his piece for the pawn on h3. It was not too long after that, that Richard realised, that although he was a piece up, none of them were in a position to defend his king against Jason’s queen and knight. On board 2….nothing was happening. Meanwhile on board 1, Alan Hiatt was taking his time to way up his options against Lewis’ Sokolsky Opening and resisted the temptation to go for an all out attack until he had completed his development. Lewis shuffled his pieces about behind his pawns and waited for Alan to commit himself. John Grave didn’t have to wait long before Bill Hardwick committed himself to an all out assault on board 4. Bill’s bishop on c4 was controlling the diagonal, pinning John’s f pawn to his king and, with Bill’s queen and knight bearing down on his monarch too, John had to tread very carefully to avoid disaster. On board 2…. still nothing was happening. By now, the other match between Penrith C and Carlisle D was already decided in Carlisle’s favour as both Holden and Miles had been unable to fend off the aggressions of their more experienced opponents. On board 3, Holden, although he should have had the white pieces, was playing black against Sam McStay but neither player had noticed so I didn’t mention it. Holden had steered the game toward a kind of French Defence but although he was now in familiar territory, so was Sam. Sam regularly played the French and soon set about exploiting the weak squares around Holden’s king and before long was able to inflict heavy casualties on Holden’s defences leaving the way open for a final mating attack. Miles, also playing black on board 4, had reached an endgame with Drew Millar but was left with only a few pawns against Drew’s knight and pawns. Miles made a spirited effort to steer one of his pawns toward the queening square but Drew was able to keep them in check with his knight while pushing his own passers on. Board 2 had also reached an endgame. Grand Masters would probably have agreed to a draw when down to a rook and 2 pawns each but as yet, there are no Grand Masters in Cumbria, so Alistair and Camas Millar played on. Camas did manage to queen a pawn but had to jettison the other in the process and although he could check Alistair’s king whenever he wanted, he could not break through and if he made a passive move, Alistair would move his pawn ever closer to its target so, after several more checks, a draw was agreed. Board 1 too, had reached a rook and pawn endgame. Dave, at one point, had 2 extra pawns but they weren’t best placed and he was unable to prevent Bruce Wallace from regaining his material and drawing the game. Final score Carlisle D 3 Penrith C 1. Meanwhile in the other match, Bill Hardwick’s attack against John had reached its culminating point. John seemed to find all the right defensive moves and now faced with loss of material Bill had to back off and turned his thoughts to damage limitation instead of attack. Or so it seemed. In fact, although John had won a piece, he wasn’t out of the woods yet. Bill soon regrouped and brought his rooks into the game, pinning a knight and bishop to John’s king. One of the pieces was lost but John chose to save the wrong one. By giving up his bishop instead of the knight John was unable to prevent Bill’s other rook from getting a check in and he was mated on the next move. On board 2….nothing continued to happen. Alan had had enough pussyfooting around on board 1 and decided to liven things up a bit with a knight sacrifice. Lewis used quite a bit of time but managed to keep control of the game and I’m sure that if he’d had more time then he would have found the win. As it happened, he did manage to queen a pawn but could he get the mate before his flag fell? Possibly because he took the time to take Alan’s last pawn to ensure a draw at worst or possibly because both players seemed to be pressing the clock at the same time but whatever the reason, Lewis’ flag fell 2 moves short of checkmating Alan’s king. Less than 5 seconds later, Alan’s flag fell. On board 2….nothing had happened. So I won! Final score Carlisle C 2½ Penrith B 1½. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do after the New Year if we’re going to win the division this season. Andy McAtear 8th December2011 'A' team weather the storm
Not even the torrential rain and howling winds, could dampen the spirit of Penrith’s A team, as they arrived at Austin Friars to take on the might of Carlisle A. Our team was weakened somewhat by the absence of our usual board 2, Kevin Southernwood, who reluctantly had to stand down due to a chest infection. As I could find no suitable replacement, I had to play myself just to make the numbers up. The match began at 1.30 pm, slightly earlier than usual, to allow Dan O’Dowd time to lock up before starting work.
Robert was hoping to get Mike Green out of preparation by playing a queen’s pawn opening instead of his more usual English on board 1. Unfortunately, this didn’t seem to perplex Mike in the least and Robert was soon in a tricky position. Although he knew he could fend off Mike’s attack, Robert spent a lot of time trying to work out how to gain an advantage from the situation. Meanwhile, on board 2, Eggert and John Kelly had made very few moves but already Eggert seemed uncomfortable with his position. Board 3 looked like organised chaos after a typical Paul Rivers sacrifice. Giving up his bishop for 2 of Lewis’ pawns and opening lines for attack. Lewis however, seems to relish this kind of response to his Polish Opening. My game on board 4 began as an English Opening but despite David Jackson’s efforts, I managed to transpose it into a kind of Nimzo-Indian which led, eventually, to David having doubled pawns on the c file (see Game of the match). A few moves later, David, concerned for the safety of his isolated pawns, offered the exchange of queens which I accepted as I actually thought that his best chance of counter-play was to keep them on. It was about now that Robert strolled over and studied our position. He looked at the other games too, before sitting down at his board and shaking Mike’s hand. Robert had obviously reached the conclusion that he was unable to gain any advantage and after they had exchanged down to a knight and 6 pawns each, Mike had offered a draw. Seeing no need to try for the win and risk losing, Robert accepted. I read this as a sign that Robert thought that the rest of us were winning, although, I began to doubt this when I next looked at board 2. Eggert had all but one of his pieces rearranged on his first rank. John had gained control of the centre and had pushed Eggert onto the defensive and I don’t think Eggert was enjoying the game at all. Lewis, on the other hand, was clearly winning. He was 2 pieces up and his king was fairly safe. Surely, all he had to do was avoid making any silly mistakes and the victory was his and when he saw the opportunity to force the queens off, he took it. Paul made another 4 or 5 moves before calling it a day. I was now over half an hour ahead on the clock and had the better pawn structure. We both had 2 rooks and a light square bishop but whereas David’s was tied to the defence of his pawns, mine was free to harass them and when I got the chance, I took the pawn on a2 with it. Fortunately for me, David, in his time trouble, didn’t spot that he could have won the exchange with c4, blocking the bishop’s escape route then attacking it with both rooks. It probably would not have been enough to win the game, as I would have got 2 pawns in the process but he could at least have offered a draw with a clear conscience. About 10 moves later, as David’s flag was defying gravity, he played Rb5 to attack my a and c pawns seemingly oblivious to the presence of my bishop on e8. Eggert never got back into the game against John but it is a team event and as our team won, then we all won. So Penrith A keep on rolling. Andy McAtear
29th November 2011
'B' break even
Penrith B vs Carlisle D 19th November, 2011Both of our Division 2 teams were active at the weekend. Our B team played Carlisle D on Saturday and our C team played on Sunday against Carlisle C.
The B team needed a good result to make up for their, somewhat less than satisfactory, result against Penrith C last time out. After the initial opening phase, our position on most of the boards looked quite promising. Gerry, although forced to blockade a dangerous looking passed pawn with his queen, had managed to go a piece ahead against young Camas Millar on board 3. John, on board 4, was doing even better, a whole rook up and poised to attack Drew Millar’s king. I was doing OK against Bill Burgess’ Accelerated Dragon on board 2 but Lewis, on board 1, looked to be in a bit of trouble when his premature attack against Bruce Wallace backfired on him. Penrith drew first blood when Gerry’s extra piece made the difference between checkmating his opponent or being checkmated himself. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse on board 4, as John was forced to defend an aggressive counter attack and was forced to relinquish his rook advantage. As both he and Drew jostled for firing position against each others king, disaster struck, John placed his queen on a square that was covered by Drew’s, previously pinned, knight. Now free to join in the melee, the knight won the game and levelled the match score. By now, I had managed to gain a small advantage, an extra pawn, albeit a doubled one, against Bill so decided to exchange as much material as possible and try my luck at the endgame. We both had dark square bishops but I had 4 pawns to Bill’s 3. With a pawn each on the h file, my passed pawn on the c file led me to the conclusion that if I could exchange bishops then Bill’s king would be over worked but before I could work out how to go about it, Bill duly obliged by offering the exchange and after that my king strolled over to take his h pawn. To be fair Bill did manage to get a pawn of his own to the seventh but I swapped it off for my newly acquired queen and powerless to prevent me from getting another, he resigned. Lewis was not in a good position but had managed to stave off disaster and decided to try and get back into the game by sacrificing a knight for 2 pawns and after exchanging down to leave Bruce with queen, bishop and pawns on g3 and h3 against queen and 4 connected kings’ side pawns, Bruce blocked a check with his queen. At this point both players were down to less than 5 minutes on the clock. Lewis exchanged queens instantly but I don’t think either of them realised that this was now, what is termed as, a technical draw. All black had to do was force off white’s g pawn leaving only the h pawn and keep his king near h8 as Bruce’s bishop was the wrong colour but as it happened Lewis’ flag fell a couple of moves before he could accomplish exchanging the g pawn. So, although Lewis’s game didn’t end in a draw, the match did. Andy McAtear
23rd November 2011 'C' team crumple to CarlislePenrith C v Carlisle C 20th November
Penrith’s eager chess correspondents are either very talented or barking mad or both. Here Steve Murdoch (from an original but dubious idea/dare from Alistair Ridley), offers a homage to the Russian gods of chess… which is translated into a match report, courtesy of Monty Python, below. I got Coca-Cola but all the rest was more or less Greek to me, though the short version, in football terms amounts to, we got hammered but the young lads played great. Here goes... the result was Penrith C 0.5-3.5 Carlisle C by the way. Это был лучший из дней, он был худшим из дней. К сожалению, счетом не полностью отражает качество стремление хозяев поля.Дэвис братьев играл великолепно (как это сделал, не играл капитан / болельщик г-н Дэвис) и если бы не для них это, возможно, были очень мрачны, нет мрачной, день действительно. К сожалению, кипение юноша не передача себя полностью для всех. Guest Blog by Steve Murdoch Out for the CountyCounty match v Lancashire 20th November
As well as Penrith B and Penrith C battling out their respective matches against the mighty clans of Austin Friars/Carlisle, Penrith also managed to send the 'four musketeers' to play for the Cumbria U160 team against Lancashire at Lancaster; namely, myself, Eggert Früchtenicht, Lewis McAtear (in his second outing of the weekend) and Dave McMath. Forsaking the travelling tip that is my Fiesta we went both in hope and a very smooth car of Germanic origin belonging to Eggert, well-sprung with technical bits as they like to say (although I don't think that is the actual translation).
Lancashire were obviously taking this county match with unseemly seriousness as their team rattled up grades into the 150's well down the batting order but the copious supply of sandwiches and goodies led to a certain level of forgiveness on the part of the Cumbrian ensemble. We got down to business fairly promptly at 1.30, with a time limit of 1 hour 40 minutes for 40 moves and an extra twenty minutes for the rest. Cumbria lost the toss and was black on odd boards.
On board 3, I was playing Mick Deasey, trotting out 1...e6 in reply to his opening 1.e4 and an Advance Variation of the French Defence ensued. Going for the old 'bore and pounce' method, I got a solid advantage out of the opening, winning a pawn and leaving Mick with a a real 'weaky' on e5, which he sensibly didn't even try to defend, instead looking for counterplay. So e5 got nabbed as well and the counterplay also looked less than impressive, a couple of moves of initiative petering out to nothing much. I castled, forced a kingside weakness, marched my central pawn majority up the board and in a late flurry of tatics, with a mutual race for the time control, managed to go the equivalent of a rook up. Move 40 arrived, like Marshall Blücher, in the nick of time, and with the frenetic phase of the game over Mick decided against an impersonation of the imperial guard and resigned.
Eggert on board 4 was less fortunate. His opponent replied with the Scandinavian Defence to his opening 1.e4 and was quickly better in the position. However Eggert found some tactical resources in the early middle game that left him equal - to the extent that a draw was offered. It being early days Eggert turned this down, something that he came to regret as his position went back to being worse and then, onward and downward, to being lost.
Lewis was playing (I think) board 6, with the white pieces, and quickly got into his favourite 1.b4. However, it was a very un-Lewis, un-McAtear type of game, very closed and in need of a hefty dose of laxative powder. Neither player however, was inclined to administer the treatment each fearing that the outcome would be worse for the individual administering the medecine. So a pacific draw resulted by move 17. I saw very little of Dave McMath's game though he also hazarded a French Defence in response to 1.e4, his opponent going into a King's Indian Attack. All I caught of the action was the ending - a pretty tactical affair on the back rank with Dave ending up inflicting catastrophic losses in order for checkmate to be avoided. So Penrith contributed a healthy 2.5 points to Cumbria's total. However, this wasn't enough as overall we went down to a 7-5 defeat. Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won. Guest Blog by Kevin Southernwood
21st November 2011. An absence of Whitaker wobbles
Whitaker Cup Matches - Round 1 - 28/29th October Trick or treat? In recent times, as far as Penrith Chess Club has been concerned, the Whitaker Cup has proved a disappointment. Sickening is another a word that comes to mind. We have, as it were, consistently ended up with the suspiciously damp and slightly fluff-infested coffee creams from the very bottom of life’s trouser pocket. But not this year: this year Penrith were at their apple-bobbing best with both of our Whitaker Cup teams grabbing the fruits of victory from the deep buckets of their weekend encounters.
First to duck their heads in the water on Saturday 29th October, was Penrith’s Whitaker 1 team of Robert Patla, Steve Murdoch, Gerry Rowan and Colin Dixon. They were up against a somewhat depleted Carlisle Whitaker 1 of Dave Siddall, Daniel O’Dowd and Jason Maxwell . You have to spare a thought for team organisers. Daniel was dropped in it by late cancellations and spent a good part of Saturday morning defaulting boards and trying to prevent opponents making the unnecessary trip to Carlisle. Fortunately in Penrith’s case he succeeded but Carlisle still entered the match 1-0 down and with wins for Robert and Gerry the final result was a hefty 3-1 victory for Penrith. At least, as some measure of recompense, Daniel won his own game against Steve.
Sunday 30th saw the awesome might of Penrith Whitaker 2 taking on the ever so slightly more awesome might of Cockermouth’s Whitaker team. In the Whitaker Cup the grades of team members matter because it is a handicap competition. Cockermouth outgraded Penrith by 19 points, which left them, by the vagueries of the system, needing to score a notional half point more than Penrith to win the match. Anyway, Penrith started well by winning the toss taking white on boards 1 and 3 and with that battle was joined. I was playing Roger Hart on board 1 and started 1.d4 to which Roger replied 1…g6. The game hovered uneasily between a version of the Modern Defence and a King’s Indian gone awry, with the honours probably going to the former. I emerged from the opening with crippled kingside pawns and a king stuck unflatteringly in the centre. However there was significant compensation in the form of two bishops, good open files for my rooks and potential play on both sides of the board. Generally, I felt white was for choice. On board 2 Penrith’s Eggert Früchtenicht with the black pieces was up against Cockermouth’s Ian Stone. Ian opened 1.e4, Eggert ventured 1…e5 and quicker than you can say double King Pawn Opening on they dutifully trotted with a Ruy Lopez and something that might have been the Archangel Variation-ish (my theory in this area is, to say the least, a little hazy). If it is board 3 and Lewis McAtear with the white pieces then it has to be the ‘monkey business’. Lewis’s 1.b4 (the Orang Utan) duly made it’s appearance but obviously Cockermouth’s Keith McMillan had a banana or two up his sleeve. Soon Lewis was up against it and fell a piece behind without compensation. Resignation duly followed: first chocolate to Cockermouth 1-0. Cockermouth’s Bill Henderson, with the white pieces on board 4, opened 1.d4, with Penrith’s Dave McMath answering 1…Nf6 and, as is customary when Bill and Dave meet, the opening headed off into the hinterlands of a ‘d4 deviation’. Initially Dave seemed to have the upper hand, winning a piece for a couple of pawns. However, Bill was not finished by a long chalk and the number of pawns he was collecting seemed to grow as time marched on. Notionally ahead on material Bill offered a draw and Dave, with little or no pawn cover in front of his king, bravely turned him down. It was a good decision for the team and good judgement on Dave’s part as he ended up taking the full point and levelling the toffee count at 1-1. Meanwhile, on board 2, Eggert had made real progress with Ian definitely on the defensive, if not positionally on the ropes. However, Eggert couldn’t quite find the win and Ian managed to conjure up some counter play from almost nowhere eventually securing the draw. Match score 1.5-1.5. The story on board 1 was not entirely disimilar. Roger had been fighting a long defensive battle since the early middle game but I never quite found a way of landing a killer punch. Eventually my opponent felt compelled to change down into an ending where I thought I had a real advantage, but with time short on the clock and Mr Hart's keen eye for less than optimal play, this quickly evaporated. With only a couple of minutes left - but a dead draw on the board - I offered the draw and Roger accepted. Possibly he could have tried to run out the clock but it looked like a position where all white had to do was move pieces backwards and forwards - in the end it was probably a reasonable call (though see for yourself in our Game of the Match slot). So the match ended hauntingly level on 2-2, with Penrith walking away with the candy by virtue of that half point handicap nonsense! Thus after years of falling at the first hurdle and generally making a pig's breakfast of the whole competition, two Penrith teams march onwards to the second round. What glorious future does this fortell? If someone can please examine the chicken entrails at the witching hour and get back to us on that one we would be gratefully chuffed, though the chicken might have an alternative view of the matter. Guest Blog by Kevin Southernwood 30th October 2011. Penrith 'C' come of age!
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Penrith C
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| Penrith B
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Dave McMath
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0.5
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0.5
| Lewis McAtear
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Steve Murdoch
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0.5
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0.5
| Andy McAtear
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Alistair Ridley
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1
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0
| Gerry Rowan
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Holden Davis
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1
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0
| John Grave
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3
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1
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Miles Davis
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0
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1
| Colin Dixon |
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| Penrith's Cumbria Division 2 North season got off to its somewhat late start on a day of mild autumnal sunshine and gentle airs at the Crown at Eamont Bridge. Penrith, confusingly, were both home and away so that could only mean that Penrith C were up against last years play-off prospects Penrith B. Though the zephyr breezes spoke of nothing but calm, when it came to the sixty-four squares there was nought but a desire for tumult and upset.
There were quite a few changes of personnel from last year. Lewis McAtear was playing board 1 with the white pieces for Penrith B, against Dave McMath, for the notional home side, Penrith C. True to form Lewis slid his b pawn forward two squares playing his trademark Orang-Utan/Polish/Sokolski. Dave replied 1...Nf6, refusing to commit in the centre and a tense King's Indian style position followed. White had a space advantage on the queenside and looked 'for choice' but Dave's position was positively bristling with counter-punching potential. Steve Murdoch (on board 2 for Penrith C ) played 1.d4 against Andy McAtear who replied 1...Nf6. A somewhat cagey opening followed. White developed along the lines of the London System, which black answered with a kingside fianchetto and expansion on the queenside. Black looked at least equal coming out of the opening. On board 3 the curse of Petroff stalked the land when Gerry Rowan met Alistair Ridley's 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6! Alistair obviously didn't want a typical Petroff borefest and plumped for 3.d4 – within the realms of theory, but nowadays possibly slightly banished to the provinces. The stage was set for what turned into quite a tactical battle where it wasn't entirely clear where the advantage lay until the dust settled. Board 4 was a contest between two new playes for Penrith, John Grave for Penrith B with the white pieces and young Holden Davis for Penrith C, both of whom were playing in their first league match. John opened 1.d4, Holden replying with the tricky 1...e6. The opening evolved into a Tarrasch Defence, with John reluctant for some reason to inflict the traditional isolated queen's pawn on black. Holden felt no equal and opposite reluctance, liquidating the centre and leaving white with the isolani. The result: a double edged postion with white having the short-term chances and black the long-term. That concluded the official 'Match Boards' but there was one more graded game in the pot! Board 5 saw the even youger Miles Davis, playing the white pieces for Penrith C against Colin Dixon. Miles opened 1.e4, Colin replying 1...e5 and a Giuoco Piano or 'Italian game' followed with Miles holding his own against his experienced rival out of the opening. Miles and Colin were the first to finish with the honours going to experience. Miles got to the late middle game certainly no worse and possibly with a slight technical advantage. However, in the end, he fell victim to hasty decision that allowed Colin a knight fork that led to a deficit of a whole rook, from which there was no recovery. The sharp tactics were clearing on Gerry and Alistair's board and it was Alistair that had the upper hand. With Gerry in his sights he didn't falter putting the first point on the match scoreboard for the C team. Dave and Lewis's game also opened up – Lewis gaining a material advantage only to see both it and his positional trumps start to slip away from him. Lewis offered the draw, which Dave thought long and hard about, in the end deciding that it might be risking too much to try to hold out for more than the half point. Board 4 was the next to finish. In what had been a tough battle, John at first seemed to go a bit awry with the white pieces. However, he fought back and appeared to be getting an equal position with every chance of a draw when a mistake led to an opportunity for Holden to go a piece up. Holden didn't miss the chance and finished the game with a finesse that many an experienced player would be only to glad to have spotted (see Game of the match page)! That left Steve and Andy. Neither side had managed to obtain any kind of advantage and following the exchange of minor pieces the game concluded in a relatively tranquil draw. An unchrarcteristically quiet game from Andy 'the sacrifice' McAtear! So – to the scores on the doors. Generally it was a victory for youth over experience, Penrith C sowing up the match 3-1 thanks to wins from juniors, Alistair Ridley and Holden Davis. I for one couldn't help thinking that Penrith Chess Club has a lot of history under its belt: and, maybe, a lot to look forward to in the future? Guest Blog by Kevin Southernwood 23rd October 2011. West coasting Barrow A vs Penrith A
Barrow A vs Penrith A 15th October, 2011 The sun was shining in a weak-willed sort of way, and I'm sure, if they could have been heard over the death rattle of the barely mobile rubbish tip known as our family car, that birds were probably singing, bees buzzing and Cumbrian farmers complaining. The local wildlife was therefore doing what they do best and it soon proved to be the case that Penrith A would follow their example.
Lewis, Eggert and myself arrived with about 15 minutes to spare just before the Barrow team. No Robert of course, but he arrived fairly shortly after the clocks were started. It was a good job he wasn't any later because it didn't take long for the first result to roll in with Lewis McAtear bamboozling Barrow A's Ian Travers with a Scandinavian special which went horribly right or horribly wrong depending on your point of view. Lewis supported his team mates by removing himself to the bar to sample a wide range of interesting local bitters at extremely reasonable prices. Eggert Früchtenicht, with the white pieces on board 3 for Penrith, openend 1.e4; Frank Whalley replied 1...c5 and a Sicilian Defence was the order of the day. Eggert turned this into a Morra Gambit, which Frank decided to accept, so there was every prospect of blood on the carpet and no hint of a half-pint here (or indeed anywhere else in the building). Barrow's George Horne opened 1.d4 against me on board 2 and, rather recklessly, I headed into a Classical King's Indian. Just as I, against my better judgement, tried for once to play something a little less dull, George opted for the ever tedious Exchange Variation! Still, that made me feel at home and on we pootled, with white enjoying a slight but not necessarily meaningful edge as is traditional on these occasions. Robert Patla, playing Barrow's Dave Cole on board 1, chose the English opening (1.c4), which Dave replied to with a reversed Sicilian 1...e5 and a rather cagey and restrained opening ensued, with both sides developing fairly naturally. Dave seemed to accept a slightly passive stance with no obvious weaknesses and Robert, I guess, would be happy with the extra space and opportunity to try and make things happen. Eggert's was the next game to finish. Both sides had had their chances in an up and down kind of game but it was Eggert who torpedoed Frank with a deadly pseudo-sacrifice of his light-squared bishop, which had been lurking submarine-like on the a2/g8 diagonal. Whether Black took or not he was holed beneath the waterline and it was time to gracefully abandon ship (see our Game of the Match slot for the whole story}. Eggert also expressed his support for his team mates in a similar fashion to Lewis. Penrith A 2 Barrow A 0. Things only got worse for Barrow A. Dave Cole had put up a spirited defence but Robert, sacrificing a pawn, had managed to conquer the only open file on the board. Dave's king was caught in the headlights, the game finishing in a pawn fork that saw the king in check and his queen coming off the board once the king moved. As usual (as Andy would put it) I was last to finish. George's slight edge seemed to have evaporated earlier and I had already offered the draw once, which I think he turned down more because of the position in the match rather than the position on the board. If either side was going to make much progress then risks would have to be taken and, with the overall result beyond any doubt, I offered the draw again and George accepted. Interesting is as interesting does say I. So Penrith A can be happy with the 3.5-0.5 result and, generally speaking, a significant proportion of the team were. In point of fact, Eggert seemed fairly happy and Lewis was remarkably happy - for quite a large proportion of the journey home. Guest blog by Kevin Southernwood
16th October 2011 Penrith 'A': start as you mean to go on?
Penrith A vs Carlisle B
Penrith A vs Carlisle B 1st October, 2011 The start of the chess season usually coincides with the end of summer but the weather on Saturday was almost as glorious as our A team’s victory over Carlisle B. Lewis was first to get on the score sheet when his Sokolski Opening claimed yet another victim. This time it was Cumbria U15 Champion, Jason Maxwell, on board 4 for Carlisle, at the receiving end (see Game of the Match). Board 1 finished next when Robert got the better of former Penrith player, Dave Siddall. Robert played the Grunfeld Defence which opens things up quite early in the game and as a result, usually favours the tactical over the positional player and I’m sure Dave would agree that he is probably more of the latter. Eggert employed a kind of Dutch approach to David Jackson’s English Opening and the game was fairly even until David severely weakened his king’s position with 18.g3. This had the same affect as waving a red flag to a bull and less than 10 moves later David waved the white flag. As usual, last to finish was Kevin on board 2. He and George Glover, battled away without much advantage to either player until quite late in the game when Kevin managed to gain a winning position with queen and knight against George’s queen but under too much time pressure to work out the win, had no choice but to take a draw. Rather a better start to the season than last year’s 2-2 draw with Carlisle A. As Robert pointed out, this year is the 30th anniversary of Penrith winning the League title. There’s a long way to go yet but who knows? Andy McAtear 3rd October 2011 Season's Greetings! It's that time of year again. Time to get the trusty old wooden chess set out of retirement: time to forget the past and kindle fresh hope for the future: time for a new chess season. We've had all summer to forget the highs and lows of the last. Penrith B won Division 2 North but lost out in the promotion decider to Barrow B. Penrith C improved but still ended up as the wrong bookend to the Division 2 North table. Once again Penrith A settled into the comfy slipper zone of the Cumbria Division 1 League with nothing to win and little to lose. Again we have had some good performances from individual club members. Robert Patla was first in the Cumbria Individual Championships to take the trophy for the fourth consecutive year. Dave McMath won in the Major section of the Cumbrian Championships with Lewis McAtear and Kevin Southernwood joint second behind him. But still it is that serious Division 1 title challenge which continues to elude Penrith Chess Club. Writing of challenges there are a couple of Penrith Club members who have picked up a gauntlet or two for Cumbria Chess Association. Eggert Früchtenicht has taken on the thankless post of being the Cumbria League Controller, creating that great work of fiction that is the calendar of league fixtures and much else besides, generally all too dull to mention, and therefore probably quite important. Kevin's sanity is as doubtful as Eggert's as he has taken on the role of Junior Organiser for Cumbria. A new season also means some new ECF gradings, which in turn means a few team changes. Robert continues as a member of the 200+ club (213) and will be our A team's nominated board 1 player. Below him only three grading points separate Kevin (149), Eggert (146) and Lewis McAtear (146) with Andy McAtear not much further behind (141). The B team should really be spoilt for choice - depending on player availability - and we hope to be bringing on some new young players too, particularly in the C team. However, I can't help thinking that it might be time for the County to look again at the North-South split for Division 2. Division 2 North is looking decidedly 'thin' with only teams from Carlisle and Penrith in it for sure. There might be a number of solutions - re-drawing the North-South boundary, having an 'all' Cumbria Division 2 or whatever - but the present situation is unsatisfactory for chess in the north of the county. So... this new season then... will it be a case of history repeating itself or do we have something really to look foward to? Search me, all I know is that the board is set, the pieces ready to move. Let's hope we have a tale worth the telling! |
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Andy's log |