2019/20 Knockout Team
We are taking part in two Knockout compeitions this year, the Mid Sussex League competition and the Paul Watson Trophy, one of the competitions run by (for?) the Sussex County Chess Association.
Paul Watson Trophy
At our club session on Wednesday 27th November we played at home against Haywards Heath in the quarter-final of the Paul Watson Cup. This is a handicap tournament where our four players must average under a grade of 150, so we just crept under the wire with a team of Chaski, Mark, Michael and Brian, as did Haywards Heath.
Michael lost his queen for a bishop quite early on and although it took some time his opponent converted. Mark played an exciting game with both kings under attack. Sadly, although I saw the possibility I missed a beautiful winning tactic involving the sacrifice of two pieces, but nonetheless, converted a bishop v knight endgame because my opponents king was too far from his pawns. Brian's game was the next to finish, his opponent got his white squared bishop trapped behind his rook so he was struggling to coordinate his pieces and Brian advanced his pawns to good effect winning well. This left a tense finish as Chaski was in a tricky rook and pawn endgame. At this stage a draw would have been enough for us to win the match, but I'm not sure Chaski was aware of this. If he lost, then Haywards Heath would win the match on board count (you add up the board numbers of the winning matches and the lowest number wins..it would have been 4-6 in their favour, we lost a match like this last season). Both players had passed pawns supported by their king and I thought it would come down to a single move here or there in a pawn race. With his opponent shorter on time Chaski held his nerve to triumph in the end. So we go through to the semi-finals. Well done everyone.
MSCL Knockout Trophy
October 30th. We travelled away to The Argumentatives at their Staplefield Pub in the first round of the MSL Knockout, which we have won twice before. Unfortunately team selection was limited with many unavailable, but I still felt we had a strong chance and might need only 1.5 points to progress against a much higher-rated team. It could not be known that the Args have new members and greater selection choice than we knew, so we had to adjust to needing two points to win the match. I did not help much on board 4 as having come out of the opening with a strong position, I blundered a knight away and though I fought on I could not get back at my experienced opponent, but Chaski against Peter Farr on Board 1 went as we had hoped with a flanking pawn attack from Chaski not being well met. Strangely Steve’s opponent on board 5 offered him a draw, which with hindsight would have been useful, albeit Steve had a good position without much material advantage; Steve declined the draw and then a few moves later lost his queen to a discovered check and his game went downhill from there. That meant that Simon on board 2 and Michael on Board 3 both had to push for a win in the hope that one would prevail, although to be fair they were at least drawing at that point, though the Args were unusually quicker on the time control. At stages both Simon and Michael had a winning opportunity, but little time to find it and sadly both eventually succumbed. So we lost 1-4, which was not enough and the Args go through to the next round. Their venue is not always a happy hunting ground and full of distractions such as cramped playing conditions and this time a cursing domestic dispute in the corridor, but that has to be endured.