Latest Matches.
(by Kevin Argyle)
On Tuesday evening, both Central 1 and Central 3 played, home and away, respectively.
The first team signed off the season with a convincing win against Newark 2. I turned up around 8 to be met by John Harrison going in the opposite direction after winning quickly against Malcolm Hargreaves who appeared to have been ‘sacrificed’ on board 2. Malcolm played a line of the Chigorin but had forgotten the details and ended up with an important piece on the wrong square. Unfortunately for him John also knew the line but correctly.
A very short time later Mark had resigned to Gary Bosworth to even up the score. Mark had seen he would come under heavy pressure but figured he could cope with it. He was only half right.
Steve’s health has improved over recent weeks and he made short work of his opponent on board 4. A draw and a win from the remaining two boards gave us the victory. Apparently promotion is still possible even if finishing in third.
I was desperately trying to get a team together for the second’s match away at Grantham the following night and at one point it looked like I might have to default the match through a combination of players unable or not wanting to play. Late on the Wednesday I was bailed out by 3/4 of the 3rd team who had played (and lost 4-0) the night before but were prepared to travel 20 miles and go again the following day. Thanks guys.
Grantham 3 are ridiculously strong for division 4 and I didn’t hold out too much hope for a win, just relieved that we’d managed to turn up at all. We tried hard but to no avail. I had a good game against Gren Wollerton which came down to a rook and pawn endgame and my time rapidly diminishing. Gren frittered away an advantage to an equal position and then an inferior one but deliberately played very quickly (and badly) to take advantage of my lack of thinking time. Playing through the game later I may well have had a case for claiming a draw under the ‘two minute rule’. Too late now though.
I didn’t see much of the other games as I was the last to finish but I believe they were all hard fought. Unfortunately the 5-0 whitewash won’t do our survival chances much good.
April 29th, 2016 at 9:06 am
As captain of Grantham 3 I would like to post a comment in defence of Gren Wollerton, a player of long standing and someone who controlled the weekend Grantham Congress when that was running some years ago. Gren would never do anything against the laws or spirit of Chess. Although present at the match I did not see this particular sequence of play. I suspect that Gren’s moves were designed to put pressure on the opponent and therefore to make progress just as is true at other phases of the game. To me that is trying to win by normal means.
April 29th, 2016 at 11:09 am
Thanks for the comment Chris. My post was not intended to cast Gren’s character or chess in any bad light (It was a good game and he was a deserved winner). It never occurred to me during the game to claim a win or that he was not trying to win by normal means.
It was only when I played through the game afterwards that the question occurred to me, “is playing very quickly to take advantage of the opponent’s time pressure ‘trying to win by normal means’?”
I used this to hopefully spark a debate on how well understood the two minute rule is (not very as it turns out!). Nobody seems to really know how to interpret the rule.
I just used a situation from one of my games to find out if anyone really knows what “normal means” actually means.
Actually, after a lot of discussion on the subject I still don’t really know but certainly Gren’s tactic to take advantage of my time pressure was perfectly OK, as I have been informed by a number of people.
Regards,
Kev.A.
April 30th, 2016 at 9:57 am
I am reminded of the situation from my days as a Basketball player when there was a ‘foul’ and an ‘intentional foul’. How do you as referee tell the difference? How does an Arbiter know what is ‘normal means’? I suspect the rule is there for the very exceptional cases which might be seen ‘once in a blue moon’. If I were an Arbiter I think I would be extremely reluctant to award the draw in these circumstances.