Nottingham Central Chess Club

What a match! Defeat. I’ll get that said first but an incredible fight.

Central 1ST 2-3 Ashfield 3rds

First off, a team match is a TEAM match and no one must carry the ‘what if’ of a narrow defeat. We each did our best. Some of us for nearly 3 hours of mental struggle.

I had it easy stress wise. I have a position I need to look at, because one option was a perfectly reasonable but double edged option and took the safe one. Pieces came off and I had a slightly worse end game. My opponent offered a draw and I accepted. Oh, must mention my phone went off. I knew that’s a 2 min penalty but needed someone else to say it, so thank you Mark for putting their captain straight.

Lukasz payed a blinder with the aggressive 1…e5 against d4 and, well, won. But his opponent has been round the block, held on and fought hard in a completely lost position. Lukasz knows he should have won, but it happens sometimes that an opponent fights hard and you only draw.

Mark Radford was held by his slightly lower graded opponent. Playing back. Mark said afterwards he saw better moves he should have played, but that’s chess. It just looked like one of those games where in a match situation you can’t risk for the win, though youd like to. It was a team minded effort from Mark.

So to the stunning finish with seconds ticking down. Mark Darlington on his debut. Mark got a superb position from the opening and felt his was much better. One move changed everything – a positional blunder. Time became a factor and in a double edged position towards the end, his opponent edged it. I confess, as a weaker player to have no clue what was going on. But I think “I have a no draw policy” is an attitude to be admired. Welcome Mark. You will win plenty playing like you do.

Concurrently was Alan’s game. A real thriller of a struggle. A sacrifice of the exchange, for compensation. Consolidation with a powerful position full of control and extra pawns. A miscalculation in a complicated position turning the tide back to the opponent. Winning another piece back and equity of sorts, 20 seconds left for Alan on the clock and… A draw. Again, I can only give a flavour. Great chess I can only try to follow.

So we lost 2-3. But the spirit! Well done all. Giving everything? Result is truly secondary.

We’ll stuff em in the return!

Best Wishes

Andy