Rookie round-up

The UCU Leagues are approaching the endgame - who will win, nobody knows!

DIVISION ONE	PLAYED	POINTS
RVH HAWKS	10	53.5
QUB	9	47.0
FISHERWICK	9	36.5
THE AWAY TEAM	11	21.0
LAGAN	9	10.0

High fliers Hawks soar above QUB. Are Fisherwick called ‘wick’ for short? The Away Team are way behind, with Lagan “lagan” behind!

DIVISION TWO	PLAYED	POINTS
BOMBARDIER	8	39.0
FORTWILLIAM	10	37.5
MALONE	7	35.5
WANNABIES	8	35.0
WINSTON	8	34.5
HENDERSONS	9	22.0
RAVENS	10	20.0
RANDALSTOWN	8	14.5

Only four and a half points separate the top five teams. Bombardier have bombarded their opponents recently with big wins. Fortwilliam, with only 4 games to play, have a “golf” to cross, even with David Houston parachuted in - is that how he really broke his leg?  I’m alone in thinking Malone have still a big chance; the Wannabies will stay wannabies; and Winston’s chances have gone up in “smoke”. The bottom 3 teams must be strong as they are holding up the rest of the league!

In other news, GM smart-alex Baburin (Kilkenny) won last weekend’s Limerick Bunratty Masters on 5.5/6 - obviously a “Munster” win for him.

Also, QUB have made chess a parlour game again - their popular bar blitz is in the Parlour Bar, Elmwood Ave., Belfast. On Sunday night 7/3/10 at 7.15 pm, just turn up and enjoy it - the chess isn’t bad either! Finally, here are 2 recent Williamson Shield games from Martin Kelly, where it was a case of “Goodnight Vienna” in one and a waltz in the park in the other. Perhaps, in his last round game, he was suffering from “strauss”!!

I look forward to the next instalment of my blog (or should I use the American spelling “installment” as David McAlister did in his last blog?). Oh, what the “l” does it matter ?

Rookie 

Final installment of Williamson Shield games

First up, a pseudo-sacrifice from joint-winner Michael Waters set up a victory over Mark Newman in round 4.




The other joint-winner John Cairns had a much tougher time in Round 4. Ian Woodfield played in very enterprising style and had Cairns on the ropes, but with both players short of time, couldn't find the knock-out punch.



Third place in the tournament went to Ryzsard Kaczorowski. Here's his final round win over Eamonn Walls.

Hendersons crash to Division 2 highflyers by Chestnut69

The Hendersons bubble was burst by Bangor Wannabees at a cold Groomsport church Hall on Thursday. Some were saying that the heating which wasn't working had been nobbled to spook the travelling team from the West, but the Hendersons were comfortably beaten by the Seasiders 4.5-0.5. Things didn't start well for the Hendos, as at 8pm it appeared that a communication breakdown of an Anglo Polish nature had led to the non appearance of board 1 player Richard Kaczorowski. The Hendersons had to "play up" a man short for the third time this season, although at one point Henry was Horse was contemplating taking on Bangor's board 5 Brian Belshaw, but after a couple of sips of Philip's many cups of coffee he reverted to his customary position perched at boardside beside his owner.

As to the games themselves, although playing up, all four were particularly close affairs, all going the distance. Sean Linton on board 1 was first to fall to Paul McGuigan. Cathal Murphy's game against Paul McLoughlin started e4 d5, black against lower rated opposition, obviously envisaging "centre counter carnage". This didn't happen as despite the numerous early pins Paul deployed, Cathal was able to hold his own, only sitting a pawn down for most of the middle game and actually had Paul under pressure, threatening mate on move 29. As you'll see from the endgame with opposite coloured bishops a draw was a real possibility. Perhaps Cathal shouldn't have traded rooks on move 37 and on move 48 should have concentrated his king on addressing Paul's passed c pawn and ignoring his releatively safe king side pawns to secure the draw. Cathal resigned around move 56, but any "good" players out there are invited to add any analytical comments to the blog as they play through the game.

Pearse O Brien's game against similarly stronger opposition went the same way, when a draw looked likely only to be narrowly lost in the endgame. The final excitement came on board 4 when Phil "Mlegsci" Morrison, apparently 2 moves from mate inexplicably offered a draw. His opponent Ron Henderson gladly accepted, but Philip however with only seconds left may have made the right callas his deserved half point did save the Hendersons from the whitewash. Ron was light heartedly referred to by Brian Belshaw at the end of the contest as "the original Henderson".

Hendersons claim RVH bragging rights in local derby at the Royal, by Chestnut69

Chestnut69 joins our little band of bloggers.

The battle of the RVH Division 2 sides was eventually won by the new kids, the Hendersons, over their club-mate rivals, the Ravens.

The two sides, with virtually the same line-outs, played out a bruising draw in November, but this time out the Ravens drew first blood and might have been fancying their chances of scooping the points after John Monaghan ran out winner against the "unpredictable" Phil "MLegsci" Morrison. Even the help of the faithful Henry the Horse couldn't help Phil regain his Williamson Shield form on this one as he succumbed early to a determined Monaghan.

Sean Linton fell to Anthony Thompson on board 3 soon after which gave the Ravens a 2-0 lead. Boards 1 and 2 were closer affairs but Richard Kaczorowski and Brendan O'Neill came out winners against Frank Carruthers and Guych Nuriyev respectively to draw the Hendersons level.

All eyes turned to board 4 where Ulster Junior champ Cathal Murphy, shrugging off his recent broken arm, was renewing acquaintances with Raymond Smith. As in the Ulster Ray replied to Cathal's e4 with his customary Modern/Pirc defence, and when he grabbed a pawn with Rook on move 20 may have felt comfortable. Cathal blocked in the Rook and followed up by taking it with his Queen, which Ray couldn't retake owing to a vicious discovered Rook x Queen with check, then taking a Knight. Murphy looked at a Rook sac on move 24 (which would in fact have led to checkmate) but thought it was too risky to play as he already had the advantage at this point. He went on to take the Knight with a check on move 25 and actually missed a mating chance on move 32. Even a clear rook and passed pawn down Smith fought on forlornly (sorry Ray) hoping Murphy with such a material advantage would stalemate. It wasn't to be as Cathal eventually prevailed with resignation on move 55 to give the Hendo's the points and more importantly the bragging rights.

Stalemate at Stormont by 'Rookie'

Return of a legend.  Former Irish News chess columnist ‘Rookie’ comes out of (far too early) retirement to present his inimitable view of the Ulster tournament scene.

Eighteen hours of drama, tension and confrontation near the Castle, where everything was black and white - no, not the political talks but the Williamson Shield at the Stormont Pavilion on January 30-31, 2010. Let’s look at the shock results in each round. 

Round one: the biggest shock of all involved a Whiteside win, not for Steady Eddie, but for Garry, playing the white side of a French. 

Round two: there were two surprises this time. Alex Beckett (1322) gave his opponent a filip to his morale when conceding the exchange and a loss to Phillip Morrison (1051), while Alan was burnt by Cathal’s “fried liver” attack.

Round three: the results here were predictable, except when Karina Kruk (1483) krumbled to a draw with Geoff Hindley (996).

Round four: here’s a storey - Peter Storey (721) who beat Alex a Beckett (1322), martyred by a knight. Meanwhile Martin “gunslinger ned” Kelly had the fastest draw in the West, sorry East Belfast, against Steady Eddie’s own Bangor opening:

Round five: the only shocks were two unlikely draws. R. Kaczarowski (1641) felt like a “new man” after his draw with Mark Newman (1781) and, by george, Jackson (1276) was happy after drawing with draw specialist Martin Kelly (1442).

Round six: the last round saw O’Brien (1149) “pearse” Alex Beckett’(1322)’s defence. Also, Kaczarowski (1641) ”knocked down” E. Walls’ (1882) defence to claim a shock third place on 4.5 points, a point behind joint winners, Fisherwick duo John Cairns and Michael Waters. Grading prizes went to John Phillips and Alan Burns on 4 points and Phillip Morrison on 3 points. Rumours that Alan’s final opponent, Martin Kelly, also aiming for a grading prize, was “tired and emotional” are wildly off the mark. 

Gareth Annesley on the 2010 Williamson Shield

Guest blogger Gareth Annesley gives his take on the 2010 Williamson Shield:

The annual Williamson Shield took place on the final weekend of January at its familiar location within the Stormont Estate, Belfast. Its perennial winner Stephen Scannell, the 'Phil Taylor' of Ulster chess minus the tattoos and beer belly (well tattoos anyhow..sorry Steve) was absent. Both 1st and 2nd seeds, Michael Waters and John Cairns, gladly filled the breach to pick up joint winnings on 5.5 with a handy £150 going into each of their back pockets, thus rewarding an arduous weekend's toil. Picking up the bronze was surprise package Ryszard Kaczorowski  who upset the high flying Eamon Walls in the last round, a player who earlier that morning snuffed out your blogger's lingering tournament hopes....nuff said.

Moving on I would like to briefly examine a  couple of critical positions from my weekend games which I think the reader may find of interest.  First off was my Saturday evening game with John Cairns.

After a slightly unorthodox version of the Pirc (leaving theory on move 7) a situation arose where black has bagged 2 pawns, with white having compensation in the shape of a disorganised black piece arrangement and an exposed king.  In the diagram below white has just played 23 Nf3 hoping to win the g pawn and open the g file for his heavy pieces in the process, as you can see from the arrows.

Cairns-Annesley 23.Nf3

Black, as most engines point out, should have ignored this and swapped off the menacing white bishop on e5, instead of defending with Bh6 as played in the game. Cairns, I'm sure, after playing the immediate 24.Nxg5! had in mind the motif shown below, which leads to material meltdown for black!

In the game I avoided this scenario by playing 25...e6 and 26..Kxf7 however with 26.h4 and 27.Rxg5 black regains his piece and opens the g file as intended.  As you can see from the remainder of the game black's position is collapsing and resignation soon follows in swift order. Although disappointed, due to being on the wrong end of a crush, I was impressed none the less by the ruthless economy of the white attack.  

For all you lovers of the 'chess study' type of positions I think you may find the finish to my round 5 game against William Storey amusing. As you can see from the diagram below white has just played Kg5?..allowing white to play g7.

It soon become apparent to William that his king has prevented his rook from guarding against the queening on g8 by placing itself on the g file. Therefore he decides to keep checking the black king, so the question for my readers is... Which square does the white king have to go to in order to keep alive winning chances?

Don't look down until you have it!

 

 

Yes you guessed it... a8!  From here black has run out of checks and is helpless to prevent white queening and winning. As my king was making its away across the board a knowing smile from Denis Wilkinson, who was spectating on the sidelines, indicated that he also knew the destination of the white monarch. A scenario which makes an exception to the rule that an outside passed pawn is deadly for the opposition, in this case black can only rue that it was still alive to give shelter to the white king!

Barring this piece of chess farce it was a forgettable tournament for myself as I was very lethargic throughout large parts of the tourney, this I can only put down to the early rises which have been foreign to me due to unemployment in the previous months... excuses, excuses. As the tourney included several rating prizes there was plenty of incident and drama in the final rounds with Alan Burns defeating Martin (the big one partner) Kelly to claim one of these.  At one stage the 'at times mercurial' Burns had a material advantage so large against the 'distracted' Kelly, it looked as though he'd emptied a spare set of black pieces onto the board whilst Kelly wasn't looking. A swindle not too improbable taking into account Kelly's state at the end of a long tournament. Elsewhere there was a last round defeat for Kevin Agnew against the lone belle of Ulster chess, Karina Kruk, in a minor piece endgame. This may signal an increase in chess dvd endgame nights in the Agnew household (if your reading Paul Mac).

This ends my blog on the Williamson Shield 2010 and I hope to do more in the future.