Malone on the brink

Last night, bottom team Randalstown gave title contenders Bangor Wannabees a scare before the latter were “stung” into action to squeeze a narrow win which sets up the last game of the season against Malone.

WANNABEES	VS	RANDALSTOWN
P.MCGUIGAN	DRAW	D.BARAS
A.MCCONNELL	DRAW	S.EACHUS
P.MCLOUGHLIN	0-1	P.WILSON
R.PROCTOR	1-0	S.DOWNES
R.HENDERSON	1-0	P.MAGUIRE
RESULT	3.0-2.0
+BONUS	5.0-2.0

Malone can afford to lose 5-2 and still win League Division Two for the first time since 2005/6 - they were second for the last three seasons. Randalstown can avoid the wooden spoon by at least drawing with Hendersons in their last match - if they beat them 7-0, they would finish sixth!

TEAM	PLAYED	POINTS
MALONE	13	65.0
WANNABEES	13	61.5
WINSTON	14	60.5
BOMBARDIER	14	55.0
FORTWILLIAM	14	54.0
HENDERSONS	13	31.0
RAVENS	14	26.5
RANDALSTOWN	13	24.5

Malone bounce back against Bombardier

LEAGUE DIVISION TWO (AT BOMBARDIER, 31/3/10)

BOMBARDIER	VS	MALONE
M.NEWMAN	0.5-0.5	S.FLANAGAN
P.MCNAUGHTEN	0.5-0.5	S.FERRIS
S.MCCONAGHY	0-1	D.RUBEN
E.BOOKLESS	0.5-0.5	N.MCFARLAND
B.MCKITTRICK	0-1	B.JAFFA
TOTAL	1.5-3.5
+BONUS	1.5-5.5

Just before Easter, Malone had an “eggcellent” result when they made “shorts”hrift of bombardier. but Bangor Wannabees were “raven”  about their 6-1 win over RVH Ravens last night which somersaulted them from fifth to second in the League with a game in hand against bottom team Randalstown next Thursday.

LEAGUE DIVISION TWO (AT BANGOR, 1/4/10)

BANGOR WANNABEES	VS	RVH RAVENS
P.MCGUIGAN	0.5-0.5	F.CORROTHERS
R.PROCTOR	1-0	G.COLLINS
P.MCLOUGHLIN	1-0	R.SMITH
A.MCCARTER	1-0	J.MONAGHAN
B.BELSHAW	0.5-0.5	P.LOGAN
TOTAL	4.0-1.0
+BONUS	4.0-1.0

It means Malone only need a draw to win the League when the top two teams meet in a rearranged fixture sometime in April. Having said earlier that Wannabees would stay Wannabees this season, I’ll have to eat my hat if they end up winning the league this year!

TEAM	PLAYED	POINTS
MALONE	13	65.0
WANNABEES	12	56.5
WINSTON	13	54.5
BOMBARDIER	13	54.0
FORTWILLIAM	14	54.0
HENDERSONS	13	31.0
RAVENS	14	26.5
RANDALSTOWN	12	22.5

Rookie

Vasily Smyslov - strategist or tactician?

Last weekend, Vasily Smyslov passed away in Moscow at the age of 89. He was the seventh world champion in 1957/58, beating and then losing to Mikhail Botvinnik in consecutive years. In 1984, aged 63, he lost 8.5-4.5 to Garry Kasparov in the candidates’ final to decide who played Karpov for the world title. In 1997, aged 76, he shared second place at Malmo. He is primarily thought of as a major strategist, but he was “vasily” underrated as a tactician, who employed sharp combinations when necessary, as in the miniature below!

Also, last weekend saw the international chess congress take place in Cork, with 139 players, including 3 GMs.-Bulgarian champion Dejan Bojkov pipped Croatian Bogdan Lalic and Russian-Irish Alexander Baburin to the title-a result that for former winner Lalic was nothing to “crow at”!

Finally, the winner of the recent Fisherwick tournament was, among the Seniors, Ian Woodfield ahead of Norman McFarland, while in the Juniors, R. Gupta and H. Reddy were “ever reddy” to take the spoils!

P.S. Years ago, when local young player Damien Artt from Belfast won his game, I commented in my newspaper article: “D. Artt hits the bullseye”.

Rookie

Vasily Smyslov 1921–2010

The 7th official World Chess Champion Vasily Smyslov died yesterday at the age of 89. The photograph above was taken at a simultaneous exhibition given by Smyslov in the Great Hall at Queen's University Belfast on Wednesday 15th January 1969.