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EUROPEAN CLUB CUP 2009 Email reports by Team Captain Stuart Hutchings |
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Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, Round 4, Round 5, Round 6, Round 7,
A brief report, I'm still shattered after
yesterday's gruelling journey which saw me
getting up at 05:00 and returning from the
captain's meeting at past midnight. More about
that perhaps another time.
The squad this time is lacking James Cobb, Tim
Kett and Alan Spice for various reasons, but
this gives an opportunity for others to make
their names, with Tom, Charles S and Guy making
their debuts. In board order it is:
1. Charles Cobb
with myself purely as non-playing captain, and
we are seeded 49th out of 54 teams.
Today's match saw us play the 22nd seeds Rochade
Eupen-Kelmis with the result:
1. CC 0.5 IM Feygin (GER - 2545)
On paper this sounds like a par score, but the
team put up a very spirited performance and
possibly were edging it at one stage, but the
stronger players came good between moves 25 -
40, as is often the case. Hopefully the games
will become online shortly at the official
website I asked Gary to draw your attention to.
In brief:
2. John T had an interesting opening 1.e4 d6
2.d4 e5 3. Nc3 Nc6 4.Nge2 Nf6 5.h3 exd4 6.Nxd4
Nxe4 as in a similar position in the Scotch but
with the extra moves (favourable to B) h3 and
d6. John's opponent thought for ages, but John
still got a slight edge, but became
over-ambitious trying to retain an extra pawn
and W turned the tables.
3. Tom lost/sacrificed his h pawn, but thinks he
was still better, this needs further analysis in
the bar later (!). When you see the game, it is
a very nice finish by B, whose next moves would
have been Rh8+, Rh1+, Qh8+, Qh2+. Qh1 mate.
4. John F was always a bit worse in a 4 piece
ending, and despite good resistance, duly
succumbed.
5. Charles S certainly went for it with his
Blackmar-Diemer and had his much higher rated
opponent hanging on after the opening. In the
end Charles' attack proved unsuccessful, but
this was a good effort by him. Again, another
one requiring closer scrutiny in the bar.
6. Guy outplayed his opponent to reach a better
position where he was also well ahead on the
clock. Unfortunately his opponent's need to play
rapidly seemed to unsettle Guy somewhat, the
latter at one stage pressing the clock not
realising his opponent had moved, necessitating
the arbiter to spend a while re-setting it.
Credit to Guy for playing on when we were 0 - 2
down and 0 - 3 down, and for a very creditable
result.
Stuart Hutchings |
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ECC Round 2 report
Today's match result:
1. CC (W) 0.5 GM Ruck (HUN - 2548)
I was rather concerned early on when after only
a few moves on each board, our players were all
deep in thought, some of them seemingly caught
off guard, but thankfully they rallied well.
1. Charles C spent an age on some rather
straightforward moves, before being involved in
a terrific heavyweight struggle. As with the 1st
round Charles thought he might have been able to
make more of his advantage, before reaching a
position with B + 7 versus R + 3. As hard as he
tried (and often with just the 30 second
increment) this ending proved unwinnable, but 2
excellent games so far by Charles, who by his
own admission is ring rusty.
2. Tom was caught on the hop after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3
d6 3.Nc3 g6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Qxd4, with an early Q
exchange, which is probably theoretically better
for W, but Tom was happy with his position
before a slip cost him a pawn. Although still
only a pawn down in the final 2R and opposite B
position, literally all he could was just sit
and wait for the inevitable.
3. John F's opponent, knowingly or otherwise,
side-stepped John's 'Blackmar-Diemer-Cardiff'
gambit with 1.d4 g6 2.e4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c6 4.Bc4 d5
5.exd5 b5 6.Bb3 b4 and cxd5, but W handled the
surprise opening well. Things progressed fairly
steadily before John fell for a big tactic which
cost his Q for a N.
4. Charles S' game transposed into a g3 Benoni/KID
without e6, but Charles never quite equalised
despite playing some thematic chess, as he had a
poorly placed N on c7 with a W pawn still on c4.
I've pointed out how he needs to play this next
time and Charles has enthusiastically taken this
on board, he's much enjoying the occasion.
5. Guy mixed his move order up 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 c6
3.g3 Bg4 4.Ne5 Bh5 5.cxd5 and after Qxd5 is
forced to play 6.Nf3 leaving him with doubled f
pawns and an isolated d pawn after 6... Bxf3.
Thereafter Guy put up a terrfic rearguard action
and came close to equalising, but it was not
quite to be. Guy is another who is revelling in
the experience.
6. Bill never looked in any real trouble,
despite a couple of indifferent moves, against
an opponent who seemed quite content with the
draw. A good result for Bill in the 1st game to
finish, at which point I reminded him of our
earlier conversation in which he said "this
might be 6 - 0 today", to which I replied "No, I
reckon our opponents will score at least half a
point !".
So in the end, another par, or even above par,
result, and the team could well start to
flourish as we play teams seeded similarly to
ourselves.
I'll finish today with a couple of quick
stories:
We are unfortunately in a hotel 20 - 30 minutes
by official bus to the playing hall (another
hotel). It's unusual for the playing hall not to
be in walking distance, the only other one which
springs to mind for me was the 1972 Olympiad,
which took place in Skopje ..... which is now
the capital of Macedonia (!).
On the return bus trip yesterday I was sitting
just behind GM Robert Huebner and we struck up a
conversation, and he was impressed me
remembering that at Skopje he had inflicted on
the mighty Petrosian the latter's only ever
Olympiad defeat (!).
Message to Hugh, thanks for the badge, hope to
see you next year, Best Regards, Dirk.
That's all for today, folks, hope to be
reporting on a win tomorrow.
Stuart Hutchings |
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ECC Round 3 Report
1. CC (B) 0 - 1 IM Gunnarsson (ISL - 2462)
1. Charles C had another complex game, winning a
pawn but having the worst nightmare of a player
of the French Defence in that his Bishop was
stuck on c8 against a N on e5 (plus the heavy
pieces). Charles managed to extricate his Bishop
but had to concede his extra pawn to reach an
almost certainly lost R + B versus R + N ending,
promptly terminated by blundering his Bishop.
2. John played the Exchange Ruy with Queens
coming off early, but his opponent played a
textbook example of how to win a queenless
middlegame against a lower rated player, ending
with a piece sac to queen a pawn.
3. Tom's game was a complex Tarrasch where W
tried to hang on to an extra pawn, but Tom's
energetic play more or less forced W to give the
pawn back, but at the same making Tom's position
a bit awkward. The end on this board was also
accelerated by the blunder of a piece.
4. Charles again played the 'Blackmar-Diemer-Cardiff'
Gambit and can count himself very unlucky when
his opponent rattled off many moves of theory.
It transpires that his opponent had been a
victim not long ago in this opening and had
thoroughly 'booked' himself in the meantime. Try
as he may Charles just couldn't generate
anywhere near enough play for his 2 pawn deficit
and lost on time/resigned simultaneously in a
hopeless position.
5. Guy, what a find he's turning out to be,
comfortably holding his own as Black against a
much higher rated player. I love the way Guy is
churning out very logical moves however good or
bad his position, interspersed with brief
moments of anxiety. After pressing the clock
twice 'before he made his move' in round 1,
today he asked me in the presence of the arbiter
if he could offer a draw, to which I replied
'Yes', he then continued "Do I make my move,
press my clock, and then offer a draw". " No
Guy" I replied "you need to reverse the last 2,
it is illegal to talk to an opponent whilst
their clock is ticking !". A nice Guy (in more
ways than one !).
6. Bill, what can I say, what a star, his 1st
draw in Europe yesterday, and his 1st win today
(!). Bill kept things very steady, and pounced
when his opponent blundered to allow the win of
an exchange, but his opponent decided it be a
piece for a pawn instead, and Bill cruised home.
Bill's prep is like mine used to be, forget the
chess, get out and get some fresh air and
exercise. Yesterday morning as we strolled I
predicted he would draw, today I said you've got
white against a player lower rated than
yesterday's, you're going to win today (!). As
for tomorrow's game, it will be ..... that will
be between Bill and myself in the morning (!), I
must remember to do the lottery (!).
Must fly, Bill and I found an Irish Bar this
morning, and the others have gone ahead whilst I
do this report (hope it's appreciated !), and
I'm getting thirsty (!).
p.s. John will send this report after we return
later.
Stuart Hutchings |
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I'm afraid that Stuart is suffering a bit with
the dreaded lurgi. Probably something to do with
handing over 4000 Euros in cash to the
organisers for our hotel bills, and nothing to
do with today's result.
We were paired against Moss Schakklubb of
Norway. Only one GM and two FMs in their team.
1 GM Normunds MIEZIS 2558 - IM
Charles COBB
Charles seemed to be doing OK, on the Black end
of an exchange French, when I left the playing
area but GMs don't give up too easily.
My own game was a bit of a disaster: I probably
got a poor position early on in a reversed
King's Indian and things just went slowly
downhill.
Tom's game started off quickly, with both
players quickly bashing out theory in a Sicilian
Dragon, with Tom sacrificing an exchange for an
attack but probably not quite enough of an
attack.
John Fletcher played very aggressively on the
White end of a sort of Benoni without c4, but
used up a lot of time in the eary middlegame.
When his opponent started using up his own time,
in order to survive, John didn't have quite
enough left to finish him off.
I didn't see any of what happened on the lower
two boards, I had enough problems of my own, but
the results weren't any better.
Is this Cardiff's first 0-6 Whitewash in this
event?
John Trev
Normal service should be resumed tomorrow. |
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ECC Round 4 (continued)
ECC Round 5
Today's pairing was rather cruel, we played the
stronger of the other 2 teams on 0 match points,
but worse was that we had our 3rd Black on board
1 in a row (after Whites in the 1st 2 rounds),
which made selection awkward and some colour
imbalances. The team we played was the 45th
seeded Schackklub Nierderrohrdorf with the
following result:
1. CC (B) 0 - 1 FM Buss (SUI - 2371)
For the observant amongst you, you will have
noticed a first for us. Yes, for the only time
so far in 30 games has 1 of our players
outgraded theirs (here on board 1), and often
the difference has been 200 points or more.
1. Charles C played a young, and presumably
upcoming, FM who squeezed the full point out of
Charles in a B + N ending, where Black was
lumbered with a bad white squared bishop,
something which has been a bit of a curse for
us.
2. John T played a 95 move game where he finally
succumbed in the theoretically drawn R + B
versus R, which in practice is quite difficult
to hold despite there being 2 well known drawing
methods (Cochrane's defence and the 2nd rank
defence). B seemed to play it well, and in the
end John's rook was stuck on the wrong side of
his K.
3. Tom got a nice position after his opponent
wasted moves with his queen's bishop, and
finished the game with a nice attack. Good to
see Tom get on the scoreboard, he's had a string
of tough opponents.
5. Charles S played a solid game, but
unnecessarily slowly. There was nothing wrong
with his position when he played the serious
positional error d6 allowing a huge passed pawn
on c6, and was always struggling after that. The
game only lasted as long as it did because his
opponent became very hesitant in an easily won
position.
6. Guy, there's no stopping him (!). His
position became a little bit loose, but as soon
as he got into a R + B ending he played most of
it in exemplary fashion.
Unfortunately, we are now the only team on 0
match points, and with possibly the lowest game
points to boot. We have to win our last 2
matches, but the fact we haven't won any so far
can be gleaned from the first paragraph's
mention of the strength of the opposition we
have met. Here's hoping.
Stuart Hutchings |
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We started the round as the only team on 0 match
points, and we were paired against the only team
on 1 match point, that being the 48th seeded
(yes still above us !) and wonderfully named "Cercle
d'Echecs de Monte Carlo". Match result as
follows:
1. CC (W) 1 - 0 GM Efimov (MNC - 2433)
Result: 4.5 - 1.5
So we outgraded them on all of 2 boards this
time, making a total so far of 3 out of 36 (!).
1. Charles C got a terrible position after the
opening, but managed to create good counterplay
when his (former Russian) opponent started
pushing forward on the kingside. Charles
negotiated the complications very well, and
after B probably went wrong with Rxg3+ actually
exposing his own king, W won the exchange. B
still had some chances with a passed b pawn, but
Charles snuffed out any chances to record his
1st win after a daunting series of opponents.
2. John T's opponent worked up a threatening
kingside attack, then went for an unclear R plus
N sacrifice bringing John's king into the centre
of the board. The game got very complicated with
at one stage John's king reaching f3 when W
still had Q + R + B + N on the board. W could
probably have taken a perpetual but kept
pressing for more, as B still had an undeveloped
QR and QB, but John put up a resilient defence,
with his K then heading off to a7 (!). When John
was at last able to develop his QB he was home
and dry.
3. Tom also got a terrible opening, and in the
middlegame got a N trapped on g4. Tom managed to
loosen B's king position but this should not
have been enough, but B started losing the plot
and Tom managed to reach a position where he had
a perpetual whenever he wanted it. Down to his
last few seconds, Tom thought he saw a win, sure
enough his opponent could only play a couple of
moves to delay the mate, and with Tom having
enough time and his opponent resigned.
4. John F played a good opening, got a nice
position, but unfortunately mis-combined to
leave himself the exchange down for nothing, and
subsequently, despite the 30 second per move
increment, lost on time.
5. Charles S also got a good opening after his
opponent played too slowly, and allowed Charles
to sacrifice a piece for 3 pawns to open up B's
king. B had no choice but to castle to the weak
queenside where he had previously been wasting
his time moving his pawns. Charles thereafter
won the game effortlessly.
6. Bill's game turned into a double rook and
opposite colour bishop ending where W
inexplicably exchanged all the rooks, and Bill
easily held the draw.
We rode our luck today, but we deserved some.
Well done to Bill for drawing again, and for
Charles C, John T, Tom and Charles S for
notching up their 1st wins, and for 3 of those,
their 1st scores. I'm particularly pleased for
Charles S who has been incredibly enthusiastic
on this, his 1st chess abroad.
I'm not sure if that has put us any higher than
next to last, but let's hope we can push on from
this great result in tomorrow's last round.
Stuart Hutchings |
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ECC Round 7
And today, for the 1st time, we played a team
seeded below, in fact the 54th and bottom seeded
Roskovic. The result is as follows:
1. CC (W) 1 - 0 L. Pasko (ALB - 0)
Result: 4.5 - 1.5
I'll digress from the usual board order
sequence, because the match started really
peculiarly. 6 players were sitting down on each
side of the board for the start of play (zero
tolerance) and when it did start, John T's
'opponent' wrote '0 - 1' on the scoresheet with
the gist of the conversation being "I am not
Morino, he won't be coming, you win by default".
At this point our arbiter arrived (!), promptly
to be told by the deputy chief arbiter, he was
banned from the tournament hall (presumably for
being late ?). After a little while, and the
intervention of the deputy and the chief (Dirk),
things srarted to settle down, so back at the
ranch .....
1. Charles C played the KID exchange but his
opponent proved particularly stubborn, with
Charles eventually trying to win an awkward N v
B ending. The pressure eventually told in this,
the last game to finish, and B made a crucial
mistake to allow the win of his bishop, but it
had already gone by then.
2. John T as above.
3. John F's 'Blackmar-Diemer-Cardiff' gambit
started well and B got into a very awkward
position. W won the exchange, may be he had
better, but at the cost of a N plus 2 centre
pawns, with B suddenly being very solid.
Fortunately B lost patience and pushed his e
pawn, but this promptly cost him his d pawn to a
pin. John the converted a 2R versus R + N ending
to worthily record his 1st score.
4. Charles S' was a solid game which became very
blocked with Charles being slightly better at
the end but not sure how to make progress.
5. Guy continued his good form by winning the
exchange, and later a whole piece to win
comfortably. He has played very well throughout
the tournament.
6. Bill, despite his good play in previous
rounds, definitely got the short straw with his
opponent not only being their only rated player
one, he had also scored 5.5/6 in the previous
rounds. Bill never managed to get his pieces out
satisfactorily, and had to shed a couple of
pawns and this proved decisive.
So an excellent win, I may say more about this
match and summarise in general when I get home,
it's an early night for me as the journey home
is going to be even more arduous (getting up at
03:30 instead of 05;00 !) than the journey here.
One final thought from me tonight is that every
player in the squad won at least one game, a
great achievement, is this a 1st for Welsh teams
in this event (?).
So it's good night from me, and it's good night
from him (John when he sends this report).
See you all soon hopefully, work permitting
(what a horrible thought !).
Best Wishes, |