Thursday afternoon, Kings School Grantham. Math class is full of students, however, the maths today is not an issue. An issue is chess match.Grantham Kings faced to one of the strongest teams - Nottingham High. The Kings, grossly outgraded on all boards, had very little chance to get a good result. However, it was not important.
Kings
Grantham A
|
½-5½
|
Nottingham
High A
|
||||||||||||
NAME
|
grade
|
date
of birth |
AGE
Yrs Mths |
RESULT
|
NAME
|
grade
|
date
of birth |
AGE
Yrs Mths |
||||||
1
|
Joe
Scarborough
|
92s
|
15/5/95
|
17
|
6
|
0-1
|
Russell
O’Brien
|
131
|
18/11/97
|
15
|
0
|
|||
2
|
James Kelly
|
91s
|
13/11/97
|
15
|
0
|
½-½
|
John
Crossdale
|
125
|
19/7/02
|
10
|
4
|
|||
3
|
Haydn
Godfrey
|
69S
|
11/9/97
|
15
|
2
|
0-1
|
Ross McKay
|
22/10/95
|
17
|
1
|
||||
4
|
Nathan
McKiernon
|
65R
|
20/12/95
|
16
|
11
|
0-1
|
David Somers
|
114
|
9/12/96
|
15
|
11
|
|||
5
|
Dan Southern
|
51S
|
28/3/99
|
13
|
8
|
0-1
|
Graham
Garside
|
104
|
18/3/97
|
15
|
8
|
|||
6
|
Will Taylor
|
73R
|
3/3/99
|
13
|
8
|
0-1
|
Karam Sangha
|
111
|
27/2/01
|
11
|
9
|
|||
Grantham
Kings B
|
½-5½
|
Nottingham
High B
|
|||||||||||||
NAME
|
grade
|
date
of birth |
AGE
Yrs Mths |
RESULT
|
NAME
|
grade
|
date
of birth |
AGE
Yrs Mths |
|||||||
James
O’Neill
|
UG
|
18/11/94
|
18
|
0
|
0-1
|
Sohum Dhir
|
113
|
3/11/97
|
15
|
0
|
|||||
Riaz Fazal
|
UG
|
17/12/94
|
17
|
11
|
½-½
|
Raghau
Sudarshaw
|
19/11/96
|
15
|
11
|
||||||
Daniel
Godfrey
|
UG
|
5/9/00
|
12
|
2
|
0-1
|
Satin
Ahluwlin
|
97
|
15/12/00
|
11
|
11
|
|||||
Karl
Southern
|
70R
|
27/3/97
|
15
|
8
|
0-1
|
Donald Flynn
|
5/11/00
|
12
|
0
|
||||||
Jacob Storey
|
UG
|
24/7/98
|
14
|
4
|
0-1
|
Ishaan Bedi
|
29/6/01
|
11
|
5
|
||||||
Will Knight
|
UG
|
16/3/99
|
13
|
8
|
0-1
|
Harjit
Nijran
|
11/6/99
|
13
|
5
|
||||||
It was obvious that some of Kings had certain gaps in their opening strategy, some of them had difficulties to execute the rule of chess properly and some did not assess their positions properly.
The better players played rather complicated opening with not clearly defined pawn structures, like an English opening with White pieces and Modern defence with Black. Both openings are difficult to master.Chess is simply difficult game and the way to mastery is not easy.
 |
| Joe Scarborough (right) vs Russell O'Brian |
 |
| Scarborough vs O'Brian |
On the following picture you can see how tough match it was.
 |
| Daniel Godfrey (left) vs Satin Ahluwlin |
On the board you can see the opposite coloured Bishops ending and the position is on the following diagram:
 |
| Godfrey vs Ahluwlin |
By his last move White rightly challenged the c7-pawn by playing 1.Be5. Black opted for 1...c5 and now the only way to draw was 2.bxc6 Bxc6 and there is no way how Black can get further.
However and much to my surprise, White player did not realize that he could not play for win. He wanted to make wonders and played 2.b6?? creating another passed pawn for Black and the distance between passed pawns was three files. No wonder he lost soon. Playing correctly he could have gained another half point for Kings.
It was really interesting to watch the enthusiasm of Grantham player. But if we want to get them further it will require some hard work. But my question is: Do they really want to work hard on their chess? Or they want to enjoy game of chess only without any further progress?
I understand that the pressure on them is enormous and the main priority is to be academically sound. The problem is how to join those two things together.
Nevertheless, it was nice afternoon and guys seemed to be happy.
