"Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you." - Arnold Palmer

Thursday 29 November 2012

Grantham King's A&B lost to Nottingham High A&B ½:5½

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
In twelve games Kings made only 1 point only. Two draws were made by James Kelly and Riaz Fazal. 
Joe Scarborough playing with White went into very complex rook and pawns ending and finally lost, but he was really close to a draw.


Scarborough vs O'Brian

In diagram position Black is to move. O'Brian played 1...Ke5 which was followed by 2.Kf3 Rf4+ 3.Ke2 and now the easiest way to win was 3...c4! 4.dxc4 Rxe4+ and Black wins. O'Brian did not see this motif; however, the White position was too cramped and difficult to defend anyway. Joe fought like a hell, but he did not find the way how to defend this difficult position

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.