Lincolnshire beat Worcestershire 10½ : 5½

Midland Counties Chess Union COUNTY MATCH RESULT FORM

Section: Minor Counties
Home Team: Worcestershire					Away Team: Lincolnshire
Venue:   Syston					Date:  10TH March 2012
Team having white on odd boards:  Lincolnshire					Result reported by:  Nigel Birtwistle
Board	ECF Code	Grade	Home team players’ names	Score	Score	Away Team players’ names	Grade	ECF Code
1	112595D	192	Carl Hibbard	0	1	Chris Dorrington	225	175238J
2	287190H	191	Pavel Besedin	0	1	Paul Cumbers	197	103734B
3	120670K	186	Brian Turner	½	½	Claudio Mangione	193	280840H
4	127645B	183	Peter Kitson	½	½	Nick Stead	193	119629H
5	129898H	173	Kevin Hurney	½	½	Nigel Birtwistle	182	106801F
6	106679B	166	Mark Bethel	½	½	Steven Prior	186	263507A
7	282451G	166	Ed Osbourn	½	½	Harry Russell	176	216825L
8	165392B	155	Nigel Towers	½	½	Joe Kilshaw	176	118511D
9	129306A	156	Charles Higgie	½	½	Ivan David	172	277281E
10	116998B	150	Roy Peters	0	1	Keith Palmer	171	116655E
11	160573C	150	Mike Hadley	½	½	Kevin McCarthy	168	244268B
12	127661L	147	John Knee	½	½	Denis Georgiou	161	111157H
13	267733H	143	Andrew Farthing	½	½	Stuart MacDonald	152	277271G
14	108621C	140	Ray Collett	0	1	Alastair Summers	147	270555C
15	183529E	109	Tony Pountney	0	1	Ian McDonald	147	222114H
16	108620A	101	Richard Collett	½	½	Geoff Collyer	147	160353L
				5½	10½

This result means that Lincolnshire will qualify for the national stages of the Minor Counties Competition. On condition that Leicestershire have  beaten Derbyshire yesterday then Lincolnshire finished second in the group. It means that Lincolnshire team will probably face one of the SCCU teams such as Herts, Essex or Kent in the Quarter Finals.The date for the Quarter Final is Saturday May 19th.

Grantham finish 3rd in Lincolnshire League

Lincolnshire league continued this week by match between two rivals – Grantham and Spalding. Quick look at result sheet says it was a comfortable victory for Grantham in the end. And yes, the result 3.5-0.5 looks quite convincingly.

Gren Wollerton made light work of his opponent and won in about 7 moves!

After a caution start on the board two J Smith went very attacking; however, in the end it was Ben Mason who was able to win a couple of pawns before J Smith accidentally lost a piece and resigned.

Joe Scarborough was a piece up but let it slip but still maintained the advantage and went into the endgame two pawns up and finally gained the point for Grantham team.

Up-and-coming star of Grantham team, Andy Herbert, playing White against old fox Jan Van Gemeren on the top board, was slightly behind in a blocked position but with the other games finished and the match lost for Spalding his opponent offered the draw.

 

Grantham		3½:½	Spalding
Herbert A	-	½:½	Van Gemere J	138
Mason B	149	1:0	Smith J	124
Wollerton G	140	1:0	Robinson F	108
Scarborough J	87	1:0	Pulford J	77

It all means Grantham finished 3rd in the league, behind Lincoln and Spalding.

Nottinghamshire League, Division 1: Grantham-1 vs Gambit-1 2:3

 Another sad day for Grantham-1 on the way to defend League Champion title. This time without Paul Cumbers and Nick Payne Grantham-1 faced to Gambit-1.

Grantham-1		2:3	Gambit-1
Birtwistle N	182	0:1	Barnes M	203
Mangione C	193	½:½	Mercs P	180
Dilley J	179	½:½	Swain J	174
McCarthy K	168	½:½	Hayward B	159
David I	172	½:½	Roper K	145

Match was decided in the game on the top board where Nigel Birtwistle tried to do wonders. In wild position, in time trouble and exchange down Nigel tried to full point, however in this situation was very difficult to bamboozle player like Michael Barns. Nigel finally decided to call it a day.
On the bottom board Ivan David had the chance to win complicated opposite-coloured Bishop ending, however, in move 35 (time control) he was not able to calculate winning line and refused to take a pawn seeing some ghosts.

The position after Black's move 34 looked like that:

Roper K - David I; White to move

In his last move Black played

34...h5

which was perhaps too fast.

What he might have played was 34...Kd5 35.Bc1 Bd7 36.Ka3 Bf5 37.Kxa4 Kc4 38.Ka5 d5 39.Ba3 Bxc2 and Black wins. However, after 34...h5 the position is still not equal.

White decided to complicate game by

35.g4?

which is mistake giving up a pawn for nothing. Better was to play 35.Ka3 Kd5 but Black is still better. Black played

35...Kd5??

Terrible mistake which meant waste of half a point for Grantham team. Obviously correct move was to take the pawn 35...hxg4 36.f5 gxf5 and Black must be just careful not to let h-pawn go. Black under the time pressure had seen some ghosts perhaps!

36.f5!

Equalizer! After this very good defensive move Black has no chance to get full point. 

36...gxf5 37.gxh5 Be8 38.h6 Bg6 39.Bf4 Ke6 40.c4 d5 41.cxd5+ Kxd5 42.Ka3 Kd4 43.Bd6 c4 44.Kxa4 Kd3 45.Kb4 c3 46.Bf4 Bh7 47.Bg5 Kc2 48.Bf6 f4 49.Bxc3 

½-½

Well, this is rather sad story isn't it?

The table of Division 1 before this match looked like that:

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Df	Pn	Pts
1	Grantham 1	10	8	1	1	35	15	20	0	17
2	Gambit 1	10	6	0	4	27.5	22.5	5	0	12
3	West Bridgford 1	9	4	3	2	25	20	5	0	11
4	Mansfield 1	10	4	3	3	26.5	23.5	3	0	11
5	Ashfield 1	8	4	1	3	21.5	18.5	3	0	9
6	West Nottingham 1	10	2	3	5	22	28	-6	0	7
7	University 1	8	2	0	6	15	25	-10	0	4
8	Ashfield 2	9	1	1	7	12.5	32.5	-20	0	3

Despite that Grantham lost there is still chance to defend the league champion's title.