Leeds Rose Forgrove Chess Club

Match report by Warren Dennison: Rose Forgrove B correspondent

YCA Match Week 4

• Venue: Kippax Ex-Servicemen's Club
• Date: Saturday, 10 November 2012

However things didn’t get off to the best of starts. On board 6, Ian Thackray’s opponent had developed 3 pieces while Ian’s pieces were all still on their home squares and he a doubled pawn. On board 5, Stan Aleksandrowicz had fallen into trap and dropped a pawn but what on earth was happening on board 1? Eddie Hurwitz had dropped down from the ‘A’ team to play on board 1, thus knocking me down to board 2. Eddie had the black pieces and the first few moves went as follows: 1. d4 .. d6 2. e3 .. e5 3. dxe5 .. dxe5 4. Qxe8+ .. Kxe8. I thought for a minute that I was watching a beginners’ opening, but, having looked it up, this opening does have a name – it’s called the Rat Defence. Was it named after Roland? I couldn’t imagine anyone else playing it. Still, Eddie, perhaps anxious to put this game behind him, offered a draw after about 13 or 14 moves. His opponent hesitated a while but eventually accepted.

Rose Forgrove B 0.5 - 0.5 Netherton

Meanwhile, on board 6, Andy Ross had exposed his opponent’s king but was sacrificing material willy-nilly in pursuit of a mating attack. Roll on ten minutes, a second inspection from me and Andy Ross’s position was completely different from the one I’d seen earlier and his opponent was different too. Clearly his sacrificial attack had worked and now he was playing John Saxton who had been due to play board 8 for Bradford ‘B’ against our ‘A’ team, except that our ‘A’ team was a man short. Answers on a postcard!

Rose Forgrove B 1.5 - 0.5 Netherton

Team captain Dominic Gallagher playing on board 8 finished his match at about the same time as Stan finished his match on board 5. I didn’t see much of Dominic’s game as he was tucked away in the corner of the room but his win looked fairly comfortable as his opponent gave him acres of space in which to manoeuvre his pieces. Also, Stan had recovered from a bad start to create some nasty threats to fork his opponent’s king and queen – the only way to prevent the fork was to give up a knight. This got Stan right back into the game and he went on to seal victory.We were motoring now!

Rose Forgrove B 3.5 - 0.5 Netherton

Next to finish was Ian Thackray. Ian explained that his earlier lack of development was due to him thinking he was going to win a piece but that there was an escape route for his opponent which Ian only saw at the last minute. Ian thought it highly unlikely that his opponent would have spotted the escape route but couldn’t take that chance. Anyway, the game came down to a rook, a bishop and four pawns against a rook, a bishop and 3 pawns. Ian had the extra pawn and although all the pawns were on the same side of the board, Ian was still able to force a win.

Rose Forgrove C 4.5 - 0.5 Netherton

My game on board 2 was next to finish. I managed to force my opponent to give up one of his rooks for my white squared bishop but I was living on the edge a little bit as he still had back rank mating threats. However these petered out when I sacrificed my remaining bishop to blow away the pawn cover in front of his king. The king then went on a walk up the board and was mated on the h4 square. Quite rightly, my opponent upbraided me for mating with the rook rather than the much more aesthetically pleasing ‘g’ pawn. An excellent game; even if I do say so myself.

Rose Forgrove B 5.5 - 0.5 Netherton

Final score: Rose Forgrove B 6.5 - 1.5 Netherton

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