The final matches in the IM Brown Division this season took place on Saturday the 10th of April. We had a chance of finishing in third place despite our poor start to the season if we could win this match. Our opponents were Rose Forgrove B and the match took place at home. Looking at the match details below you can see that it was our best result of the season with a comfortable 7 points to 1 victory, helped by a default on bottom board by our opponents.

The final IM Brown Table for this season is shown below.

So as you can see, we did finish in third place despite our poor start to the season. Congratulations to Dave Patrick and his Calderdale A on winning the IM Brown Shield with a perfect match score!

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For our penultimate match in this season’s IM Brown, we returned yesterday afternoon, to Apley Grange, Oatlands Drive, Harrogate which was the scene of our first defeat this season at the hands of the Harrogate A team. This time we were paired against the Harrogate B team.

Having narrowly lost to Harrogate A in December (see report further down column), which could have gone either way, we were reasonably optimistic on the successful outcome of this fixture for us.

However, as we know, there are no easy matches, and s this one also proved hard fought.

We were the first to lose on bottom board which was followed by a victory on top board. A draw on board 7 was followed soon after by our second loss on board 3. The Harrogate player on board 2 ran out of time as he was about to lose a piece and so the match score at this point was 2.5 points each.

Looking at the remaining games at this point, the match seemed too close to call. We were cramped on board 4 and slightly under the cosh, although we were winning on board 5. We were a pawn up in a Rook ending on board 6 but this pawn had disappeared next time I looked at this game.

We eventually got the expected result on board 5 and the Harrogate player on board 6 missed the opportunity to draw the Rook ending and we won this game and the match. To put the icing on the cake our board 4 player managed to castle on move 35! which at once gave him the initiative and he also went on to win. The final result therefore was 5.5 points to 2.5 points in our favour.

The match details are shown below. 

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Our final match is scheduled to take place on the 10th of April at the club. Our opponents are Rose Forgrove B.

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Featherstone WMC  Green Lane, Featherstone was the venue for yesterday’s away match against  Pontefract.  Despite Club Secretary, MIke Denison, not being available for this match it was fair to say that Pontefract were the underdogs as far as gradings were concerned. The longest lasting game turned out to be the battle of the Captains on board 5 in which the Wakefield Captain, Chris Tinker emerged victorious.

Although the match finished relatively quickly, results did not always go our way.  Pontefract managed to gain a draw on board 8 and Dave Parton took the whole point for Pontefract on board 2.

The above position occurred after Dave Parton had just played 23...Nxe5. Instead of carrying on with his original plan of 24.Rxf6+,  ie. 24...Ndf7 25.Qh6 Ke8 26.Qxh7 Qxf6 27.Qg8+ etc., White played the careless 24.Qxe5?? rather too quickly and resigned a few moves later.

All the other games, though, were won by Wakefield and the score was a comfortable 6.5 to  1.5 point victory in favour of the away team. The match details are shown below.

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There are too many victors to put photos up this time, and please note that the next match is scheduled to take place less than a week away, on Saturday the 20th March away against Harrogate B.

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After losing easily to IM Brown favourites Calderdale A, and narrowly losing to promotion candidates, Harrogate A, we played host to the remaining promotion candidates, Sheffield B at the Club yesterday.

Circumstances seemed to be in our favour for this match; we had the home advantage, which also meant we had Mike Denison on board two, allowing most of the team to drop down a board. Also Mike Hankinson, who is one of Sheffield B’s top players was missing from our opponents line-up. The icing on the cake, so to speak, was the return of Mark Waterhouse on board 8 for us, who has had a break from competitive chess for a while, and Dave Toulson’s return from Holiday to play on board 7 

Board 8 was the first to finish and Mark Waterhouse marked his return to the team with a draw with the Black pieces. Board 2 was also drawn shortly afterwards. Then Peter won on top board, closely followed by wins from Bien Cuaresma and Dave Toulson. So with three games still playing we were leading by 4 points to 1 and needed only a draw from one of the remaining games to secure the match. Some of the players who had finished left at this point confident in the knowledge that we had the initiative on boards 3 and 6 and that despite blundering an exchange away in a good position we still had chances of a draw on board 4.

Then things took a turn for the worst. On board 3 the following position occurred after Black’s 37th move after playing all the moves from his 30th in less than 2 minutes with only seconds left to make the remaining 5 moves to the first time control. 

Yes 38. QxQ would have been simple and equal, but unwisely White chose to complicate the position in view of Black’s time shortage and blundered with 38. RxP??. Black managed to make time control and White was ready to resign when we got a half point from one of the other games.

We then lost on board 4 and on board 6 Black either missed a perpetual or went for the win and also lost, so resignation on board 3 was not now an option. Black had many ways and many opportunities to win the game and save the match, but in time pressure could only draw.

Thus as you can see from the match details below we won this exciting match literally in the last minutes. 

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The game victors from yesterday’s IM Brown match are shown above. On the left is Peter Shaw, Bienvenido Cuaresma is in the centre and Dave Toulson is on the right standing at a famous chess tournament location, round 1 of which took place yesterday.  Official Web site

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Now that promotion straight back into the Woodhouse Cup seems to be out of our grasp by not being able to finish in the top two after losing to both Harrogate A and Calderdale A, the question of how low we finish in the IM Brown this season was posed to us. Our opponents, Alwoodley B, started the match above us in the table, and in able to challenge for third place, we had to win this match.

However, this was an away match, in which all our regulars were not available. Alan Holloway, who is in danger of becoming a regular A team member, was on loan from the B Team yet  again, but making his first appearance for the A team was promising junior member Harris Vaughan.

As usual this meant that the match was going to be close, and close it was! After the results of seven of the games the score stood at 3.5 points each, the result of the match depended on the last game to finish. As you can see from the match details below we managed to win the game and thus the match.

This was a good team performance and  special mention should be made of the fine result which Harris Vaughan achieved on his debut in the first team which contributed to the positive team result.

 

23rd of January 2010 Alwoodley B v Wakefield A 1. S. Swain 0 1  P. Shaw 2. R. Brown 0 1  P. M. Senior 3. D. Adam 0 1  B. Marshall 4. P. Clarke 1 0  B. Cuaresma 5. M. Evans 0 1  C. R. Tinker 6. M. J. Dow 1 0  S. Skinner 7. S. Johnson 1 0  A. Holloway 8. S. Fortay 0.5 0.5  H. Vaughan Result 3.5 4.5

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After losing to Harrogate A in our last match of 2009, the worst first match of 2010 scenario would be to play the IM Brown Division title favourites on their own territory. At least if we faced the title favourites at our home venue their players who come from over the Pennines would surely not turn up in such wintry weather conditions as occurred  yesterday.

As a matter of fact we were matched against the title favourites Calderdale A, but we did have the home advantage. However, both Robert Newton and Mark Whitehead, who have turned out regularly for Calderdale A this season did manage to make the journey from the West side of the Pennines. Also both Peter Kirby and Phil Watson were in the team for Calderdale A whose Captain Dave Patrick, a prolific tournament and match player ended up playing next to last board for them, such was the strength of our opponents.

If this was not enough to encourage our opponents, the fact that we were missing three regular team members in the form of Bienvenido Cuaresma, Dave Toulson and Simon Skinner should have given them any confidence they may have been lacking going into the match

You may think I am emphasizing the difference in the strength of our opponents and ourselves in order to write how we overcame the odds and secured a heroic victory. But alas, this was not the case, and we were well and truly beaten by the much better team on the day. As can be seen from the match details below Calderdale A emerged with a well deserved 6.5 - 1.5 points victory.

There was a ray of light in the gloom though, in the form of, Peter Shaw’s victory on top board which he has kindly provided and annotated for our enjoyment and, dare I say it, perhaps our enlightenment.

During the last 30 seconds of this game Peter not only managed to physically make 25 legal moves which includes pressing the clock each time with the same hand that moved the piece, but also demonstrated a skill that some Grandmasters have failed to replicate in their allotted time, that of checkmating an opponents lone King with only a Bishop and Knight!

As Peter’s opponent,  Bob Newton, gracefully acknowledged after such a dazzling display of speed and technique, this demonstration of the classic endgame technique merited the victory on its own.

Peter Shaw v Robert Newton  top board v Calderdale A 2nd of January 2010 

The mosaic picture of Wakefield’s only game victor, below, was taken from the last photo I took of Peter before I broke my camera, and shows Peter in the left foreground getting ready for the top board game away at Rose Forgrove A on 14th of February 2009

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Harrogate was today’s destination for Wakefield A team with a crucial match against promotion hopefuls  Harrogate A (as regards promotion prospects). Wakefield A Captain Chris Tinker called up the reserves with both Mike Denison, and yours truly, coming out of mothballs for the match because we were two players short for our last away match against West Leeds (see lower down the column).

Things looked healthy at one point in the match when both Mike Denison and Chris Tinker both had what looked to be winning positions. Good defensive play by their opponents enabled them to draw and going into the two last games we were 4 - 2 down and needed  two wins to draw the match. We won on board three and, in our opponent’s last two minutes on the clock, we resigned on board four in an hopeless position. The match details are given below.

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In the third match of the season, Wakefield A  returned to winning ways at the expense of Calderdale B. This was a fine result with no one in the team losing. Wins by Mike Denison, Barry Marshall, Chris  Tinker,  D. V. Toulson and Mark Shelmerdine along with draws from Peter, Bienvenido and Simon meant the final score was 6.5 points to 1.5 in our favour. The match details are given below.

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Wakefield A’s second match in the IM Brown was also against a team newly promoted from the Silver Rook division, West Leeds. This was a tough match which was drawn on the top three boards and lost on the bottom three with two players short. We won on the middle two , however and the match was drawn.

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Wakefield A’s first match after being relegated to the IM Brown division of the YCA League was at home to one of the teams who were newly promoted to the IM Brown - Netherton A.  As can be seen from the details below, We  won on this occasion with a fine team performance. Wins for Peter Shaw, Bienvenido Cuaresma, Barry Marshall, Dave Toulson and Simon Skinner were added to with draws from Mike Denison and Kiruthika Rajeswaren.