Ecclesall B (A)

Wednesday 26th April

Clay Cross A (H)

Wednesday 12th April

Vice Captain's View

Aughton A (A)

Wednesday 5th April

Vice Captain's View

Thanks to Kev for standing in as a very late substitute - he won very quickly on bottom board.  Young Mursal found the wily P Swanson had too many tricks - 1-1.  I managed to win with Black by crashing through on my opponent's queenside in a Sicilian where we castled on opposite wings. Masrura held her nerve and played out the endgame in fine style to earn a valuable half point.  Mohammad used some mind-boggling tactics on board one to gain the full point and Graham used his pieces to support a very strong passed pawn that eventually won him the game. An excellent result.

Phil Ford

Clay Cross A (A)

Tuesday 21st March

SASCA A (H)

Wednesday 8th March

Rotherham Juniors B (A)

Friday 3rd March

University A (H)

Wednesday 22nd February

Woodseats B (H)

Wednesday 25th January

Captain's Corner

Monday 11th January

Aughton A (H)

Wednesday 21st December

Captain's Corner

Masrura continues her good season and quickly beat Jim Barker who's no bad player. Azmiddin, making his debut for the second team, lost soon after. 1-1. I agreed a draw because I was short of time and starting to get affected by the Gardener's Bradfield Stout.

Mursal drew after a dispute in his game. His opponent claimed that Mursal had to write all the moves down, despite Mursal having less than 5 minutes on his clock. Pete Swanson claimed that the exemption from writing moves down only came in the final  5 minutes of the game - ie after the clocks have been put back 15 minutes. Indeed he threatened to take this matter "to the executive". I think he's wrong about this. But Mursal, like some of the rest of us, lets time pressure rob him of winning won game.

Graham played a blinder of a game. Faced with the choice of nursing a small advantage or going for bewildering complications, he chose the latter and won. I hope he shares his game with the rest of the club via the website (he has), but suffice to say that at one point both queens and two minor pieces were en prise. His bravery put the score at 3-2 to us. Phil had to put up with an uncomfortable position throughout most of his game. With the match result depending on him, he struggled on, a pawn down, and with lots of threats to anticipate. To draw his game (against a strong opponent) was a real achievement that meant we beat the best team Aughton can offer by 3½-2½.

Stuart

SASCA A (A)

Monday 5th December

Captain's Corner
 
A remarkable result. And not even our strongest team (Azmiddin replaced Mohammad who couldn't play). As usual, I expected us to do well on the lower boards but to struggle on the top ones. Phil won quickly again, followed by Ken who positionally outplayed his (able) opponent. Azmiddin's opponent didn't dare try to convert the very slight advantage he had and settled for a draw by perpetual check. Mursal, playing the black side of a Sicilian, responded calmly to his opponent's king-side pawn onslaught by exchanging enough pieces to make the pawn storm an empty gesture.
 
My opponent (graded 106 but playing above their board 2 who's graded 150- something) tried to turn the game into a slow manoeuvring game, returning minor pieces to the back rank on their way to ideal squares. In the meantime, he left his position vulnerable to attack, lost a rook, then a bishop to a knight fork and resigned. Masrura reached an endgame that looked about level to most of us. She showed her ability to convert marginal endgame opportunities into wins. That, and a determination never to give up and lose heart, meant she won her game too.

Nomads second team: 5, SASCA first team: 1.
 
Undefeated. Well done everyone.

Stuart

Rotherham Juniors B (H)

Wednesday 30th November

Captain's Corner

Masrura won a rook in the opening and finished her opponent off quickly. Phil finished soon after a relatively easy game. Our strength in depth means that we usually have the advantage on boards 4, 5 and 6. The drawback being that sometimes the games are on the easy side for Ken, Masrura and Phil.
 
I swapped board numbers with Mohammed because I had an opening surprise prepared for Marcus Coupe as either black or white (the disadvantage of playing exactly the same opening every time). It worked a treat although it took 64 moves to convert it into a win. It worked for Mohammed too whose victory salute indicated he'd won a tough game.
 
4-0 up we watched Ken and Mursal finish. Ken's game contained an unusual material imbalance- Ken's 2 rooks versus 2 knights and 2 bishops on an open board with 2 or 3 pawns each. But with both players having only minutes left, his opponent had the burden of choosing between 4 pieces to manoeuvre rather than 2. Despite having only 3 minutes left, Ken was his usual gracious self - his opponent made an illegal move and set Ken's clock ticking. Ken gently informed him of this (while his own clock was running) and let his opponent chose a legal move. His young opponent failed to show as much grace and lost on time "defending" a K vs K+2 pawn ending. 5-0.
 
Mursal's opponent Alan Coupe had played his usual Stonewall opening system, an uninspired choice in my view but - as the name suggests - very difficult to crack. Mursal is to be congratulated for his patience and with minutes left for each player, most of the pieces were still on the board. Mursal kept calm and realised the importance of creating problems for his opponent rather than coming up with a master plan at that stage. Alan Coupe made the mistake of trying to beat Mursal on time and moved instantaneously giving the impression that he knew what he was doing. I doubt if he meant to leave his queen en prise though. He resigned, completing our whitewash of Rotherham Juniors (and seniors).

Stuart

University A (A)

Thursday 24th November

Ecclesall B (H)

Wednesday 9th November 

Captain's Corner

I am now in a position to release sensitive information concerning the Nomads B vs Ecclesall B match last Wednesday (cos I can use a computer now, mine having self-destructed).

Ecclesall's full team didn't arrive until 8pm. Our full team never arrived. Mohammed, Masrura, and Mursal didn't show, leaving us with 3 players against 6.  Robert Shaw bravely offered to play as a reserve - on board one. His opponent, Arash, is graded over 200, and Robert did well to hold out for 30 moves. My game looked extremely dull and we put each other out of our mutual misery by agreeing a draw on move 13. Bill's game seemed more dynamic but ended in an agreed draw and Phil Ellis returned a pawn to Ken to level the position in their game.

First defeat for Nomads B, but I'm convinced that with a full team we have the upper hand with most of our opposition in Division 2.

Stuart

Woodseats B (A)

Monday 24th October 

Captain's Corner

Again, we outgraded our opponents on every board. Phil, Ken then Masrura won without too much trouble. Mursal was next to get the point and played carefully and patiently to make the most of his opponent's self-inflicted positional weaknesses. My opponent told me after the game that this was his first competitive game in 15 years, but, unfortunately he showed no indications of rustiness and maintained the upper hand from early in the game. Mohammed's opponent, Bill Ward, has a grade which is an average of his widely differing performances on the night. Sadly, Mohammed caught Bill on a good night, lost material in the middle game and never recovered despite mutual time trouble.

So, two matches, two wins for Nomads B - our strength in depth will make us hard to beat this season.

Stuart

Stannington A (H)

Monday 14th November

Captain's Corner

Although we outgraded Stannington on every board except Board 1 and had our strongest team out this was still a good result.  I was too busy rescuing a draw from a grim-looking but complicated position to know what happened on the other boards. Particular congrats to Phil who didn't waste any time getting a full point.

Stuart