Tuesday 13th December

Captain's Corner

The most difficult thing about this match was finding six eligible players and getting them to Clay Cross from their various locations around Sheffield. Having finally made all the necessary arrangements late Monday night (or so I thought) all seemed set for the following day. Then at the very last minute* Kevin phoned to tell me that Mursal is now registered for the B Team. Happily Azmiddin was persuaded that chess is more important than his A levels and so he agreed to play after all. Safe in the knowledge that we were not going to forfeit the match by playing an ineligible player on board one the rest of the night went off smoothly.
 
Robert and his opponent reached the 30 move time control in world record time, possibly even before some games had started. Robert went on to win his third game in a row for the C Team. My game wasn't very exciting but I enjoyed getting revenge on a player who beat me last year.
 
Paul's game could have been very exciting if he had gone through with his idea of sacrificing a knight in return for two outside connected passed pawns. We certainly enjoyed analysing it on Wednesday night. Almost as much as we would have enjoyed taking the mick if he had played it and went on to lose. It will be interesting to see what other people think about it.
 
We have now reached the halfway point in the season and having played everyone once we are on 8 out of  8. Well done C Team.
 
Happy Christmas everyone.

Ian B

*This is a grotesque exaggeration and a transparent attempt to gain sympathy. There were, in fact, fully fifteen minutes before we were all due to meet up and set off. Paul B.