Report – 23 May 2008
Flood Cup
Results (Round 7):
Kieran Lyons 1 Tony Howes 0
Brendan Griffen ½ Andrew Robinson ½
Greg Colwell ½ Ray Adams ½
Josh Ford v Nathan Shaw – postponed to May 30
Peter Ford 0 Russell Lyons 1
Garvin Gray 1 Nick Kospartov 0
John Roper 0 Mark Taylor 1
Brian Willcock 1 point BYE
The final round of the Flood Cup saw drama on many boards, and none more so than the top board. Tony had the best of the opening and seemed to finally have the Flood Cup within his reach. Tony entered the red zone, having less than five minutes on his clock, as did Kieran and a series of complicated exchanges ensued. Following these exchanges Tony came out a bishop down with a totally lost position, and the game continued as a formality for another ten minutes until the resignation at midnight. After the game Kieran demonstrated to Tony how he might have exchanged differently to end up just a pawn down with a fighting chance for a draw. Despite the disappointment of finishing runner-up for the fourth consecutive year, Tony was brilliant in defeat (an example to all of us who hate losing and can’t hide it!) and provides the game score below:
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.f3 Nc6 6.Be3 Qb6 7.b3 Bc5 8.c3 e5 9.Nxc6 Bxe3 10.Nxe5 Bf2+ 11.Kd2 d5 12.Kc2 dxe4 13.Nc4 Qe6 14.Nd6+ Ke7 15.Nxe4 Nxe4 16.fxe4 Qxe4+ 17.Bd3 Qg4 18.Qd2 Bh4 19.g3 Bg5 20.Re1+ Be6 21.Qf2 g6 22.Nd2 Bxd2 23.Qxd2 Rhd8 24.Qf2 Kf8 25.Qf6 Kg8 26.Rf1 h6?! [26...Bf5 27.Bxf5?? (27.Rxf5 gxf5) 27...Qe2+;
26...Rd6] 27.Rae1 Rd6 28.Re4 Qh3 [28...Qg5? 29.Rxe6 fxe6 30.Qf7+ Kh8 31.Bxg6 Qd2+ 32.Kb1 Rd7 33.Qf6+ Rg7 34.Qxe6] 29.Rh4 Qg2+ 30.Rf2 Bxb3+?? [30...Qc6! 31.Rxh6 (31.Qe5) 31...Bxb3+] 31.axb3 Rxf6 32.Rxg2 Kg7 33.Rd4 Rb8 34.Rd7 a6 35.h4 b5 36.b4 Rc6 37.Rf2 Rbc8 38.Rfxf7+ Kg8 39.Rg7+ Kf8 40.c4 bxc4 41.Bxg6 Rf6 42.Rdf7+ Rxf7 43.Rxf7+ Kg8 44.Ra7 Rc6 45.Be4 Rb6 46.Kc3 Re6 47.Bd5 1-0
Kieran becomes the first female winner of the Flood Cup, and the youngest since Luke Murray’s joint win in the year 2000. Considering she didn’t lose a game, other than the unfortunate Round 3 forfeit, and easily outplayed strong players such as Ray Adams and Nathan Shaw, she is a worthy winner of the Flood Cup.
The Handicap Trophy came down to the wire as expected and was the last game of the evening to finish (approximately 12:15am). Ray seemed to be going well early, but the endgame saw Greg the exchange and a pawn up. Greg had five connected pawns against four but crucially queens were still on the board and Ray was able to avoid exchanging and force Greg on the defensive. Then Greg inexplicably lost two pawns and it seemed Ray would threaten until a draw offer was gratefully accepted. Greg only needed a draw to clinch the Handicap Trophy and was asked why he didn’t sue for peace earlier when in a more favourable position – his reply was that he was aiming for five points and a top three position. Greg provided the game scoresheet and an account of the game from his perspective:
…can only remember the first 39 moves of our 64 move game, which is exactly where my concentration left me last night and with it any decent prospects. It shouldn't surprise me that everything from then on is just a blur. Although the game has a blunder or three up to this point from move 39 on it was a shocker for White, going from bad to worse to horrible. Just when the odds were in my favour I gave up thinking and became reactive, playing quickly without much consideration for the consequences. I had no fight left and consider myself lucky to have half a point draw offer.
1. d4, e6 2. Nf3, b6 3. e3, Nf6 4. Bd3, Bb7 5. 0-0, Be7
6. Nd2, d5 7. Qe2, Ne4 8. Bb5+, Bc6 9. N x e5, B x b5 10. Q x b5+, c6
11. Qd3, d x e4 12. Q x e4, 0-0 13. c4, Qc7 14. Bd2, Nd7 15. b4, Nf6
16. Qe5, Bd6 17. Qg5, Ne4 18. Qh4, N x d2 19. N x d2, B x b4 20. Nf3, Be7
21. Qe4, Rf-d8 22. Rf-d1, Ra-c8 23. Nd2, Rd7 24. Nb3, Rc-d8 25. Rd2, Bb4
26. Rd3, Bd6 27. g3, Be7 28. Ra-d1, g6 29. f4, Qb7 30. c5, Rd5
31. Rc3, b x c5 32. Rb1, Qb4 33. Qd3, Qa3 34. N x c5, Qa5 35. Nb7, Qc7
36. N x d8, R x d8 37. Qa6, Rb8 38. R x b8+, Q x b8 39. Q x c6 Qb1+
the last half
40. Rc1, Qd3 41. Kf2, Kg7 42.Qc3, Qa6 43. Qc4, Qa5 44. Rc2, Bd8 45. Qc5, Qa4
46. Qe5+, f6 47. Qc5, Kf7 48. Rb2, Bb6 49. Qb5, Qa3 50. d5, Q x c3+
51. Kg2, Qe4+ 52. Kh3, Qf5+ 53. g4, Q x d5 54. Qe2, Qd4 55. Kg3, Qc3
56. Kg2, Qc5 57. Qf1, h6 58. Rb5, Qc6+ 59. Kg3, Qc3+ 60. Qf3, Qe1+
61. Kh3, Qe3 62. Kg3, Qg1+ 63. Kh3, Qe3 64. Kg3, Qg1+ Black draw offer accepted.
Greg's notes:
m8 a number of ways for W to take the pawn after N exchange on e4
m16 Qe5 ?? Black exposes this bad move - classic Ray moves recaptures pawn - Qb2 better
m34 Nxc5 works as B cannot play Qxa2 when Ra3 blocks all escape routes for Q, leaving Qa5 as the only move, allowing Nb7 fork of R and Q winning exchange
m39 Qxc6 ?? poor, much better is Rxc6 threatening K and Q square and later capture of a7 pawn leading to easy end game
Board two also ended in a draw. Andrew played a diabolical variation of the Sicilian (which he promises to shelve) that saw Brendan with endless kingside opportunities to annihilate Andrew in the corner. However Andrew defended well enough to hang on for his fifth draw of the tournament (breaking Brian Willcock’s draw record of 4 from 7 in the 1985 Flood Cup).
Russell won well on a good night for those with the surname Lyons. He entered the endgame the exchange up and finished the game off quickly. Peter who is getting better with each game had an off night and never threatened.
Nick started his game poorly by showing up at the board 53 minutes late. From here it was always going to be difficult, and despite the late start, this was one of the first games to finish.
John’s pieces were advanced early on, but Mark managed to gain the ascendancy and won against an opponent who can be difficult to beat on his night.
The Flood Cup will conclude next Friday with the postponed game between John Ford and Nathan Shaw.
Flood Cup 2008: Current standings
All players to play 7 games
|
No. |
NAME |
POINTS |
PLAYED |
|
1 |
Tony Howes |
5 |
7 |
|
2 |
Kieran Lyons |
5.5 |
7 |
|
3 |
Andrew Robinson |
4.5 |
7 |
|
4 |
Brendan Griffen |
4.5 |
7 |
|
5 |
Ray Adams |
4.5 |
7 |
|
6 |
Greg Colwell |
4.5 |
7 |
|
7 |
Garvin Gray |
4 |
7 |
|
8 |
Russell Lyons |
4 |
7 |
|
9 |
Nathan Shaw |
3.5 |
6 |
|
10 |
Brian Willcock |
3 |
7 |
|
11 |
Mark Taylor |
3 |
7 |
|
12 |
Peter Ford |
3 |
7 |
|
13 |
Nick Kospartov |
3 |
7 |
|
14 |
John Roper |
2 |
7 |
|
15 |
Josh Ford |
1 |
6 |
|
16 |
James Hiller |
0 |
4 |
Flood Cup 2008 results in detail
Handicap 2008: Current standings
All players to play 7 games
|
No. |
NAME |
POINTS |
Handicap |
Hcp Total |
|
1 |
Greg Colwell |
4.5 |
2.29 |
6.79 |
|
2 |
Peter Ford |
3.0 |
3.54 |
6.54 |
|
3 |
Kieran Lyons |
5.5 |
0.84 |
6.34 |
|
4 |
Mark Taylor |
3.0 |
3.18 |
6.18 |
|
5 |
Garvin Gray |
4.0 |
2.03 |
6.03 |
|
6 |
John Roper |
2.0 |
4.01 |
6.01 |
|
7 |
Russell Lyons |
4.0 |
1.79 |
5.79 |
|
8 |
Ray Adams |
4.5 |
1.18 |
5.68 |
|
9 |
Nathan Shaw |
3.5 * |
2.04 |
5.54 * |
|
10 |
Nick Kospartov |
3.0 |
2.41 |
5.41 |
|
11 |
Josh Ford |
1.0 * |
4.17 |
5.17 * |
|
12 |
Tony Howes |
5.0 |
0.00 |
5.00 |
|
13 |
Brendan Griffen |
4.5 |
0.42 |
4.92 |
|
14 |
Brian Willcock |
3.0 |
1.82 |
4.82 |
|
15 |
Andrew Robinson |
4.5 |
0.17 |
4.67 |
|
16 |
James Hiller |
0.0 |
4.23 |
4.23 |
* one game to be played
Quote of the night
“I’m entering the next tournament, so I’m here to check everyone’s openings” – Cameron De Vere
“I should have crushed you. You don’t know your openings from squat” – Brendan’s disdainful judgement of the playing ability of last year’s Flood Cup winner
“Ray will win now because Greg is sure to blunder” – Cameron (ten minutes before the draw was agreed to), whose opinion of Greg’s playing ability hasn’t risen since the AGM
“Congratulations! You are the first female Flood Cup champion” – a presidential Andrew
“She’s not really female” – a fatherly interjection from Russell
“Awww, Dad!!” – a mortified Kieran
“Tell me more. I’m interested to hear your story” – a concerned Andrew