Report – 5 June 2009
Flood Cup
Results:
James Hiller 0 Gary Sands 1 (Round 7)
Brian Willcock 1 Kieran Lyons 0 (Round 8)
Andrew Robinson ½ Ray Adams ½ (Round 8)
Russell Lyons 0 Mark Taylor 1 (Round 8)
Greg Colwell 0 Nathan Shaw 1 (Round 9)
Continuing the trend of upsets from last Friday, tonight witnessed two further upsets which have affected the likely outcomes of the Flood Cup and the Handicap Trophy. Foremost of the upsets was Brian’s win over Kieran, the result of his almost reckless attacking strategy, which as occasionally happens, scored a win against a higher seeded player. Despite last week’s aberration, Russell was still firm favourite going into his game with Mark, and Mark even predicted pre-game that Russell would be even harder to topple as a result of last week’s loss to James. However Mark triumphed on the night, and now only needs to secure half a point in one of his two remaining games to win the Handicap Trophy. His final game with Gary Sand could decide the Handicap Trophy winner, Gary being the only other possible candidate.
Hearing news of Kieran’s early loss was enough to raise the hopes of Andrew in his tussle with Ray. Needing a win, Andrew played adventurously, playing a queen’s gambit, and then not castling until move 19 and then on the queenside. But in the end he had to settle for a draw despite having the better of the play, as was the case in his other two draws against Nathan and Russell. Ray withstood a strong kingside attack, defending accurately throughout to claim the desired, and in the end deserved, draw. This result means Ray will win the Flood Cup for the first time at his 16th attempt, unless Kieran wins her last two games, in which case a one game play-off will occur. Ray’s Flood Cup campaign appears to be receiving divine assistance this year, with a win being extracted against Nathan who could easily have claimed a draw, and Mark missing his huge opportunity in Round 5. So, maybe this is Ray’s year…
Reports on the other games follow.
Gary, on his game with James:
My game with James highlights the difficulty of playing a piece down. On move 21 James made the wrong queen move which left a knight en prise (there were one or two other queen moves which would have removed the queen from danger whilst protecting the knight at the same time) and it was always going to be difficult to win from there. James’s position would have been playable except for the loss of the knight.
Brian, on his game with Kieran:
Inspired by the President’s urging me to start Kieran’s clock before her arrival as my only hope, I hurriedly packed $50 into a brown paper envelope. As the game started I pursued my two game plans of handing her the envelope and launching a King’s side attack before proper development. The first cost me $50, the second a Knight – but bought at the cost of a palpable weakness at which I threw my resources .My Queen side was used to try to shore up the attack on the other wing and Kieran gained material there but at the cost of allowing me to reinforce that attack. Kieran defended with demoralizing tenacity but finally decided the game had gone on long enough to fool the DOP and, pocketing the envelope, resigned.
Mark (very succinctly), on his game with Russell:
I won - to my surprise. That’s my summary.
Flood Cup 2009: Current standings
All players to play 9 games
|
No. |
NAME |
POINTS |
PLAYED |
Handicap |
+ H’cap Score |
|
1 |
Ray Adams |
7 |
9 |
0.76 |
7.76 |
|
2 |
Nathan Shaw |
6 |
9 |
1.01 |
7.01 |
|
3 |
Andrew Robinson |
5.5 |
8 |
0.00 |
5.50 |
|
4 |
Kieran Lyons |
5 |
7 |
0.13 |
5.13 |
|
5 |
Russell Lyons |
4.5 |
9 |
2.32 |
6.82 |
|
6 |
Mark Taylor |
3.5 |
7 |
4.52 |
8.02 |
|
7 |
Brian Willcock |
3.5 |
8 |
2.25 |
5.75 |
|
8 |
Gary Sands |
3 |
8 |
4.03 |
7.03 |
|
9 |
Greg Colwell |
2 |
9 |
2.05 |
4.05 |
|
10 |
James Hiller |
1 |
8 |
5.95 |
6.95 |
Flood Cup 2009 results in detail
Quote of the night
“Stuff happens” – Kieran’s take on her father’s shock loss last Friday night.