TAFCA WINTER LEAGUE ONLINE MATCH REPORT : Thursday 11 February 2021 – Div 2 – Castlehill F v Kirkcaldy B
TAFCA WINTER LEAGUE ONLINE MATCH REPORT (by Trevor Harley Captain of “F” team)
Thursday 11 February 2021 – Div 2 – Castlehill F v Kirkcaldy B
Trevor Harley writes: On Thursday 11 February 2021 the F team played Kirkcaldy B. We out-rated them on all boards and cruised to an expected and deserved 3-1 victory. With the influx of new players we now have squads for most teams, and are in the enviable position of being able to play a rotation system (less good for those not playing of course).
Board 1 – (B) Colm Hawkins (1396) v (W) Paul Anderson (1325)
Colm was black. It was a kind of strange Reti, and black soon had a slight advantage, and following a series of mistakes and inaccuracies black had a clear advantage going in to a R, N, and P endgame. A series of mistakes on both sides eventually enabled black to queen and win. Colm reports “Tough game: his defence was quite hard to crack even if his opening left a lot to be desired, allowing me to have the centre without much compensation despite playing the black pieces. The very tricky endgame that seemed to be promised was cut short by a quick blunder to end the game, perhaps due to his time pressure.
1-0 to us.
Board 2 – (W) Trevor Harley (1333) v (B) Euan Henderson (1282)
I enjoyed this game. It was a Sicilian Najdorf and although I missed one good move early on, I got a crushing attack. I sacrificed a piece and to my joy it worked and I won quickly. Will an expert please tell me why black’s best strategy isn’t just to push b5 and b6 as quickly as possible? The N on c3 doesn’t look like it’s got many any good squares to go to.
https://lichess.org/3FK0FYEp1XTI
1-0
Board 3 – (B) Gordon Thomas (1312) v (W) Pete Selbie (1264)
The opening was a Queen’s gambit declined. Gordon reports that it was fairly even in the middle game but he made a blunder in the end game which resulted in a restricted rook which never really got back in the game, and in the end caused him to lose it. The analysis confirms this analysis! One move which weakened the position but didn’t lose material straight away lost the game. Our only setback.
0-1
Board 4 – (W) Marten Kats (1444) v (B) Bruce Geddes (1189)
Marten’s game was another Queen’s gambit declined. Black got into a bit of a mess with his rook and bishop on the queenside and Marten forced a mistake winning a piece.
1-0
Kirkcaldy B 1 Castlehill F 3