London Deaf v. Athenaeum III

http://www.lcl.streamlinenettrial.co.uk/107.htm

London Deaf won the toss and were white on odds.

Board 1 – adjournment  arranged for 17/12/2009 at Golden Lane, 7pm.
Board 5 – adjournment not yet arranged, awaiting reply from Athenaeum player.

Latest score: London Deaf  2 – 6  Athenaeum III

We were always going to be up against it for this match against the Div.3 leaders with the unavailability of several LDCC players meaning that our bottom 4 boards were going to be faced with tough opposition. But thanks to them we avoided defaults and am grateful for their support to LDCC.

On board 10, well done to Paul Lennon who finally made his debut for LDCC after a couple of false starts due to his accident and a default. It was a baptism of fire for him losing quite quickly but everyone new to LDCC should remember this interesting fact – it took me about 8 games before I scored my first win for LDCC!

On board 9, Des put up the most resistance that I have seen from him playing for LDCC. On the white side of the French Advance, Des' only real mistake was to allow capture on f1 which meant he couldn't castle kingside and instead his king was on the queenside where it was under too much pressure. On board 7 and 8 Gian and David (making a comeback after many years out of the game) also did their best but couldn't stop the tide turning against us where we were 4–0 down on the bottom boards.

To stop the rot, on board 3 Richard was under pressure a pawn down out of the opening and gratefully accepted his opponent's draw offer. On board 6, James kept up his good form for LDCC this season with a draw. Against the English opening, James went for complications and looked a bit better where his opponent's undeveloped queenside was a hindrance but later on the game fizzled out to a draw. A good result against an opponent graded 17 points higher.

On board 4, Neil as black came up against a good player where he couldn't prevent the loss of pawn after pawn. He fought back 2 pawns down but when faced being 3 pawns down he promptly decided to call it a day and instead concentrate his efforts in thinking about what beer he'll have in the pub. On board 2, as black, yet again I faced the Closed Sicilian (why does everyone play that against me!?) and again I defended a kingside attack and then after my opponent castled queenside, I eventually whipped up a big queenside attack sacrificing a knight in exchange for a gigantic pawn on c3. Mate was actually played on the board – whether that was an act of kindness to let me play the attack to the end or a bit of stubborness, I'm not sure.

This left Chris and Barry on boards 1 and 5 adjourned where it's looking good for both of them as white.

Many thanks to everyone who played and supported LDCC for this match.

Alasdair MacLeod
London Deaf Captain