English Chess Forum

The first of the semi-finals takes place this weekend. Essex take on Lancashire in the Open event on Sunday 13 June at Syston. Should be a close match.

Three quick draws (Sands v Morrison, Jowett v Myall and White v Cooper) have done nothing to overturn John's prediction of a close match, although Lancashire do have an overall grading advantage.

What was the result, asks an interested player who could not have been there today?

Jonathan Rogers wrote:What was the result, asks an interested player who could not have been there today?

Hi Jonathan,

We (Lancashire) won 9-7. See quick report at http://www.sccu.ndo.co.uk/matchbcf.htm

Cheers,
Graham

Final score was Essex 7 - 9 Lancashire. Game scores (some of which are currently incomplete) are appearing on the Essex Chess Blog at http://chesster9.wordpress.com/

Thank you both! And a special hello to Graham, whom I have not seen post here before.

The sides look more evenly matched than I had expected, though it seems that the match was less close than the scores suggest. Maybe some of the Lancashire grades are deceptively low. Looking down their list, I remember playing Mike Conroy in a semi-final in 1991 (Nottinghamshire v Lancashire), and Nick Ivell, whom I played in 1992, looks like a very strong board five.

Essex can't complain - we hadn't expected even to qualify for the national stages for most of the season. And I can't remember us ever beating Lancashire!

Some criticism on the Essex website about the early draws. Maybe fair, I don't know. But I am sure we were happy with where we stood after the first three. Looked like we were losing on bottom board (where David M made a remarkable recovery) but we looked to be better on a couple of boards and I thought George O'Toole was doing well. That is a game worth looking at!

I spent all my time trying to decide whether I was playing Hartston Portisch from Nice 1974 which Hartston won very quickly. Actually the position is different because they faffed around wheras we played properly. Anyway, I am a pawn down (admittedly with plenty of compo) but half an hour behind on the clock in a complex position. So I take the draw.

John Moore wrote

Some criticism on the Essex website about the early draws

My initial response was that I would regard the references as objective statements of what happened rather than criticism. At that stage I must admit that I was looking at the main post and had not spotted the comments!

Hartston said that when he was playing Portisch in Nice he had a combo which he was uncertain about. Bill got up and exchanged pleasantries with Keene. Portisch complained.

"After that" related WRH "I knew it worked."

Essex play Notts at Eaton Ford in Cambridgeshire in the U180 semi-final this afternoon. I am now an author on the essexchess Blog at http://chesster9.wordpress.com/and hope to be able to provide regular updates during the afternoon.

In the U-180 Devon and Warwickshire drew 8-8, with Warwickshire going through on board count

Sussex beat Staffs in the Open semi which was played at Bourne End. There were 3 games outstanding including Loz when I left.

That makes for a Lancs v Sussex final which is one of the occasions when a midlands venue for the final makes reasonable sense.

For anybody who did not check out the blog, I can advise that Essex U180s lost on board count to Notts, and Essex U160s lost on board count to Yorkshire.

U-140 Nottinghamshire 8 Yorkshire B 8* Yorkshire win on Board Count. Notts have raised an appeal concerning an eligibility matter,

U-100 Yorkshire 2.5 Warwickshire 7.5 (I think).

Lincs 6.5 - 9.5 Middlesex (Syston). So it's a Middlesex - Leics/Herts Minor Final.

At 6.5 - 5.5 up, it wasn't clear where the other 2 Middlesex points were going to come from (we were miles down on board count) but, with a bit of luck, we managed to get there.