English Chess Forum

An armchair viewer notes:

In the seventh hour of play now, and the score is just 3-2 in one second division match. Cannot see the actual games (as I say, second division).

The natural assumption is that the arbiters have gone to dinner and haven't posted the final results, but who knows? This is Spirit of Atticus we are talking about, with their penchant for long and memorable matches ...

Perhaps I prompted someone somewhere. All three results are now in, and probably no one is surprised to see a Spirit victory by 4.5-3.5.

You didn't. Their match had two of the last half dozen or so games to finish. The arbiter - not me, I hasten to add - was inputting the games (which were available to download within 15 minutes of the end of the round, in both Division 1 and 2; admittedly only if you can deduce where to find them on the download page by amending the URLs), and prioritised getting that done punctually in a way that meant keeping results perfectly up-to-date was sacrificed a little in the interest of making the games available. I'm sure the arbiter who put himself out will be delighted to learn that you approve of his efforts.

Hopefully the arbiter will appreciate that the thread was really about SoA, a team of players largely in their sixties or older, possibly having three games left in the seventh hour of play. But OK, apologies if the "dinner" quip caused offence.

Heh, I thought it was just me hanging on last night

We may be 60+ (& 70+) veterans for the greater part. But we rarely roll over. Our Saturday late-finishes ran to 60, 70, and 80 moves. As I write, it's nearly 5.00pm on Sunday. Most other matches in the Pools have long finished. But in SoA v AA, six are still in play. Dig in, guys!!

For some of us though, that sixth hour has become a bridge too far. Alas

David Robertson wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 13, 2019 4:58 pm

Heh, I thought it was just me hanging on last night

We may be 60+ (& 70+) veterans for the greater part. But we rarely roll over. Our Saturday late-finishes ran to 60, 70, and 80 moves. As I write, it's nearly 5.00pm on Sunday. Most other matches in the Pools have long finished. But in SoA v AA, six are still in play. Dig in, guys!!

Fake news!

LOL. Which bit?

David Robertson wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 13, 2019 5:14 pm

LOL. Which bit?

All games have finished!

I'm sure. It's 5.20pm now. But online, it remains 1.5 - 0.5 to SoA (Carleton winning; Jackson halving)

It has the Manticores first team at 2.5 - 1.5 against the ADs too, although I got a text about an hour ago to say we had won

Good grief!

SoA 6.5 - 1.5 AA

Don't think we were predicting that!

Great result; looks like promotion is on the cards?

Mick Norris wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 13, 2019 6:07 pm

Great result; looks like promotion is on the cards?

A long, long way to go yet. Div 2 is the hardest league in so many ways.

If we were to gain promotion again, it would be met with mixed feelings frankly. It would also mean that, a decade on from entering Div 3N, we'd never have played in the same division in consecutive seasons

Good - very good - result for the team today. But it's only rd 4

Fantastic win for Atticus. I can't really explain our margin of victory yesterday. The teams were evenly matched. The stars were favourably aligned for us!

Nick Ivell wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 14, 2019 2:30 pm

I can't really explain our margin of victory yesterday

I can. Some very good chess was played throughout the team, not least in your own game. Impressive.

Arguably our best-ever match performance - against strong opponents who've duffed us up in the past