English Chess Forum

Most Improbable Save

Ghasi - Gordon

Most Amusing Finish

Sadler - Alsina Leal

Best Game when you can't be ars*d developing your KB

Edouard - Wells

Best 'Missing the Bleedin' Obvious' Sunday Morning C*ck-Up

A Hunt - S Williams

Overall Best Game

Liverpool - Man City

other options are available, but these caught my eye

Check out Moloney vs Healey for a ridiculous save. Will post when pgn comes online

Toma's win in our match today had quite an amusing finish.

Well, perhaps we are looking in the wrong division. More players over 2600 in action in the temporary insanity zone that is the second division this last weekend.

Goodness Manx stepping it up rather and Celtic Tigers refusing to take it lying down.... Nearly worked.

Celtic Tigers fielded an 8-Nation Army too - every board a different nationality

From seeing the position at move 10 I wrote this top board game off as a guaranteed loss. Every time i checked it was equally lost, then they shook hands with a draw

[Event "4NCL div 3B"] [Site "Wokefield Park"] [Date "2018.01.14"] [Round "4.1"] [White "Healey"] [Black "Mohoney"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "C00"] 1. e4 e6 2. b3 d5 3. Bb2 dxe4 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Qe2 Be7 6. O-O-O O-O 7. Nxe4 a5 8. a4 b5 9. axb5 a4 10. bxa4 Rxa4 11. Nc3 Ra5 12. Qd3 Nbd7 13. f4 Bb7 14. Nf3 Qa8 15. Ne5 Nxe5 16. fxe5 Ne4 17. Kb1 Nf2 18. Qd7 Ba3 19. Be2 Bxb2 20. Kxb2 Nxh1 21. Rxh1 Bxg2 22. Rg1 Bd5 23. Qe7 g6 24. h4 Re8 25. Qb4 Qa7 26. d4 c6 27. h5 cxb5 28. Bd3 Rc8 29. Rb1 Bc4 30. Be4 Ra4 31. Nxa4 bxa4 32. Ka3 Qxd4 33. Bb7 Qe3+ 34. c3 Rc7 35. h6 Qxh6 36. Qd6 Qf8 37. Kxa4 Qb8 38. Rb6 Qa7+ 39. Kb4 Rxb7 40. Qd8+ 1/2-1/2

A lot of black players would have got so madly frustrated they'd have found a way to lose that

well, was white ever about to win that easily, really? Doesn't strike me as that outlandish a save.

Ghasi v Gordon was one for the ages, though. I can see why, by move 70, White may have lost the confidence to play 71 gxf6, given as trivially winning by SF which sees no reason to elaborate, but the human would need to be unusually calm to see the win quickly.

Jonathan Rogers wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 15, 2018 8:27 pm

well, was white ever about to win that easily, really? Doesn't strike me as that outlandish a save.

Ghasi v Gordon was one for the ages, though. I can see why, by move 70, White may have lost the confidence to play 71 gxf6, given as trivially winning by SF which sees no reason to elaborate, but the human would need to be unusually calm to see the win quickly.

Especially since both players were more or less playing on the increment around the final ten moves or so

Player of the Weekend

Dan Bisby

I watched Bisby's Saturday game, 'live', and thought his energetic take-down of Jack Rudd was exemplary. Enough to earn himself a night on the team

Bisby - Rudd 1-0

But only now do I see that his Sunday demolition of Jon Speelman was even better! Startling stuff. If Leonard Barden hasn't already noted the game, it's a candidate for his column

Speelman - Bisby 0-1

"Dan Bisby

I watched Bisby's Saturday game, 'live', and thought his energetic take-down of Jack Rudd was exemplary. Enough to earn himself a night on the team

Bisby - Rudd 1-0

But only now do I see that his Sunday demolition of Jon Speelman was even better! Startling stuff. If Leonard Barden hasn't already noted the game, it's a candidate for his column

Speelman - Bisby 0-1"

Good choice. As an old club colleague of Dan's, I'm obviously delighted! He has always played some good stuff, but this is impressive even by his standards.

[Event "4NCL 3 South pool A"]
[Site "Reading, ENG"]
[Date "2018.01.13"]
[Round "3.21"]
[White "Hall, John"]
[Black "Waterfield, John W"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B96"]
[WhiteElo "2252"]
[BlackElo "1925"]
[PlyCount "37"]
[EventDate "2018.01.13"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Nc6 8. e5 h6 9. Bh4 Nxd4 10. Qxd4 dxe5 11. Qxd8+ Kxd8 12. O-O-O+ Ke8 13. fxe5 g5 14. exf6 gxh4 15. Nb5 Bd7 16. Nc7+ Kd8 17. Nxa8 Bc5 18. Rd3 Kc8 19. Rc3 1-0

Move 15 being the sting in the tail that has been played at least once before and refutes black's thirteenth move.

All games from all four divisions from the January weekend are now on the 4NCL website.

David Robertson wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 16, 2018 2:58 pm

But only now do I see that his Sunday demolition of Jon Speelman was even better! Startling stuff. If Leonard Barden hasn't already noted the game, it's a candidate for his column

Speelman - Bisby 0-1

Speelman has annotated this game - poor opening play by White in his opinion, and Bisby's piece sacrifice should have ended in a draw by repetition with best play by both sides.