Round 7 saw us facing the runaway leaders of our section in Division 3, the team called “3 Smarties 1 Tube” all with links to the Imperial College London and a history of ECF grades massively above our own.
It was no surprise to see Karl Lockett out gunned on board 1, against a player previously graded 200+. After a positive start to the game where Karl’s opening caused his opponent some serious discomfort and a big time advantage, the class eventually told. Meanwhile on board 4 Nev (Stonewall) Layhe played a fantastic attacking line with a classical exchange sacrifice before surrounding the opposition’s King with a Bishop pair on f6 and g6. Despite bing material down the swift attack was too much for his higher grade player. A loss on board 3, left ustrailing 2-1 with Rick (the grenade) Renegade on the offensive as ever. Despite Rick’s opponent having a most recent grade of 175+, the aggressive play was too much as Rick set up a cute mating attack against a castled King involving a Knight threatening to come to e7, and a Bishop on c3 preventing any escape on a long diagonal, with a Rook threatening to combine on the h file after giving up an exchange to remove the only defending piece. It was brilliant to watch. With this finish it gave our team (bottom of the table) a share of the spoils in a 2-2 draw against the previously only 100% team in the division !
I would recommend a look at the 4NCL’s site to find the games on their PGN links.