Crewe were too strong for Atticus in our latest Lichess Challenge on Wednesday night. The 8 board match saw Atticus with small grade advantages on most boards, but Crewe’s extra experience of playing regularly online proved decisive.
Neville Layhe got the ball rolling with a quick demolition on bd 4, as a central pawn advance made a discovered attack on the opposition queen while threatening a Knight. As the Knight ran for cover, the Queen was captured and it was 1-0 to Crewe. Andrew Crosby soon added another scalp after his early gambit created space for his Queen to dance to the centre of the board forking both rooks. Shortly after it was 2-0. Karl Lockett on board 1 trapped the opposition queen as his opponent’s Lichess debut was swiftly put to the test to make the score 3-0. Steve Burge notched Atticus’s only success with a sweet swoop on an open King after a piece sacrifice diverted any possible defences to get their team on the scoreboard. Rick Renegade deployed the usual fireworks with pieces hanging en-prise all over the board before a huge King-side attack provided the fatal blows to notch our 4th win. Martin Gill conjoured an escape Houdini would be proud of to overturn a two pawn deficit as an active Queen swooped to fork a rook to conclude the board 7 game. Lukasz Michalek was about to win a Rook for nothing when his opponent ran out of time (also on his Lichess debut) to make it 6-1. Finally Dave Price bored his opponent to death, with 75 minutes elapsed before the first pawn or piece was taken. Almost immediately a Knight fork followed winning a queen to conclude matters in an unexpected final score of 7-1.
Next morning, Jim Wiseman the Atticus captain was requesting a return challenge to try and gain revenge ! See scorecard below and Jim’s brief report on the match.
The club’s internal Summer Rapid-play involves 11 members playing in division 1 (open grade) and 8 members playing in division 2 (max grade 100). In division 1 Harry Gardiner has made a superb start with a score of 4 from 4 including two wins against one of the favourites – the explosive Rick Reneagde. Karl Lockett is in 2nd place with 3.5 pts but has played 6 games, while Kobus Nienaber is 3rd with 3 pts from 4.
In Division 2, Lee Tilton has made an even stronger start with a brilliant 6 from 6. In 2nd place Kobus (playing in both divisions) has made a solid start with 3.5 from 4 and Les Hall also has 3.5 pts but has played two games more.
Full details on the Rapid-Play events can be seen on the LMS.