Ecclesall A vs Nomads A 4th October 2017

And so it begins… a tough match first up became suddenly exceedingly tough when Jon was unable to make it due to illness. Throw in some ludicrous traffic that led to 5 of us arriving at 7.55pm and it was just about as bad a start to match as I’ve known at Nomads…and most of us hadn’t even played a move yet. One of us who had was Chris… he agreed a draw with David pretty much as I sat down at my board to play. OK, I was late but I wasn’t THAT late, surely? Still, David and Chris then proceeded to toddle off to the bar and analyse their game whilst I walked into yet another disastrous opening against Jim. After a comfortable win in my first match of the season, this was as comfortable a loss as you’re likely to see; I could have resigned after about 10 moves or so. My score vs Jim is now P4 W0 D0 L4. In all honesty, I’m lucky to have those 0s considering how the games have gone. Things didn’t look too bad elsewhere but I wasn’t entirely convinced we’d have enough to draw, let alone win the match. Stuart and Nick seemed to have the best chances whilst Mike looked comfortable and both Geoff and Ian were dealing with sharp positions. Wilson, making his debut on four, relatively quickly reached what looked to be an even endgame with Pete. But something went wrong somewhere – possibly an attempt at a trap or maybe sharp play from Pete resulted in a tricky looking position that turned out to be a lost position. So half a point from three of the top four. Geoff looked like he might cause Farshad some trouble with a space advantage and some active pieces but some accurate defence and what might be double-edged if things went wrong convinced Geoff to opt for a share of the spoils. 1 out of 4 on the top four boards is not a normal Nomads return…so our fabled lower order would need to deliver the goods. Nick obliged – giving up the exchange (albeit temporarily as it happened) for some very active play against Alan’s king which saw him home. At that point, with the last train from Sheffield due in 20 mins or so, I had to leave proceedings to drop Nick off so missed the endings of the last three games. Mike pciked up a pawn advantage in the middlegame that he nursed home in the ending to win but despite some pressing and a space advantage, Stuart couldn’t find the knock out blow and Ken was able to stave off a defeat on 7. Which meant the scores were level with one match still remaining. Ewan had opened up Ian’s king in an attack and at some point Ian had lost his queen for insufficient compensation. The pieces and pawns ending looked like it would be a formality and indeed I’m told that Ewan had several moves that won and one that lost. To the incredulity of various onlookers, he found the losing move and Ian delivered checkmate with a pawn to, quite amazingly, seal an opening day win for the team.

Top performance from the bottom four boards, securing 3.5/4 and seeing us home after a ropey beginning. Gutting for Ecclesall, who really ought to have had better than the tightest of defeats for their trouble. Next up, a trip to Hillsborough.