Essex U160 Team 2019-20

Thanks to Ian Woodward for contributing the following report, while “Captain Simon” was involved in a long game.

Strange old game, chess. Not many years ago Essex under 160s won the championship and reached semis and quarters on a regular basis. Now we are bottom of the pile with three losses out of three. And yet it could have been so different…

First to finish was James Robinson on Board 3, who reached a level endgame before my game on 2  was out of the opening. Then Colin on 1 delivered some violent tactics which his opponent just did not see coming. David Smith, enjoying a fine county season so far, also prevailed, overcoming one of Kent’s many veteran campaigners. However, we were losing as many as we won, and as my own attritional struggle petered out into a draw, we were 4½ each.

Unfortunately, once we fell behind we were never able to recover. Ed had a powerful attack, but in his own words “neglected to defend”. Two down with four to play, Tom Winter delivered a characteristically vigorous tactic which led to a win despite some brave resistance from the other end. That left Captain Simon, Captain Morgan and Michael all playing long endgames, two with horses, one with queens. Michael was held by Cosmo Charles, Cap’n M played accurately to win, but Simon’s long struggle against another seasoned campaigner in Geoff Bishop was ultimately undone by a shortage of time.

So what’s happened? Short answer – we had only one player graded over 150. Our top seven still managed two wins and five draws, but we lacked the firepower to deliver enough full points. Middlesex, by contrast, had nine or ten 150+ players when we went there, and Paul Kenning’s U180 team can have a 165 grade making board 16, so they stand a fair chance of repeating last year’s success.

Ours was a tight struggle, made all the more entertaining by the location directly downstairs from what was supposed to be small girls doing ballet, but by the sound of it they must have been wearing huge hobnailed boots.

We will have to have a good recovery in the New Year.