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Our team lined up against Malahide in the round 5 match

Can my club win the local chess league?

ChessOver the boardAnalysis
5 over the board games to decide if my chess club can make it to promotion

Apart from on Lichess, I also play chess with my local club Naomh Barróg, a small club in North Dublin. If you're wondering what the name means, to be honest I didn't know until I started writing this. The name comes from the sports club where we rent a room and it gets its name from the local area of Kilbarrack (Cill Bharróg in Irish, so the club is Saint Barrack). Like many chess clubs, most of the players are older and only one is a woman. We have about 30 active players as well as a junior section and the club has doubled in size since 2020.

There are in-house games every Tuesday, but the main activity for the club is our games in the local league. Every year, the club competes in the Leinster Leagues (although most of the teams are from Dublin) which is broken up into 6 divisions (although division 5 has 2 sections and division 6 has 4). The club is currently in division 5 (like I said, we're a small club) but we have hopes of climbing higher. Our aim is to win division 5, something that has never happened in the club's history (although we did win divisions 3 and 4 over a decade ago).

The rules of the league are pretty simple, there are 12 teams in the division, so you play each team once in the season. Clubs can have multiple teams (the larger clubs have a team in almost every division), so we have an A and B team in division 5 and another team in division 6. There's 5 players on a team so 5 games get played. Each game is played individually and then the scores are added up at the end with each win being worth one point. So if our team gets 3 wins and 2 losses, then we gain 3 points while the other team gets 2 points. If our team wins 4-1, then we get 4 points etc. The winning team gets promoted and the 2nd team goes to a playoff against division 5 south (this happened to us last year but we lost the playoff).

Photo from our match against Drogheda

Home ground showdown

https://lichess.org/study/ibggyXMZ/ODJrAESt#0

The first game of the season was between our A and B teams, so while the A team is obviously expected to win, the score will be important. My opponent began with the English and used his pawns to clamp down on the centre. The only way I could make progress was to push my own pawns and break the game open. By move 13, I have succeeded in getting my pawns into the centre and limiting the space for my opponent's pieces. White's two Bishops are almost useless and have nowhere to go.

With my opponent tied down, I decided the time had come to attack, so on move 17, I launched my f-pawn forward. To my surprise, my opponent mimicked me and launched their f-pawn forward as well. This was the crucial moment as the question of which pawn to take first could decide the game. The trade broke in my favour as I not only won a pawn but pushed my centre pawns forward and left White's Bishop with nowhere to go. By move 21, all of White's pieces were stuck on the edge of the board and I was ready to launch a deadly attack.

White's King's defence slowly crumbled as he was forced to give up another pawn and I got ready to strike the decisive blow. White tried to counterattack with the Queen and my first instinct was to move my King to safety. But then I considered the position and realised that White's discovered check held little power and wouldn't win any material. In fact, I could block it with my Bishop, driving the Queen away and leaving me to continue my attack. When my opponent saw my attack wouldn't be stopped and I would likely win a piece or more, he resigned.

The first match ended in a 4-1 victory for our team, which was a strong start to season. However, other clubs also had strong starts so 3 teams were in joint 1st place with 4 points.

Can you solve this endgame puzzle?

https://lichess.org/study/ibggyXMZ/FB86Y7UZ#0

The second match of the season was in Ashbourne, Co Meath where we played against a team mainly comprised of Ukrainians who have moved to Ireland. As our board 2 wasn't available, I was promoted to take his place, but the downside was that I had to play as Black for 4 out of the 5 games. The game opened with a London and my opponent pushed c4 very early. I tried to take advantage of this with a pin on the King, but I couldn't find any move to give an advantage. It turns out that I should have taken the Knight with my light square Bishop, as a check after this would force the King to move and lose the right to castle.

We made some trades and my opponent built up pressure on the Queenside. The only way to defend my b-pawn was to offer a Queen trade but I was afraid that doing so might lead to a draw and I was playing for a win. I saw that I could take the Knight on f3 and damage White's Kingside pawn structure, so I felt it would be better to keep my Queen to take advantage of that. As it turned out, White was able to force several more trades until I had no choice but to trade Queens and enter an endgame down a pawn.

Initially, it didn't seem too bad for me, but my opponent slowly improved their position while forcing my King and Knight into passive positions. Before I fully realised the danger, the evaluation is +5. White gradually brought their King over and I realised that I would eventually lose the b-pawn if White diverted my King by pushing the d-pawn. Then the White King would easily escort the a-pawn to promotion and I would be lost.

In desperation, I looked for some hope of counter-play. The position reminded me of an endgame puzzle I had seen where you can break through a line of pawns by pushing the pawn and then keep pushing instead of taking back. White would win a pawn, even two if you count the b-pawn, but my King could move back in time to stop their promotion. But there would be nothing to stop my h-pawn from promoting. White could push the a-pawn but it would just be too slow.

I couldn't believe my eyes, I had somehow snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Funnily enough, there is a way for White to save the position by diverting my King. However, my opponent only had 10 minutes on the clock and the library where we were playing was about to close, so she didn't find the move. As scary as it might seem for my King to be facing a wall of enemy pawns so close to the final rank, there is no killer move and my Queen can pick them off one by one.

My club won this match 4-1 as well, which put us top of the league but only by half a point. Our toughest opponents were still ahead of us.

Save the King, save the game

https://lichess.org/study/ibggyXMZ/UBKwCxxU#0

Our 3rd match was against the students of Dublin City University (DCU). Last year, DCU crushed all opposition and comfortably won the league. This did mean their best players were playing in division 4 while their division 5 team is mainly made of unrated players who have experience with online chess. In fact, after the game my opponent told me that this was his first ever rated over-the-board chess game.

The game opened with a Queen's Gambit and I responded with the Slav. Early on, I traded a Knight for Bishop and by move 15, I was lining up my pieces for a Kingside attack where his defences were sparse. White surprised me by blocking with the f-pawn, so I added pressure by pushing g-pawn. On move 18, my opponent made what I think was his biggest mistake (although the engine doesn't see it this way) by pushing his g-pawn. He seriously weakened his King's defence in exchange for merely a one move threat on my Bishop.

I kept the pressure on, won a pawn and then had a dilemma. White threatened my Rook with his Knight, so the obvious move was to just retreat and build on my pawn advantage. But his Knight was an important defender of h2, removing it could actually benefit me. I didn't see a knockout blow, but I felt that I would have a very strong attack and his King would be vulnerable. So I decided to take a pawn (so even if the sacrifice doesn't work, at least we're even on material) and trade my Rook for the Knight.

The attack didn't quite work out as well as I hoped, but it left me with two connected passed pawns. However, my opponent fought back by opening the g-file for his Rook. Although the engine says my lead only grew, this wasn't clear at the time and I spent a lot of time over the next few moves trying to get my King to safety. If I could trade Queens, my passed pawns would win me the game, I just had to make sure my opponent didn't get a repetition.

The swarm of checks continued until move 39 when I was finally able to move my King to safety. I could now return to pushing my pawns which would force White to retreat and defend. At this point, the game had gone on for over 3 hours and we were the last players still playing (a small crowd had gathered to watch). Probably due to tiredness, my opponent blundered by allowing me to promote my pawn, costing him his Rook. After this, mate couldn't be stopped, so he resigned.

My win proved crucial as it meant we won the round 3-2. We were now in first place with 11 points, but we weren't alone. Drogheda also had 11 points and we were scheduled to play each other in round 4.

The most important game of the season

https://lichess.org/study/ibggyXMZ/B15xAQSd#0

Round 4 was the big game, against the strongest opponents we would face in the league, Drogheda. We were both tied for first place and whoever won would have a good chance of winning the league.

The game opened with an Advanced Caro-Kahn with a surprising early Queen check from my opponent. Black succeeded in getting their Knight on a strong central square which would cause me trouble later in the game. I noticed that my opponent had few pieces on their Kingside so I decided to go for the attack. I kept building pressure and keeping him on the defensive (after the game he said that he felt he only made one attacking move in the whole game, everything else was defensive), but I couldn't find a way to break through (in part due to his Knight).

I lined my Rook up in front of his King and had plans for a Knight sacrifice to tear his defences open and attack his King and Queen. On move 39, I went for the sacrifice, which turns out to be a huge blunder. However, I got lucky and was able to check the King and win the Knight, taking me into an endgame up two pawns. I thought my opponent might resign at this point, because it's basically lost, isn't it?

To my surprise, things weren't so simple and Black managed to fight back. I had the opportunity to force checkmate my opponent, but the thought never crossed my mind. Instead, his Rook sprung to life and started picking off my pawns. My lead was crumbling before my eyes. On move 57, had Black taken the pawn on d4 instead of b3, I would have struggled to find a way to win.

Instead we got bogged down in a locked endgame where I couldn't find a way forward and my opponent was happy to repeat. There is a way to force a winning Rook trade that I missed and I backed away from my plan to walk my King forward (move 66) because I thought it didn't work (but it does). Once again, my game was the last to finish and other players were gathering to watch. In fact, the game lasted over 4 hours, probably the longest over-the-board game I have ever played. Could I find a way to win?

I knew that the only way to get an advantage was to activate my Rook. Even if this cost me a pawn, at least it would break up the position and avoid a repetition. Getting the check on move 70 was decisive, I had taken back control of the game and it was clear how I would proceed and win the game (the only question was why did it take me so long to figure it out). I now had two connected passed pawns and while Black could give my King plenty of checks, I could leap-frog my way forward to the promotion square. As it turns out, I didn't need it because I was able to find checkmate.

The news from my teammates was even better, we had won 3.5-1.5. We were top of the league with a strong 2 point lead over the 2nd place.

Where we're going, we don't need Bishops

https://lichess.org/study/ibggyXMZ/otTBKYQ5#0

I was once again Black for the round 5 match against Malahide. As all my games so far had been extremely long, I deliberately played quickly to keep a healthy time advantage. The game opened with a Sicilian Dragon and on move 10 my opponent got ready to trade off the dark squared Bishop. At first my instinct was to move the Rook and avoid the trade, but that would leave my Bishop passive while his remained a threat hanging over my head. Plus with the position relatively closed, I could play e5 and put my Knight on f4 where it would be more useful than a Bishop. Leave the Bishops at home, Knights would decide this game.

Once I decided this, I was happy to trade off the light square Bishop (accidently missing a tactic along the way) and build an attack with my Knight and Queen. F4 was a strong square but d3 was even better and dominated my opponent - I just needed to find out how to make the most of the position.

On move 28, I played what I thought was a winning move. My Queen threatens checkmate and the only way to avoid it is to lose the Knight. I had won - or had I? White counter-attacked and I realised my Knight was trapped, if White plays b4 on move 34, my Knight has nowhere to go. I can win two pawns in compensation, but then we enter an even Queen endgame where a draw is a likely outcome.

This is what I expected my opponent to do, but then they took on e5 and I realised they had a repetition. After working so hard to gain an advantage, I was going to lose it and considering the rating difference between us, my opponent would be much happier with a draw than I would be. There had to be some way to prolong the game, even by a single move. That's when I decided to play g5, it was risky but it blocked the check and bought me time.

The second I took my hand off the piece, I realised I had made an awful blunder. For some inexplicable reason, I didn't see the obvious move Queen to f3. I was so focused on avoiding a draw that I had made a catastrophic blunder that instantly cost me the game. Even now, I am embarrassed to look at such a basic mistake. In my other games, a stubborn refusal to keep fighting had paid off, but in this game it lead to defeat.

However, my teammates performed well and we won the match 3-2, keeping our spot at the top of the table.

Conclusion

As the season took a break for Christmas, I am very pleased with the position of my club. We are top of the league with a lead of 2 points and have beaten our strongest rivals. Of course, it's not over yet, there are still 6 matches to go and anything can happen. With the exception of the travesty of the last game, I'm happy with my performance, a score 4/5 puts me in joint 2nd in the individual playing panel and 1st place is held by another player from my club.

Will we be able to win the league? Follow to find out!