Can my Irish chess club win our local league?

I previously wrote about the experience of my local club, Naomh Barróg, to win our local chess league here in Ireland. We're only a small club with 30 active players, so winning the BEA Cup North, which is division 5 of the Leinster Leagues, would be a great achievement.

The rules of the league are simple, there are 12 teams, who each play each other once. Each match involves five players from each team playing five individual games. The scores from each game is added up and given to each team as points. So if 3 players on my team win and 2 lose, then our team gets 3 points and the other team gets 2. If there are 4 wins, then you get 4 points and a draw counts as half a point.

In the previous post, I discussed our first 5 matches from September to December, where we went top of the table with two points to spare. More importantly, we beat our closest rivals Drogheda, which meant we were in a strong position. At the end of the season, 1st place gets promoted and 2nd place goes to a playoff against 2nd place in the BEA Cup South.

All lost in a blink of an eye

The second half of the season began against Elm Mount A, the largest club in North Dublin and strong set opponents. I was promoted to board 2 and would face my highest rated opponent of the league in this game. It started off with a Jobava London but my opponent surprised me in the opening by allowing me to double their f-pawns. I thought this would be a long term weakness but I was never able to fully exploit it.

We kept developing and I slowly gained space with my pawns, until move 16 where I got overextended and lost a pawn because I forgot that my pawn was pinned to my Queen. I was able to quickly adapt and win back a pawn by threatening mate. After some trades, I was left with a passed d-pawn and some threats against White's Queenside pawns. White's Queen was dancing around my pieces which was annoying but otherwise I felt confident in my position.

That is until White moved their Knight on move 27. All of my focus had been on the Queenside so I had neglected the Kingside and didn't see any threats there. White threatens mate but I can block it with my Knight. However, now the real danger is reveals itself. My opponent has won a pawn but more importantly, they have opened a hole in front of my King. On the next turn they can lift their Rook and bring it over to give check and there's little I can do to stop them. The game went from even to completely lost in the blink of an eye (or so it seemed to me).

Don't forget to check

The next game was against Elm Mount B and I agained played Black. In fact, I played Black in most games this season to balance a teammate who always played White. This game opened with a Smith-Morra Gambit which I thought was a risky plan for a classical game. However, it soon turned out that I was the one in trouble. After only 7 moves, I was on the back-foot with a very cramped position and my opponent attacking from every direction. However, although the attacks looked scray, the finishing blow never came and I just about managed to hold on. By move 16, I could finally relax as despite not being able to castle, I more or less made it to safety.

On move 21, I tried to kick away my opponent's Knight but inadvertently trapped my Queen. Luckily, I was able to counter-attack with my Knight and turn it into a Queen trade. This was the point where I started to gain an advantage. I was one pawn ahead with the potential to win a second in an endgame where my opponent's pawns looked more vulnerable than mine. My pawns were doubled, so I would still have to work hard but I was feeling confident.

But then on move 26, I saw the potential for a move winning tactic. I could take the Knight with my Bishop and when White recaptured, I would win a pawn and have a very active Rook that would threaten my opponent's pawns. But if they didn't immediately recapture, that was even better because I could give check and save my Bishop. As it happened, I misplayed the move order and should have taken the Rook first before giving check, but it didn't matter because as soon as my opponent saw my move, he resigned.

Although I won my game, the team drew overall, getting 2.5 points. However, our rivals Drogheda won their match with 3.5 points, meaning the gap between us and 2nd had narrowed to only 1 point.

No one would ever put a Knight there

My opponent in this game was a strong player who I played two years earlier and beat me. The game opened with a Spanish and after some trades, my opponent surpised me my castling Queenside, something I had never seen before. The game quickly became a race between both sides over who could get their pawns to storm the opposing King first.

An important moment was move 15, where my opponent offered a trade of Knights that would also lead to trading Bishops and leave both sides with just Rooks and a Queen. I spent a lot of time considering what to do, but I didn't see any advantage for me in making the trades, so I decided not to go for it. In hindsight, this was a mistake, but at the time I felt confident that my pawn storm would be able to cause a lot of damage against his King's defences. As it turns out my pawns couldn't break through and although there was potential for an attack on the dark-squares, I had no way to take advantage of it.

On move 21, I didn't see an immediate threat so I thought I could make a precautionary defensive move. Why not play g6 to give my King space and prepare to bring my Rook to h8? There's no danger right now, but why not take care of it before it becomes a problem? Unfortunately, this turned out to be a disastrous blunder that immediately cost me the game. I hadn't considered Knight to h7, because who would? As soon, as I saw it, I knew I was in big trouble. I couldn't move my Knight without losing my Queen but if I left it, I would lose my Knight.

I tried to get out of danger with Knight to d5, but my opponent didn't have to trade, he could just bring the Bishop into the attack and win my Rook. I tried to fight on, but I had to trade Queens to avoid mate. That only delayed the inevitable as my opponent could eaily pick off my pawns one-by-one, so I had no choice but to resign.

Although I lost, my other teammates all won their games, for a final score of 4-1. However, Drogheda won their game 4-1, meaning the race was as close as ever.

Take my Bishop, I insist

While Drogheda were our main rivals, a dark horse appeared that was closely catching up. Blanchardstown won some big victories which meant they were tied for 2nd and only 1 point behind us. This match would be the most important of the 2nd half of the season. I'm proud to say that I rose to the occasion by playing my best game of the league.

The game started with a Ponziani and by move 9, I had a comfortable position. My pawn chain dominated the centre of the board and Black's only two developed pieces had almost nowhere to go. I had clear and open lines for my Bishops pointing straight at Black's King, with the potential for a strong attack or even a Greek Gift.

Then I got my opportunity on move 11 and sacrificed my Bishop. My opponent made the wise choice of not taking the Bishop, but I quickly swarmed him with my attacking pieces, while he had hardly anything to defend with. My Knight supported my Bishop and made space for my Queen to attack, while my dark-squared Bishop supported the Knight from a distance. What made my attack so powerful was that I was attacking in multiple directions which meant my opponent couldn't block them all.

On move 13, my Queen is threatening f6 and h3 but Black can only block one of them. On move 15, I again sacrificed my Bishop threatening to either win the Knight or checkmate Black. On move 17, I offered a Bishop sacrifice for the third time (although the engine finds a faster way to win) and for the third time, my opponent declined it. No matter, I instead sacrificed my Knight to divert the defending Rook and force the King onto its final square. My opponent resigned as mate was coming on the next move.

This win proved vital as it allowed us to win 3-2. However, Drogheda won their match 4-1, which meant we were tied again for first place. After 9 rounds, here is how the table looked:

(Note: teams would lose points if their players weren't register but get them back once they were. So, Drogheda has 26 points plus 4 once they register their players, making 30 in total).

Dead draw or am I dead meat?

It's hard to write a description of this game, because to be honest, it was one of the dullest games of chess I've played. I opened with the Sicilian Defence and we quickly traded off material. We both seemed to struggle to find a plan and the best I had was to try and put pressure on his Queenside pawns which could be weak.

By move 17, White had built a solid pawn chain across the middle of the board, so I tried to crack it open with my pawns. By move 21, his b-pawn was looking weak so I tried to arrange an attack against it. But try as I might, I couldn't create any advantage and was reduced to just shuffling my pieces forwards and backwards. I was deeply frustrated by the position, I was 100 points higher rated than my opponent and we needed every point we could get, so a draw would be an under-performance for me, which meant I felt I had to try and force a win.

Even the engine has next to nothing to say about the first 34 moves of the game. However, on move 35, my opponent pushed their h-pawn, which surprised me as I thought they were playing for a draw. I decided to play h5 to pre-empt a pawn storm, which was a blunder that instantly cost me the game. Firstly, a pawn storm was nothing to be feared, but more importantly, moving the h-pawn, allowed a Bishop sacrifice on g6. I had seen the potential for this sacrifice but considered that all it did was allow White to force a draw, which is what the position meant anyway.

What I didn't consider was White's next move, Rook to e1. It's a simple move, but when I saw it, I realised that I was dead meat. The threat is to bring the Rook to e7, attacking my Queen and f7. Under this circumstance, the Bishop sacrifice is devastating. I desperately looked for some hope of saving the position, but it soon became clear that I would either lose my Queen or get mated. I couldn't believe how a dead even, dull drawn game suddenly switched to completely lost in the space of a single move. I was crushed and deeply annoyed at myself.

All to play for

Although we won 3-2, once again Drogheda won their match 4-1, which meant we lost our place on the top of the league. This was doubly frustrating for me because I felt I hadn't played my best and because it felt like promotion was slipping out of reach. A common pattern in these games is that I would reach even positions and then suddenly collapse to an unforseen tactic.

However, there was still one final game to play. With a strong result, we could still win the league and my little club could win promotion. Could we do it? Tune in next time to find out!