The clubhouse was crowded on Thursday night as both the A and B team were hosting matches in round 5 of the BEA Cup North. It was a successful night as the A team defeated Phibsboro and the B team won against Elm Mount B. Thanks to the win, the A team moves up to 2nd place and the B team up to 8th place in the league.
On board 1, Eric quickly exchanged pieces and queens after the opening. He was first to place his Rook on the open file, which led to a two pawn advantage in the Rook vs Rook final. However, his opponent defended well and trapped Eric’s King on the 8th rank. Eric eventually ran out of time trying to get his King out of the jail. It was a cruel ending, but it was been a fun game nonetheless.
On board 2, Kilian faced an opponent who played the French Defence and long castled, which lead to his pieces not having much space. The space advantage allowed Kilian to win an exchange and later the Queen for two Rooks. In the end, his opponent wasn’t able to defend against Kilian’s Queen.
On board 3, Paddy’s game was pretty even, with few inaccuracies from both sides. However, his opponent pushed the pawns in front of his King and Paddy sacrificed a Rook for a deadly attack. White had to sacrifice their Queen to avoid mate, leaving Paddy’s Queen able to mop up the Kingside pawns. There was little to stop Paddy from pushing his passed pawns, so his opponent resigned.
On board 4, Des opened his game with d4 which ended up as a Dutch Defence. Des did not advance in the centre when given the opportunity and as a result got a cramped position. He lost a piece and following forced exchanges ended up with five pawns against three pawns and bishop and the bishop proved stronger.
On board 5, Robert faced the London and gambited three pawns early on. He sacrificed the first pawn to keep the Bishop pair, the second due to carelessness and the third to open the centre before the King could castle. The gamble paid off and he won a Rook. He went into an endgame with such a strong position that even losing an exchange left him ahead. When he suceeded in pinning his opponent’s Bishop to his Rook, guaranteeing to win one of them, his opponent resigned.
On board 1, Ola played an Indian Game where his opponent opted not to castle. Ola came out the opening in a rather defensive and closed position trying to play for opening up the center in order to attack the vulnerable White King in the center. White attacked on the kingside but without getting through the defence. After calculating a trade of both rooks to enter an endgame Ola saw that the en game should be winning with correct play and ended up getting the opposition and forcing a promotion of one of the kingside pawns when his opponent was in zugzwang.
On board 2, Suzanne had a great match where she opened with the English. It was an even game but she got her Knight on a great outpost with the Queen and Bishop on diagonals attacking towards the King. She eventually broke through and won the game.
On board 3, Martin’s opponent played the Queen’s Pawn, Chigorin variation. It was pretty even for most of the game, but he lost two pawns in a two Bishops and two Knights endgame. Promotion was unavoidable and he turned the King on its side.
On board 4, Austin lost his game.
On board 5 Diego concluded a short game of 20 moves. It started with a Sicilian Accelerated Dragon, the position was almost equal but on the 18th move of the game, he successfully played a brilliant move that won him the game. It was a tactical battle typical of the Sicilian defense.
