On Monday the 10th of March, Naomh Barróg’s A team played Phibsboro away in round 10 of the BEA Cup North. It was a close match but the A team won 3-2.
On board 1, Eric‘s opponent played a solid defense with black, but gave the advantage of the centre to white. This allowed Eric to position a strong Knight at the centre of the board, that black exchanged at the cost of a Bishop and doubled isolated pawns. They quickly became vulnerable, one of them fell two moves later. Looking for counterplay, black started positioning its pieces to attack Eric’s King, and attempted a knight sacrifice that didn’t work. He eventually ran out of time down one piece.
On board 2, Robert played the Accelerated Sicilian Dragon and pieces were quickly exchanged until the game reached a situation where both sides had two pawns in the centre of the board surrounded by pieces. Robert put pressure on the pawns, but despite his best effort he couldn’t win either one. The game was a dead even draw with players just shuffling their pieces until Robert pushed a pawn in front of his King. On the next move he was horrified to realise that this move had cost him the game as it allowed a Bishop sacrifice that would either lead to mate or losing his Queen.
On board 3, Ola played white in a Queen’s Gambit Declined Ragozin Defence. Black exchanged his Bishop for White’s Knight on c3 which resulted in a half opened b-file. Black castled Queenside which allowed Ola to put pressure and pile up against the b7 square. A pseudo sacrifice of a Bishop to break open Blacks King’s position in move 16 lead to a quick win for Ola a few moves later.
On board 4, Paddy lost his game.
On board 5, Des started his game as a Catalan and White gained some pressure on the Queenside. Following exchanges, White had play against a weak pawn on the c-file and eventually won it. More exchanges followed and a rook endgame was reached where white was up a protected passed pawn which was about to be promoted when Black resigned.
The following day, the B team had a tough match at home against Aer Lingus and lost 4-1.
On board 1, Seamus reached an even position after twenty moves of a Czech Pirc but overstretched his position in the centre and lost the initiative. After gaining control of the centre white had too strong a position. He feels he should have offered a draw after 20 moves.
On board 2, Gary had a really tough game where the opening was the standard London but then before he knew it, his opponent launched a Kingside attack with Rook on g6 and a Bishop controlling the diagonal from c7. He defended well, crucially putting a Knight on g2 behind his g3 pawn blocking the pin on his King. His opponent tried to apply more pressure bringing her Queen out to join the attack. She then tried to add her 2nd rook to the attack but this was too ambitious and there was not enough room to manoeuvre all these pieces and he forced Queen swap and one rook swap at this point with no damage to his pawn structure. Despite looking desperately for a counter attack in the next few moves, Gary was left with no option but to accept 2nd rook exchange. This left him with a Knight and 7 pawns against a Bishop and 7 pawns. He thought his opponent had a positional advantage, so he offered a draw – which was accepted.
On board 3, Ger’s opponent opened with the d4 London system. He thought he found a nice tactic in the middle game with a Bishop sacrifice against the castled king but his calculations didn’t work out. It was actually a blunder and would’ve left him down 2 pawns. Luckily, his opponent opted to not to take the Bishop and instead moved his King. His opponent found a nice tactic to win back a piece by threatening mate and a double attack on Ger’s bishop in the centre. He didn’t deal with it too well and was down 2 pawns going into the end game. Her thought there was a possibility of a drawing in the endgame but it wasn’t to be.
On board 4, Shane played White and opened with d4. By move 10, they had an equal position, having already traded queens and dark-squared bishops. His opponent had blocked in his other Bishop behind his pawns, but keeping it trapped limited my ability to create play in the centre. He attempted a Kingside attack while his pieces were uncoordinated, but he defended well and managed to lock the position down. After a few more trades, we agreed to a draw, with even material and no clear chances for either side.
On Board 5, Sebastian’s opponent played a Queen’s Gambit. The game continued normally and Sebastian started to pressure his opponent using his Knights and Queen. However he was able to hold the position together and managed to trap Sebastian’s Queen a short while later. He tried to fight on, but when checkmate was inevitable, he resigned.