Naomh Barróg A team won their round 9 match against Malahide in the BEA Cup North on the 19th of March. They next face Aer Lingus on April 8th.
On board 1, Eric’s opponent played a Catalan opening, but traded his dark square Bishop for a Knight early on. Eric tried to use that to his advantage and managed to get a better position. His opponent did however manage to come back into the game with some good defensive tactics, and they ended in a final where Eric was down a piece up for two pawns. Luckily, his opponent was running out of time and the position was still convoluted, so a draw was agreed.
On board 2, Paddy won his game.
On board 3, Robert’s opponent played the English with a kingside fianchetto. His opponent won a pawn early on, but traded off his fianchetto’ed Bishop, leaving his light-squares exposed to Robert’s Bishop. This meant he couldn’t exploit his lead, as his pieces were tied down preventing mate. The game was very even until Robert found a tactic that won his opponent’s Rook. After that, he launched a strong attack on the King that could only avoid mate by sacrificing a Queen, so his opponent resigned.
On board 4, Oliver’s opponent didn’t show up so he won by default.
On board 5, Gary’s opponent played the Queen’s Pawn opening very cautiously. There was nothing between them until the middle game, when Gary got a positional advantage and exposed his opponent’s King. Unfortunately, he then inexplicably blundered his Knight. Gary saw the correct move inside 10 seconds but spent 5 minutes analysing the response and his counters, and ended up overthinking the position. He fought on but his opponent defended his King and saw the game out very well, played the best move 14 out of 15 times to force a resignation.