TAFCA WINTER LEAGUE ONLINE 2020-21: Thurs 4th Mar 21: Two matches

TAFCA WINTER LEAGUE ONLINE 2020-21
Thurs 4^th March 21, 7:30pm
Div 1

It was a night of mixed fortunes for Castlehill teams with our “A” team proving too strong for Kirkcaldy A, while our “D” team could not handle the heat from the team with the master degree`s, St.Andrews Uni A!

St.Andrews Uni A 3, Castlehill D 1

Board One: Keith Rose (1515) CD 0 – 1 Isaac Stables (1800)est SA

Keith Rose played a risky “Evans Gambit” line in the “Max Lange” attack early on but it back fired against Isaac who took full advantage and never let Keith back into the game.
Lichess Game “Link”:  TAFCA Database No “242”

St,Andrews Uni A 1, Castlehill D 0

Board Two: Wilf Wheatley (1560) SA 1 – 0 Martin Chalmers (1505) CD

Martin seemed to be doing well against Wilf with a strong looking Knight embedded on c4, but looks sometimes can be deceiving! Maybe because Martin thought he was better and Wilf was in time-trouble, he pushed a bit too much, hoping for a slip up! Alas Wilf skillfully worked his way through the complications, while at the same time managing his time to take the game!
Lichess Game “Link”:  TAFCA Database No “243”

St,Andrews Uni A 2, Castlehill D 0

Board Three: Jan Barron-Majerik (1500)est CD 0 – 1 Stuart Ballantyne (1420) SA
This match was fairly even for most of the opening and middle game. It was Jan who made the first error and put Stuart in a very strong position.
Jan played 17.Bxd6?? Stuart played Bxe4??

Indeed I think he only needed to play 17…Rd8 and the win surely was in sight!

Thankfully Stuart missed that move and everything was back to all square! It was Stuarts turn next to blunder on move 22 when he played 22….Qd4? (Qf8!=).

From this point on Jan closed in on the black King and the end was in no doubt! Well played Jan!
Lichess Game “Link”:  TAFCA Database No “244”

St,Andrews Uni A 2, Castlehill D 1

Board 4: Alexandre Kings (1400)est SA 1 – 0 Darren Cruickshank (1500)est CD

Darren never really got into the game against Alexandre. Sometimes you turn up for a game of chess, feeling good, but nothing seems to go right, you don`t see anything! Darren is new to us but I know he can play far better than this! BTW credit is due to Alexandre who did what he needed to do to win the game!
Lichess Game “Link”:  TAFCA Database No “245”

St,Andrews Uni A 3, Castlehill D 1

This leaves Castlehill D in 8^th place, just one above the danger zone and one point ahead of the team in 9^th! St.Andrews Uni A are on 6 points in 6^th place but with a game in hand on some of the teams above them!

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Castlehill A 3½, Kirkcaldy A ½

Richard Polaczek IM (2354) on board one and Declan Shafi (2184) on board two, were never in any real danger against George Herd (1598) and John Kane (1445) respectively. They are both very, very strong players and of course Richard is an IM!

Board 1: Lichess Game “Link”:  TAFCA Database No “238”
Board 2: Lichess Game “Link”:  TAFCA Database No “239”

Castlehill A 2, Kirkcaldy A 0

Board 3: Shivia Subramanian (1444) KA ½ – ½ Andre Babin (1882) CD

This was an interesting game between Shivia and Andre. Andre rightfully favourite, did not get it his own way. Shivia has never been a pushover and seems to have got rid of that habit of losing a won game! By move 20 it was still an even game and then Shivia played 21.Bxh6? (Bh4=) and gave the advantage to Andre. But from here on in, errors started to appear in both players game`s, dare I say a “Comedy of error’s”!  As the game neared the end after swinging one way then the other, and with Andre being in a lot of time-trouble, it looked (might not have been the case) all Shivia had to do was move his Bishop back to a4+- to hold the advantage (winning maybe? Maybe not?). What do you think?

Instead he pushed his pawn to b7 and the game ended in a draw! Talk about swings and roundabouts! But credit has to go to Andre as he was in bad time-trouble but managed somehow to hold the draw
Lichess Game “Link”:  TAFCA Database No “240”

Castlehill A 2½, Kirkcaldy A ½

Board 4: Richard Kynoch (1866) CA 1 – 0 Paul Anderson (1325) KA

Richard started off well and was in a very strong position against Paul who was playing up a team. Mind you, Richard was more than happy to accept Paul’s Queen for nothing on move 16! We have all done it and will do it again. You sometimes just go “BLIND”!
Lichess Game “Link”:  TAFCA Database No “241”

This win moves Castlehill A up the table to 4^th place, two points behind second placed Castlehill C, but with a game in hand! Kirkcaldy A are a strong team in a very strong league, but sit bottom holding the rest up!

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