| Manningtree A | 20/03/21 | Bury St Edmunds A |
1 | Lewis, Andrew P | 2350 | 0 - 1 | Jermy, Jaden | 2200 |
2 | Kanellopoulos, Panagiotis | 2254 | 0 - 1 | Le-Vine, Mark R | 2048 |
3 | Hutchings, Philip J | 1921 | ½ - ½ | Balogh, Jan | 1965 |
4 | Kerr, Rowland | 1853 | 0 - 1 | Ruthen, Stephen W | 1904 |
| | | ½ - 3½ | | |
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This result equals our A Team's worst over the board defeat ever* when back in
December 2013 we were beaten
at home, by the same score, and the same team. And it was the same player who saved us from a whitewash
on both occasions. This defeat scuppers any realistic chance we had of retaining the Division One title, it would now
take a miracle to deny Bury the trophy, so we will have to settle for being runners-up this season.
Bury turned up with only one of their nominated squad missing, and while we had all of ours, we were still expecting a
very close match. How wrong we were, at least as far as the end result was concerned. But at the half way point things
were looking very different. We were looking very good on boards two and four, where the half hour time differential
told its own story, and we looked at least equal on the other two boards where the clocks were within ten minutes of
each other.
But then the wheels started to fall off in the second half. Rowland had launched a pawn advance on a broad front against
his opponent's King's Indian, although it was not until almost ninety minutes of play before so much as a pair of pawns
were exchanged. After that the game opened up and Rowland's opponent had to surrender the exchange. And while Rowland's
king's side attack was looking decisive, his opponent staged a counter attack down the queen's side, where Rowland's king
had castled. Overlooking a two move mate Rowland delivered what he thought was the coup de grace, but he did so with the
wrong piece and the game was flipped on its head.
Phil was next to finish and as Black had equalised quickly via a series of early exchanges against his opponent's offbeat
and fairly un-ambitious queen's side opening that was essentially a Nimzo-Larsen with an unusual move order. By move 23
both players had a queen, bishop and knight and an equal number of pawns in a balanced position with no real winning
prospects for either side. When Phil's opponent offered a draw, he accepted immediately as he has a lot of respect for
his opponent's play.
Then our second wheel fell off. Jaden Jermy played the King's Indian Attack against Andy's customary Sicilian. After
castling queen-side, Andy sacrificed a pawn, but obtained nothing for it. Jaden consolidated, and forced the exchange
of queens. Andy regained his pawn, but found himself enmeshed in a neat tactic that won a piece, forcing his resignation
on move 35.
Not long after that, the final wheel came adrift in a game that had been looking good at the half way point. We have
been so used to seeing Panagiotis brush aside all opposition once he starts to get the upper hand that we often assume
his board is in the bag long before it actually is. And most of the time our assumption proves true, but tonight was
the exception. With a strong attack developing from of his regular English, Panagiotis made an uncharacteristic
miscalculation, caused in large part by playing too quickly. Almost out of nowhere both of his opponent's knights,
supported by their queen, sprung into action and dominated the centre while Panagiotis' queen was misplaced and
virtually out of the game. Panagiotis fought back, but by the time his queen had been brought back into the game,
he was a pawn down in a dire position with simply too many weaknesses to defend. His opponent then found a neat win
of a second (defended) pawn by snatching it with his queen, which led to a flurry of exchanges ending in a knight
ending two pawns down. Hoping for a miscalculation from his opponent Panagiotis took it to the wire, only resigning
when all hope was gone.
We started tonight needing 5½ points from our last two matches, and for a long time it looked quite possible
that we would get three of them tonight. Getting just half a point we did not expect. Even with a 4-0 win at Bury,
we would still need Saxmundham to hold Bury to at least a 2-2 draw in the final match of the season. And in spite
of the fact that Saxmundham actually defeated Bury in their first match, they are probably about as likely to do
that again as we are to beat them 4-0.
* Manningtree were defeated 4-0 several times in Division One in 2010-2011, but we only had one team
back then, so strictly speaking, that wasn't Manningtree A. There was a Manningtree A back in the 1981-1982 season,
and they were defeated 4-0 by Ipswich D, but that was by default.
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