Aberystwyth have been having a tough time this season, and our first match of the New Year, at home against Cardigan B on Tuesday 21st January, continued the trend. Not that this was apparent from the play on Board 1. Rudy van Kemenade and Tony Haigh hardly seemed to have sat down when they were shaking hands for the second time, as Tony dropped a piece due to a miscalculated exchange and resigned after only thirteen moves. Julie van Kemenade had a chance to put Aber further ahead in an Italian Game against Ben Brewer, but missed the winning tactic. The middle game position that followed looked awkward with a rook offside, and even after it was exchanged, Black had pressure in the ending, winning a pawn with a knight fork and leaving her with a long and ultimately fruitless defence. I tried a new and odd-looking Philidor system against Joshua Brewer, and it seemed to be working, winning a pawn. I then thought I saw a decisive tactic, but missed the obvious defence and agreed a draw in my disappointment, although it turns out I could have retained my advantage into the endgame. Board 4 saw yet another Greek gift sacrifice - they seem to have turned up regularly this season, and it's interesting how often subsequent analysis shows them to be unsound. In this case, Tom Gunn's bishop sac in a Colle System was declined by Awne Osinga and a complex game resulted in which Black made a sacrifice of his own for a kingside counter-attack. Tom couldn't find the only move to defend against this and resigned in a position where he was theoretically winning, though the game would still have been very hard. (Awne revealed afterwards that he thought Tom was offering a draw, not resigning!) A 2½-1½ win for Cardigan B was a disappointing result for Aber.
Sunday, 26 January 2020
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