Widnes 2½-3½ Atticus, John Ripley Cup semi-final, February 20 2012
Thanks in no small part to the Fajarowicz Gambit, Atticus managed to overcome Widnes in a tight match, thus keeping alive our chances of retaining the John Ripley Cup. The swashbuckling (some might say ramshackle) gambit in question was played by Dave Lawson in the only decisive game where he exploited its considerable surprise value. Elsewhere, Charlie played an old line against the Caro-Kann but concluded an early peace. Dave James was somewhat behind on the black side of a King's English. I had a large positional plus which was whittled away by a combination of the clock and my opponent's counterplay. Andre seemed to have some edge against his opponent's Sveshnikov but time-pressure intervened. The final game to conclude was Luke's where in the space of a few minutes (and blitzing in his opponent's time-trouble) he went from lost to winning to stone-cold draw.
| 198 | M Gruca | ½ | ½ | C Kennaugh | 199 |
| 188 | M Ellis | 0 | 1 | D Lawson | 209 |
| 179 | SWoodcock | ½ | ½ | J Redmond | 194 |
| 174 | J Smith | ½ | ½ | D James | 186 |
| 167 | S Jones | ½ | ½ | A Stancak | 177 |
| 151 | D McCarthy | ½ | ½ | LBoumphrey | 174 |
