The travails of Atticus 440 team

Like the proverbial bus you hang around for ages waiting for a game and then two turn up in quick succession

First up were Formby who despite being out-graded on the top three boards gave Atticus a sound 4-0 spanking. At one stage Jim on Board 1 had a classical Wiseman double edged position but you felt he had an advantage. My opponent, Bob Greaves had allowed me to play the Greek Gift sacrifice of a bishop on h7 in ideal circumstances….unfortunately rather than finish him off I decided to demonstrate I knew far better than classical theory and was duly hammered for my complacency and hubris. Poor Steve Winstanley on Board 3 had a night to forget while Peter Ferret on Board 4 reprised the Knight played by John Cleese in ‘The search for the Holy Grail’ as bit by bit his pieces were all dismembered and he was duly mated.

A true shocker by Atticus

Atticus 440
104 0.0 : 4.0 Formby 440 100
1
Wiseman, Jim K
122
0-1
Owens, Robert
121
2
Webb, Tom EC
121
0-1
Greaves, Robert
99
3
Winstanley, Steve
110
0-1
Whitby, J Dave
90
4
Ferret, Peter
63
0-1
Haseman, Rob
89

And so ominously onto Waterloo…..another scene of much carnage. Unfortunately Dave Hurley had been taken ill over the weekend and in the time available it proved impossible to find a fourth player to replace him. Our special guest superstar and would be Russian émigré Natasha Maysheeverforgivemeitch graciously stepped down in order to ensure we had the best team of three we could muster

First to strike a blow for the cause was my good self. Chris Burr always plays his own idiosyncratic d4 openings and tonight was no different. However I managed to build up a big centre and a pair of raking bishops did their usual deadly work. Next to finish was Jim who always had a space advantage and was able to convert this into a material and then winning end game. An excellent demonstration of holding your nerve and sticking to your plan. So the match hinged on Steve Winstanley’s game. Steve patiently built up a strong attack in a very sharp Sicilian defence. He had the opportunity to throw in a risky sacrifice on move 20 but instead regrouped and came back at his opponent with a second attack and after some exchanges of minor pieces he had a slight edge. However, I think the dark influence of sitting next to Jim Wiseman throwing pieces onto the bonfire may be having an effect since Steve proceeded to sacrifice a bishop to free the run of a passed pawn. Game over

So we won the match 3-1, a truly storming performance by Atticus

Waterloo 440
93 1.0 : 3.0 Atticus 440 118
1
Jenkins, Steve
106
0-1
Wiseman, Jim K
122
2
Burr, Chris
81
0-1
Webb, Tom EC
121
3
Scaife, Luke
98
0-1
Winstanley, Steve
110
4
Moran, Jim
88
+/-
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