A terrific performance, I've rarely been more proud of a team.
We were giving away nearly 100 grading points over 4 boards, but came out on top without a single loss.
As always, things could have turned out differently, and Sidmouth fought for every square on every board.
{After some vague opening play on both sides, Black dropped an exchange.
After that, White gradually converted but Black had chances to draw (or do
even better) with some little tactics.}
This agreeable annual match is always a friendly and well-contested occasion. As usual, most of the games, and therefore the match, could
have had a very different result! Well played all.
Board 1. After missing a chance to win a piece in the opening, White fell into a
wicked trap.
I'm a bit bored of writing this, but the result doesn't reflect the closeness of the contests! Great result by Reece, saving us from the whitewash, but some great moves and terrific heart shown by all.
Well, a loss for the juniors, but by the narrowest of margins, and
against a team who were a bit stronger than they looked on paper. A
couple of the Gambits players have had much higher grades in the past,
and in the end I think experience told.
In making notes on games, I've probably explained lots of chess mistakes, and why they were mistakes. I might say, this Black move is a mistake, because White now plays A, and this works because if B then C and if D then E. (Or, White should have played A, etc.)
But there is another side to each mistake, which I can't tell anything about, but which perhaps you can, and you should try. A mistake in a chess move is also a mistake in thinking.
A tale of three discoveries: a discovered attack proved the winning move in all three games.
Unmasked threats - discovered attacks and discovered checks - are the
most difficult threats to spot. You pay attention to the piece that
moves, but the threat comes from the piece behind.
I've attached a discovered attack training page - get your eye in! In 2010, the Devon U14 team lost an awful lot of points (or a lot of awful points) to discovered attacks, and the puzzles are all things that they missed.
"THE KING The King himself is haughtie care, Which ouerlooketh all his men, And when he seeth how they fare, He steps among them now and then, Whom when his foe presumes to checke, His seruants stand, to giue the necke. THE QUEENE The Queene is queint, and quicke conceit, Which makes her walke which way she list, Ans rootes them up, that lie in wait, To worke hir treason ere she wist: Hir force is such against her foes, That whom she meets, she ouerthrowes...
