Wednesday night is NLC chess night, so on Wednesday 15 April the creme of Liberal chess duly met online to battle it out.
Now some headlines take a little time to think up, others just write themselves. This one was easy. The story of the night was the red-hot Mister ‘Ndi78’ Iounnou scything through the field and laying waste to whomever was put before him. He finished the evening with a perfect ‘played 7, won 7’. Unstoppable.
A Game of the Week for him, then, but more of that in a moment – there is always much more to NLC chess than the podium.
First, a warm welcome to two new members of the Chess Circle making their online debuts: Mister ‘scottwestron’ Westron and Mister ‘JohnMacadam’ Macadam. Welcome sirs! Great to have you with us.
Second, some honourable mentions in dispatches. Major ‘Majicm68’ Mattison chalked up his first NLC chess points with a victory over Doctor ‘Antquox’ Saldanha (after frantic see-sawing game that probably could have gone either way multiple time. Exciting stuff). And Mister ‘scottwestron’ Westron gets a mention for a very strong debut, taking four wins from six, including the experienced NLC old-hander Mister ‘GiffinNLC’ Giffin QC MA (Oxon). He looks to be a polished player on first sight, and ended the night in fourth place. (And, incidentally, Mister ‘scottwestron’ Westron can now claim an Alekhine Number of 3, via a Giffin-B. H. Wood simul…).
Games of the week
Each week, this journal’s Editorial Committee will present to the Chess Circle two online games from that week’s session that, in their esteemed view, display a particularly lively charm. Perhaps it will be a ferocious attack, or a dogged defence, maybe a catastrophic blunder or simply something that piques the Committee’s interest…
The Committee faced an even tougher job this week than last. Again there was the volume of games to choose from. But this week there were genuinely many that were worthy of showcasing. The Doctor ‘Antquox’ Saldanha – Ian ‘Majicm68’ Mattison slugfest mentioned above is well worth a look, and the Committee were minded to opt for Mister ‘GiffinNLC’ Giffin QC MA (Oxon)’s rook endgame victory over Mister ‘njayd79’ Dias, who at that point was on a run of form .
But, as the famous saying (almost) goes, ‘In the end, there can only be two’. So here they are:
First, an agressive display from Miss ‘Leegunner1’ Widger against the (slightly out of form?) NLC Champ, Captain ‘Hardicanute’ Chamberlain. 12. d6 certainly showed intent…
But the final word goes of course to the Lib of the evening – Mister ‘Ndi78’ Iounnou. Here he is punishing Mister ‘MisterWiddicombe’ Widdicombe for greedily grabbing the h6 pawn, who was well beaten from there.
Same time next week for more forks, pins, skewers, blunders and the occasional bit of glory.
Well played Leela! Towards the end I was just about coping, but was getting into time trouble – and I finally blundered into a nasty K-Q knight fork.
Hi Paul, great game. These timed games are so different from the usual and on this occasion the time pressure went my way but could have gone either way and we’ll see what happens next week!
Well played Major ‘Majicm68’ Mattison. My daughter asked me if I was ok after – shall we just say my exclamation (luckily not on Zoom) – after fighting hard to get back in the game only to immediately blunder away my queen.
I believe red-hot Mister ‘Ndi78’ Iounnou would confirm that I had him but failed to deliver mate before the Tournament ended and our unfinished game was expunged from history.
Great fun! Looking forward to the next one. Cheers, R.
Well done of course Nicolas on your clean sweep!