He’s had his two jabs, and his booster. And now he’s ripped off his face mask and deleted his NHS App. William Ewert Gladstone was back.
That’s right. After a break of two years the NLC Chess Championship was on. With a record 14 players this promises to be a return with a bang. It’s a five round swiss system tournament and the players met on June 14th for the first round.
The only question is: Who will turn out to be Gladstone’s favourite son?
The first round draw was done at random, so there were some inevitable mismatches in strength before the swiss system pairings kicks in to sort it all out from round 2.
Board 1
Board 1 saw NLC Chess debutant Mister Ali take on the NLC Board 1 Doctor Kirby. Quite a baptism of fire for the newbie and it can only get easier from here. Mister Ali took to his task with gusto and showed no fear in taking Mister Kirby on – courageously throwing his king into the centre – although (somewhat inevitably given the King walk) Black spied a fairly quick mate and so quickly ended things.
Board 2
Board 2 saw the NLC veteran Mister Dias take on another Gladstone debutant Senor Odirozola. Senor Odriozola has turned up a few times to Monday night social chess and can certainly play a bit, so it was interesting to see how this game played out. In the end, experience showed through and Mister Dias’s superior development and piece play secured the point.
Board 3
The tie of the round.
In the bar before the game Mister William and Mister Hill struggled to decide who was worth the better odds, and Mister Ladbroke judged them both to be possible NLC Champions this year. The NLC chess enthusiasts left them there arguing over their pints and instead headed down to watch Mister Rosenbaum getting off to the better start, but Mister Giffin QC MA (Oxon) – a wily fox – later snapping off a poorly protected black knight and seeing the game home.
Board 4
Another interesting match up on Board 4, with two stalwarts from the NLC match team slugging it out. Mister Ioannou has put in a steady shift over the season at board 3 and secured a good few points for the team, largely down to his unique style of playing every move after three seconds thought. But Doctor Saldanha is perhaps this season’s most improved player and took a notable few scalps recently from supposedly better opponents. In the end, a draw was agreed, and it was probably a fair result.
Board 5
Mister Jackson was the final NLC Gladstone debutant of the evening. He’d also played recently in the Monday night social chess and it was clear the lad could play a few strokes (no chess ingenue knocks out a King’s Indian and forks the king and queen on move 11…). So a bit of an unknown quantity and possibly a dark horse for a good finish in the final standings. Let’s see. Mister Sharland put up a decent defence after losing his queen, but it was always going to be an uphill battle, and eventually offered his hand.
Board 6
Board 6 was Young Master Jacobs against Our Good Friend Mister Taylor. All that can be reported about this game was that Young Master Jacobs turned up late, but managed to squeeze the win out with much reduced time. No record of the game was made, but at least we have this charming picture of Our Good Friend Mister Taylor awaiting his opponent.
Board 7
Board 7 was due to be Mister Macrory against Mister Barnett, but unfortunately Mister Macrory had to withdraw from the Gladstone, so Mister Barnett gained the full point by default without having to lift a pawn.
Standings
So after Round 1 the standings look like this:
Mister Barnett – 1 point
Mister Jackson – 1 point
Mister Kirby – 1 point
Mister Giffin QC MA (Oxon) – 1 point
Mister Dias – 1 point
Young Master Jacobs – 1 point
Mister Ioannou – 0.5 points
Mister Saldanha – 0.5 points
Senor Odriozola – 0 points
Mister Ali – 0 points
Mister Rosenbaum – 0 points
Mister Sharland – 0 points
Our Good Friend Mister Taylor – 0 points
Dinner
The Gladstone keeps us topped up with some competitive chess over the lean summer months of the off season. Just as importantly, it also keeps us topped up with some excellent repasts. This evening was no different.
Thank you very much Ben for organising the return of the Gladstone – a most excellent competition!
Yes, a good evening and a very enjoyable dinner afterwards. The Ioannou/Saldanha clash looked fascinating from my ringside seat!
Great to see so many participating in the Championship, all good games to go through too.