A friendly match to round off April, with the MCC visiting 1 Whitehall Place on Monday 29 April. A visit to the NLC is always popular, and this proved no different, with the MCC proposing fully eight boards for this friendly. Delighted to oblige, the NLC was able to field a mixed team of old-timers and new players.
Here’s how it went.
Board 1
Mister Ioannou led the charge for the NLC, once more ascending to the very heights of top board. And he faced stiff competition in the form of the English Chess President Dominic Lawson. Mister Ioannou took the game seriously: after 14 moves he had used fully seven minutes. Some seriously deep thinking by Mister Ioannou’s standards. Alas, even ‘going into to the tank’ couldn’t save the Lib, who succumbed to a couple of very strong Black central pawns.
Board 2
Mister Rosenbaum took on Board 2 duties, and also faced stiff competition in the form of Nick Collacott. He battled away with a King’s Indian Defence, but couldn’t quite get the usual King-side attack rolling.
Board 3
Our Good Friend Mister Taylor faced off against the handy Wil Ransome on Board 3. A very solid display saw the game reduced down to an opposite coloured bishop endgame with both players low on time and a draw was agreed. First points on the Board for the Libs.
Board 4
Not much is known about this game, between Mister Landless and Colin Ferguson. But reports are that it was an NLC win. Great work from Mister Landless, who was playing in his first NLC match.
Board 5
And similarly little known about this game, between Mister Dean (also playing his first NLC match) and Jeremy Norman. A draw was the result, we’re told.
Board 6
Mister Widdicombe and Geoff Dawson met again. They regularly cross paths with the chess gods of Clubland conspiring to match them up at every opportunity, it would seem. Memories were hazy, but both players seemed to remember a pretty even record between them, with plenty of draws prominent over the past years.
Geoff Dawson recalled a pattern of often being well in charge before facing a Mister Widdicombe fightback and forcing the draw. And lo! It came to pass once more. Mister Widdicombe messed up the King’s Indian, playing on autopilot and forgetting to castle before playing e5, resulting in a stranding of his king and weaknesses to his c and f pawns. He grovelled around for most of the game, before managing to snaffle a pawn back and get to a position that was a dead draw.
Phew. Another half point for the Libs.
Board 7
Mister Sharland took on Nat Williams on the lower boards. A tough fight saw Black just nicking it.
Board 8
Miss Birrane held up the foot of the team. Ever improving, she was in control for most of the game and ended with an overwhelming position and a checkmate. Nicely played, Miss Birrane. The point was much needed!
And with that, hostilities were called to a halt. 4.5 – 3.5 to the MCC. A good, close, friendly result.
Only one thing remained to do…
Dinner
The MCC are always good dinner company.
Your correspondent was particular interested to hear the recollections of the MCC members’ various adventures in the nightclubs of East Berlin circa 1980. It certainly livened up the soup course.
