Essex Summer Rapid Knockout 2024

EKB

Played 16 July 2024, at Wanstead

As tight as they come. A good day for Black. WANSTEAD B won the toss and chose Black on odds in Round 1, with the theory of taking the majority of Whites in R2 when they would know what they have to do. Winning R1 with the majority of Black games might therefore be viewed as a bonus. The downside is that BASILDON benefited from the same reverse logic and won R2, by the same score, with the majority of Black pieces. BASILDON’s wins on the top three boards sealed their tie-break advantage. Radu’s double over Terry against the ratings was the pivotal performance.

The story of R2, however, shows a BASILDON steal. Board 1 had Ian better out of the opening, but the game turned on a moment of “chess blindness”. Ian picked off David’s a-pawn on a7. David’s response, …b5 attacking Ian’s queen also discovered an attack on Ian’s a7 bishop. But the simple response axb6 ep would leave Ian a pawn up with the better game: in the post mortem David conceded that after axb6 ep he would be losing. Inexplicably, Ian totally missed the ep capture and let the piece go for two pawns.

WANSTEAD’s only win in R2 came on bottom board, so with the draw on Board 4, they needed at least a draw from the last game in play on Board 3. A double-edged queenless middlegame with Istvan a pawn to the good and with advanced central passed pawns had the crowd enthralled (no-one had left). It looked good for WANSTEAD, but against the clock, now at blitz speeds, it was a different picture and with a marauding rook Arunas chipped away at Istvan’s advantage. The game turned when Arunas picked up the exchange, Istvan’s rook having been en prise for some four moves – apparently neither player had time to notice it. Even then, with reduced material and still with the passed pawns, it seemed that Istvan had enough for the draw, but it was not to be. Arunas stole the win and BASILDON were in the Semi-Finals.