Blayney Chess Club 2007 NSW Country Reserve Team Champions   

Even Stevens in chess clash

With both line-ups staring at matchups that have occurred frequently in previous matches, it was decided to give last Thursday’s match a new flavour with board positions and match ups being decided by a draw from the hat prior to play.

This resulted in some very interesting games being played, yet didn’t influence the result as the match ended up tied at 3.5 pts each, with Bathurst having the honour of winning on tiebreak, to continue the history of close results in these matches.

The top two boards could be the most intriguing we have possibly seen yet in Bathurst vs Blayney matches.

On board one, Ian Lincoln making a very overdue comeback to competitive chess faced up to Bathurst’s Rod McPhee. Both players must have appreciated their being vaulted into the premier position with an enthralling cut and thrust game that resulted in it being the last game to finish, with a drawn result.

Earlier, Bathurst had gotten off to a flying start, with Slavko Kojic making short work of his game against Glen Mann. One has the feeling that Glen felt out of his depth against Bathurst’s Nr 1 and made a few errors which allowed Slavko to gain an enormous advantage early which he duly converted to a nice win.

Then Brian Patten found himself in hot water against Jamie Davidson, losing a piece for negligible compensation, it was a game where only an error from Jamie could save Brian and alas for the Blayney team, it never came. Bathurst had bounded away to a 2-0 lead.

Brian Pethwick was also in similar trouble against Chris Dowling, though in this case, Brian had managed to get two pawns for his piece with some counter play for him to work with. Chris managed to negate this counter play and started to make his material advantage work for him to overcome a valiant Brian Pethwick.

Finally for Blayney there was some good news, we had a player that was on the positive side of a material advantage. John Cooper had managed to win a piece off Evan Stroeve and was slowly and surely working his way towards a win. All he had to avoid was that ever present chance of making an error and thankfully for the frayed Blayney nerves, he did. At last, we had a score on the board, Bathurst led 3-1.

Then it was back to the top boards and board seven which all had intriguing games going on. On Board Two, Karl Matiszik was belying his claims off being past his prime with a top notch game against Blayney’s regular Nr 1 Fritz Van der Wal. Karl had forced an early exchange where Fritz had to give up two minor pieces for a rook to stay in the game, but then Fritz proceeded to display some outstanding chess skill as he manoeuvred his pawns into a formation that virtually left Karl playing a piece down. This forced Karl to return the exchange, giving up two of his minor pieces for a rook to see material equality and a very level position on the board. Karl missed a chance to exchange down to a theoretical draw and Fritz seized the opportunity to go forward and press for the win. Having had the pleasure of watching this game, it ranks as one of the best games to have been played in Bathurst v Blayney matches and one hopes to see some more of the Karl Matiszik chess magic in the years to come before Father Time catches up with him completely. This result edged Blayney closer to the Bathurst tally with the lead now reduced to 1 point.

Meanwhile on Board Seven, Col Parsons and Naum Todoroski were engaged in a tussle that was also worthy of much attention. Col cleverly worked to a position where a slight error by Naum allowed him to win a knight for two pawns. Naum tried hard to generate some match winning threats, forcing Col to expend much time in working through the complications, and just when it seemed that time was going to be Naum’s silent ally, Col engineered the winning breakthrough and Naum had to concede that the game was gone. A fine game by both gentlemen, and worthy of study by all aspiring players.

While all this action was taking place, the game on Board One had proceeded with both players conniving cunning threats that would have thwarted inferior opposition easily. But first Ian then Rod continued to find the correct replies and the game finally reached that classic result of a good game, a draw. A worthy result for a fine game well played, and with it, a drawn result for the teams with both scoring 3.5 pts from the seven games played. It only serves to emphasise that these Bathurst-Blayney matches are very even contests and that no matter how you decide the exact individual games, the result will always be close. In the history of eight matches played, there has not been a single result decided by more than 1.5 points and when both teams are near to full strength, everyone’s chess ability is going to be taxed to the full.

Both clubs will now prepare for the Western Region InterClub Challenge that features Dubbo, Katoomba, Bathurst and Blayney in a series of six matches played at intervals of one match per month on a home and away basis. As an added bonus, Blayney will host all four teams in one round of this series giving local chess fans the opportunity of seeing all four teams in action on the one day and with Katoomba being the runner ups at the recent Country Teams Championship, this day should feature the absolute best chess players in the region pitting their wits against each other. But that is a little way down the track and we will keep you informed when the day gets nearer. In the meanwhile, the local club will continue to meet on Thursdays at the Bowling Club, with a slight adjustment to the starting time, the Club will now begin at 5 pm, just to allow all chess players the opportunity of coming in to enjoy a game and perhaps a cool drink or two before heading on home for tea. We welcome all players of all abilities to join us either at the Club on Thursday, or at the Library on Tuesdays 3pm – 5pm. Note that we are looking for more junior players to hopefully continue the Blayney Club’s proud heritage in the Central West Region competitions and possibly to become the first to be NSW Country Junior Champion, an honour that was precariously close last year.

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Last modified: 24/10/2008