Minor Counties League: Lincolnshire vs Worcestershire 12½ : 3½

Lovely sunny afternoon 13th of October led Lincolnshire County Chess Team to Sharnford, a nice town in Leicestershire, to fight with Worcestershire in the first round of Minor Counties League 2012/13.
Match was played in the lovely venue - Sharnford Evergreen Hall - and our team won the toss and then played well.
Match result sheet looks like that:

Midland Counties Chess Union COUNTY MATCH RESULT FORM

Section:  Minor Counties
Home Team: Lincolnshire					Away Team: Worcestershire
Venue:  Sharnford,Leicestershire					Date: 13th October 2012
Team having white on odd boards: Lincolnshire					Result reported by: Nigel Birtwistle
Board	ECF Code	Grade	Home team players’ names	Score	Score	Away Team players’ names	Grade	ECF Code
1	129719D	E197	Andrew Dyce	1	0	Peter Kitson	185	127645B
2	107734B	196	Paul Cumbers	0	1	Pavel Besedin	184	287190H
3	280840H	193	Claudio Mangione	½	½	Kevin Hurney	181	129898H
4	119629H	189	Nick Stead	1	0	Brian Turner	180	120670K
5	247736J	185	Samuel Milson	½	½	Gary Jackson	171	152157D
6	222105G	183	David Coates	1	0	Mark Bethel	169	106679B
7	118511D	180	Joe Kilshaw	1	0	Ed Osbourn	168	282451G
8	216825L	179	Harry Russell	½	½	Charles Higgie	162	129306A
9	106801F	178	Nigel Birtwistle	1	0	John Knee	155	127661L
10	116655E	171	Keith Palmer	1	0	Dave Scriven	153	233503H
11	277271E	167	Ivan David	1	0	Mike Hadley	150	160573C
12	277271G	155	Stuart MacDonald	1	0	Tony Shaw	148	248737J
13	111157H	152	Denis Georgiou	1	0	Stephen Woodhouse	U/G	127046B
14	160353L	149	Geoff Collyer	½	½	Ray Collett	143	108621C
15	113979E	147	Graham Ladds	1	0	Paul Sharratt	136	118792C
16	139887J	145	Ben Mason	½	½	John Chester	132	274837L
				12½	3½

Lincolnshire team captain Nigel Birtwistle was really happy and he expressed his feelings in e-mail circulated after the match by following words:

"Thanks to those who played in today's match.The one sided nature of our victory made the long trek to Sharnford well worthwhile...  
...So we have got off to a great start in our opening fixture but there is not much time to rest on our laurels!..."

And I could not agree more!

In full swing ...

Now I show you some pictures and games just to give you a flavour of the match.
On the top board, a new man in the Lincolnshire team - Andrew Dyce, played an Exchange Variation of Ruy Lopez and he played well and won.

A Passionate Analysis After the Game...

On the board 3, Claudio Mangione drew in 25 moves....



Nick Stead, playing on the board 4 the French Defence, launched a king-side attack and finally brutally sacrificed rook for a mating attack giving Brian Turner no chance to defend his very exposed King.

Denis Georgiou on board 13 won another important point... Board 13, game was played on 13th October... If we had played on Friday 13th I would've been a bit superstitious...




Another point was won on the board 11... I have never realized, how complicated can be to crack the Tarrasch Defence. My lower rated opponent Mike Hadley finally blundered an exchange in difficult but perhaps defendable position...



Team Captain Nigel Birtwistle, playing with White pieces, overplayed his lower rated opponent John Knee, who employed Caro-Kann defence. In Panov-Botvinnick attack Nigel had an upper hand.





In following game played on the board 12, lower rated Tony Shaw went rather wild in rather balanced and equal position and sacrificed an exchange. Objectively, this sacrifice did not give to White an advantage. On the contrary, very precise play was needed to keep an equality. Tony slipped soon and Stuart MacDonald defended himself skilfully and then he delivered the final blow...




Another very important point early in the match gained Graham Ladds on the board 15. Playing White against  Paul Sharratt, he had to face to King's Indian Defence and he managed the position very well.




Ben Mason won another important half-point drawing on the board 16.



...to be continued.