The first round of the Armstrong started last night and for Rathmines it was the traditional A vs. B game. Rathmines A are the defending champions of Lenister, but despite, or perhaps because, this is a local derby, it is always keenly fought. Many players were missing, particularly from the B team.
First Round Results:
| Board | Rathmines A | Rathmines B | ||
| 1 |
Mel O’Cinneide |
1 | 0 | Abul Kalam |
| 2 | Daire McMahon | 1 | 0 | Michael Kennedy |
| 3 | Philip Hogarty | 0 | 1 | David Goggins |
| 4 | Derek Smith | 1 | 0 | John Burns |
| 5 | Killian Delaney | 0 | 1 | Jack Killane |
| 6 | Tony Scannell | ½ | ½ | John Crowley (sub) |
| 7 | Leon Fagan (sub) | 1 | 0 | Pat McEvoy (sub) |
| 8 | Philip Doyle (sub) | 1 | 0 | Peter Bishop (sub) |
| Result | 5.5 | 2.5 |
Mel was playing new member Abul, on board one, and had a winning position when Abul’s flag dropped. David managed to enter an endgame of queen and two pawns against Philip’s rook and five pawns after a storming kingside attack. But the queen was just too powerful to resist and after picking up several pawns in Philip’s time pressure, Philip had no option but to resign. Derek won with a middle-game attack against John’s open king. Killian miscalculated against Jack and was punished promptly.
Tony Scannell (myself) reached this position against John Crowley, after quite a see-saw battle. I had grabbed a pawn early on, but lost the exchange a couple of moves later. However, after John wasted some time picking up some loose king-side pawns, we reached this critical position:
White is winning with the forced sequence Nb7! Ke7; d8Q+ Rxd8; Nxd8 Kxd8; Kd6. Ironically, with white’s b-pawn on b3, black cannot hope to resist white’s incursion on the kingside and have time to capture the pawn too.
Instead, I stumbled with b4? and after …Ke7, black found a remarkable way to draw. (Note that Nb7 is too late now, because of Rxd7). After b5 Rc4!! (this is what I missed); b6 (Kd5 Rxc5+?; Kxc5 Kxd7; Kb6! and white wins, but black is not forced to take the knight) Rxc5+; Kxc5 Kxd7; we reached this tricky position:
In the immediate aftermath, it was felt that white would win with Kd5. But subsequent analysis (with Fritz!) shows that black is close enough to the b pawn to capture it and still get back in time to defend the kingside. He plays …Kc8!; Kd6 Kb7; Ke7 Kxb6; Kxf7 Kc5!; Kxg7 Kd4; Kg6 Ke3 and the pawn falls. In this sequence, if white tries f4 instead of Kg6, then black plays Ke4 and the pawn still falls. This shows the remarkable endgame abilities of a king moving along diagonals. Optically, it looks completely hopeless, but is actually safely drawn.
In the game, I played b7, hoping to pull the black king far from the kingside. But after …Kc7; b8Q+ Kxb8; Kd6 Kc8; Ke7 f5!; Ke6 (Kf7?? loses after g5!) Ke8; Kxf5 it is dead drawn.
