B Team Champions

A very exciting final match of the season in Division 2 for our B team who were at the top of the Division level on points with Leeds B.

A quick look at the Leeds Chess association (https://www.leedschess.org/)  rules was required :-

1.6 Where points are equal, promotion, relegation and championship issues shall be decided on "total game points" (note: double defaulted boards shall not be counted towards match scores). If still tied, the match scores between the two tied teams shall settle it. If still tied, a play-off match. Players selected for a "tie break" match must have played a minimum number of four games for that team during the season.

We had a slight advantage of 1.5 game points more than Leeds B, but had to assume that they would beat their opponents Alwoodley C 5-0. This meant that we needed to win our match by 3.5 v 1.5 or higher. We outgraded Alwoodley B on every board and had the white pieces, but still a nail-biting finish.

David Wells got us off to a good start with a win against Frank Sheldrick on board 1. It sounds like David was ahead early on, but Frank fought back until David managed to finish him off.

Similar with the board 2 match where Mick Connor beat Alwoodley Captain John Hispshon which looked worryingly like Mick would have to look to checkmate John with a Bishop and Knight, but with some very good play Mick managed to keep a pawn on the board and promote if John hadn’t resigned – well played Mick.

Richard Sanger brought home the match win during a tricky game against the up and coming Angelica Rowe. Angelica had a nice attacking combination early on where she offered a sacrificial Bishop which Richard wisely declined. After this Richard seemed to have control of the game and Angelica eventually ran out of time.

Fittingly the B team Captain John Grasham secured the division 2 title when he offered a draw to Jon Jordan in their match which was accepted. It looked like John had the upper hand, but why risk the title?

Dunc was last to finish in a game that saw a Reti opening (1.Nf3 Nf6 2.b4 g6 3.Bb2 Bg7 4.c4 d6 5.d4). A very close game for the first 25 moves at which point Dunc gained the advantage until time pressure led to a blunder where he sacrificed a Bishop to remove blacks Kings pawn protection. Another blunder was to come under extreme time pressure which led to the loss of his Queen and the game.

Leeds B did in fact win their match 5-0, so we were tied on points and total game points (50 ½), which meant that the title was decided on our head to head matches where we won the first one and drew the second. Can’t get much closer than that given that we went through the whole season unbeaten.

Congratulations to all 14 players who participated in the B team this season :-

Mick Connor (Who played in every match), John Grasham (Captain - Who played in all but one due to Grimsby Town F.C. being on the telly), Richard Sanger, Duncan Stables, Howard Brears, David Wells, Bob Maltby, Paul Johnson, Rob Lockwood, Alec Marley, Ian Carrigan, Titas Lukauskas, Herbert Lockwood and Phil Higgins.

Next season Division 1!