University Knockout Cup Team - 2009-10

Captain: Michael Jones

We were slightly unlucky in that the tweak to the rules this year meant that our team for the first match, despite being exactly the same as that for the first match of last season's competition, was now classed as being a division 1 rather than a division 2 team, meaning that we were forced to take on our perpetual KO Cup nemeses, Coventry A, on level terms despite a 27 point difference in the average grades of the two teams. Daniel continued his excellent run of form in holding Mike Johnson to a comfortable draw on board 4, in what thanks to the postponement of the next round turned out to be his last game for the university before moving on to pastures new, but I blundered early on and had a lost position straight out of the opening, only playing on in the hope of seeing an upset materialise in one of the remaining games. When Alex fell victim to a mating combination in the middlegame (extending Ed Goodwin's 100% record against university teams this season, which eventually stretched to three wins against Robin and one each against Steve, Alex and me before Steve finally spoiled it with a draw in the last league match of the season) our chances effectively evaporated, whereupon I resigned immediately leaving Steve to salvage some respect, taking advantage of Mark Page blundering the exchange to hold another draw.
 
In previous years that would have spelled the end of our KO campaign, but the introduction of a plate competition this year gave us a chance to redeem ourselves. All the second round Cup/first round Plate matches were postponed from their original date due to heavy snowfall which made travel nigh-impossible, but both teams involved happened to have a free week in the League schedule which enabled us to rearrange it for a few weeks later; playing a KO match during university term for the first and probably only time gave us the chance to put out a full strength division 1 team rather than the usual collection of odds and ends. With 3 points required for victory, Chris and Robin put us on target with straightforward wins, before I did my best to spoil our chances with an unsound pawn sacrifice that left my position to deteriorate slowly from 'slightly worse' to 'completely lost', before my opponent blundered in time trouble to hand me the game, and us the match, on a plate. Steve worked his way into a winning position but ran out of time, although a draw rather than a loss was the result since his opponent had only his king remaining.
 
A match in the last week of the Easter vacation is always a challenge to find a team for, with many players' thoughts turning, for unfathomable reasons, to academic work rather than to chess; on this occasion we were only saved having to default a board (which, given the two division handicap, would have effectively meant defaulting the match) by Steve roping in Louis at the last moment - the resulting combination of players yielding records for both the oldest university team (average age almost 26 - beating the previous record set in the first round match) and the fewest students on a team (one). Unfortunately Louis turned out to be rather rusty after not having played for some years, and lost quickly - thus the match was over as a contest almost before it had begun, although the remaining games were far from being devoid of any interest; Ben won fairly comprehensively, while I overlooked a combination which dropped a piece before clawing my way back into the game thanks to two connected passed pawns, eventually forcing my opponent to sacrifice his last two pieces for them to add another to my ever-growing list of swindles. Once again Steve was the last to finish, after declining two draw offers in an attempt to avoid any further ribbing for extending his sequence of consecutive draws in KO/Handicap matches, which by that point stood at six, spread over two seasons - an attempt which seemed destined for success as he forced a pawn through to the seventh rank, compelling his opponent to give up a piece for it, before winning a second piece a few moves later; somewhat contrary to his earlier comment that he'd made the draw offers "because he wanted to go home early", his opponent declined to resign even when two pieces down, but Steve wasn't going to let time trouble get the better of him again and delivered mate with a few minutes to spare.
 
Unfortunately this match spells the end of the university's participation in the KO Cup at least for the immediate future, since increasing difficulties in fielding a full team during vacations have led to the decision not to enter the competition next year. It was fun while it lasted...

Michael Jones

Date	Opponents	H/A	Res	F	A
15/12/09	Coventry A	H	L	1	3
05/01/10	Coventry C	H	W	3.5	1.75
20/04/10	Coventry G	A	L	3	3.25

15/12/09

26/01/10 (postponed from 05/01/10 due to snow!)

20/04/10