Northumberland outgunned in Counties Final

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(Newcastle Chronicle, 5 July 2024)

Northumberland’s long journey to the Counties Championship Final ended as they were outgunned 10-6 by Surrey at Newark-upon-Trent last Saturday, despite valiant efforts against a higher rated team.

Winning would have secured Northumberland their second national title in three years. But it was not to be, as Surrey were too strong for Northumberland on the day. Surrey fielded five International Masters (IMs), versus one for Northumberland, and had an average rating of 2135 versus 2096 for Northumberland.

The match was tight until the final hour, when a collapse on the middle boards led to a comfortable Surrey victory. Earlier, Northumberland went a point ahead thanks to a wandering king – not on the chess board, but off it. Half an hour after the match started, there occurred a bizarre breach of the rules by one of the Surrey players. After playing just nine moves, Chris Briscoe went for a 50-minute sightseeing walk around the historic town before returning to the venue. Confusion was caused among both teams, as no one knew where the Surrey player had disappeared to.

Due to the risk of a player cheating by consulting a chess computer, it’s strictly forbidden under the FIDE Laws of Chess for competitors to leave the playing venue unsupervised during play. The standard penalty is that the game is forfeited, and this was the arbiter’s decision.

The Northumberland player, Chris Izod, had to make do without a proper game despite a 300-mile round trip for the match. It later turned out that the Surrey player, an experienced club and county player, had a history of going for long walks in the middle of local club matches in Surrey, but he had never been forfeited until now.

Northumberland’s other wins came from IM David Eggleston (Newcastle RGS), Paul Dargan (Tynemouth) and Yaroslav Kolodiy (South Shields). Draws were recorded by Tim Wall (Newcastle), David Walker (Leam Lane), Jack Erskine-Pereira (Gosforth) and Jounaid El Archi (Newcastle).

Scores in full:

Northumberland 6-10 Surrey
1 James Moreby 0-1 IM Graeme Buckley
2 IM David Eggleston 1-0 IM Peter Large
3 Max Turner 0-1 Gwilym Price
4 Tim Wall 0.5-0.5 IM Susan Lalic
5 David Walker 0.5-0.5 Akshaya Kalaiyalahan
6 Andy Burnett 0-1 IM Nigel Povah
7 Graeme Oswald 0-1 Mark Josse
8 Andrew Dunn 0-1 IM Chris Baker
9 Matthew Forster 0-1 Ashley Stewart
10 Zheming Zhang 0-1 Marcus Osborne
11 Paul Dargan 1-0 Danbe Luk
12 Nathan Ekanem 0-1 Phil Brooks
13 Chris Izod 1-0 (forfeit) Chris Briscoe
14 Jack Erskine-Pereira 0.5-0.5 Daniel Rosen
15 Yaroslav Kolodiy 1-0 Peter Hasson
16 Jounaid El Archi 0.5-0.5 Robert Noyce

PUZZLES

This week’s puzzles all involve a wandering king.

Puzzle A: Wall-Ippolito, 1998. White to play.

Puzzle B: Alekhine-Yates, 1922. White to play.

Puzzle C: Rasmussen-Robson, 2009. Black to play.

Puzzle D: Lasker-Thomas, 1910. White to play.

ANSWERS:

A: 1 Bxf4! (also 1 Be2!) Qxa1 2 Be2! Qxh1 3 Bg4+ f5 4 Bxf5+ Kc7 4 Qa7+ Kd8 5 Qxb8+ Ke7 5 Qxd6+ Kf7 6 Qe6+ Kg7 7 Be5+ 1-0.
B: 1 Rxg7! Rxf6 2 Ke5 1-0. If 2…Rff8 3 Rh7+ Kg8 4 Rcg7 checkmate.
C: 1…Rc2+ 2 Kb1 Nf1! 0-1. If 3 Ne4 Nd2+ 4 Nxd2 Kxd2 and 5…Rc1 checkmate.
D: 1 Qxh7+! Kxh7 2 Nxf6+ Kh6 3 Neg4+ Kg5 4 h4+ Kf4 5 g3+ Kf3 6 Be2+ Kg2 7 Rh2+ Kg1 8 Kd2 checkmate.