Richmond hosted Sussex U14 at Orleans Park School on Sunday, 27th April.
All the games were broadcast live on lichess.
The official SCCU match report can be found at: https://lms.englishchess.org.uk/lms/fixture/93158.
Board 1, Ethan Bogerd won the toss for Richmond, and chose for the team to play with the White pieces in the first round, which then started shortly after 13:00. Lila O’Neill won quickly on board 12, a good augury, and the round was eventually won 7 – 5 by Richmond.
The most exciting game of the first round was undoubtedly Oscar Frydman-Orsteen’s mating attack. He managed to announce checkmate when it wasn’t, blunder into a lost position, and then finally deliver mate in a rather aesthetic manner.
This was a great game to follow – a tense, nerve-wrecking bloodbath, played fearlessly by both players, right down to the final seconds on the clock. The missed tactics in the final drawn-out struggle for checkmate testified to the difficulty of the position, and at least as much was seen as was missed, and great creativity was displayed.
Bravo to both players, Oscar and Rose!
The second round started with some swift wins for Richmond on the lower boards, but a flurry of losses in the middle order left the result of the match depending on the last game, on Board 3, with Sussex’s Harry Morter needing to win with the White pieces against Richmond’s Yichen Xiong. That looked very unlikely as Yichen had been pressing hard for a long time to convert a winning position. After Harry’s 59. Rc5+, they reached the position in the following diagram:
One can see a clear plan here in 59… Kf4 60. Rc4+ Kg5 61. Rc1 Bh2! taking away the g1 square from the White king, when the threat of Rf2+ will win White’s g-pawn, after which the win should be fairly straightforward.
However, the game took a sharply irrational turn. Yichen continued 59… Ke4 60. Rc4+ Kd5. (Putting the king on the same colour as the opponent’s bishop should always be a warning sign.) 61. Rc1 and now followed a horrendous blunder 61… g5?? Harry immediately played the obvious fork 62. Bc4 to win Black’s rook, and to all the world it seemed as if Sussex had managed to find the equaliser in the final game.
Many players would have resigned at this point, but given the match position, Yichen played on. Twenty minutes later, Harry exchanged compliments with an equally shocking blunder on move 98:
98. Bc4?? giving stalemate ½-½
So the second round was won by Sussex by 6½ – 5½, rather than 7 – 5, and Richmond narrowly held the match with the score 12½ – 11½.
A great day was had by all. I would like to thank the young players for their enthusiastic participation, the Sussex organisers, Neil Rodrigues and Steve Merchant, for putting together an excellent Sussex team. I would also like to thank Joseph Williams for helping to set up and pack away. Finally, I would like to thank the staff of Orleans Park School for allowing us the use of their premises and the support of their staff.
