Congratulations to the B team players, Dave Patterson, Lewis Self, Stan Johnson, Jay Steel and Michael Allen for winning the summer knock out. The competition is a handicap knock out where weaker teams receive a point start which depends on the the difference in strength between them and the stronger team. Hence with a large strength difference the weaker team can win the match by scoring just one draw.
Here are the results the B team achieved on their way to overall victory with handicap points in brackets.
South Shields B 3.5 (2.5) – 3 (0) Forest Hall A
Dave Patterson (1705) 0 – 1 Tim P Wall (2260)
Lewis Self (1660) 1 – 0 Stuart Skelsey (1893)
Jay Steel (1495) 0 – 1 John (jnr) Wall (1780)
Stanley Johnson (1458) 0 – 1 Rose Wabuti (1705)
Tynemouth 3 (0) – 4.5 (3.5) South Shields B
David Henderson (2118) 1 – 0 Dave Patterson (1705)
Paul AG Dargan (2110) 1 – 0 Jay Steel (1495)
John S Clarke (1780) 0.5 – 0.5 Stanley Johnson (1458)
Simon Matthews (1758) 0.5 – 0.5 Michael EI Allen (1405)
Semi-final
Gosforth B 2.5 (0) – 3 (1.5) South Shields B
Mark McKay (1750) 1 – 0 Dave Patterson (1705)
James McKay (1630) 0 – 1 Jay Steel (1495)
Ian B Chester (1660) 1 – 0 Stanley Johnson (1458)
Luke Fletcher (1458) 0.5 – 0.5 Michael EI Allen (1405)
Final
Gosforth A 3.5 (0) – 4 (3.5) South Shields B
David Armbruster (2132) 1 – 0 Dave Patterson (1705)
Michael J McBeth (1953) 1 – 0 Jay Steel (1495)
Mick D Riding (1960) 1 – 0 Stanley Johnson (1458)
John Liddle (1818) 0.5 – 0.5 Michael EI Allen (1405)
Top scorer for the team and scorer of the crucial draw which won them the final was Michael Allen. Here is his game from the final. It’s worth first noting that one of the chess ideas which may have come from the apocryphal “Soviet School of Chess” is that of “playing for two results”. It basically means making error free chess the priority so as to always keep the possibility of drawing or winning the game.
Michael refined this in this game to “playing for one result”. Perfectly understandable since drawing the game meant winning the match. What was rather more surprising was that his opponent copied him! Michael, feeling perhaps that the game spoke for itself, left it to the post author to add comments.