Brown Jack Chess Club

 4NCL  03/04 -  Division 4

 Jun 04 - Rounds 10 & 11

Brown Jack's season ended in seemingly cruel fashion with a loss

to Mindsportsltd.com 2 (2½- 3½) in the final round. This dropped

the team from first to fourth in the division, and therefore out of the

three promotion places.

In the penultimate round Brown Jack recorded their third best result

of the season, beating Notts. 4½- 1½.  Dan Hall missed a win early

on and eventually lost a drawable ending, just as he did the following

day. Both games went over five hours, a new experience to Dan and

tiredness was clearly a significant factor in marring a promising debut.

Peter Richmond with his sixth and seventh blacks of the season held

out for two draws. Richard Haydon, Johnathan Bourne and David

Tomboline all recorded good wins. This gave David a three part FIDE

rating at 2173 and turned Johnathan's disappointing five game partial

at 2014 into a respectable six game partial at 2075. As Cambridge

only won 4-2 Brown Jack were now top of the table by virtue of

having won their individual match.

In the final match Richard quickly put Brown Jack ahead with a

crushing victory. David Bareham then overlooked that he had a way

to escape perpetual check. Tim's initiative petered out, and with

Peter having drawn Brown Jack were one up with two to play. David

Tomboline thoroughly out-played his opponent but blundered to his

first defeat in the 4NCL. Dan's blunder was unimportant as even a

drawn match would have left Brown Jack fourth.

Looking at the 'big picture' of the season, the three promoted teams

significantly out-scored Brown Jack in total game points and in their

matches against Brown Jack they made several fatal blunders. It

can be argued that the misfortune that Brown Jack suffered in

rounds 9 and 11 balanced their good fortune in earlier rounds.

Thanks to Peter Richmond for the report

Brown Jack 4NCL 03/04