After six consecutive defeats, Saturday's Round 7 was Avengers' final opportunity to win a match in the round-robin part of the tournament. They were drawn against the strong Wood Green team, whose average rating exceeded Avengers' by more than 160 points. Predictably, Avengers lost heavily (1 - 7 ), but the best individual result was on top board, where Adam Taylor managed to draw against GM Jonathan Speelman in what appears to be a heavily prepared game (correct me if I'm wrong!)
Round 8 on Sunday was the first of four matches in the 'Demotion Pool', to decide which two teams are to be relegated at the end of the season. Unfortunately Avengers lost narrowly by 3½-4½, with a win for Ed Player and a draw for Adam Taylor (against GM Gormally in just eight moves). David Spence recorded his second draw of the weekend.
All is not lost for the Avengers, but they will probably need to win at least two of their remaining three matches over the May Bank Holiday weekend.
Sorry Bob can you clarify what on earth you mean 're your comment above
ReplyDeleteI believe this opening is a known line and has been played many times before. Possibly Speelman deviated on move 11, but the line is known to be good for Black. I thought that Adam had probably researched this line and had prepared it for the Speelman match.
ReplyDeleteWell if he deviated on move 11 how is it highly theoretical, and actually I thought it would be a nimzo Indian and hadn't looked at this line since playing it in December against GM Peter Wells
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