[photos, games, pgn]

After the report on the last round, Seanus goes in search of the lost round.

Dear webmeister

I can’t help noticing the gap in the Oxford archive for January 2010 — has your columnist lost his notebook, last seen here…:

or is there some more subtle reason waiting to be revealed?

Yours etc.

Gary

Dear “Gary”

Normally we’re the first to hold our hands up after getting pasted on both days of a 4NCL away weekend — and the phrase “it’s a fair cop, guv” covers all the relevant nuances of our performance. This time around there were so many possible excuses for defeat:

• team members at a wedding,
• opponents using notes (see above),
• team drinking exercises on the Saturday night,
• team members returning from a wedding

not forgetting “team member getting married”— that plunging straight into analysis seemed a little bit unkind. And quite difficult also, as we had a fearful hangover and the notebook made no sense after about Sunday evening. So, for the moment, here’s a picture of the team in the days when it cared about physical fitness:

and some game positions will appear in due course. Any player wishing for clemency will know where to send the cheque.

Round 3

		PRIDE AND PREJUDICE		7 - 1	OXFORD 1
1	w	Rowson, Jonathan W	2579	1 - 0	White, Michael JR	2227
2	b	Hebden, Mark L	2503	1 - 0	Milovanovic, Aleksander	2246
3	w	Flear, Glenn C	2497	0 - 1	Rawlinson, Aidan M	2207
4	b	Emms, John M	2484	1 - 0	Eckersley-Waites, Tom	2247
5	w	Ward, Chris G	2431	1 - 0	Dickinson, Tim R	2151
6	b	Grafl, Florian	2426	1 - 0	Tidman, Sophie E	2110
7	w	Hunt, Harriet V	2452	1 - 0	Burt, William	2162
8	b	Auckland, Elliott	2010	1 - 0	Nitz, Tomos	2090

Elliott Auckland and Claire Summerscale write:

This game was essentially decided by the overwhelming strength of Pride & Prejudice, who heavily out-rated Oxford on seven of the eight boards. The score-line followed the statistical predictions, however, in not the manner expected, as Aidan Rawlinson picking up a strong win against Pride & Prejudice debutant Glenn Flear and I (EA) picked up a rather lucky win to balance the statistics.
This victory pushed Pride & Prejudice to the top of the league, a nice position to be in before the crunch match against WGHK 1.

		KJCA KNIGHTS		0 - 6	OXFORD 2
1	w	Clanchy, Nicholas	1858	0 - 1	Stembridge, Ed	2066
2	b	Murphy, Conor	1794	0 - 1	Jackson, Gary C	2034
3	w	Kalid, Raphael	1786	0 - 1	Scott, David A	2058
4	b	Reddiar, Gautham	1746	0 - 1	Rawlinson, Christopher JA	2048
5	w	Davis, Alexei	1730	0 - 1	Ludbrook, Matthew	2011
6	b	Paul, Barnaby J	1610	0 - 1	Neatherway, A Philip	1922

		OXFORD 3		1½-4½	SUSSEX SMART CONTROLS
1	w	Vikanis, Georgs	1978	0 - 1	Oates, David R	2159
2	b	Terry, Sean	1867	0 - 1	Grant, David J	2020
3	w	Langham, Rod E	1786	½ - ½	Jones, Chris	2070
4	b	Wang, Maria	1677	0 - 1	Michaud, Gerald	2066
5	w	Wang, Anna	1698	0 - 1	Payne, Matthew J	1871
6	b	Henbest, Kevin B	1746	1 - 0	Burch, Jonathan G	1770

Round 4

		OXFORD 1		2½-5½	CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY 1
1	w	Rose, Matthew	2282	0 - 1	Dearing, Edward J	2406
2	b	Savage, Ben DM	2296	0 - 1	Pinter, Gabor	2349
3	w	White, Michael JR	2227	½ - ½	Mah, Karl CC	2417
4	b	Rawlinson, Aidan M	2207	0 - 1	Bisby, Daniel L	2297
5	w	Milovanovic, Aleksander	2246	½ - ½	Moskovic, David M	2307
6	b	Dickinson, Tim R	2151	½ - ½	Churm, Rohan M	2167
7	w	Tidman, Sophie E	2110	½ - ½	Spencer, Carl J	2136
8	b	Nitz, Tomos	2090	½ - ½	Chevannes, Sabrina L	2062

Elliott Auckland and Claire Summerscale write:

In this varsity match, ratings suggest that the score-line should have been closer, however Cambridge triumphed on the day thanks to their titled players.
Ben was Savaged by Gabor Pintor's Scotch opening! Here Black had probably overlooked 19. fxe5! Qxa3 20. Bxf7+ Ke7 21. Rad1! when all roads lead to mate.

		OXFORD 2		1½-4½	BRISTOL 2
1	w	Stembridge, Ed	2066	0 - 1	Humphreys, Jerry G	2082
2	b	Jackson, Gary C	2034	0 - 1	Ponter, Ian P	2046
3	w	Scott, David A	2058	0 - 1	Schofield, Oliver	1962
4	b	Rawlinson, Christopher JA	2048	½ - ½	Stewart, Joseph	1994
5	w	Ludbrook, Matthew	2011	½ - ½	Hardy, Roger	1999
6	b	Neatherway, A Philip	1922	½ - ½	Bromilow, Edward T	1922

		BEAUTY AND THE BEASTS		2 - 4	OXFORD 3
1	w	McCullough, Simon L	1986	0 - 1	Vikanis, Georgs	1978
2	b	Carpenter, David J	1983	½ - ½	Wedge, David C	1954
3	w	Davies, Matthew	1956	1 - 0	Zhang, Marco	1938
4	b	Foster, William E	1800	½ - ½	Terry, Sean	1867
5	w	Sivakumar, Athman	1818	0 - 1	Langham, Rod E	1786
6	b	Corcoran, Gary	1866	0 - 1	Henbest, Kevin B	1746