To allow teams from all the league divisions to compete on an equal footing, the cup, played over 4 boards, has a handicapping system. It used to be simple: if the difference between the teams was 1 division, the lower team got a 0.5 head-start added to their score; 2 divisions a 1.5 head-start; 3 divisions a 2.5 head-start; and 4 divisions difference gave the lower team a 3.5 head-start.
Noting that some lower teams were disproportionately strong led to a revision of rules based on the total grading of the team, and more recently to a complex set of changes based not only on total grading of the team, but also on the grading of the board 2 player.
The upshot of this is, unless you've remembered to take rules with you to a match, you can be sat there not knowing how many points you need to progress. This is what happened in our first round encounter with Forest Hall: we'd won on the other boards and just my game remained. Unfortunately, I didn't know whether a win or a draw was needed to make sure we progressed to the next round.
Playing Black I've squeezed the maximum I can out of this ending of knight vs. bad bishop, but White's passed d5 pawn is strong enough to hold the balance:
I can win the a-pawn, but it's dangerous as it lets the White king launch a counterattack. This though is the only chance to play for a win. At this stage White had about 2 minutes remaining and Black about 5. The game continued:
1 ... Kb4; 2 Kd2 Kxa4; 3 Ke3 Kb4; 4 Kf4 Kc3 (to draw the White king to the 5th rank before capturing, making the e4 pawn more dangerous) 5 Ke5 Nxc4
and now White should try 6 Kxe4! when it is Black who has to find the right moves with the Knight to stop the d-pawn and prove a draw. Instead White played 6 Bxc4? and after 6 ... Kxc4; 7 Kxe4 Kxb5 Black went on to win.
As it happens, a draw would of been sufficient. Not that that would have been in my nature anyway! I'll think about taking the rules to tonight's match.
No comments:
Post a Comment