Northumberland’s ‘Cinderella’ team wins chess FA Cup
THE North East has always had something of a “Cinderella” profile in national chess events. That’s changing now, though, thanks to a series of superb team performances that have put the region very definitely on the map.
First, Northumberland won the 2020 and 2021 National Online Counties Championships. And earlier this year, the county won the Northern Counties over-the-board title.
Northumberland (in chess terms the county
includes Newcastle and North Tyneside, plus other affiliated Tyneside clubs) have now won the over-the-board National Counties Championship – chess’s FA Cup – underlining a great team spirit and commitment.
The Open Final between Northumberland and Yorkshire took place over 16 boards on July 2 at the Dolphin Centre in Darlington, thanks to support from Darlington Council.
Yorkshire had won the Open title nine times previously in the Championship’s 114-year history. By contrast, Northumberland had never made it to the final before.
On board 1, Grandmaster Danny Gormally (Alnwick) was playing International Master Richard Palliser (York). On board 2, International Master David Eggleston (Newcastle)
took on International Master Andrew Ledger (Sheffield).
Both these games ended in fine wins for Northumberland, and they proved crucial as, after nearly five hours’ play, the match ended in an 8-8 tie.
Thanks to rules that weight the higher boards in the event of a tie, Northumberland won 51-64 on “board count” (you add the numbers of the boards you win on, and the lowest score wins).
The match was broadcast live online, with chess fans able to follow the games with grandmaster commentary provided by the English Chess Federation.
The match was too close to call until the 15th result came in: David Walker (Leam
Lane) made a draw, taking Northumberland to eight points. Thanks to the superior tiebreak, Northumberland were over the line.
The results (Northumberland first) were:
1 Danny Gormally (Alnwick) 1-0 Richard Palliser
2 David Eggleston (Newcastle) 1-0 Andrew Ledger
3 Tim Wall (Forest Hall) 0.5-0.5 Chris Dunworth
4 David Walker (Leam Lane) 0.5-0.5 Jon Nelson
5 David Mooney (South Shields) 0.5-0.5 Paul Townsend
6 Charlie Storey (Cramlington) 0-1 John Cooper
7 Graeme Oswald (Leam Lane) 0-1 Peter Gayson
8 Zheming Zhang (Forest Hall) 1-0 Xiaofeng Zheng
9 Gustavo Leon Cazares (Gosforth) 0.5-0.5 Alan Walton
10 Matthew Forster (Newcastle University) 0-1 Phil Watson
11 Paul Dargan (Tynemouth) 1-0 Peter Shaw
12 Nathan Ekanem (Gateshead) 0-1 Jim Burnett
13 William Robinson (Gosforth) 0-1 Chris Bak
14 Mike Mcbeth (Gosforth) 1-0 Leo Keely
15 Ed Dodds (Jesmond) 1-0 Douglas Vleeshhouwer
16 Marcos Caso Huerta (Gosforth) 0-1 Daniel Sullivan
This week’s puzzles are all taken from the Counties Final.