As a starting club we are still experiencing a lot of "first times". The first time we joined a Corporate tournament, first internal blitz tournament, first internal competition, etc. Last Monday (25th of September) it was time for our first external competition match. Our opponents were the Stukkenjagers B from Tilburg, who apparently already received some warning from Cesar Becx, that they might quite a strong team.
We were all set up at 20.00 at our external location (Sporthal 't Hazzo in Waalre) and nothing stood in our way to make our debut.... apart from the door to the room. It was so stuck that every time you went through it, you needed a police raid to open it... hence the blood ;).
After the opening I think all of us were doing quite ok, while Marcos was a bit under pressure on board 3 and the position of Joshua looked a little cramped as well, although still under control.
In my case... playing white, I started off with a nice gambit: The Hillbilly Attack. My opponent used a bit of a different set up than I'm used to and the evaluation bar will tell me I'm not doing completely well. But heck... I know what I'm doing :P. Alexis got a nice attack going and was soon up a rook against a bishop.
Early on in the middle game, my opponent made a mistake, which caused him to lose his bishop, while further fueling my attack. Alexis' game was going strong, surely and steadily taking advantage of his material advantage and piece activity. Marcos was struggling quite a bit in the middle game however. He was under a lot of pressure and although he was able to build up some threats. Joshua was starting to gain more space and activity and was doing quite well.
On move 23 and about 1.5 hour of play my opponent decided to throw in the towel. there was nothing left to gain from the position. Too much material was lost and my attack was still going. So nothing more to do. The game can be found here.
The opponent of Alexis started to blunder away pieces and also he had to resign. In the final position Alexis was a rook up and still having a good position and attack. The game can be found here.
Now we get to the sweaty part....
With Marcos and Joshua still busy and having won 2 games already, we were about to win the match, but both still had their challenges. Marcos was luckily enough able to turn things around for the better and end up in an end game with a piece and 2 pawns up. So this was going to be over soon. Full game can be found here.
Joshua however made a mistake, which gave his opponent the chance to create some passed pawns. Although heavily fighting for the possibility to get to a draw, after 53 moves Joshua had to resign as he was no longer able to save this. So, the final game can be found here.
With this final game finished we ended up with our first 3-1 win. So, that means that the tears are from our opponents, who had to drive back to Tilburg with 0 match points. Although they have of course been part of history in the making ;).
