SJC Secondary Team Final

Played at Perth on 22/04/2006

            

The four group winners from Decembers heats, held across the country, were invited to compete in a knock out final of the SJC Secondary Teams’ Championship at Bells Sports Centre, Perth, in April. Unfortunately, Ayrshire team Greenwood Academy had to withdraw on the eve of the final when organiser Stephen Taylor became ill, and the team were unable to find a replacement escort at such short notice.

Edinburgh’s Boroughmuir High School lost to St Aloysius in the morning round, and in the final deciding match in the afternoon session, North east heat winners St Machar Academy played against St Aloysius College from Glasgow. Before the start of play, it was agreed that in the event of a tie, the result of the game on board 4 would be discounted, and the result of the other three games would decide the winners. St Machar quickly built up a 2 – 0 lead, winning on boards 3 and 4. At that point, the positions on boards 1 and 2 were fairly even. St Aloysius captain Rory Chan was a pawn up on board 1, while board two was even, with both players playing very aggressively.

The board 2 game swung in favour of St Aloysius when St Machar’s Scott Thomson chose the wrong move in a difficult, critical position. Scott, playing with the Black pieces, had a powerful attack on one of White’s Bishops, pinned to the White Queen. Scott moved to attack the Queen, rather than try to put more pressure on the Bishop, but overlooked the clever tactic by Daniel Rocks, who played a discovered attack with check, winning Rook + pawn for a Bishop. Daniel then powered to victory.

The board 1 game developed into a Rook + pawns ending, with Rory having maintained his pawn advantage. Daniel Maxwell, St Machar, in a desperate attempt to equalise, managed to win back the pawn, but only at the expense of an exchange of the remaining Rooks, and in doing so, allowed his King to be drawn away from the defence of his remaining pawns.

So, the match finished in a tie at 2 - 2, but the tie-break gave the title to St Aloysius, neither side having lost a match during the championship.

SJC Secondary Team Final League Table