The Battle of Bellevue Hill
The Battle of Bellevue took place on Friday 6 September with Cranbrook looking to retain the trophy after their crushing 10 – 5 win in 2023. The boards were set and the battle commenced….. Unfortunately, our luck ran out and a forfeit point was all Scots needed to take out this years’ title
LIVE REPORTING:
0-2: After the forfeit, the intermediate (YR9-10) Board 5 lost a game in a precarious opening.
1-2: After seeing the points climbing for Scots, the intermediates and the juniors began to concentrate a little more. With a win from Alex Benz in the Seniors, we commenced our comeback!
2-2: The next result of the match was an exciting one! Edward Jonkman (YR 7) set the board on fire, winning a piece in a tricky combination. Edward Jonkman converted the endgame and scored another point for Cranbrook!
2-7: As the fight raged on, Caleb Dasey, Paul Graebner and Bo Campion, our top 3 senior boards all lost tough games against the well prepared Scots team. Meanwhile, in the Junior team, we saw unfortunate losses by Alex Kitto and Maurya Mehta, on boards 2 and 3, facing some strong Scots players. Alex Kitto played a sharp game, sacrificing the exchange for position.
The pressure was now back on the intermediates and juniors. Every game from now would count. One win from Scots would end the match. At this point, there were four ongoing games in the intermediates, one in the juniors and one in the seniors. In the next 15 minutes, we saw the impossible happen. Ewan Walker, the intermediate Board 4 had blundered a piece in the opening and it seemed like it was all over. However, his Scot’s opponent had miscalculated a simplification in the endgame and Ewan (Y10) capitalised on it, completely outplaying his opponent in the endgame.
3-7 : The final game in the Juniors was promised to be an exciting clash. The time control in the juniors was 25+10, oddly short for the Battle of Bellevue Hill but that just meant a more intense endgame! The Scots opponent was losing but had an idea in mind… to get our Cranbrook battler, Ethan into a position where he would have to execute a bishop and knight mate with little time. However, Ethan expertly navigated the endgame and defended his pawn while simultaneously edging his opponent’s king away from his own pawn.
4-7: There were now four games remaining, 3 in the intermediates, (William Hambly’s on Board 3, Rupert Rust’s on Board 2 and my own on Board 1) and one in the seniors, (Board 5 – Cameron La). We could not afford to lose a single game. Things were looking up as Wiliam Hambly had a crushing advantage in his game and Rupert Rust was correctly navigating a pawn endgame. In my own game, I had a tricky position but I was clearly winning. The next half hour saw Rupert Rust winning his game clinically and me crushing my opponent with still 38 minutes on the clock.
6-7: It was a comeback for the ages! We were going under the presumption that William Hambly would win, meaning that the deciding game would be Cameron’s on Board 5 of the Seniors. Cameron had dropped a piece, but hope was alive for a counter-attack as Cameron had placed his bishop on an incredibly strong diagonal with ideas of swinging the rook to the back rank and checkmating him. However, he was low on time, and Cameron unfortunately hung his queen. With that being made clear, the match was over, no matter the result of the final board.
6-8: Soon after the loss on Seniors Board 5, we had a final hurrah with a win on Board 3 by William Hambly, who demonstrated excellent conversion skills.
Final Score: 8-7 (Scots Wins)
This was the closest result for a number of years. Cranbrook had won the cup in 2023 for the first time in a decade, losing to Scots by huge margins. Cranbrook is competitive and closing the gap – Scots be warned!
If you’d like to support the chess team in winning this historic chess competition, be sure to join the Chess Club lounge – every lunchtime in S1.1.
Next Years Battle of Bellevue will be hosted by Cranbrook, in V4.09 from 3:30-5:30pm, Term 3 2025!
Will Wenderoth
Year 10 Student