Fletcher Morrow Tournament

Ballarat Geelong Challenge

Fletcher-Morrow match 2024

The 14th edition of our annual match against Geelong Chess Club was held in Geelong on Sunday 11th August over 10 boards. As usual Geelong heavily out rated us, and we were unable to field our dream team, so a disaster was a real possibility. We lost the match 3-7, a good score in the circumstances, with Lucas Ware and Jasan Barnett scoring morale boosting wins, and evergreen Kevin Perrin and young Declan Mahar scoring excellent draws against much stronger opponents.
As has become traditional for our away matches, the team (and support crew) decamped to a local pizza parlour before the journey home.

1. Jack Smith (Geelong) – Paul Dao (Ballarat) 1-0
2. Declan Smith (Ballarat) – Reza Daneshvar (Geelong) 0-1
3. Rodel Sicat (Geelong) – Jamie Brotheridge (Ballarat) 1-0
4. Kevin Perrin (Ballarat) – Sagar Goswami (Geelong ) draw
5. Robert Di Renzo (Geelong) – Patrick Cook (Ballarat) 1-0
6. Declan Mahar (Ballarat) – Geoff Barber (Geelong) draw
7. Alex Leach (Geelong) – Paul Marko (Ballarat) 1-0
8. Lucas Ware (Ballarat) – Mio Ristic (Geelong) 1-0
9. Jonathon Tanner (Geelong) – Oscar Heawood (Ballarat) 1-0
10. Jasan Barnett (Ballarat) – Henry Musson (Geelong) 1-0

Jack Smith's report

Geelong Victorious!
Geelong Chess Club defeated Ballarat 7 - 3 in yesterday's annual Fletcher Morrow match! We brought a very heavy hitting team, with players rated 1700 or above on every board above board 8. However, Ballarat's players came equipped with their usual fighting spirit and, despite not having a few of their higher rated players on board, they put up strong resistance, with a few of their points coming from the boards on which they were the most desperately outrated!
Geelong Captain Jack Smith took White against young Paul Dao on board 1 - Paul misstepped early with a very committal advance on the kingside and Jack was able to get an overwhelming advantage early by breaking open the centre with a nasty attack against the Black king, which Paul was unable to resist. Reza Daneshvar championed Geelong with the Black pieces on board 2, against Declan Smith - a very closed game out of the Grand Prix Sicilian, this battle raged for hours, and was the last game to finish, but Reza finally was able to grind out a win.
Rodel Sicat played White against Ballarat's Jamie Brotheridge in a very closed position out of the London System - it was a tough contest, but Rodel's space advantage eventually led Jamie to crack and White wound up winning decisive material On board 4, former Country Champion Sagar Goswami took Black against Kevin Perrin in an English opening - Sagar took things in an interesting direction early on with 1.c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 c6 3. g3 h5!? and Kevin had a few problems to solve through the resulting middlegame. However, there didn't appear to be anything decisive for either player and after a while in a 4v4 + rooks endgame, the game was drawn. Robert Di Renzo, playing White on board 5, took on Ballarat Captain Patrick Cook in a Jobava London - Robert used a lot of time and got a distinct advantage early in the middlegame after spotting a clever tactic which won a pawn and left Black's position highly suspect. He did get into his customary time trouble, but was able to convert his advantage into another point from Geelong.
Joint club champion for Geelong, Geoff Barber, took Black against youthful Declan Mahar on board 6. Declan spotted a resource that forced Geoff to give up a pawn in the middlegame, and for a while Geoff did appear to be struggling as pieces came off and his pawn deficit remained. However, he was able to eventually navigate the game back to calmer waters and the game ultimately ended in a draw. Nonetheless, an important result for Ballarat, and a great result the youngster, who was outrated by 500 points!
Alex Leach, wielding the White pieces, took on Paul Marko on board 7 - the latter played quickly and confidently in a King's Indian-style middlegame. However, astute play by Alex on the queenside, as well as the defensive rerouting of the c3 knight, meant there was minimal danger for White and he eventually ground his opponent down using weaknesses on the queenside.

Mio Ristic took Black against Lucas Ware on board 8 - Mio had a tough time as his opponent won first one piece, and then another with an impressive queen sacrifice - an admirable performance by the most outrated player on team Ballarat! Jonathan Tanner had White against unrated Oscar Heawood - Black played a little passively in the Semi-Slav, and White carried out a slashing combination that left him up a queen fairly early on. Black's king was next on the menu, and Jonathan finished the game with mate.
Henry Musson took on Jasan Barnett on board 10 - he got a reasonable position out of the opening, which appeared to be a rare slav, but slowly Jasan accumulated some advantages and brought pressure to bear against some weaknesses and won a nice positional game, scoring a point for Ballarat.
Well played and thanks to everyone who participated! As mentioned by Kevin Perrin, next year's match, to be held in Ballarat, will mark the 100 year anniversary of the first ever match held between the two clubs - so, there may be some special celebration next year!