(129) Van Laar,J - Clark,P
Gosford District 2007 Gosford, 10.07.2007
[notes by Keith Farrell]

white to move The Bishop is of the wrong colour to dig the black king out of the corner. This simply adds to the frustration of being left with the rook pawn. 1/2-1/2

To help highlight the problems let's change the colour of the Bishop - and what a difference it is !

(128) Van Laar,J - Clark,P
Gosford District 2007 alternate end 1 Gosford, 10.07.2007
[notes by K Farrell]

Diagram

white to move the optimum (in this position) since white can force checkmate in 4 moves1.Kg6 [ 1.Kf6 and white will mate in 7 moves 1...Kg8 2.h6 Kh7 3.Kf7 Kh8 4.Kg6 Kg8 5.h7+ Kf8 6.Kf6 Ke8 7.Ke6 Kd8 8.h8Q#; 1.Bc1 slightly worse - it would take white 9 moves now 1...Kg7 2.h6+ Kf7 3.Be3 Kf8 4.Kf6 Ke8 5.h7 Kd7 6.h8Q Kc7 7.Ke6 Kc6 8.Qb2 Kc7 9.Ba7 Kc6 10.Qb6#] 1...Kg8 2.Bd6 Kh8 3.h6 Kg8 4.h7+ Kh8 5.Be5# *

but what if we had two wrong-coloured bishops ?

(130) Van Laar,J - Clark,P
Gosford District 2007 alternate end 2 Gosford, 10.07.2007

Diagram

white to move *

or a half-dozen (or so) ?

(132) Van Laar,J - Clark,P
Gosford District 2007 alternate end 3 Gosford, 10.07.2007

white to move 1.Bg6 Kg8 [ 1...Kg7 2.Bfc4 Kh8 3.Bhf5 Kg7 4.h6+ Kh8 5.Bce2 Kg8 6.Bce6+ Kh8] *

Gary and Allen caught up with their deferred game a couple of days later, commandeering a corner of the snooker room as the Chess Room was teeming with Bingo players.
GaryandAllenPlayDeferredRd4 (33K)
In a tough encounter Gary proved triumphant.

And so results of round 4 :
No Name             Loc  Total  Result   Name           Loc  Total

 1 John L Pascoe    1463 [3]      0:1    John Nutter    2024 [4]  
 2 Gary Losh        1449 [3]      1:0    Allen Robinson 1377 [3]  
 3 Jacques Van Laar 1317 [2]      =:=    Peter Clark    1580 [2]  
 4 Keith R Farrell  1423 [2]      1:0    Matt Donnet    1259 [2]  
 5 Michael Russell  1214 [1.5]    0:1    Duncan Bassett 1288 [2]  
 6 Neil Clark       1400 [1]      0:1    Bill Hoseman   1062 [0]
and so the pairings for round 5 is : 
No Name           Loc  Total  Result   Name             Loc  Total

 1 John Nutter    2024 [5]       :     Keith R Farrell  1423 [3]  
 2 Duncan Bassett 1288 [3]       :     Gary Losh        1449 [4]  
 3 Allen Robinson 1377 [3]       :     John L Pascoe    1463 [3]  
 4 Matt Donnet    1259 [2]       :     Jacques Van Laar 1317 [2.5]
 5 Peter Clark    1580 [2.5]     :     Neil Clark       1400 [1]  
 6 Bill Hoseman   1062 [1]       :     Michael Russell  1214 [1.5]
not that the figure in brackets [3] is the number of points (at the start of the round).
performaces :
No  Name              Loc  Score Exp. Chg*K  Rav Rprfm

1.  Nutter, John      2024 5.0/5 4.95     1 1392  2391
2.  Clark, Peter      1580 1.5/4 3.12   -16 1358  1271
3.  Pascoe, John L    1463 3.0/5 2.60     4 1447  1519
4.  Losh, Gary        1449 4.0/5 1.80    22 1552  1792
5.  Farrell, Keith R  1423 3.0/5 3.55    -6 1262  1334
6.  Clark, Neil       1400 1.0/5 2.40   -14 1417  1177
7.  Robinson, Allen   1377 3.0/5 1.60    14 1508  1580
8.  Bassett, Duncan   1288 3.0/5 2.30     7 1316  1388
9.  Shearwood, Barry  1272 0.0/1 0.00     0 2024  1025
10. Russell, Michael  1214 1.0/4 1.16    -2 1373  1180
11. Hoseman, Bill     1062 1.0/5 0.75     3 1361  1121
12. Donnet, Matt      1259 1.0/4 1.28    -3 1394  1201
13. Van Laar, Jacques 1317 2.5/5 2.35     2 1341  1341

crosstable :


No Name              Loc  Total  1    2    3    4    5  

1  Nutter, John      2024 5     13:1 12:1  3:1  2:1  4:1
2  Losh, Gary        1449 4      8:1  7:1  4:1  1:0  3:1
3  Robinson, Allen   1377 3     11:1  6:1  1:0  7:1  2:0
4  Pascoe, John L    1463 3     10:1  5:1  2:0  9:1  1:0
5  Bassett, Duncan   1288 3      9:1  4:0  7:0 11:1 10:1
6  Farrell, Keith R  1423 3     12:0  3:0 11:1 10:1  9:1
7  Clark, Peter      1580 2.5    0:1  2:0  5:1  3:0  8:=
8  Van Laar, Jacques 1317 2.5    2:0 11:1 10:0 12:1  7:=
9  Donnet, Matt      1259 2      5:0 13:+ 12:1  4:0  6:0
10 Russell, Michael  1214 1.5    4:0  0:=  8:1  6:0  5:0
11 Hoseman, Bill     1062 1      3:0  8:0  6:0  5:0 12:1
12 Clark, Neil       1400 1      6:1  1:0  9:0  8:0 11:0
13 Shearwood, Barry  1272 0      1:0  9:-  0:   0:   0: