We finally managed to find a team that we could beat - other teams are available

After two disappointing results, the B team finally managed to get the upper hand in a match.


Mike played Colin Searle and the opening was played at the usual breakneck speed (by Colin anyway) followed by the rest of the game being played at about 40 seconds a move. Mike managed to trade queens and left black with weak pawns. This allowed Mike to gang up on blacks d6 pawn but good defensive play by black caused all the pieces to be exchanged off leaving a drawn ending. With Colin down to his last 55 minutes, a draw was agreed. Subsequence analysis the following day indicated that the real square to attack would have been e6 rather than d6 but who can see that was a game is played at that speed!


After his last two games Phil opted to play a super solid game against Richard Dobedoe's Birds opening using double fianchettoed bishops. After One and a half hours play, there has been no exchanges although white was building up pressure on the kingside. White then sacrificed a bishop for two pawns and attempted to attack the black king. Unfortunately the position became very complex and a number of opportunities were missed by both sides in the rush to get to the time control. White efforts to generate a successful attack used up so much time that he was unable to play the ending with his remaining few minutes and had to resign when he lost material.


Dave was playing Peter Drury who used a Pirc defence. White was allowed to play a5 which effectively stopped black queen side expansion and also allowed him to establish a knight on b6. Rather than sit of his position black opted to attack on the king side with f5 but unfortunately this only allowed white to win a kingside pawn without any counter play. A second pawn soon fell to leaving black with a difficult ending to defend. Black resigned soon after the time control.


The only loss of the evening for us was in Ben's game against Richard McNally. A long complex game simplified to a double rook, minor piece and pawns ending. White initially had an extra pawn but black managed to win this through a cleaver tactic. However white always had five minutes more on the clock than black. This additional time ultimately proved decisive and illustrates that in our division the board one games can be decided on the very slimmest of margin or advantage.