Friday 4 October 2013

Braunstone 6 v Wigston 6
Barry Read 0.5 0.5 Paul Winterton
Qiyuan Chen 1 0 Grant Hammond
Paul Martin 0.5 0.5 Paul Martin
Ian Barker 1 0 Darren Poulacheris
 
A disappointing 3-1 loss to Braunstone. Being involved in my own game, I can't really comment on the other's games unfortunately. I could see Grant's board and could see that it was a French Defence game, as was mine, but Grant made a mistake in the middle game he said. That was a loss to a promising young Junior there Grant, unlucky. A good draw on board 1 from Paul and a loss by Darren on board 4. I had a slight advantage out of the opening in my game, but Paul did really well to defend and in the end managed to turn it round so that I was defending. I envisaged a slow and painful steamrollering queenside attack, then at the 30 move time control, I was offered a draw. We were both cautious in our first game of the season and agreed the draw. I think I may have broken Paul Martin's hand when I shook it!
 
Wigston 5 v Syston 3
Nik Chalashkanov 0.5 0.5 Robert Stone
Charles Eastlake 1 0 **default**
Barry French 1 0 Peter Cresswell
Barrie Cooper 1 0 Stuart Hollingworth
Frank Hulford 0 1 Mo Martin
 
An excellent 3.5 to 1.5 win. Well done team! Before I disappeared for friendlies, I was able to cast a beady eye over the lot of you. I guess that Charles was first to finish when his opponent failed to show. Syston had a contact number that was a number too short so they couldn't even get hold of their absentee! Nik was second to finish, again fairly quickly when almost all of the pieces were off the board and there was a race to pawns Queening! They Queened at consecutive moves and they agreed a draw. During my friendlies I had regular reports of positions and results. We congratulate Barry French on his first league game and indeed his first win for the club, although post match analysis says that Peter missed an interesting (ahem, winning) Knight move. Well done Barry! Good on club president Barrie Cooper aswell, marking his first game of the season with an excellent win over the Syston 3rd team Captain, well played. Unfortunately we did lose a game on board 5, I didn't see much of the game but Frank was a little unlucky after having a decent position. Never mind Frank, the team won which is the most important thing.