Saturday 14 December 2013

12 DecWigston 6vAshby 4
5½ - ½
1B107Cooper, Barrie1 - 0Page, Peter107
2W111Winterton, Paul½ - ½Brown, Mick87
3B110McKiernan, John1 - 0Williams, Richard86
4W109Hulford, Frank1 - 0Roberts, Neil80
5B104Vaughan, Ben1 - 0Nicholson, Brian59
6W69Dean, Simon1 - 0Holmes, Stephen54
 
A fantastic win team, well done to all of those that played. Firstly, I should apologise to my team on the night. I am sorry that we had the wooden boards without any lettered/numbered squares. Basically, as Frank and Darren are only too aware, I was running late and I wasn't there to set up. The team had changed somewhat from my initial team but we achieved an excellent win nevertheless. The reason for the change was that Grant phoned me to say that he wasn't up to playing, but would play if necessary and I owe big thanks to John and Barrie for stepping in at the 11th hour last night. Due to finishing work late, I couldn't pick Darren up, so Barrie filled in. Anyway, to the match: -
Simon won first against his opponent who decided that because the squares weren't marked, he wasn't going to write moves down. Simon - I consulted the rule book and he should have had a time penalty for this and if your game had gone to 30 moves (which it didn't), you would have made him write the moves down using your score sheet in his own time. Anyway, the game didn't get to 30 moves as Simon pounded his opponent with some of the best chess that I've ever seen him play. Well done Simon!
Second to finish was Frank, who's opponent slightly miscalculated a Queen exchange as Frank's capture of his opponent's Queen was with check and after the King move out of check, Frank moved his Queen out of harm's way, winning a Queen for a Bishop. Frank then traded a few pieces down and his opponent had enough and resigned. Well played Frank.
Next to finish was me, with my first win of the season. My opponent allowed me to fork a Bishop and Knight with a pawn and again, after the material advantage, I traded down winning a couple of pawns. I then Queened my b pawn for the win.
John was next to finish, another excellent win, but not in the cleanest way this time. John had the slightly better position and his opponent, by his own admission, touched the wrong piece. John rightly pointed out that he'd touched it and it looked like the bishop he touched was guarding a Rook and it had no legal move to continue guarding it, so he resigned. Well done John.
Next was Barrie, Barrie is doing a sensational job this year and another win for him. I didn't see the final position, but another excellent win for Barrie, well done.
Last to finish, and with all of us watching him, was Paul. It looked a very precarious position, both had doubled Rooks and Paul's opponent's Knight was hopping around the board with annoying effect. It looked a little drawn if material was level, but Paul was two pawns up and Nik had an opinion that if he traded down, which could have been possible, Paul could have had a winning chance. To be fair to Paul, he asked me the match score and we were 5-0 up with his to play. I think Paul offered a draw because we had won the match, well done Paul and well done everybody, a very pleasing result!
Ben Vaughan