A team suffer defeat against the league champions elect Wimborne

Our A team went down 1.5/2.5 to a strong Wimborne team last Thursday 23/3 but put a strong fight to the end in a very tense and exciting match.

On Board 3 Sergiu playing Graham Willett (179) had an even position but made a vital error when losing a pawn on the H file and this opened out the file to allow Graham to power through and win. 0-1

On board 4 Dragi making his A team debut had a very good game against Peter Wilcock managing to gain an an exchange advantage and pinning the opposing K in the corner. This advantage and power on the D file was enough and despite Peter fighting to the end he eventually succumbed to defeat. Well done Dragi – this tied the match 1-1

On board 2 David playing Ian Clark wrote the following:
A closed Scillian/Grand Prix attack set up with 5 Bb 5Ne4 led to small advantage for white (Ian) then a quick f5 (always desirable in the GPA) . A missed tactic following exchanges reversed the advantage
and going active (i.e dumping another pawn) seemed to only way to fight on. An interesting endgame with Rook and Opposite Colour bishops (two pawns down) ensued, but white managed to create a position which Black could n’t improve upon a draw which was agreed with 3 min each left on the clock. I needed a win to draw the match but playing on a win on time would not have been correct in the circumstances against such a nice guy as Ian.
so 1.5/1.5 with one game left

board 1 – Oscar vs Allan Pleasants
so, it all came down to the final game. Both players were getting close to the time controland the pressure mounted in a full board position with pieces attacking and defending. Allan found a key move on G6 with his Queen which seemed from a spectator viewpoint to do it all. Oscar had little time to find in answer if indeed there was one and immediately black gained a piece and the end was nigh.

so 1.5 Poole A / 2.5 Wimborne A – a very exciting match which almost certainly secures 1st place for Wimborne. The game was played in a good spirit and we move on with just 2 further games remaining it feels possible we will finish in a comfortable 3rd place.
Well done all for taking part.

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March 27, 2017