DCL1 Poole 2.5 – Highcliffe 1.5

Onto the starting blocks, and they’re off:

B3 Mike (w), playing Christian Westrap, set up a simple symmetrical Slav position with the slight advantage of having his queen’s bishop outside the pawn chain. However seemingly from nowhere, with accurate play he quickly achieved a dominant overwhelming position, for a win in 18 moves.

B2 Nick (b) vs Bruce Jenks was notable for around a third of moves deliberately leaving pieces en pris, the players being more interested in attacking. Nick’s Qb6 on move 3 forced Bruce to defend his b2 pawn by pushing it, but this left the long diagonal vulnerable which ultimately proved decisive.

B4 Ellis (b) vs Madison Bowden. Ellis thankfully stepped in at very late notice allowing us to field a full team. Madison started with a quiet 1.b3, but pushed his kingside pawns leaving Ellis’s knight short of squares, and a few moves later it couldn’t escape and was taken.

B1 John (w) drew with James Forster. After his exploits in Albania, John was happy to share the points to get the team win.

So off the starting blocks with a great start to the season.

Nick Lee
October 17, 2023