Dorset League Div 3 – Wimborne B 2- 2 Poole B – 9/2/22

I was kindly reminded by one of young bucks that I promised a detailed report of our match last Wednesday so here it goes.

On a dark, wet and windy night we found the lights of the Merley social club with the car park full  and leading to the entrance with some assurance that a social event was going on.

Once the boards were set out ( no clockgate here) and the KO whistle sounded (in my head) – we were off. Bang, bang the pieces, tick tock it went….. I had the luxury of wandering round and saying hello to Wimborne chess colleagues and the orders were taken for tea/coffee.

In a relatively short time I could see the smiling face of Leo (just 10y old) playing on Bd 4. He was  looking relaxed as one blow came after another as his H pawn marched down the board with a nice combo and sacrifice to q his pawn, swap off queens and hands were shaken. The finish was an  excellent example of how to finish off with material advantage.  The age gap between David Lane must be considerable, but a sporting David was by not going the full hog and taking more pain. Well done Leo 1-0.

However on Bd 2 Tim was struggling to hold on to a piece on the back rank and could not find a way to extricate his position and despite fighting to the end he had to shake hands and concede. Well done Stuart and so 1-1.

Two matches still going on and Zander was involved in a good match with Simon Young. The position was fairly even however there was danger on both sides with Simon taking the initiative and going for an attack. Zander fought this off and by gaining a little space on the A file with a rook and pawn. Draw’s were considered however given the match position it was best to carry on. Then bang… a slight error allowed Zander to move his pawn to b6 but was facing a further attack with rook and bishop. There were several bystanders watching trying to analyse the position and all possibilities – not sure what the general outcome would be. However Zander came up with a plan after careful consideration and decided to go for broke in a 3/4 move combo, he sacced his Q to allow the pawn advance and by doing so displacing the strong bishop – pb7 – wow – only Simon’s Q to stop it but there was no answer as the back rank was exposed to checking and forking possibilities. A simple Q move but ineffective and then pb8=Q and hands were shaken. Great stuff and finish that was worthy of winning a match. 2-1 Poole and again thanks to Simon for being very sporting when losing to his young opponent.

So all on bd 1, in what looked like a draw between Graham and Andy. However time was running out for both and Andy lost a central pawn and could not really recover, which was a shame after he had a slightly better game  So well done Graham and  the match finished 2-2, fair result.

Just to mention the players missed out on a special bonus as the ladies cookery club next door came in with an offer of pancakes to all that were available and so what a night. Great chess, seeing old colleagues and pancakes to boot!

Well done all, and could this be repeated when we return to Wimborne for our C team match next Wednesday – orders being placed in advance!

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February 13, 2022