Dorset League One: Wimborne 1.5 Poole 2.5

So with a heavy feeling of deja vu, off we drive to Wimborne for the first every game in Dorset League One for Poole CC (‘ever’ = since I have been playing here). Martin M is unavailable today so Oscar moves up to B1, Mike ‘Duggs’ Duggan to B2, yours truly trying B3 and Dragi coming in on B4.

Please read last week’s report for descriptions on Wimborne’s new club, but in short, it has a bar. Nuff said.

The match situation could not start any better for Poole as the game Oscar (White) v Ian Clark kicks of 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Nc3 g6? A tricky move order from Oscar which seemed to catch Ian dozing and 3… g6 is almost a losing move! The game continued 4. d4 cxd4 5. Qd4 e5?? (but what else? Nf6 sees e5!) and Then 6. Nxe5! And now Black is completely lost. Ian carried on bravely but hands were shaken 10 moves later.

Down on B3 I was also White v Peter Wilcocks. I wheeled out the Grand Prix Attack again as Peter always seems to struggle against it, and some error innaccuracies by Peter led to a solid plus for me. In a curious echo to Oscar’s game, I had a Nx(pawn)e5 which caused immediate collapse of Black’s position and a mating attack against a king stuck in the centre. Two-nil already! And better than that, the bar was open!!

Oscar and I decided to try the bar out and take a look at our games. Most agreeable. You don’t even need to go downstairs for a pint.

Obviously Duggs on B3 (Black) v Mark Littleton (underestimate Mark at your peril!) was thirsty as well… An interesting position has arisen from Mike’s Dutch Defence [Note: Oscar later said to me: ‘Mike plays Grand Prix Attack and the Dutch… The same old crap as you, Dave!’ Bloody check!]. Surprisingly Mark agreed to Mike’s draw offer (excellent Team player is Duggs) made with the team score in mind. No mention was made of bare knees.

Dragi (Black) v Steve Appleby (my opponent from last week, and who plays a mean game) had reached an even Semi-slav (ish) position. But a single inaccurate move put the initiate with his opponent and a dead lost endgame soon appeared. Bad luck Dragi.

(Spoiler Alert: Learning Point for the Week… Dragi’s position reminded me of a short article I read called ‘The Superfluous Piece’ (or something like that) which spoke of positions where you may have one outpost, but two pieces which would like to be there. In such situations you should obviously try and exchange one of those pieces. More importantly, if you opponent has this problem, then try to avoid exchanging one of those pieces. It seems obvious, but I have forgotten that principle before).

An so an excellent start to the season. Well done Team!

As usual, our hosts were very welcoming… And so we don’t mind the fact that we are playing Wimborne A in two weeks time at the same place AGAIN!

David Fuller
October 12, 2017