Dorset League: Poole B 2.5 – 1.5 Southbourne

This week you join us in the second round of matches where Southbourne travel to Poole to play their B team. With Dragi out for a home move Toby was drafted in for the home team to play up front in a 1-1-1-1 formation.

The traveling team arrived with David Bryant leading the line up with John Harris taking the captains armband. David Arorash and Ken Dixon providing the defense.

Simon P was playing in an attacking midfield position and evenly matched in a tight tussle leaving things all level in that area of the park. Simon having a slightly better board, and John having a slightly better clock. A draw was agreed. 0.5 – 0.5

Richi was playing in defensive midfield and against David got of to a bad start, allowing a pinned Knight was then threatened by a pawn, inevitably losing the piece. Showing great spirit his head didn’t drop and soon managed to trap a Bishop to level the position. With doubled Rooks Richi found a beautiful combination to shatter his opponents pawn structure by sacking his Queen and then skewering the King onto the remaining Queen. Unfortunately the side effect was Richi came out a Rook down and was unable to salvage it. Good adventurous chess and great fighting spirit, it’s what we like in the team! Unfortunate it didn’t work out. 0.5 – 1.5

Talking of fighting spirit, at the back we have Seth all in white against Ken. Another player keen to sacrifice pieces, this time the exchange. What he was able to get out of this sacrifice was a pair of lethal Knights. Take a look at the position, would you prefer the extra Rook or those two Knights??? 1.5 – 1.5

Finally we have the battle up front with Toby and David. Slow and steady up front, gaining a couple of pawn advantage, two passed pawns and the opponent’s position looked decidedly shaky. The final move was beautiful, an knight forking King and Queen which can quite easily be taken by a Rook only the Knight is protected through the Rook by a Rook. Confused? Well here’s an artists impression, may not be accurate as it’s only from memory.

I thought NxB would leave a nice solid end game and good luck stopping those pawns. But Knight to f2 is beautiful.

That final game brought the score to 2.5 – 1.5 at the final whistle.

Well played to all, 2 wins out of 2, great start.

Tarik
December 3, 2017