Dorset League – Southbourne v Poole B

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen and welcome to the post match show. We have a cracker for you this evening with drama, blunders, promotions and pawn pushes.

Southbourne is at home to a travelling Poole B Dorset League team who are coming off the back of defeats individually and as a team and today we have an aggressive line up guaranteed to bring some attacking chess.

Firstly Tarik on board 2 playing Frank Hamilton-Taylor looked to be getting hemmed in so opened up the position happily doubling pawns to create a strong outpost on e5 with a same colour Bishop to support and Pawns to aid. At this point an offer of a draw came from the Southbourne player and was refused. Way too early in the night for a draw, need to get some drama in first! With that Frank looks to double his Rooks and bring them down, a cunning plan is hatched to potentially trap the Rook…unfortunately he could just take a Pawn to get out of it.

Meanwhile Dragi has pressure and Pawns pushing quite high but nothing breaking through so his opponent offers him a draw. Dragi leaves for a cigarette break.

To my left Richie is White playing against David Arorash and has a great attack on the Queen side, giving up a Pawn on the a file to take the last of Dave’s Queen side pawns leaving two past pawns, surely that’s enough?

Adam is playing against a very solid Paul Sandy and is putting on the pressure.

So, back to board 2, two pawns down, Southbourne’s White pawns have a nice 3-Pawn diamond right in the centre of the board, a Bishop each but Black’s Bishop has lovely central control. Take a look at the below position and see what you think.

Dragi is offered a draw again. Dragi doens’t like this. Dragi doesn’t like being offered draws. Dragi is making a catchphrase of it. I didn’t quite hear, but I get the gist that Dragi didn’t accept the draw. Instead he finds a gap for his Queen to infiltrate the enemies Pawn structure, does that spell disaster?

On Board 2 it somehow resolves as a Bishop and King against a King for a draw as the first result.

Now we look more closely at board 1 and Dragi not drawing. Suddenly the three pawns around the Black’s King are White. Surely they should be Black Pawns? Dragi pushes and gets a Queen proudly announcing checkmate! His opponent takes a Pawn. Dragi tries again and this time it’s agreed to be checkmate.

Down on board 4 we have Adam, and to quote Adam “I was in a winning position until I lost”. It was a strong position throughout, but nothing fatal, and the final exchanges left Southbourne’s player in a stronger position and won endgame. Not often Adam is beaten, but let’s hope the rest of the team can make up for that result.

So now it’s all level, win for Dragi, draw for Tarik, and loss for Adam. 11 people all crowded round Richie’s board against Dave. Live streams being tapped away, remote analysts offering their input and I’m sure there must of been a big screen in the next room with the match on it. At this position we’re hoping Richie can find the right moves.

It seems to be the right moves, getting closer to Queening, lets one of the Pawns go, the clock is somewhat uneven, Richie has 20 minutes left, Dave has about a minute. Soon enough the flag drop and Richie claims the win for Poole.

2.5 – 1.5 in favour of Poole B. Well done!

This is the penultimate game of the season. 3 points ahead of 2nd place Wimborne. They have two games and we have one. It all comes down to the very end, it’s all going to the wire!

Tune in again in two weeks to see how it all plays out.

Tarik
April 27, 2018