Honours all even in the Derby match

Poole B gained a moral victory as Poole A scraped a last gasp draw in the much anticipated Division 1 match vs Poole B.

Being the first ever Division 1 match between our top two teams every one was aware of a special evening that was to come.

Simon Patterson came in off the bench as a last minute replacement for Dragi who was unavailable and lined up against Toby Miller on Bd 4. This was an interesting game where the position was just about equal  up to the middle game but very open.  However Simon took the initiative and won a central pawn with the opposite K open… and then took advantage on the Q side at one stage two pawns ahead. I could see Toby’s head shaking but he gave everything to recapture a pawn and then formed a slim attack. This was enough to force exchange of queens and the game developed into a opposite colour bishop endgame where Toby’s bishop had control of the queening square and closed off any winning chances for the very able Simon. Both played shook hands on the draw and I think Toby was slightly fortunate.

Good start but almost immediately on Bd 3 – John Weatherlake  was giving David Fuller a little run around.

Words from David.. Quote’ Scillian 2 Be2 progressed to an equal French set up. Unfortunately a poor move allowed Black dropped a pawn and conceded a significant positional advantage in one go and nothing could be done from that point. Later analysis identified an equalising tactical sequence for Black but this was too difficult to find over the board. White closed out the game efficiently and The Weatherman stroller rumbled on. Unquote’

So Poole B a point ahead with two games remaining.

On Bd 2 Sergiu  (Poole b) had the initiative against Mike Duggan and had a dangerous pawn eating into the Q side of White’s board. It took a solid and accurate defence to hold this and Mike who was under pressure was asking for the draw. No response Sergiu wanted more,  the game continued but Mike found a tactic to exchange and get his Q active a few moves later so another draw was offered and accepted. Again the B team had the  advantage and was asking all the questions.

So on to the final match on Bd 1 with Captain Chip (169) needing a draw to win the match for the B team playing Oscar (192) He also had the advantage during the middle game and had a pawn eating right into the heard of Oscar’s defence on G6 and it looked it may be a winning line but Oscar remained calm and found very accurate defence. You could feel the tension as Oscar countered and knew the team needed his to win to square the match.  The game continued as it developed into a endgame with chances for both as the clock was ticking and ticking faster so the the tension increased. 5 min remaining became 3 and which became 1 with Oscar ahead in material but Chip’s K was eating pawns.. we were down to seconds . 16 seconds left for Oscar 8 for Chip and bang it was done – Oscar had won. Silence. Exhaustion. Relief. Frustration.

The point was won for the A team but Chip was very unfortunate to lose and in a time scramble no one could say what was best.

Somehow the A team had scrambled a draw but the moral victory went to the B team who were out graded and put up a fantastic display. This was the first of two matches and so the return on the 4/1/18 will be much anticipated.

Well done to all players.

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December 11, 2017