Southbourne B – Poole B 1.5-2.5

M Simons (185) – C Stanciu (168) 0.5-0.5

R Pegg (172) – M Malamatenakis (167) 1-0

J Catchpole (154) – C Sergio (159) 0-1

M Litchfield (139) – R Smith (137) 0-1

Poole B travelled to Southbourne with high levels of confidence after an excellent win in their first game of the season.

Toby celebrating his birthday in the same day couldn’t make this game, so we required the services of “Greek Mike” to complete the fantastic four. It was great to see him after almost three years. He is the same nice guy as always.

Back to chess now, we decided to play Sergio at board 3 with white pieces, and he was the first to finish, with a great win against Mr Catchpole. Sergio seems to enjoy playing white, and at the moment he has a 100% win rate this season. Not bad

Next to finish was Mike. He had a tough time against Russell Pegg on board 2. Mike’s opponent had the initiative right from the beginning, a very strong attack which started on the King’s side and it moved on the Queen’s side. Mike did his best trying to keep the flag up, but at the end he was forced to surrender. So the score at that moment was 1-1.

Two games to go, both looking even. On board 1, I was playing Martin S, a player with lots of experience, very hard to beat. After 20 moves, the position was equal , so I started paying attention to Richie’s game, my mind started thinking that the easiest thing to do is to offer a draw, and if accepted, go and get a drink and pass all the pressure on Richie. I offered a draw, Martin accepted, so job done, I left everything in Richie’s hands. I felt relieved, but I just realised that Southbourne is the only club in Dorset without a bar.

Richie playing the experienced, Mr Litchfield, both with similar grades, was the game to decide the final score of the meeting. I was very optimistic, because Richie is in top of his game, and his opponent was getting short on time. Richie managed to take a pawn advantage, and that pawn was decisive at the end. Excellent win for Richie, two more points for the team, and we finally left Tuckton club and we stopped in town to celebrate.

I took a picture of the table, we are top of the league at the moment, great start of the season. Let’s hope we can keep it going.

Thanks to Sergio, Mike and Richie for playing, and thanks to Southbourne for hosting

Ciprian Stanciu
October 6, 2018