Match Reports: B and D teams in glorious action (21 March)

The onward march of the B team continued with a comprehensive win against Cabot. We started the match 1-0 and very (very) quickly went 2-0 up. Stuart got into a pickle in the opening against James on board 5 and after five moves (1.e4 e5 2.c3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nxe4 4.Nxe5 Qe7 5.Nf3 Nxc3+) the game was done. We’ve all done it at some stage. John managed to recall an even quicker victory back on 22 March 1987. Rob made it 3-0 shortly afterwards by winning on board 1. This one took 15 moves. Alastair was probably better in the opening but couldn’t consolidate the advantage and the game ended up in a position where white could win a pawn but black had a lead in development. There then occurred a tactical sequence where Alastair got his move order wrong and Rob was able to skewer white’s rook and win at least an exchange. White resigned. So James is now 7 out of 7 in division 2 and Rob 9 out of 9. Those are reasonable stats.

John and Robbie took the scoresheets up to the move 21 on board 2. John was less than satisfied with where his pieces were but following a capture with a forced reply he offered a draw and Robbie agreed even though he was possibly slightly better. Match won 3.5-.5. Shortly afterwards Mike and Richard also agreed a draw on board 3. Not even 9pm and five out of six matches finished leaving just Nigel and Loni on board 4. Under some pressure Loni had given up a piece on move 31 but he kept Nigel honest and made him play on to move 58 and past 10pm but the game result was never in doubt.

So 5-1. Very satisfactory.

The D team had a convincing win over Harambee in a top of the division show down. We were, as with the B team, aided by being 1-0 up at the start. Graham won first then Kana followed soon afterwards to secure the match leaving Joaquim and Lloyd playing for pride. The game lasted the distance with the middle game revolving around whether white could play d5 to open the board. In time pressure black blundered a knight but fortunately white was also in the red zone and Joaquim’s two advanced passed pawns were able to beat a bishop pair with Lloyd missing drawing opportunities. So 4-0! A fine evening all round for the club with the B and D team marching lock-step to glory.