Marple B vs Stockport D: 28th April 2011

Marple B RESULT Stockport D

1 Tony Doust 0.5 0.5 A Prime

2 Jeff Barlow 1 0 R Bradney

3 Peter Kelly 1 0 G Lea

4 Trefor Thomas 1 0 Default

5 Barrie Edwards 1 0 Default

TOTALS 4.5 0.5

Well we got our revenge against Stockport D this week, with a handsome win, though their top board player this week was their bottom board player last week and they defaulted on two boards. My game was even for a long time and then my opponent allowed me a pawn fork, though it was a complex position. Anyway after multiple exchanges I came out a piece ahead. The rest is just a matter of technique, they say. A few moves later I also managed to give my opponent a pawn fork! Fortunately I still had a powerful passed pawn and was able to win after re-engaging my brain.

So that was our final game of the season and it looks like we shall finish in a respectable mid table position, maybe third or fourth out of eight. I would like to thank everyone who played for their efforts.

Stockport D vs Marple B: 21st April 2011

The B team narrowly lost against a strong team at Stockport this week.

Stockport D RESULT Marple B

1 V Rushworth 1 0 Jeff Barlow

2 J Kelly 0 1 Peter Kelly

3 M Jackson 0 1 Trefor Thomas

4 I Anderson 1 0 Roy Phillips

5 A Prime 1 0 Barrie Edwards

TOTALS 3 2

I can't comment on the other games apart Peter's on board 2, he seemed to have a massive material advantage (rook) when I first looked and I thought the game would be over quickly; not so! Every time I looked up Peter seemed to have a greater material advantage, but his opponent was reluctant to resign and played on until he was mated. I was disappointed with my game. My opponent answered my 1. e4 with his own version of the Centre Counter which lead to a very open game. He made a mistake sacrificing a piece to take my g pawn then taking my f pawn with his Queen, with check, thinking he would recover his piece or possibly win outright. My queen could however interpose and defend my knight. So I thought perhaps I was winning, but it made my game really difficult. I only had an h pawn on the kingside so my extra piece was needed to shield my exposed king, this in turn became a target. My opponent's mistake began to look like a strategically sound sacrifice! I'm sure I could have done better but as usual I had left myself short of time and managed to blunder my extra piece trying to make the time control.

Next week we have the return fixture against Stockport and an opportunity to reverse this result.

Marple B vs Urmston: 14th April 2011

The B team lost our home fixture against Urmston. They fielded a solid team evenly graded from 127 to 113 and we eventually went down 3.5 - 1.5.

Marple B					Urmston
1 Tony Doust			0	1	Keith Johnston
2 Jeff Barlow			1	0	Joe Royle
3 Peter Kelly			0	1	Jim Bradley
4 Trefor Thomas			0.5	0.5	Tim Plunkett
5 Neil Dainty			0	1	John Reyes
			1.5	3.5

Earlier I had thought we had chances of at least drawing the match with some promising positions on the boards. I was last to finish again though managed to win this one. There was a lot of cat and mouse about my game but I thought I was winning. My opponent was in serious time trouble approaching the time control and I didn't think he was going to make it. I made the mistake of playing for time pressure so when he did make the control I had to try to refocus on winning the position (as I should have in the first place). I managed to side step a draw by perpetual check and force a resignation.

We have an away fixture against Stockport D next Thursday, 21st April and a home fixture against them the following week; it's just like the Champion's League, well, apart from ........