Fleeced

Holmes Chapel     V     Marple B    28/11/2013   Stockport Lge. Div. 1

1 P Bennett           1         M  Fernandez  0
2 JM Turner          0.5      J Horton     0.5
3 R Clark              0.5       I Lentzos    0.5
4 M Hancock        1          S Hewitt       0
5 B Scattergood     0.5      P Kirby       0.5
6 I Bates                1         G Trueman   0

                             4.5                           1.5

A very disappointing evening in South Cheshire  where we failed to win a single game.
At around 9.00 things looked okay, I was concerned about Jamie and Ioannis but we seemed to be doing well on the other four boards and then it all seemed to fall apart.
For my part, since the summer I have been doing what have been  preaching for ages by spending any  chess time looking at endings rather than openings. It's funny therefore, that in the last three months I have misassessed more endings than in the last ten years!. Here I was able to reach a position where Ian and I both had dark square Bishops only. Ian as White had pawns on b2,b3  and on the e-h files. I had pawns on a6,b7,c5   and f -h7. I thought I had a big advantage but computer analysis shows that even with best play the position was level. Foolishly I embarked on a misguided attempt to pick up b2 with Bc1 only to suddenly see the potential of Ians Kingside play. By the time I started to understand what was going on I was already lost and although I carried on for many moves I really didn't have a chance against Ian's excellent technique.
I was too occupied with my problems to see the latter stages of the other games so if anyone wants to share their experiences it would be interesting.
To round off a dismal occasion I got home at midnight to discover I had left my fleece in Holmes Chapel........

Glenn.
.