Marple B V Chorlton 09/12/13 Stockport Lge Div 1 Match Result

Here's the scorecard from last nights encounter-

Marple B          V       Chorlton

1 J Bentley    0.5           C Vassilou   0.5
2 M Fernandez 1.0        R Doney      0.0
3 J Horton          1.0      P Olbison      0.0
4 I Lentzos         1.0       D Owen         0.0
5 P Kirby            0.0       A Beresford  1.0
6 N Livesey          0.0      D Kierman  1.0

                            3.5                             2.5

 Your correspondent and acting B team captain found himself with an "embarras de richesses" with seven eager players and only six boards. In such a situation my only option was to deselect myself and so for the second time in sixty hours I found myself thwarted in  my attempt to play chess as my county match opponent failed to materialise on Saturday. However it is a strategy that Stephen Gerard may wish to employ in Manaus next June.
When belatedly the match started things did not proceed according to plan. Paul and Nigel both lost quite early in the evening. Fair play to Alan Beresford  he showed me afterwards just how much he knows about the frighteningly theoretical 6Bg5 Najdorf and in fact Paul succumbed to exactly the same variation as Chris Sizeland did against Alan a couple of weeks ago. Meanwhile Nigel fell foul of a vicious and very well played attack from Dave Kierman. Next John agreed a draw in a position where it was impossible to play for a win.
So it was looking a bit bleak at this point but not for the first time this season the tables slowly turned.
Ioannis had faced his own favourite defence. Having reached a position where there was no way to make progress he offered Dennis (Owen) a draw. To my surprise Dennis declined and instead embarked on a very risky winning attempt. Accurate play from Ioannis resulted in a Rook ending where he was clearly better and his usual superb technique brought home the full point.
Michael was engaged in an interesting battle with Ron Doney. After various travails a position was reached where Michael had Q+ B pawn V Q. Although the general consensus afterwards was that this was a drawn position I am not so sure - didn't Botvinnik  win an ending like this once? In any event facing Michael with twenty minutes less on the clock I wasn't too surprised when Ron lost...
So all square with one game left. Jamie had won a pawn for nebulous compensation but making progress wasn't easy and Jamie was well behind on the clock. It all came down to a frantic blitz finish where Jamie found some excellent moves very quickly and Phil ran out of time. No mean achievement as Phil has beaten Nakamura at bullet chess on the internet.
So another Marple "comeback" was complete. Many thanks to all who played.

Glenn.