Your not so illustrious B team has dropped into the danger zone of Division2 after losing our midweek away match against Telford B by 3½ – 1½.
In a match that really could have gone either way on paper, over the chessboard Telford proved to be the more ruthless. Dr Ile was playing on board one against the strong Mark Keady from Brewood. Ile had what looked to me like a really attacking position, with the possibility of a knight sacrifice, which was declined, after which he was gradually worn down by his experienced opponent: 1-0.
Norman was also having a good game on board 2. It all looked pretty even to me but he unfortunately dropped a pawn and went on to lose: 2-0. The match was gone after Ivor resigned against Stefan Tennant on board 3, also after losing a pawn and facing a fearsome attack. Apologies again for a complete lack of any kind of meaningful analysis but I was having a tense struggle myself against Windsor Peck on board 4! Windsor played the Colle-Zuckertort opening and, after a tense opening, I decided to counter-attack with my Knight on e5 and pawns on f4 and d4. My opponent nearly found his Queen trapped on the h-file, while trying to find a way through my defences and was taking an awful long time doing so. Basically, I just stayed resolute, blunder free and potentially had some dangerous threats of my own.
As already mentioned, time was rapidly running out for Windsor and, after losing the exchange, I stayed calm and saw the game out: 3-1. Tony drew his game on board 5 against Roger Brown, in an endgame that he certainly could have won on time had he chosen to do so after his opponent repeatedly turned down his draw offers. Very gentlemanly of him! Final score: 3½ – 1½.
As a footnote, I would just like to add: please can all players be aware of the match score before accepting draw offers!
Ian Davies, B Team Captain