Your illustrious B team got their league campaign well under way with a 5-0 whitewash over a strong Newport B team on Friday night. The inclusion of Spanish exchange student (board two), Celia Gillis, and Nigerian Doctor Olusegun Ilesanmi (board three) certainly went a long way to achieving this result. With wins from Mark Smith (board one), Norman O’Connor (board four) and me on board five, we became the first team to achieve a whitewash in the top 2 divisions so far this season. Unfortunately, Celia is only with us until Christmas but talks are underway with the Spanish Government! Dr Ile can hopefully can find the time in his busy schedule to play lots more games but we’ll see how it unfolds.
Game of the night must go to Norman for his supreme coolness under very tight time pressure to see off Chris Paul, who had lots of time left, by checkmating him with King and 2 pawns on the back rank with Norman’s rook controlling his opponent’s. Very instructive to watch how he did it: 1-0. I was playing another newcomer to the chess scene, Jaroslaw Grabias from Poland, who turned out to be a very useful addition for Newport, as he knew how to play the French Advance very well and only lost due to a blunder when he dropped a piece and then an important pawn. This is the sort of thing I do all the time, so I knew how he felt! 2-0. Celia was playing fellow teenager Athar Mehmood, who, I think must have sacrificed a piece for her g- and h-pawns (apologies for lack of expert analysis ) to make for a very entertaining tactical battle. Celia kept her nerve and complete control of things eventually to force resignation: 3-0.
Mark then continued the rout by beating Danny Griffiths on board one by creating unstoppable passed pawns at the end of a very tight game from what I could see. The first time he has beaten Danny in a league match after many years of trying! 4-0. Ile was still battling away on board three against Stuart Ross but had achieved a clearly won position by this stage and Stuart’s time ran out: 5-0.
I sadly have to end this report by officially announcing that Andrew “Lethal”Lewis has decided to leave the club and join Telepost. His reason for this being lack of selection for the team. Andrew has been a valued member of the club and team for many years and I for one am baffled at his decision. He certainly would have played many times for us this season but has made his decision so good luck to him.
Ian Davies, B Team Captain