Francis Best, A team captain, writes:
“After the success of our match against Newport, I thought we might have a chance against Telepost A. However, they managed to field pretty much their strongest team, unlike for the earlier matches in the season (typical!) and we were missing Ed this time.
I was soon on the defensive after a dubious opening “innovation” in the Giucco Piano. Nigel and I have contested this line a few times and it has to be said he has come off better (not always as a result of the opening). Comes of being a pretty decent player, I suppose! Anyway, I saw the opportunity for a divergence from an earlier game we had played but it did not turn out well. I had to jettison a pawn (not altogether unexpected) and then the exchange but didn’t really have adequate compensation in the tactics.
Daniel faced Phil Zabrocki, who played a kind of Grand Prix attack set up against Daniel’s habitual Pirc defence. Unfortunately, Phil kept up the pressure and, in the endgame, his passed pawn proved too much for Black’s position.
Further down the boards, Peter Kitchen lost to John Bashall. Unfortunately, their game was too far away for me to have sight of it. Possibly, Peter also wants to remove it from his memory – but Peter, do make a comment, if you’re reading this later on.
Our points came from Mark, who won a nice game against Peter Crean. This was a closed Sicilian and you can see the game under the “Interesting Games” tab, or just click here.
David was sparing my nerves by “only” sacrificing the one pawn this time and had tactical chances against Matthew Clark. However, Matthew defended well, and David ended up forcing a draw by perpetual, even if the silicon monster subsequently proved he might have won. Another interesting game you can review under the “Interesting Games” tab, or just click here.”
Telepost A v Shrewsbury A
N. Ferrington 1-0 F. Best
P. Zabrocki 1-0 D. Lockett
M. Clark ½-½ D. Everington
J. Bashall 1-0 P. Kitchen
P. Crean 0-1 M. Smith
3½-1½
Yes Francis, it would be nice to erase my game from my memory banks. But there were some very useful lessons to be learned from it.
Put short, I made a mistake in the opening swapping the c pawns in the Colle – something black should never do. I then came under pressure as I tried to catch up in development, and overlooked a d5 break which should have seen me crushed.
Fortunately John misplayed the position, and I managed to reorganise and reach an almost level position. With my opponent starting to take his time and look uncertain I tried to attack him, missing an obvious tactic in response which saw my position fall apart and wasted my earlier efforts to stay in the game.
I can’t complain at the result – you can’t get away with at least three glaring errors in one game! It also showed the psychological danger of defending all night then getting play – I had seen off the worst but let my guard down.