Match Details

Match Report

Author:  Phil McConnell

Date:  4 Feb 2016

South Hams scraped a narrow victory over Newton Abbot.

Tony was first to finish. Nandaja spotted that Bh7+ would produce a discovered attack on Tony's unprotected Queen on d5, and so Tony lost his queen for a bishop at an early stage in the game. Tony struggled on bravely, but there was no way back from this material deficit.

Next to finish was David. According to David: "I thought I had the better or an unorthodox opening. I had a bit of an attack going, but it came to nothing and I ended up on the back foot. My opponent missed a winning move - he took a pawn with a bishop instead of a pawn; if he'd taken it wiht the pawn he'd have won the game. After that it was a battle of attrition."

Next, Ben looked at my position, and on the basis that he fancied my king side attack, he offered Jacquie a draw. I didn't share Ben's confidence in my attack, however, and when Ben and Jacquie eventually agreed the draw, he just smiled at me and whispered "No pressure, Phil...".

Fortunately, my opponent miscalculated and I ended up with 2 rooks and 5 pawns against a rook and 7 pawns. I very nearly messed it up though - by grabbing pawns I allowed my opponent to advance two pawns to d2 and e2! I was able to sacrifice a rook to clear off these two pawns, leaving my a, b and c pawns (supported by a rook) with a clear run towards the 8th rank which my opponent's rook couldn't prevent. Tense game, though (and time was getting very tight after 50 moves), with lots of good and imaginative play by my young opponent.

So, we bounced back from Monday's defeat with a good won over a strong team.