Dorchester C v Poole B

The rain lashed down as we peered into the darkness along Six Mile Straight. The journey to Dorchester often seems to be like this. End of moody intro.

I had been drafted in at short notice because my current grading allowed it, but mostly because I had a car. Ellis had planned to make his own way on his moped; he would still be on his way if that plan had been invoked.

So, myself, Tim Joyce, Ellis, Steve vs Paul, John, Andre, Andy.

B3. Ellis (w) and Andre kicked off as if playing a ten minute rapid game. Ellis soon had more space as can be the case with the London. An error by Black on the queenside lost a pawn and left White with a strong centre. An earlier Bxg3/hxg3 exchange had opened the h file allowing a nice Bxh7, Nxh7, Qh5 tactic with mate to follow.

B4. Steve (b) and Andy were playing a cagey affair, all interlocking pawns and piece exchanges, you know the sort of thing. Just when it looked COMPLETELY drawn with R+5p vs R+5p, Steve dropped a key pawn. The Rooks came off and then Andy dropped a key pawn back. So K+4p vs K+4p. We wanted to get away quickly and so I didnt really see the final position, but the draw agreed might have had more to do with relief than whether one or other of the Kings had the opposition.

B2. Tim (b) and John started peacefully enough but a piece disappeared from the board too early for John's liking. The rest of the game was simply Tim forcing exchanges with no counterplay possible for White. The resulting B+6p vs 6p endgame was even within my technical ability and Tim of course secured the full point.

B1. David (w) and Paul. A dour struggle. An exchange Caro. I struggled to further improve my better position during the game but the mandatory 'lets see what Fritz says' post mortem showed that I had played ok. With the match score already settled and further rain forecast, I offered a draw which was accepted.

So Poole 3-1 which was probably a fair result.

It didnt rain much on the way home, but there were enormous puddles!

DF