Poole A v Yeovil

I thought we were heading for a comfortable victory this evening! I was miles ahead after the opening but Nick scraped his way back into the game and outplayed me in the end; well played again... We were looking good on 2 but a draw was agreed with fireworks going off all over the board and most of the pieces still on - boo hiss! Darren's Wing Gambit on 3 seemed to give an awesome attack but John held on, I missed the end as I was too busy losing. Not sure what happened on 4 but again Mark seemed to have a good position when I was casually strolling around thinking I had an easy win.

Nice to chat in the bar afterwards, good luck for the rest of the season & with 4NCL this weekend.

Adam.

Off we went to Dorchester to meet Yeovil again, but this time Richie Smith was playing for the opposition, so a bit of spice there, or not? The thing is that these Yeovil guys are such a nice bunch, it almost seems wrong to play hardcore against them.

Nick, Mike, John and David (sounds like the Beatles) for Poole.

Adam Batson, Yeovil Captain and B1, commented that he felt pretty good after an hour or so looking across the boards, and he was right.

B2: Mike (W) vs Richie and rumours or a pre-arranged draw were quickly scotched with a complex open game appearing on the board. Both of these chaps have a keen eye for tactics and so anything could happen. I glanced across as Richie threatened a smothered mate combination, which was, of course, itself smothered by Mike, followed by a snap draw offer, accepted, as the tension had seemed to take its toll.

B1: Nick (B) vs Adam was, frankly, a mess for Black. Nick checked afterwards and Fritz (or similar) said -3 at move 8 and -5 at move 12. It didn't look good. Adam had a nice manoeuvre threatening to trap the black queen which caused the loss of a piece for a few crappy pawns. As well as that, Nick had hardly any time left after the dozen or so moves. But Nick seems used to these messy types of position and was able to claw back to a vaguely reasonable position where the pawns were of some use. I didn't see much of the end but the final full point to Nick was a surprise, to me at least.

B3: John (B) vs Darren at first sight looks very promising for Darren. A Wing Gambit against John's Sicilian created a visually appealing position for White with a lots of space and active pieces. Black's plan was clear: to solidify the position and get to an endgame with the extra queenside pawn(s). After a lengthy struggle, this was indeed what occurred allowing John to take the full point. An excellent game, bad luck Darren.

B4: David (W) vs Mark and I was able to get a good position against Mark's Pirc, getting e5 in first and then e6. Mark had a two d-pawns and a e-pawn but had lost castling rights, so there was White pressure but no clear win. Trading down to a R+6p vs R+5p, with Black's pawns somewhat weaker, seemed a good idea, perhaps allowing me to create further material for my three volume book 'How I Drew When I should Have Won'. In the end Mark conceded and I thought I had done a good job for once. I have to say that, when playing it through later, I found more than a couple of examples of how tricky Rook endings are. Mark and I both missed these. Good game Mark.

Result: Poole A 3.5 - 0.5 Yeovil... totally NOT reflecting the play on the evening as it could have gone either way.

Cheer guys. Nice having a drink at the bar. See you next season.
D