Preston 1 v Poulton 1

The sartorial elegance prize of the night went to Malcolm who was sporting a chess themed Christmas jumper.

On board four Alan castled queenside and built up good pressure with his queen and two rooks all menacingly placed on the C file. Board two looked fairly even , on board one things here looked even although Brett’s pieces were concentrated on the kingside. On board three Jakub moved his queen to g4, placed a knight on h5 and with a bishop also attacking g7, an accurate defence by black was required. In fact to play at this elite level of chess you have to have an absoloot attention two detail.

On board one white’s queen went to b7, a manoeuvre Brett described as "placing his queen offside”, meaning he could begin a kingside attack. White had to make several moves to return his queen to assist the defence and a draw resulted. Brett also failed to press his clock at one stage. Martin realised this and Brett lost 15 minutes !

Alan won a pawn on board four and when all pieces were exchanged his king was more active and was able to attack Black’s pawns resulting in the win. On board two things were still even.

On board three after parrying Jakub’s initial attack I was able to create an attack of my own with doubled rooks on the F file and a pawn advance in the middle. Both players were threatening mate and it seemed it would come down to whoever made the first mistake.

“ Chess is a struggle against the error “ GM Johannes Zukertort

Jakub had 12 moves to make in 5 mins and just made the time control but his king was badly exposed and I was able to force it into the centre and with mate next move Jakub resigned.

After an exchange of pieces on board two Malcolm emerged a pawn ahead and this was enough for the win.

Poulton ( as always) put up great resistance tonight and would have been even stronger if Ben Fearnhead had not gone down with sickness at the last moment. My thanks to them for a competitive evening.