Southbourne Seagulls v Highcliffe Castles

A great match to end the Bacchus League season, played in a really good spirit as has been the intention of this league. It was fantastic to see 5 juniors in action. Many thanks to Mike Tew for being such a good sport and agreeing to play both of our two younger, and less experienced, juniors (and brothers).

Board 3 was the first to finish with a relatively quick draw between these two juniors. Eli really never found his rhythm, and despite battling for a while, lost on Board 5, so allowing Mike, and Will, to focus on their match. That was a long, well thought out game by both players. Well played Will and well played Mike.

Chris looked in a slightly better position on Board 1 but lost his focus when the robotic voice of the hearing aid of our veteran 96+ year old member, was repeatedly seeking its location. We all breathed a sigh of relief when, after 5 minutes, the hearing aid must have found its location and went silent. A draw was agreed on Board 1.

Board 2 was a marathon game, with Anuhas, initially two pawns down but a knight up in the endgame, breaking through having won an exchange. He then capitalised on his position, but not without some fight by Ron.

Many thanks Highcliffe as always.

Well done to Southbourne Seagulls for winning the Bacchus Title, with a team mainly comprising of up and coming young members. Board five miscalculated an attack and exchange which put him on the backfoot and he was unable to recover, however his brother played well and took full advantage of a clever knight fork on three pieces and the outcome was not in doubt on board 4, as he played solidly without error.
The other games appeared to be closely fought, the draw on board three was a good result for Highcliffe and the other two matches went down to the wire. All in all a good nights chess, played in a friendly and competitive spirit.