Poulton 1 V Lytham 1

Comment for organiser

On board 2, Paul blitzed out his first dozen moves, and appeared to have a promising position with John's king trapped in the centre for a while. But John found a stubborn defence and the game fizzled out in a draw. On board 4, both players, but especially Andrii, got behind on the clock and had a handful of minutes to make the first time control with still ten moves to make. This happened as white opened up the position, with major pieces on the open d and e files and dark-squared bishop on the open long diagonal against black's relatively exposed king. Black had counter threats, particular for back-rank mate. In the time scramble, black was unable to deal with the various threats and was mated. I did not see much of the other two games.

Paul Fearnhead