Poulton 2 V Preston 3

Press / Admin Comment

The first board to finish was board 3: Harry traded down into an opposite-colour bishop endgame and a draw was agreed. By this time Simon had developed a very strong king-side attack against Patsos's exposed king, with a rook on a half open h-file on h6, pawns on f5 and g5, queen and knight involved and the threat of doubling rooks. Patsos tried to counterattack, but a couple of accurate moves by Simon meant that mate could not be avoided. At this point Ken found a nice tactic to go a piece up on board 4. On board 1 Michael had a rook and knight and pawn for a queen. Despite this imbalance a couple of repeated moves meant he was offered the draw, which given the state of the match, he happily accepted -- little did anyone know of the rollercoaster that was in store on board 4. Ken had two bishops and a rook and two pawns against a bishop and rook and three pawns. Whilst trying to exchange rooks he missed a nice combination which led to Andrew winning a rook for his bishop, and him establishing two connected passed pawns on the fifth rank. He managed to advance both to the sixth rank and he suddenly looked in a strong position. A few moves later, Ken was able to exchange one of his bishops for the two passed pawns. Furthermore he had the option to take Andrew's remaining pawn to enter a drawn endgame of bishop and pawn vs rook. Instead he defended one of his pawns to set up a fortress. It still looked a draw but... Both players seemed to forget the extra 15 minutes that get added at the end of these matches, and believing they were in time trouble were playing quickly. Andrew had established mate threats, Ken defended but lost a pawn, and then seconds later lost his final pawn. Not able to take this any more I momentarily looked away, only to look back and see Ken had won Andrew's rook, and a draw was being agreed.

Paul Fearnhead