Poulton 1 V Preston 1

Press / Admin Comment

A closely fought match that looked like it could go Poulton's way for much of the evening. Oleg and Graham were first to finish with an agreed draw (perhaps keen to see the end of the Brazil match, but that had ended as a contest soon after we had started.) Alan played the opening much better to get much more active pieces and space on the king-side, had a nice tactic to win a pawn, which he later increased to a two pawn advantage. Any potential difficulty with converting was avoided when I got down to just 1 second to play my 34th and 35th moves. It was good to welcome Peter back, and before the game he was reminiscing about the one of the last Poulton v Preston matches he played, against Connor, where Preston pipped Poulton for the league. Keen for revenge, he managed to win a rook early on (I am told by a similar tactic that Alan had to win a pawn against me), and eventually won on time. The just left board 1. In the end-game Martin was a pawn up (Brett commented that he came out of the opening with 6 pieces in play against Martin's two, but went for the wrong plan and good play from Martin turned things around). However, Brett had some counterplay against Martin's king with his rook and two knights. The wrong king-move out of check led to checkmate, and the win for Preston. Some positions from the game are available: https://poultonchess.wordpress.com/2022/12/06/poulton-1-v-preston-1/

Paul Fearnhead