Poulton 1 V Lytham 1

Press / Admin Comment

Despite the final score, the match was in the balance until a few mistakes by the away team late on swung all matches Poulton's way. Board 4 was first to finish. Paul went a pawn up in the opening. David has slightly more active pieces, but also an isolated queen's pawn that could turn in to a target once the minor pieces were traded-off. In trying to turn this pawn in a passed pawn, David missed a pin and lost a rook. Board 1 finished almost immediately afterwards to place Poulton 2 up. At this point Board 2 looked to be in a drawn end-game (rook and opposite coloured bishops and three pawns each). Aware of the position of the match, and the need to win, Colin pressed to promote his outside passed pawn, but in doing so missed that his rook was en-prise. Board 3 was the most exciting game -- with a very open position where Phil was a piece for two pawns up, but Peter had an advanced passed pawn and some threats against white's king and queen. Whilst white may have been slightly better, one mis-move led to Peter winning a queen for a rook, and then he was able to promote his pawn. See https://poultonchess.wordpress.com/2023/02/01/poulton-1-v-lytham-1/

Paul Fearnhead