Poulton 1 V Lytham 1

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Grades used for the handicap for Poulton 1: Martin (2255 standard play), Kuba (1845 standard), Ben (1718 rapidplay), Paul (1650 rapidplay) Total=7468. Lytham 1: John (1927 standard), Phil (1738 standard), Peter (1732 standard) and Dave (1651 rapidplay) Total=7048. The grading difference was 420, which meant that Poulton need 4.5 to win. I saw only a little of the other matches, but the games were much closer than the final score suggests. In my first game against Dave I managed to enter an end-game a pawn up, but Dave cleverly exchanged off so that we only had opposite coloured bishops which gave him good drawing chances. My more active king enabled me to win a second pawn, and whilst Dave was able to also move his king to capture a pawn it put his king out of position so he had to give up his bishop the stop me queening. At this point board 1 had finished and Kuba was a piece up on board 2 (which he converted despite strong resistance). On board 3 Ben managed to activate his rook in a level end-game and create an outside passed pawn which was enough. My game was last to finish in the second half. After I castled queenside, Dave managed to create some early pressure against my king, which forced me to retreat it back to f2. The position then opened up as we were both low on time, and a discovered attack on his queen allowed we to win the exchange and then convert the end-game. For a position from one of the games see https://poultonchess.wordpress.com/2023/07/11/rapidplay-cup-final/

Paul Fearnhead