Insurance V Legal

Match report from the Insurance Chess Club archive

Although without Messrs Rich, Garner, Essen, Barclay, Harris and Aldred, who have played for us earlier in the season, I was reasonably happy with the side I assembled, though I had to play on board 16, rather than act as a "floater", as no-one else of a higher grading was available. Unfortunately the Legal League managed to get out their strongest team for a Bronowski Trophy match this season, although William Watson and Cathy Forbes (boards 1 and 3 last season) were unavailable. Michael Wiltshire apparently thought the match was due to be played a day later, so didn't turn up. Right venue, wrong night! I defaulted his board after half an hour had elapsed on his clock. Had I been a "floater" I could have stepped into the breach. After an hour Colin Bartlett lost a knight and resigned. Then John Philpott drew (his second white in 15 games, he said) and Richard Tozer drew "a boring game" against Andrew Whiteley on board 1. Ian Calvert then lost, but Brian Atkinson won soon afterwards to give us our first win. Stephen Humphrey then won to reduce the deficit to one point and David Malcolm drew. Ian Hunnable then lost and Kevin Denyer drew ("I should have won, but for a few iffy moves"). Our fortunes then improved when Julian Farrand and I won and David Sedgwick "got out of jail" and drew, to leave the scores at 6½-6½, with three games left. I defended against a strong king-side attack and won a couple of queen-side pawns. My opponent could find no win - there wasn't one! - and subsequently lost the rook and pawns endgame. Julian Farrand had "a pleasing win" against a 201 opponent who "unjustly" won a game against him by default 15-20 years ago. He has a long memory! His opponent fell into an opening trap on move 6 or 7, the same trap Julian Hodgson fell into against John Emms, he told me. Apparently you have to be a good player to fall into this trap, so I have no worries! Tony Paish then lost, as did Martin Page, to give the Legal League the match, although Anthony Kent won the last game to finish to reduce the deficit to one point, 7½-8½. So, with ICC and the Legal League both having won one match and lost two, United Banks and the Commercial League are left to fight it out for the Bronowski Trophy on 3rd April, with the Banks needing to win by several points. The Legal League win the wooden spoon, though! A pity we didn't play them earlier in the season! -- Geoff Naldrett

Daniel Lindner