Banks V Insurance

Match report from the Insurance Chess Club archive

With Stephen Berry not playing for ICC this season (through pressure of work) and Julian Farrand, Brian Atkinson, Ian Calvert, Derek Harris and John Philpott unavailable and Paul Barclay and Ian Hunnable due to play for W&W [Wanstead & Woodford] that night I struggled to get 16 players. Fortunately the W&W match was postponed, so Ian Hunnable became available at short notice, but David Cannan had to drop out on the day before the match, when I phoned him. Fortunately David Burford agreed to play at very short notice. Paul Barclay was still unavailable, for a different reason. After all my efforts I then found that United Banks would have to default the bottom four boards! Mike Jones then failed to arrive, so, after half an hour, Martin Page got an early night and we were 5-0 up! An emphatic win seemed to be on the cards as, apart from the top three boards, none of the Banks players was graded over 140 and we heavily outgraded them on boards 4-12. Colin Bartlett soon won on board 12 and Anthony Kent drew. David Sedgwick also drew fairly early on, saying he had let his advantage slip. The other games lasted much longer. In Gary Callan's game (his first game for the Club) both players had weak kings, but his opponent fashioned a mating net, from which Gary could not have escaped, even if he had given up his queen. A good result for the Banks captain, Dave Chambers! Shortly afterwards Mark Rich had a good draw on top board against a 212, where he looked worse early on, but managed to equalise. Tony Paish eventually outplayed his opponent, advancing his king safely to h5. At the end he was two pawns up and was threatening white's doubled, isolated f2 pawn. Ian Reynolds had a good position and was always ahead on the clock, but went astray, lost a bishop, then the game. Another good result for United Banks! Ian Hunnable then drew - there never seemed to be much advantage to either side. The other three games almost went to the wire! James Aldred eventually won on time a blocked, cagey game in which he had been a pawn up for a long time. Michael Wiltshire's opponent sportingly resigned near the end of the session, as he was two pawns down. Michael thought his opponent had possibly missed a mating attack. In the last game to finish David Malcolm, on board 2, eventually lost on time a difficult game of fluctuating fortunes, his opponent having less than a minute left. So, 11-5 to ICC, but we only won the contested games 6-5, which was a good result for United Banks, considering they were heavily outgraded on boards 4-12. -- Geoff Naldrett

Daniel Lindner