Legal V Insurance

Match report from the Insurance Chess Club archive

This match was played over the full 16 boards, with no defaults. Although half the Legal League players were ungraded, we knew from previous experience that this didn't necessarily mean that they weren't useful players. As I played and my opponent moved quickly I didn't have much time to see the other games. Stephen Humphrey had a fairly early draw, but Ian Hunnable, Mark Rich and Bob Collins had fairly early wins, then Anthony Kent drew. William Diffey also won, and things seemed to be going well for us. David Sedgwick drew, but then David Malcolm, Martin Page, James Aldred (on time) and Paul Barclay all lost. Another middle order batting collapse! Ray Hamilton and Julian Farrand then improved our chances by winning. I then won my quickplay finish, in about 60 moves, with two minutes left on my clock, to give us a winning lead. In the last games to finish Michael Wiltshire, always good value for the spectators, with never a dull moment, somehow won on time in a quickplay scramble, when he had looked to have been clearly losing for nearly all the game, and Tony Paish lost another quickplay finish. So a 9½-6½ win, when a narrower win had looked likely. As Legal had, perhaps surprisingly, beaten Commercial 8½-7½, this meant that we could lose narrowly to Commercial in the last match and still retain the Bronowski Trophy, as long as Legal did not trounce United Banks. -- Geoff Naldrett

Daniel Lindner