Insurance V Commercial

Match report Insurance

Mine was the last game to finish, so I didn’t have the chance to take many notes, and don’t recall the sequence of results. Mark Rich lost in one of the later games to finish. I had promoted Ian Calvert to board 2, in the hope that he could at least draw with a 171, but he lost his game. This decision of mine might have cost him the Tooke Memorial Trophy [as the best Insurance Chess Club scorer], for which he had been the front runner all season. Sorry, Ian – you just got pipped at the post in a photo-finish! David Sedgwick eventually drew a very double-edged game he had looked like losing for a long time. A typical tactical David Sedgwick game – he rarely plays an uninteresting game! Ian Reynolds had drawn earlier, and Ian Hunnable also drew, having been unable to take advantage of his lead on the clock. David Malcolm lost one of the last games to finish, Anthony Kent won relatively early on, Martin Page also won and James Aldred eventually drew a game that had always looked drawn. Kevin Parrott justified his selection with a draw on board 16 – he wasn’t the “hero of the hour” this year, but achieved a good solid draw nonetheless. After failing in the last match against the Legal League this time Ray Hamilton managed to turn an easily won game into a loss! He had been a rook up, but allowed his opponent to win most of his pawns on the other side of the board and, at the end of the game, the rook couldn’t stop the united passed pawns. This left mine as the last game to finish, although by then Commercial had already regained the Bronowski Trophy. This opponent also played an opening with which I was unfamiliar, and again I got into a terrible mess! I had to give up my queen for two minor pieces after 20 moves, and would normally then have resigned, but played on and, surprisingly, held out longer than anyone else! He then allowed me to win the exchange but, as soon as I opened up the position, his queen came into play, my pieces were uncoordinated and he had an easy win. Commercial won 9½-6½. So, we surrender the Bronowski to Commercial after holding it for four years. I feel we need to get out more of our stronger players on a regular basis if we are to regain it – our limited resources are beginning to tell on us. -- Geoff Naldrett https://bronowskitrophy.wordpress.com/records/competitions/2004-2005/

Daniel Lindner