Dorchester A V Poole A

Match Report

Battling a vicious headwind, two cars carrying Poole's finest (ish) arrived chez Dorchester. Mike brought Martin Mach. I brought Richie. Room allocation issues were apparent as the usual large room was being used for some form of important meeting. Additionally, and confusingly, Wimborne A were scheduled to play Weymouth A the same evening. With some hilarity, all four teams were ushered into The Churchill Room which is marginally larger than my downstairs bathroom. You could say that we were moved from the Ballroom to the Drawing Room (you can see the joke coming I expect). Eight boards were laid out, and we were all set for an unofficial practice to set a new world record for the most number of simultaneous chess games in a telephone box. The clocks were started. B4: David A vs Richie saw a most unusual opening setup which unfortunately for David caused a bishop to be trapped. Compensation of two pawns and a disfigured kingside didn't seem enough for the piece to me. Lets see. B3: David F vs David H saw another Grand Prix (I must get another Gawain Jones video!) with a quick e6 amd d5 for Black which created equal chances. B2: Geoff vs Martin M was as boring as you like, e4 e5 stuff. Get comfy everyone! B1: Mike vs Andrew was (I am informed, I couldn't get a good view without at least three people moving) a Scandinavian of some complexity. I will cut to the chase: David A conceded to Richie after some resistance. Mike offered a draw to Andrew 30 seconds later which was excepted very quickly. I offered a draw to David about a further minute later which was accepted. I looked across at Martin who immediately offered a draw to Geoff who accepted. I made that less than three minutes for all four games to be decided. Where's the bar? So the narrowest of wins for Poole. Well played everyone. In the bar, we bumped into Ian Clark who advised that all four of their games were drawn. Hence my extremely witty 'In The Drawing Room' comment. Clever eh? Oh well, please yourselves. D

David M Fuller