Highcliffe B V Bournemouth B

Press / Admin Comment

A hard fought match between Highcliffe and Bournemouth, we had the edge on the top two boards 3 and 4 were very close. Dan slipped up against the Polish losing a rook early on which was duly converted. Next to finish was board 1 with Rob and Steve agreeing a draw , which I thought was losing. They clearly saw something I didn’t. Neil got ground down by Joseph, so with the match all square it was down to Tom and Robert to settle the tie. Tom declined a draw offer on several occasions after an exciting middle game, with Q B and 3 pawns against Q N and 3 pawns. Who knew what would happen. Tom found a winning line so Highcliffe prevailed. Great night of chess ! RU

Richard Ursell

Despite being out-rated

Despite being out-rated across the board it turned out to be a close and exciting match. The first game to finish was board 2, where Dan, unprepared for 1.b4, panicked and lost his rook very early in the opening, correct play by Richard ensured it was a quick win for white. Board 2 was a much closer affair, with both players happy to take the draw. Over to my game on board 3 and despite some strong defensive play from Neil, my attack proved too strong and being material down with more about to fall, Neil resigned. So with the scores level at 1.5-1.5 all eyes turned to board 4 where a very tight game was being played. Knowing a win was needed to seal the match, Tom declined a draw offer from Rob and this decision proved to be the correct one, as subsequently a few moves later an inaccurate move from Rob gave Tom an opportunity which he took, creating a past pawn and that was it, the game was Tom’s and the match Highcliffe’s! A big thank you to Richard and the rest of the Highcliffe team for being such welcoming host!.

Joe Fearnhead