Poole V Dorchester

Handicap knockout

Always a pleasure to see our friends from Dorchester. All the games could have gone either way.

Ciprian Stanciu

Handicap

Well contested match at Poole's excellent new venue. I think Ciprian may be a little too kind in his comment, certainly regarding my game, but we enjoyed all the games!

Mark Potter

Detailed Match Report

(Detailed Match Report as requested by Captain Chip) The end of season fixtures are coming thick and fast what with mid-season covid delays. But now sprinkled amongst them are the ever popular Handicap Knockout fixtures where any team of any standard can, and has, won through. We welcomed Dorchester to our new Centenary Club digs and immediately felt relieved to be here as there were two other four board matches alongside. That was fourteen games being played in the same room, and plenty of club members also providing a bit of a crowd. Packed out indeed and just enough clocks to go round. Captain Chip as ever playing the tactical selections of 'good value' players, which oddly didn't include himself. The calculations were completed showing that a 4-2 win was required by Poole to progress. I didnt see much of the gameplay and so I am reporting the anecdotes provided afterwards in the bar (as a side note, our propensity to buy beer might have swung the decision by the Centenary Club Management to put us up!). Mike and Geoff: a balanced game whereby Mike secured a small edge but at the cost of most of his clock time. A practical draw agreement was reached. John and David: John on the white side of a scandi drama grabbed a gambitted pawn, found nowhere safe for his king and used a lot of time. Same outcome as above. Richie vs Simon: Richie played the Black side of Simon's Grand Prix Attack and got some rapid counterplay after an early b5 offering the pawn. By all accounts it was a well played game and, from Richie's perspective, continued a strong run of form throughout the season. Dragi vs Sidney: of what I saw Dragi continued his standard pattern this year of interlocking pawns with abandon getting a very closed game. I believe that a piece was lost through a tactic allowing Dragi to vary from his other standard pattern this year of mostly losing. Well played both. Myself vs Mark: I am sure that Mark will concede that I had much the better of our game. In fact it was close to being one of my best right up until I took my eye off of the ball and my subconscious was not able to alert me of Ending #15 (The Knight's Dumb Square) from '100 Endings You Must Know'. All credit for Mark for making mischief right up to the end when A dead drawn King and Pawns position was reached. I have annotated the game on the Poole website ... https://poolechessclub.org.uk/game/3673/ ...to lance the boil and help inform others to not have this problem in future. Well played Mark, a return match soon perhaps. After my game had finished, I had a bit of nail biting to do. A win for me would have secured the match. As it was we now needed a draw from the last match... Martin vs Ted. I saw little I am afraid except that the endgame looked pretty even from 10 yards away as I gave it a passing glance en route to the bar for a stiff drink. Fortunately for me Martin was able to close out the game to secure the match. Well played again both in the deciding game. Result: 4.5 - 1.5 (Poole win) Both Chip and Mark have said how much both teams enjoyed the match and venue. I agree. Bar takings were up!! They like us at the Centenary! DF

David M Fuller