Poole B V Southbourne A

Chess

Well done to Southbourne for their win. Four close games, maybe Poole a bit unlucky not to take anything out of this match

Ciprian Stanciu

Poole B were unlucky

A good competitive match on a very wet and windy Holloween's night! All individual games, in the end, more or less went according to ratings but the overall result could have been very different. At around the half way stage, it looked as though Poole B were edging it. On board 1 where the kings had castled on opposite sides, Chip appeared to be defending well against Steve's hack attack! He had won a pawn, then two, then three and there seemed to be no obvious way through for Steve. On board 2, the James v Sergiu game had started quietly enough, then became an absolute mess, and I didn't have a clue what was going on. My game versus Martin on board 3 seemed a much quieter affair. I snatched a central pawn with my knight which, if taken back by Martin's queen, meant it would have been trapped in the centre of the board but this gave him some open lines against my king and central pawns. Michael's game versus Dragi on board 4 had the normal quiet start (as Dragi's games generally do) but after Dragi had a couple of pit stop refuelling breaks outside in the pouring rain, he seemed to win a pawn or two and his game was then looking so much better. James was first to finish as all the complicated tactics appeared to work in his favour. I think he won 2 pieces for a rook and perhaps a pawn, and with open lines versus Sergiu's vulnerable king, the pressure seemed to tell as Sergiu made a mistake and the game soon finished. Steve had somehow turned his game around as, when I next looked at it, he had won his material back and more importantly, an extra piece! Think Chip must have missed a tactic. So Southbourne were now 2 up. Dragi was gradually creeping up the board winning a pawn or two along the way and in the end won comfortably to pull one back for Poole B. With the score 2 -1, I managed to avoid any nasty tactics and simplified down into a double rook endgame a pawn up. To be fair, Martin had played the late middlegame really well and I think the endgame we had reached might have been drawn but unfortunately, he allowed my king to become too active and despite my shortness of time, I managed to win a 2nd pawn which meant I could swap down further to 'a rook plus 2 pawns (a and e pawn) versus rook' endgame and just had enough to win. So a scoreline which did not do Poole B justice. Perhaps a draw would have been a fairer reult. With much thanks to Poole B team for the friendly spirit the match was played in and for being so hospitable. Good luck to them for the rest of the season.

Martin J Simons