Press / Admin Comment
In the final league match of Division 4 this season, Bournemouth hosted Poole, with all the final league positions cemented, the home captain decided to rest himself, relax and enjoy watching the matches stress free. what could go wrong..... 7.20pm i was notified that 25% of my team and 50% of the supporters had arrived safely .....in Poole!!! TAXI for Adam!
The game started on time with Adam in his taxi dashing back to Winton after his sightseeing trip- full credit to him for making it back.
Board 3 was first to finish. Joseph was confused by White's opening, Tony's plan all along, then removed the White bishop from the game and exploited the light squares , at first glance it appeared that Joseph had resigned a little prematurely with only a slight material deficit, however looking at the position, and, later analysis indeed showed that Tony had a clear won game.
On Board 2 Adam played out his opening moves very quickly conscious of the reduced time on his clock , however Leo took full advantage and won a piece early and continued to gain more material through the game and a deserved win, unlucky Adam but great effort to make it back.
On Board 4 Joe looked to have a strong advantage, a bishop queen battery pinning Alex's knight to the king, Joe then played Bishop a6 stopping white from castling, even whites a3 wasn't a threat to take the dark square bishop, as queen could have taken the rook on a1 with check and picked up the other rook if White had taken the Bishop at that point. After trying unsuccessfully to work out what was going on with board 1 , I returned to the Alex and Joe game to find that multiple exchanges had taken place , with now a Rook and Pawn endgame , admittedly with Joe having 2 extra pawns ( was 3 till Alex whipped off the A pawn.) A pair of Rooks were exchanged and Alex king moved towards the past pawn, Both Rooks and whites pawns were removed from the game leaving White with pawns on the F and H file , and black with G and H. Joe pushed forward to try for the win ( think he knew it was a drawn game at that point) but Alex made no mistakes in his defence, and ensured his king got to H1 after the F and G pawns cad come off. Fair play to Joe who played the game out until just the two kings remained on the board.
So that just left Board 1, White looked to have the advantage to myself ( something Tarik agreed with but Stefan didn't) eventually after several moves White was able to push two pawns up the board to the 6th and 7th rank, at which point Stefan knocked over his King. The post- game analysis between the two players was great to listen to. Stefan queried Tarik decision to castle long into Black's queenside attack, Tarik was convinced his attack on the King side was stronger , and was unconcerned with Blacks attack, at one point saying to himself during the game. if you think your attack is better the "PROVE IT" Game was played in great spirit by both players, as indeed were all the games.
A great night of chess against a fine team from Poole. Congratulations to them.
From the Bournemouth point of view an excellent season to remain in Division 4, with the 5 players playing league chess for the first time and myself being the veteran in my second season . Thank you to everyone.
Tony Ackerman
End of Season
Great write up Tony, what a great night of chess.
I really enjoyed my game against Alex. I was only two pawns up not three. Nevertheless, I felt that I had a strong position but I struggled to capitalise on my two pawn advantage against a resilient Alex.
With the pressure off in terms of league finishing positions, I decided to throw caution to the wind and be brave for once. I feel like I play too cautiously to my own detriment sometimes. I started throwing my f and e pawns into the middle of the board to open some lines with Alex's king in the middle of the board.
I miscalculated slightly and allowed Alex to win a pawn back. Still a pawn up, I felt that my chances of winning would increase if i simplified and exchanged queens off the board. Into a Rook + Rook vs Rook + Rook endgame a pawn up, turns out was a complete draw in the position.
I felt that this is where Alex played the endgame better than I did and stopped me creating any winning chances. Tony is correct in saying that I knew this was a draw, however, I wanted to see if I could force any mistakes from Alex but he played brilliantly and a thoroughly enjoyable draw the result.
Despite drawing from a winning position, I really enjoyed this game. Thank you Alex. Well played.
Tarik played a exemplary rook endgame where he managed to push his connected c and d pawns up the board supported by his rooks. With no reasonable defense, Stefan resigned. Congratulations Tarik on winning 2/2 games for Poole D this season.
Poor Adam on board 2 not only turned up with 25 minutes down on his clock, he had to face Leo.
Leo had quickly established himself into a winning position, a piece up and whites king stuck on e2. A lovely combination of a well-placed knight, queen and an advancing bishop with check forced Adam to give up a rook with no way of recapturing.
A piece and a rook up, Leo cleverly forced the exchange of queens and went on to win a comfortable endgame.
Another assured and skillful win from Leo.
I turned to Tony S and whispered, “I wish I could play chess like Leo”.
Tony Sanderson continued his fine form for the season by pressuring Joseph into a relatively early resignation with a clever choice of opening. A brilliant way to cap off a brilliant season from Tony who secured Division 4's lead scorer with 5.5/7.
Thank you Bournemouth for a lovely evening of chess. I look forward to meeting you all again next season.
Joe Wood
Thanks Joe, it was indeed two
Thanks Joe, it was indeed two pawns not three. And congratulations to Tony ( the other one ) for being the league top points scorer, great performance
Tony Ackerman