Preston 1 V Morecambe

Press / Admin Comment

Brett brought his dog to the game and we hoped and prayed he wouldn’t misbehave or be too noisy. We needn’t have worried - he was absolutely fine. And the dog was quiet too. In this close match all results were paw-sible. First to finish was board 2. Martyn states that it was a fairly aggressive Jobava London system with f3 and g4 but fizzled out quite quickly due to Robin offering a draw. Robin interestingly introduced himself to me earlier as an I.M. elect, explaining that when he has won his third IM norm he will be moving to Germany to play chess full time. But tonight his bark was more ferocious than his bite. On board one both players were short of time and a draw was agreed. Brett conceded both players were reluctant to risk losing. Malcolm reports that in his game he thought he had the worse position, and with 10 moves to make in only three minutes, when he was offered a draw by John he gratefully accepted. In my game Carl had lost a bit of time in the early middle-game with some queen moves but the position was still level and full of sharp tactics. A series of exchanges then left me two pawns up and I think I should have won but Brett afterwards explained it was far from a trivial win. Carl played a series of good moves, won a pawn back and held on for a draw with some …err… dogged resistance. All square and everyone crowded around board 5. Nick had earlier won the exchange, Carl had an extra pawn. Carl’s offer of a draw was declined. Nick pressed for the win and won the pawn back and was now simply the exchange up but desperately short of time. Nick seemed to have overlooked this because when Carl pointed out his flag had fallen Nick seemed genuinely shocked. A tough match which could have gone either way.

Graham Ashcroft