Preston 1 V Preston 2

Press / Admin Comment

The original fixture was postponed – Phil Taylor was struggling to raise a team. Rumours were circulating that his star players were angling for a big money move before the transfer deadline. Fortunately through Phil’s sterling efforts he managed to tie his players down to long term contracts but in order to do so he had to break the club’s strict wage structure – 2 pints of Guinness and a packet of pork scratchings. With our first OTB league game for 20 months I considered inspiring my team by using a quote from a successful football manager “Each side could win, or it could be a draw” Ron Atkinson. Hmmm …. Perhaps not. Board one was first to finish. Pete hadn’t seen his mate Martyn for over 2 years and was keen to catch up so an early draw was agreed. Pete thought he might have had a slight edge but jokingly wondered if his match fitness, having not played for so long, would last the full 3 hours. On board three white’s king remained un-castled in the centre well into the middle game but the position was locked due to numerous pawn advances from both sides. It became clear that in order to break open the position both players would have to take serious risks – and both were unwilling to do this so a draw was agreed. On board two, with black’s dark squared bishop traded off Malcolm placed his dark squared bishop on a3 dominating the a3-f8 diagonal preventing Phil from castling kingside. A white knight progressed to e6 and it too could not be shifted. Malcolm won a piece and although his king remained in the centre Phil had no serious counter-play and Malcolm forced the win. On board 4 the game was level heading into an endgame when Kenny pushed a pawn to c5 believing it was safe but Alan promptly took it. Kenny said afterwards he was on “auto-pilot”. Kenny then established a dominant knight in the centre of the board which compensated for his lost pawn. With no clear path to victory and behind on time Alan agreed a draw. Good to be back playing league chess and another tough and close game with Preston 2.

Graham Ashcroft