Poulton 1 V Lytham 1

Press / Admin Comment

All games were closely fought affairs. First to finish was board 3, where Oleg managed to enter the end-game a (passed) pawn up. Whilst Phil was able to win back a pawn, Oleg had managed to get his passed pawn to the 6th rank, supported by his king, and there was no way to stop it queening. Boards 1 and 2 both had similar openings — Jobava London with lines where black has to play a knight to a6 to stop a knight fork of king and rook and c7. On board 1, John sacrificed a piece for two pawns and an attack. But Martin was able to consolidate his position, and then swap off queens, after which his extra material told. On board 2, Barry managed to get two rooks on the 7th, and the mating threats proved too much. On Board 4, Ben seemed to get the better of the opening, with a lead in development. But Darren managed to parry all threats, and exchange off the minor pieces and queens. In the ending Darren had the better pawn structure and then won a pawn, but was low on time. A draw was agreed with Darren having just seconds left on the clock, in a theoretically drawn rook and pawn vs rook ending.

Paul Fearnhead