Preston 1 V Morecambe 1

Press / Admin Comment

Board 2 for Morecambe = Philip T SEERY 1948 Board 3 for Morecambe = Danny McMenamin 1876, both Lancaster Chess Club players. First to finish was board two. Malcolm had built up a good position and felt he should have won the game but blundered a pawn and a draw was agreed. Phil fresh from fantastic finish from fun Scarborough weekender ( he was equal second in U2050 Major) continues his good form. On board one Niamh had the better of the opening but in Brett's words "failed to find the correct positional plan". Brett found a good piece sacrifice which would have lead to mate and white resigned. One member of Preston Chess Club called out to Brett ( perhaps tongue in cheek) that he was "lucky" so it would appear that Niamh had played well. On board 4 Michael took the night's sartorial honours wearing a tremendously stylish and colourful shirt. Unfortunately his chess was not as eye catching. Alan built up a tremendous attack with doubled rooks on the h file, and in castling queenside was able to push his kingside pawns to invade against the black king. On board 3 Danny sacrificed a pawn in the opening but black was able to retain the pawn and then launch a kingside attack. I missed a win on move 22 ( fairly easy to spot) which would have meant a plus 4 score. Damn ! Danny was able to swap off queens to achieve a fairly level position. Danny had rook and 5 pawns to my bishop knight and 4 pawns. But Danny had a passed pawn, which quickly became two passed pawns, and on move 45 had the chance of a winning (plus 13 score). Both players were under time pressure, Danny chose the wrong move and the game eventually petered out into a draw. On the face of it a comfortable win for Preston but it was anything but comfortable. Morecambe put up tremendous resistance and at the halfway stage the result could have gone either way. It is great to see them back where they belong in Division A.

Graham Ashcroft