Lytham 1 V Morecambe 1

Press / Admin Comment

A well-fought contest between two evenly matched teams. Board 2 was first to finish: the queens came off within a few moves, leaving White with a small but enduring advantage which eventually led to creation of a passed pawn. Alan defended creatively, getting a rook to the 2nd rank to attempt a counter-attack, but had to resign when the only resource to prevent the passed pawn from queening was to give up a full piece. Board 4 finished abruptly soon afterwards: Dave came out of a sharp opening with a 2-pawn advantage and the initiative. Michael's king was caught in the middle of the board and fell to a snap mate by White's queen and rook battery down the d-file. White was also quickly on the offensive on Board 3, with Danny launching a strong king-side attack straight out of the opening. Phil had to give up a piece for 2 pawns to parry the attack and swapped off the heavy pieces to reach an endgame of 4 pawns versus Danny's bishop and 2 pawns. Just when it looked like Phil might hold the draw, Danny found a nice zugzwang tactic, forcing the win of another critical pawn and/or clearing the way to queen a pawn. Phil had seen enough and sportingly resigned on the spot. At almost the same moment, Phil and John on Board 1 reached the time control at 35 moves after a theoretical opening and much strategic manoeuvring. They were left with an unusual ending of 2 knights and 6 pawns each, which looked very drawish, despite Black's slightly more active king. The draw was agreed, giving Lytham a narrow overall victory.

Colin Walker