Poulton 2 V Preston 3

Press / Admin Comment

A close match, with a number of matches that could have gone either way. The first game to finish was on board 2. Fred had a strong attack out of the opening, with bishop, knight and queen giving a series of checks and forcing black's king into the open. However, Becky was able to trade-off queens, and this left Fred's knight trapped. Becky was able to trade-off the bishop that was defending the knight, win the piece and eventually the game. On board 3, it was Andrew who was able to get the better of the middle game to have what appeared to be a crushing attack. Again the attack was stopped when queens were traded off, but this left Andrew in a strong rooks and pawns endgame, with connected passed pawns. However he pushed the pawns before activating his king in support, and first the f-pawn and then the h-pawn were traded off. This left a king and pawns ending where David had passed a-pawn that could not be stopped -- and David went on to win the game. On board 4, Sara was able to win a pawn out of the opening, but Guy later regained the pawn and the middle game was even until Sara spotted a nice tactic, taking advantage of a pinned pawn, to win a piece and the game. Board 1 was a more positional game. Black came out of the opening better with a strong knight on f4, the better bishop and pressure against a backward pawn on the b-file. Although the b-pawn was lost, Hambel was able to set-up a dangerous pin on black's bishop which tied down the black pieces and gave white considerable counterplay. White then opened up the position on the king-side, but this was at the expense of the pawn. A few trades later, and black had a rook and pawn end-game with three extra pawns. For more details see https://poultonchess.wordpress.com/2023/12/05/poulton-2-v-preston-3/

Paul Fearnhead