Preston 4 V Preston 3

Match Report

I was given some stick for writing too much in the last match report, so you ought to strap in as this one is even longer. On board 1 Paul declined Geoff's Danish Gambit with 3..d5 to give back the pawn, leaving Geoff with an isolated queen pawn. This temporary positional weakness wasn't really exploited as it was followed by a mass exodus of pieces, the last of which involved a trade on e3, reconnecting a pawn with the queen pawn on d4. After another rook exchange, a draw was agreed after 20 moves. The final position was white's rook and light bishop vs black's rook and knight, both with nicely centralised kings. Board 2 saw Hambel's first win of the season for the team. A very impressive victory over a sharp, tricky and, in my opinion, underrated opponent. Hambel was offered a Blackmar-Diemer Gambit (1. d4 d5 2. e4 dxe4 3. Nc3), which she declined, opting to transpose to her favoured Caro Kann with 3..c6. Struck with fear at the idea of playing a game with equal material, Seb offered another pawn with 4.f3, this time accepted by Hambel. She then picked up another pawn in the centre. A few too many of white's active pieces were exchanged, and his weak king quickly came under fire and walked into a nice mating sequence. On 3, Jonny's London was met by Edd's "some guy off YouTube's video called Best London Defense" Defense (1. d4 c6 2. Bf4 Qb6). The London bishop was traded for a knight setting the stage for a later attack against the weak kingside pawn structure. Edd opted for a King's Indian style structure whereas Jonny castled queenside. Jonny gave his f-pawn its marching orders, walking it up the board to eventually take on g6, only further weakening his kingside troubles by removing the pawns and opening the f-file for Edd's rook. Edd brought his knight to g4 and his queen to take the pawn on g3. After having his bishop and rook forked, Jonny opted to sacrifice his bishop for a pawn, instead of sacrificing the exchange of a rook for knight. This decision proved costly as the knight, so actively positioned, was crucial to Jonny losing more material and the game. My game on 4 saw me play a Classical Caro-Kann Defense. The game was fairly quiet until I committed the cardinal sin of castling queenside after seeing some ghosts on the kingside. This led to me losing a pawn in the centre but, after exchanging a bishop, a rook and the queens, Junho slipped up allowing me to win back a pawn on the edge of the board. The final minor pieces were traded off leading to a rook endgame with symmetrical pawns. I was more than happy to escape the game with a draw. A very even match culminated in a well-deserved draw against our friends and fierce rivals from within the club. Hopefully next season we'll get the better of them. Cheers!

Guy McCombe