Poole A v Poole B

Apologies for the delay in writing, but it has taken me this long to digest the outcome.

Unfortunately, we had lost two players within an hour of the start of play for personal reasons, so I had to stand in. And if that wasn't bad enough, there seemed no-one else available for fourth spot. At the last minute, Oleksii appeared, like an apparition, sent by Caissa, the goddess of chess, for all of the good deeds done by Poole A over the years. Actually, he was just sitting by the bar on his own, but he would do! You're on Board 4 playing with the white pieces I said. OK he said. (Note: I deliberately left out the quotation marks because I don't like them). The clocks were started, albeit a little late.

B4 Oleksii (w) vs Jamie was played at a furious rate. Jamie has had some fantastic results recently, and I personally was not looking forward to a match up against him, but Oleksii quickly developed an initiative against Black's short-castled King. A piece sac for the g-pawn opened up said King and the game was settled almost immediately. Oleksii suggested that there was one sequence which might have held (he likes checking stuff on the computer!), but this didn't look easy to me. Bad luck Jamie. We had better keep an eye on this Oleksii chap. We really do seem blessed with new talent these days Chez Poole.

B1 Nick (b) vs Chip (two names with a similar meaning I reflect) saw a London System turn nasty (South London?) with White castling long and Black castling not. Analysis after the game showed that White's activity and attack through the centre was balanced by Black's actions towards a reasonably naked White king. With time running short, even with so few moves played, all results were possible. The tactics (he says with computer supported hindsight) were favouring Black, although this was completely unclear over the board, when Chip blundered a piece and the game. I will try and include a snippet of the game if I can manage the technology: it was a very interesting game. Nick! Your games are not good for my heart-rate. Bad luck Chip.

B2 John (w) vs Martin and a Kalashnikov, which Martin played very well to arrive in the heavy piece middle game with an extra pawn giving no compensation. It looked for all the world that we were in for a grim struggle into the night with Martin pressing for the full point that was required. Sadly, a White bishop had found itself on h6. No this was not the sad bit... the sad bit was that Martin's peripheral vision somehow let him down for just a moment playing Rc1, followed by Bxc1. An unfortunate end to a fine game.

B3 David (b) vs Zander. When I said I was not looking forward to playing Jamie, ditto Zander. All of our youngsters are improving rapidly, so we have to try and beat them before they get too good, so here goes. I played a French, for a change, and we got a standard Steinitz variation soon enough, then with h4 from White and f6 from Black. A tactic grabbed a central pawn and some initiative for Black, but these situations are when Zander shows how well he can focus and make great practical decisions. These situations also allow me to demonstrate how easy it is to draw against me in a lost endgame, although Zander did defend very well. The point was halved around move eighty.

Result: Poole A 3.5 - 0.5 Poole B

A result which looked unlikely at one stage, especially before we had started, and for most of the match until Martin's rook donation. Bad luck to our Poole B friends, but look on the bright side... Poole won!

DF