Wimborne D v Poole D

Poole D travelled to Wimborne for our penultimate match of the season.

3 team members down, panic started to set in that I wouldn’t be able to field a team. However, the ever present and reliable Zander joined us once again.

Steve Bailey then came to the rescue to complete my team.

After a day of sailing at Rockley Park, it was inevitable that Steve’s match on board 4 against George would be the final game to finish.

Steve fought valiantly, but it was not enough to overcome George’s positional, and material advantage. In the final 30 minutes of the game, George was two pieces up with a pawn advancing down the board.
Steve was unable to stop the pawn from promoting, and the subsequent checkmate to follow saw George confirming the match result at 3-1 to Wimborne.

Well done George and Steve on a hard fought game.

Wins for Wimborne on boards 1 and 2. Well done to both Nathanial and Stuart.

Unfortunately, I cannot comment on either as I was too occupied with my own game against Mike Davidson on board 3.

It seemed that our game was destined for a draw, however, neither I nor Mike wanted to offer said draw with Poole D two points down, and George’s winning position on 4, we both played on.

My queen and Knight were both pinned to the defence of two pawns and Mike was manoeuvring his knight around the queenside to attempt to win a pawn.

My king came over to help out. I managed to force the queens off of the board and Mike’s knight was trapped. I went into the endgame a Knight up and a further advanced king. I managed to win my first game of the season in what has been a very competitive league.

Congratulations Wimborne on your deserved win which moved you to the top of the league.

In division 4, one game remains; Poole D are hosting Bournemouth C in the final game of the season. A win or draw for Bournemouth would see them crowned champions.

A decisive win for Wimborne in our final match of the season which seemed to prove the old adage 'pawns are the soul of chess'.

On the board 1 game, Nathaniel vs Zander, Nathaniel queened his passed pawn, and the game was then very quickly over, with Zander resigning in view of the coming mate

Next to them on board 2, Stuart vs Mike, Stuart was already a rook and knight up with pawns even, so a win was on the cards anyway, but just to make it quicker, Stuart too queened a passed pawn, and Mike too then resigned almost immediately.

To board 4, George vs Steve, the last game to finish, and George, after missing a basic mate towards the end of the game, ploughed on after winning all of Steve's pieces except for his rook, and, yes, once again eventually queened a passed pawn, and mate quickly followed. But well done to Steve for putting up such a stiff fight right until the end.

Finally, to board 3, Mike vs Joe, which actually didn't end up with a pawn promotion. But in an attempt to win the game, an exchange of queens saw Mike's knight trapped and subsequently lost. As Joe now had a knight and a handful of pawns against Mike's only handful of pawns, the outcome was never in doubt, and, if Mike had not resigned seeing how hopeless his position was, it would have ended with a queened pawn, or maybe two.

So completing the Game of Pawns.

Thanks to Poole for an enjoyable evening of chess, and good luck in your final game of the season.