1. Gerry Nolan 0.5-0.5 Colin Solloway
2. Guiseppe Valerio 0.5-0.5 Alan Heath
3. Peter Gill 0.5-0.5 Dave Wells
4. Nigel Staddon 0.5-0.5 John McKeon
5. Peter Housden 1.0-0.0 Gier Nielson
An interesting final match of the season, which we had to win to avoid being stuck as the bottom team in the league at the end of the season.
First to finish was Peter G, who reached a fairly blocked position and, in his own words, was too weary to find any inspiration to continue and agreed an early draw.
Nigel finished next, working through a tricky position that finally petered out into a draw. So everything was looking alright at that point.
Peter H finished next with a very solid win from a complex position. So only one point needed from the last two games.
Guiseppe had some real problems after accepting a gambited pawn that led to a vicious Kingside attack which took a lot of fighting off. A sacrifice of the exchange overcame the attack and a complicated end game ensued, with Guiseppe’s Knight against a Rook. Finally, winning a two pawn advantage wasn’t enough to find a win and a draw was the outcome. So just my game to complete.
I obtained tremendous pressure, resulting in a three Pawn advantage, with a b-Pawn on the seventh and White completely tied up, but I spent too much time doing it. So I found I was a Queen and Rook ahead, but with insufficient time to force the mate. We both ended up with clocks at zero and even though Colin’s flag had fallen first, I hadn’t claimed the win before my clock went to zero too, so it was a draw. Enough to win the match, but for the second time in three weeks I could see the spirit of Chess Fairness sobbing in the corner for the lack of increments in the Bedfordshire league.
Still, we’ve dragged ourselves off the bottom of the League and now it depends on the D team’s final match next week to see which of our two teams ends above the other.