Braunstone Chess Club

Match Report April 14th 2011

The first team finished this seasons fixtures with a resounding 4-1 win at Wigston 2 on Thursday night. This gave us the runners up spot to Wigston 1, and who knows what might have happened had Mark been available for our first match of the season against the new champions.

First to finish was Jim, who won a pawn early on and then chased his opponents king up the board before mating. Mark exerted long term pressure on Phil Horspool and won nicely. Next to finish was Paul, who had a complicated game against Andy Morley and they agreed a draw as time became short. Mike then won after slowly pressing through out the ending, and John agreed a draw after turning down several (too many) offers from his opponent. Report by Mike Salisbury.

14 Apr		Wigston 2		1 - 4	Braunstone 1

1	B	186	Horspool, Philip	0 - 1	Hebden, Mark	242
2	W	178	Morley, Andrew	½ - ½	Colburn, Paul	167
3	B	157	Dodds, Iain	½ - ½	Robinson, John	170
4	W	145	Harlow, Phil	0 - 1	Salisbury, Michael	167
5	B	135	Wilson, Matthew	0 - 1	Bingham, James	157

Match Report April 6th 2011 by Paul Colburn

On Wednesday night Braunstone first team travelled to Melton. Melton had been weakened by several players being unavailable but we were also missing Mike for the second match in a row. The first game to finish was John Robinson who agreed a draw in what appeared to be a preferable position. John had previously swapped his two rooks for a queen and several pawns and I think in the variations that they looked through John was better. Mark gave an excellent lesson in patience against John Denton on top board like a lion toying with his prey, the end for John always seemed evitable and under the pressure John conceded material after which the result seemed inevitable.

I didn’t see much of Tony’s game but it was level until the endgame when his opponent won a crafty pawn and then the weight of that extra pawn began to count and eventually Tony lost. I felt my game was drifting into a draw and so I played a slightly risky move to double up my pawns but open up the f file. This paid off as he blundered a pawn down the f file and I was able to reach a Bishop endgame with an extra pawn. I managed to win the bishop endgame to get my first victory of the season. If only it was a longer season!

Jim’s game seemed very complex with Bob Wallace having a rook for a bishop. Bob then blundered 2 pawns around the time control. A draw seemed the likely result until the very end at which point when Bob seemed to have the victory in his control he agreed to a draw offer to see us win the match. As Mark said at the end our efficiency is amazing - not a point wasted - another 3-2 victory which takes us up to second place in the division needing only a point from our remaining game to claim the runners-up post.

The Coveted !

I have played what I thought were good moves on many occasions, moves which won me the game even. However, when I analysed the game through Fritz I don’t think that I have ever had an ! I have coveted this exclamation mark until on Wednesday night I found made a move which achieved Fritz’s approval when I reached this position after whites 53rd move (the board is the opposite way round with black playing up the board):

The game is won anyway but I had seen this position at the start of the exchange of bishops, I could see that I was going to queen my h pawn but he could pick up my remaining pawns and it would be a queen against two connected a and b pawns with my king away from the action. It is possible to win and maybe it is very straight forward. I thought though that it would be a lot easier to win against doubled a pawns. So, the idea that I saw at the exchange of bishops was to play this move I could have played this a move or two earlier but I wanted to wait until the last point that I could play it more as a surprise effect. The move that finally got me my coveted ! was 53... a4 Now White has nothing better than 54 ba4 so that I can queen my pawn and not have to worry about connected pawns.