1 March 2015
Limewood ‘A’ took a big stride towards promotion by a convincing win over their nearest rivals. They defeated Pudsey ‘B’ by 3½ to 1½. This puts them 5 points ahead of Pudsey in the league table with 4 league matches still to go.
Wins came from Paul May, Bob Maltby and Chris Tatham and a draw from Howard Brears.
Chris was first to finish with a clear win over Ken Marsden.
Bob went a piece down but through some lovely play forked White’s king and queen.
Paul’s opponent, under time pressure at the first control, lost a rook for a bishop and the game with it.
Howard had a won game, but succumbed to time pressure agreeing a rightful draw with 14 seconds remaining. His opponent only had a minute left himself.
Meanwhile, back home at the Fox & Grapes, Team B were entertaining (?) Rose Forgrove F. Here is the communiqué from our roving reporter, Deston Govesh:
“Another draw! That was Steve H’s second draw with Alex King in the past year, both times as Black. He felt like he had the best of the game but couldn’t force anything. Strangely, both Chessmaster and LiChess reckon that both players played near-perfect games. [Ed: In that case, why didn’t they both win?]
“Paul Smith got a draw. It was a quick game and the first to finish. Paul was rightly very happy with the result, his first one against a non-Limewood player.
“David’s game was a good one, his opponent declined to promote a pawn and it was all going on with both sides having threats to win, pieces left en prise and allsorts. Some of David’s counter-attacking was impressive but in the end it was a draw.
“Steve K put up a good fight against Steve P Burton but dropped the exchange (bishop for rook) and from then on Mr Burton’s major pieces were more connected than Mr Kelley’s.
“In Barry’s game v Sam Playford. Sam had offered Barry a draw and it was a fair offer, but Barry knew Steve K had lost and played on hoping for a win to balance the match – commendable. This looked like it might backfire 10 moves later but Barry blocked well and had promotion threats himself. Some very considered play tied it up and a draw was agreed.”
The end result: Rose Forgrove F won by 3 points to 2. And so Team B maintain their position in the league, only 4 places behind their promotion-chasing clubmates in Team A.