9 December 2015
Limewood surpassed all expectations when they played the highly-rated Copperworks team at Bruntcliffe tonight. On boards 2 to 4 we were outgraded by 385 points to 197 yet these games produced a win and a draw, well against the odds.
Philip May (100) beat Adam Routledge (128) despite having been a piece and 3 pawns down at one stage. Philip marshalled his remaining forces into a smoothly elegant attack on Black’s king that had his opponent squirming.
Steve Hodgson added another opponent to the list of those who see his grade of 14 and think that he must barely know how to push the pieces. Steve sprang a neat trap on Mike Farley (126) that won him a rook-knight exchange plus a pawn, an advantage that he kept through to the end when the pair agreed a draw. The game is featured here on our Games pages.
At Board 1, Paul looked to have the game sewn up in the scramble to queen pawns in the endgame. That would have drawn the match for Limewood. Alas he managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
The final score: Copperworks 3½: Limewood 1½. (We could only field 4 players because of illness.)