Wednesday 15 March 2017

What the Gods Giveth..




 Just twenty four hours on from Dave earning us a miracle second point in his time scramble against Jason, I returned that bonus point in an end of game scramble against Gary Hope. This sadly saw us go down 2.5-1.5 to League leaders Olton.  Still lots of games to play and hope remains for our League challenge, but it clearly wasn’t the result we wanted.

As with the previous evening, things didn’t start well for us. Nick seemed to drop a piece early on against Robert Wallman. Whilst he made a good game of it after that, the end result was probably inevitable and Olton went 1-0 up. Mike and Dave were in action against the Reynolds brothers and both games looked pretty solid. It wasn’t a surprise when they ended in draws.

So we were 2 – 1 down. But the good news was I was having a great game. Everything seemed to click. I was very good out of a somewhat unorthodox Lopez and picked up a pawn and some pressure. It really looked like I was on the brink. Gary fought back and whilst my defence was fine, it cost me time on the clock which developed into a problem. In an ending with Queen, Rook and Bishop vs Queen Rook and Knight, my passed b pawn looked invincible, but Garry found the right defence. Afterwards we thought I’d made a mistake in taking the Queens off – it was actually easier to win with them on. I turned down a number of draw offers, but with both flags hanging, I just couldn’t see a way through. If I’d had increments I would have played on, but I just had a sense that it wasn’t my night. So not for the first time Gary escaped my clutches with a draw by the skin of his teeth…

Very disappointing, but these things happen. Incidentally, in the 8 individual games we have played against Olton in the League, 7 have been draws, so there is clearly not a lot between the teams.

We have an interesting few weeks ahead and we’ll look to put things right next time out.

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