Board 1 saw Ben try a new opening line which turned out to require
further work and he ended up with a passive position. Black took the opportunity
to sacrifice a piece for two pawns to open up whites king side but could not
force anything decisive. Fritz style defending may have delivered the full
point but Ben felt he had to return the material to neutralise the position and
resulting opposite colour bishop ending was always going to be drawn.
On board 2 Geoff Stokes played a very solid Maroczy bind against
Mike. The resulting middle game was very even and white accurate opening play
had prevented b5 which would have led to active counter play. An attempt get b5
in last in the game just allowed white to play Nd5, forcing multiple exchanges
and resulting in a drawn endgame.
Phil on board 3 emerged from a queens pawn opening with an excellent
bishop on a3 that prevented black from castling until the middle game. In the
time that it took black to reorganise his position and get castled, white had
claimed most of the board and nearly all of black pieces were stuck on his back
two ranks. With double rooks, queen and opposite colour bishops on the board a
simplified position would have been given black drawing chances. However white
managed to exploit black cramped position and force two pawns onto the sixth.
Black resigned when faced with the substantial loss of material.
Dave's objective was to get to the time control without
ending up in a hopeless ending after his last game on board 4. This he managed to do
against white's very solid queen pawn opening. However, even with a rook on the
seventh, black could not make progress and game was drawn.
So it's two out of three and this result puts the B team in
third place.
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