Stoneham D v Ordnance Survey B - 7 Jan 2003

Surprisingly enough after an hours play we were a piece down on both boards 3 and 5, but Dan got his piece back with a subtle combination in which he had to play the moves in the right order and then had the advantage of having the least exposed king in the endgame, while Tony Aldridge was able to obtain two united passed pawns as compensation for his piece. Interestingly enough I realised afterwards that boards 4 and 5 played with the wrong colours.

Malcolm Clarke - Stoneham D Team Captain

Further information from Malcolm

I can now give you a few more details on our win. Dan had a knight trapped on c7, but then played Ng5 attacking his opponents f pawn with both his knight, with his own rook on the f file and the opposing king on g8. When the capture was made on c7 he played Nxf7 (rook takes is answered by f6 attacking the knight).

His opponent had a bishop on d7 which if dislodged would enable Dan to play Rd8 with check picking up the opposing knight which was on b8, the only one of his pieces on the back rank.

I thought Dan would need to play Rd6 followed by e6 which the opponent could probably defend against but Dan played e6 straight away. The bishop captured on e6, which was followed up by the check. After the king moved to h7 Dan's knight was attacked by both the rook on c7 and the bishop on e6. Instead of taking the knight immediately he checked him with the rook on h8 and when the king moved to g6 he put him in check with the knight. With his knight no longer en prise he was able to pick up the knight on b8 for nothing.

Dan was the first one to win when he took full advantage of the fact that his king was less exposed and he eventually mated his king which was well up the board.

On board 2 Keven Lamb was the exchange up, but it was a double edged game with Keven having control of the e file and his opponent having potential pressure on the kingside. When his opponent played Bg7 the bishop had taken over the best square for the king and the king had to go to f7, instead he was mated. It was now 2-0.

Paul Green on board 4 took his time to get on top, but once he started to play tactically he got on top. A sacrifice on h3 was turned down meaning he lost his h pawn for nothing and with his queen, bishop and knight coming into the fray he had too much space. This made it 3-0.

Sam clearly had the hardest opponent and was at one stage 2 pawns down. He however got one pawn back and his opponent was happy to agree a draw which was a good result for us.

Tony Aldridge as I said did well to get two united passed pawns. His game was the last to finish. I believe that Tony missed a chance to get a piece back earlier, but this would have involved an exchange and exchanges are not the things you look for when you are in an inferior position.

I would also like to say that Ordnance Survey were a friendly team and the fact that after an hours play they were the most likely team to win the match suggests the score was much closer than the final result suggests.

Malcolm Clarke - Stoneham D Team Captain