ECA 2 Marple 4

D'oh!

The team and I managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of a draw last night against a decent Marple team.

1. Phil 0-1 I Lentzos (160 est) 

My young opponent launched a speculative attack right out of the opening but I repulsed it and then countered with a strong attack of my own. Lentzos didn't defend carefully and I soon went four pawns up with his King on the run and a big time advantage.

However I couldn't find a clinical way of finishing him off and then he managed to get some counter-play. I blundered away a piece but still had four pawns for his Bishop. However I didn't have enough time to find the right plan and he won the endgame.

2. Dave  N 0-1 P Kirby (158)

Dave played a sort of Colle system and built up a useful Kingside attack. However the clock kept ticking away and eventually Dave lost on time in a very good position.

3. Tudor 0-1 N Livesey (147)

Tudor played ambitiously on the Black side of an English, playing c5 and d5 early on. However this opened up the game for White's Bishop on g2 and ultimately this was Tudor's undoing.

4. Keven 1-0 T Kay (141)

Keven played aggressively from the outset, castling Queenside and flinging his Kingside pawns forward. I thought he was losing the exchange and the game but apparently Keven had it all worked out and eventually his connected passed pawns on the g and h files won the day.

5. Paul 1-0 C Baker (126)

This was an impressive win with the Black pieces. Paul seemed to have no problems out of the opening, exchanged of White's fianchettoed Bishop and launched a Kingside attack that won the Queen.


6. Nick 0-1 T Cowling (125)

Nick played sensibly against Terry's Albin Counter Gambit and seemed to have a good position with advancing pawns against Terry's Queenside castled King. However Nick lost the endgame somehow.

3-3 would have been a fair result. 2-4 was painful.

ECA take on ECB next week. See you there.