ECB 1.5 Marple B 4.5 (Wed 26th Nov)

Here we go, first time blog for ECB so hopefully this will work.

We knew Marple B had been whitewashed 6-0 by Denton B last week and we outgraded them on every board, so surely this was match was going to be a stroll?  Unfortunately, there was a turn up on virtually every board.....

1.  Tudor 0 - 1 Andy Jenkins (130)

This was a real see-saw of a game.  Tudor made a quiet start against a Colle but then went up an exchange and was on a charge.  Andy then some how managed to gain the initiative and even missed a mate but then went on to win a close end game when he was just able to promote a pawn first.

2.  David 1/2 - 1/2 Chris Baker (129)

It looked like David's English opening was doing well as he was a piece for 2 pawns up and had the possibilities for winning on time (for a change!).  The game then became quite tactical in time trouble with Chris finding a fork to win a queen and then David finding a pin to win back the queen but losing a piece in the process.  He held on though and a draw was agreed.

3.  Keven 0 - 1 Terry Cowling (127)

Kev set up a solid system against the Catalan but then overlooked a move which gave Terry the initiative and he went on to finish it off well.

4.  Alan 0 - 1 David Preen (125)

Alan had a reasonable middle game position but allowed his opponent to swap off queens and then unleash an unstoppable queen side pawn storm.

5.  Bill 0 - 1 Jeff Barlow (124)

Bill didn't get much play from his normally reliable Caro Kann and eventually succumbed after putting up a good fight.

6.  Paul 1 - 0 Trefor Thomas (100)

In terrible form (not won for the B team for 2 years and lost my last match after being 22.7 pawns up according to Fritz !)I managed to get a bit more activity against a Petrov defence and won a rook ending with an extra 2 pawns.

So, all in all, that was a result that not even Mystic Meg could have predicted.  But we'll bounce back from this and I'm sure we'll have a strong second half to the season.  See you next year!