Sale 2.5 ECC 2.5 (Mon 10th November)

A well-contested draw with some interesting individual games in Monday’s away game to Sale.

On board 3, Geoff seemed to be in decent shape, but then his opponent managed to swing round for a kingside attack, and with queen and knight suddenly bearing down on h2, Geoff was forced to resign.

On board 4, with the game moving towards a bishop-and-pawn endgame, Ian considered pushing on for a win for the good of the team, but without enough of an edge, a draw was agreed soon after.

Debuting for ECC on board 2, Kieran played a deceptively quiet opening as black before striking out with g5. Soon Kieran had a dangerous-looking pawn pushing on on both sides of the board, and even with some minor pieces still on the board, it was too many plates to keep spinning for his opponent, who resigned. Great stuff Kieran.

I was playing a previously strong but currently rusty opponent on board 1, who allowed me to win a pawn and the initiative a little cheaply in a QGA. I was able to build an attack on the f7 square with my knights active and so win further material, and though his suddenly well-coordinated pieces found a bit of worrying counterplay, I was able to swap off and force home my extra pawns in the end.

With the draw secured, this left Keith’s game still to finish. But his opponent had built a small advantage carefully and well throughout the game despite some obstinate defence from Keith, and in a Q+N v R+B+N position, with no easy way of getting some crucial piece co-ordination, his opponent’s queen starting mopping up pawns and advancing his own and Keith reluctantly resigned.

Well played all!