ECB 3.5 - 2.5 Altrincham A

We managed to pull off our first win of the season but it wasn't altogether straightforward!  Halfway through the night we looked like we were cruising but we made hard work of it but got the right result in the end.

Nick finished first.  He was a pawn up for a long time but ended up in a very equal looking position for a draw.  I then contrived to lose a game when I was a full piece up (plus 13.5 on Fritz) but allowed my opponent a sucker punch down the a file.  David T was in a tight battle of 2 rooks each plus pawns.  David's 5 pawns were all connected but his opponent had 2 troublesome unconnected past pawns and David finally agreed a draw after about the 5th time of asking.

Tudor was 2 pawns up in an opposite colour bishop ending and was able to use the principle of 2 weaknesses to overwork his opponent's bishop for a nice win.  Meanwhile Geoff was a pawn up with a passed pawn but was just unable to make any progess and agreed a valuable draw.

So it was 2 and a half each with the whole match to be decided by board 1.  Dave Newell, the king of time trouble, was having another clock horror.  He was a pawn down in a Q and R endgame but had good pressure along the 7th rank, although Reg had got this fairly well covered.  Dave ran his clock down to 1 second (!) and made a couple of quick moves before offering a draw.  Reg, perhaps caught up in Dave's time scramble, played on but made a soft move which let Dave in on the back rank and he was able to very efficiently weave a mating net with Q and R for a last gasp winner.

1 - 0  Dave N v Reg Clucas (155)
1/2    David T v Bill McCartney (124)
1 - 0  Tudor v David Hughes (121)
0 - 1  Paul v Steve Douglas (108)
1/2   Nick v Callum McNulty (104)
1/2   Geoff C v Wayne Kranz (79)