taunton chess club

Match Reports

Match Reports 2011/12

Somerset Cup - 6/2/2012

The Somerset Cup is undoubtedly the most prestigious competition in the league, and Taunton, as current champions were awarded a bye to the semi-finals. Our opponents were to be Glastonbury, who had beaten us just two years earlier in the final. Yeah, we beat them last year, but we want to do it again (and again, and again). And again. And then some more.

MikeR has taken over much of the captaincy of both Division 1 and the Somerset Cup due to Nick being too lazy to do it busy with work. Mike carefully tried to select the best team, but a couple couldn't make it, the reasons being Martin "work", and Jerry "his mum couldn't find him in the east wing". So Stan and Jorge stepped in and completed the team.

Glastonbury had the home advantage, and yet again we were wondering which room we'd get. I remind you of the options -

a) Large grand room, relatively well sound-proofed from the bar, plenty of playing space, good lighting and en-suite male and female rest-rooms! Probably the best playing facilities in the league.
b) Bowling alley room, but with the added amusements of comedy squeeking sliding door and entertaining wall mural to help stave off boredom whilst waiting for one's opponent to move
c) Dimly lit, cold, cramped, poorly sound insulated and with decidedly unfunny comedy 'heaters' that managed to turn all their electric power into noise rather than heat. Probably the worst playing facilities in the league.

On arrival, room (b) had been turned into an archery range!?, and our hopes of being in room (a), were dashed when we saw lots of people arrive with what looked like various large music instruments filing into it.

So, we were in (c). Surely things in that room wouldn't be quite like PawnStar remembered them?

They were. Or maybe a bit worse.

Glastonbury were all present, along with a handful of Miffies and resident GM, who was only playing to 'help out' due to some sort of 'emergency' with a as-yet-unnamed player 'not tuning up' for board 1. Hmmm...

Anyway, the next event was the coin toss to decide colours. Glastonbury called correctly and this triggered Nick's odd/even dyslexia, which was eventually resolved - Glastonbury had white on odds. Great - not only do they have a GM on board 1, he has white as well....

The grades down the rest of the team were overall in Taunton's favour, but not by much, and Glastonbury had a few juniors, whose grades are likely to be substantially different to those based on when they were a whole year younger.

Anyway, the games got underway and finished like this.

Board 6 - Robin Challenor 1/2 v Tim Wallis 1/2
Although I wandered past this game many times, carefully studying the position, I simply can't remember anything about it other than Robin had white, both players were moving quite slowly, and a draw was agreed in surely less than 20 moves. Robin was slightly out-graded, so well done, I suppose... He didn't seem too unhappy afterwards, so maybe there was nothing in it for him.

Board 5 - Yasmin Sukyowai 0 v Nick Wilson 1
Ok, here is some simple maths for you. If a > b and b > c, then surely a > c too? Wrong! c > a !
Ha!
To clarify, Yasmin beat Dave a few weeks ago. Dave beat Nick last week. So therefore Yasmin will beat Nick? No. Luckily for Nick, while Yasmin was busy facebooking (presumably not with Kasparov), he attacked and she was a rook down inside 20 moves. A bit later she resigned.

Board 8 - Jorge PinedaLangford 1/2 v George Galliano 1/2
Jorge (ps - thank you for spelling your name this way, this report would have got very confusing..) got a fantastic position against George. But as Jorge pressed his attack, George found a nice resource which seemed to save him. Jorge blundered and suddenly George was a bishop up, but George's position was so poor, Jorge could invade with his rook and George could do nothing but passively repeat moves while Jorge chased George's bishop around. Good to salvage a draw here. Afterwards Jorge went through the game and found George's move earlier wasn't best and Jorge could've won quickly.

Board 7 - Martin Willis 0 v Stan Wojick 1
Stan found himself in a tricky-to-draw position by late middle-game, being a pawn or two down, and still a few pieces left. But Martin was down on time and blundered badly handing Stan a whole rook! Strangely Stan had been fully confident throughout, and result bore out, complete with a massive cheshire cat grin on his boat race.

So at the halfway point Taunton were 3-1 up, but with this coming on the lower boards, the pesky board elimination rule would come into play in the event of a 4-4 draw, handing the win to Glastonbury (where is Mike Ward when we need him!?). So we needed a further 1.5 points.

A quick glance at the remaining boards didn't look too promising - Terry on one was short on time in a wild position against a GM. Dave was horribly squashed against a stronger player. Mark had a good bind, but no obvious win and was shortish on time, and MikeR looked slightly ahead in a fairly dull position. How would 1.5 points come from this lot??

They finished like this -

Board 3 - Paul Moody 1/2 v Mark Hassal 1/2
Both these players have had a fantastic season thus far (although Mark's cornish winning run counts for little as the results aren't being sent in to the ECF. Uh???). Anyway, Mark by the late middle game has a good bind (see above - "Mark had a good bind"), but couldn't break through. A draw was agreed.

Board 1 - Matthew Turner 1 v Terry Stuttard 0
Terry put up a good fight. As a kid I remember reading "Chess for Tigers" and the "How to trap Heffalumps" section. It simply said, get complex, the Heffalump might miss something in the melle and you might get lucky. (Heffalumps rarely miss anything in simple positions you see...). So Terry found himself in a very complex position, but sadly wasn't able to land the Heffalump as he'd used a lot of time to avoid being squished as the Heffalump crashed around being all threatening and Heffalumpy. Eventually he lost on time (I think). But this was after putting up a good fight.

So, Taunton lead 3.5 to 2.5, but we still needed two draws or one win from the two last games. Trouble is, one looked a bit 'loosey', and then other looked 'drawy' and not very 'winney'. But MikeR was confident and sounding 'winney'.

Board 3 - Mike Richardt 1 v Roger Morgan 0
Mike had a slight edge through the middle game and on to the end game. A simple tactic won a pawn or two and woozily black overstepped the time control, but the position was clearly won for Mike be then.

Yay! Taunton had enough. We've won.

But during the celebrations there was a persistent 'Shhh!' "SHHHH!' coming from Dave as he still played...

Board 2 - Dave Littlejohns 1/2 v Rhys Cummings 1/2
By early middle game, black had a fantastic position, with a strong knight on c3 and strong pawn chains. Dave was horribly cramped with bad bishops, knights on bank rank and a potentially breezy king. It did look difficult to turn this into a win for Rhys, but eventually he thought he'd seen a way with a Knight sac on g3. When the dust settled, it seemed the best on offer was a perpetual, which he took.

So Taunton win 5-3. A close result, and one that didn't seem too likely a bit earlier in the evening!

But well played Taunton!

We await the other semi result - Sedgemoor play Frome...

Watch this space for news and dates of the final.

- PawnStar

Division 2 - 26/1/12 v Sedgemoor

A Draw is a fair result

Last night Taunton had to travel to Sedgmoor for our Division 2 match. Due to the strange rules in Division 2 we could actually field 3 first team players against Bridgwater. All players in a team are not allowed to have more than 870ECF points combined which means an average of 145ECF. In my opinion this should be changed to a grading limit for the first board to avoid possible disputes.
So for most team captains the calculator comes out before a game to see, which is the ‘strongest’ or ‘best possible’ team they can field. There is obviously a difference: If you have 1-2 stronger players in your team you need to field lower rated players on the lower boards. If you have a more equal team you might get rewarded the point that way. Depending on what opponent you play one of the tactics might work out when the other doesn’t.
For last night’s encounter with Sedgmoor Mike Richardt (180ECF), Dave Littlejohns (174), Nick Wilson (159), Stan Wojcik (133), Mike Ward (101) and Vic McAndrew (94) played for Taunton which was an average of just over 140ECF per board. Sedgmoor did play without Ben Edgell who had to work but turn up later to see how both teams are doing.

The games finished roughly in this order:

First to finish was Vic on board 6 against Bob Jervis. Vic had the black pieces and I didn’t see the opening but in the middle game Vic lost two pawns for no compensation. After the Queens came off white converted the end game into a full point. 0-1

Next to finish was Nick who played only his 3rd game this season against Steve Green. Nick is an unconventional player which some very unusual and interesting opening lines. If I saw the opening right Nick played the Blackmar-Diemer gambit which is not that easy to refute if you don’t know what to do as black. Unfortunately for Steve he didn’t know how to deal with this opening properly and Nick, who had sacrifices a pawn in the opening, was a pawn up in the middle game. It was an uphill struggle for Steve and Nick finished the game with some nice tactic sacrificing a knight on g5 to expose black’s king and mate him. A great game which showed Nick’s attacking abilities. 1-1

I think next to finish was Mike Ward on board 5 against Stan Hill. I thought Mike would do well against Stan because Mike played quite well against Dave Graham last Tuesday in his Club Championship game. But what a difference two days can make. In the middle game Mike thought he had a nice combo but miscalculated the line and ended up losing a whole rook if I remember rightly. The rest was just down to technique. 1-2

Stan on board 4 was the next and his game was full of surprises. Stan had to play an unrated player and with the black pieces Stan equalled the game quite quickly and even won the exchange (a rook for a minor piece). I thought that’s it game over, just down to technique again. But Stan suddenly started to complicate things and game the exchange back. I am not sure what happened next but Stan looked like he had to give perpetual check as he was in risk of losing the game. 1 ½ - 2 ½

Now it was my turn to finish. I played Neville Senior again and again I had the white pieces. This was Neville’s 3rd game against me this season. We had a Nimzo-indian line again but with much better opening outcome for me this time than in our last match. The middle game was quite complicated with a lot of tactics to calculate which put the pressure on Neville. In the middle game he sacrificed a pawn for some counter play but took back with the wrong piece in time trouble. With 5 minutes left on the clock compare to my 15 minutes Neville overlooked a nice combo against his King and couldn’t solve all the problems in time. 2 ½ - 2 ½

The match was in the balance and only Dave Littlejohns was to finish. He played Chris McKinley and after a rather boring opening the game was very equal. The queens came off and both players had 5 pawns and a minor piece left on the board. Dave is not in the best form and slowly let the game slip out of his hands and was fighting for a draw here. Both players had about 7 minutes left on the clock when they agreed a draw only then Chris realised that he actually had a won position. Chris wasn’t sure if he could convert the game into a full point due to his time shortage and was happy with the draw. 3 -3

3-3 is a fair result if you consider that we perhaps should have won on board 4 and lost on board 2. So does it make any difference to field stronger players on the top boards and much lower rated on the bottom boards to keep the balance? In my opinion it depends which team you are playing against. It probably makes more sense to field a team with players of similar grades throughout the whole team.

Player Player
Sedgmoor 3 Taunton 3
Board Player Score Player Score
1 Neville Senior 0 Mike Richardt 1
2 Chris McKinley ½ Dave Littlejohns ½
3 Steve Green 0 Nick Wilson 1
4 ??? ½ Stan Wojcik ½
5 Stan Hill 1 Mike Ward 0
6 Bob Jervis 1 Vic McAndrew 0

Division 1 v Glastonbury 16/1/12 v Glastonbury

A match point salvaged

The New Year started with a Division 1 match against Glastonbury. I had a quick look at the standings before the match started and surprisingly Glastonbury is last on the 4 team league:
Team Played Won Drawn Lost Points
Taunton 3 3 0 0 6
Frome 3 2 0 1 4
Yeovil 3 1 0 2 2
Glastonbury 3 0 0 3 0

As Nick is very busy with work this year I took over the role of the team captain. So to ensure that we could raise a team some emails were send out in the last two weeks and I got a nearly full strengths tea. Only Nick couldn’t make due to work commitments. Strangely enough I had ‘some’ trouble to get a 6th player. First I asked Martin but unfortunately he had to go to a funeral in Wales and couldn’t be sure to be back in time.
Next in line was Jerry. So a quick phone call discovered that he was already recruited by Martin…… to look after his dog while Martin was in Wales!!!!! In the end I got Stan to step in on short notice and the team is truly grateful for that. The team in the end was: Ben Edgell, Terry Stuttard, Mike Richardt, Mark Hassall, Dave Littlejohns and Stan Wojcik.

The first to finish after about 3h was Dave Littlejohns on board 5. He had to play one of the new youngsters from Millfield, Savidkova, a 14 year old girl. Dave had the white pieces and played quite adventurous compare to his style. The girl is ungraded but played quite well and in the middle game she had a passed pawn on the d-file which caused Dave some trouble. I am not sure what happened then but somehow Dave blundered a rook and had to resign. 0-1

Shortly after this Terry Stuttard finished against Paul Moody on board 2. Terry had black and it looked like an English opening by Paul. I have to say that I didn’t see a lot of this game but Terry had some problems to keep the balance in the late middle game/ early end game. At the end Terry was a pawn down in a rook end game and dispite all of Terry’s efforts he couldn’t save the game. 0-2

Stan Wojcik’s game on board 6 was very interesting. He had to play another of the Millfield youngsters, Alex Galliano. With opposites castleing the board some was on fire and to be honest I though Alex had the upper hand when he sacrificed a piece for a kings attack. But fortunately for Stan he didn’t find the right moves and Stan defended well. Soon all the major pieces came off and Stan had a winning position and converted this into a full point. 1-2

Ben was the next to finish on board 1. He also played one of the Millfield kids, Nikita Ayvazyan (??), an 11 year old boy with an impressive ECF rating already. In the game there was not much going on and shortly after the middle game a draw was agreed. When the game finished GM Matthew Turner pointed out that ben could have won the exchange which ben just overlooked. Nevertheless a good result for the youngster. 1,5-2,5

Now it was Mark Hassall’s turn to get a full point. His opponent was Tim Wallis and strangely enough Mark and Dave Littlejohns had at some point the same position on the board just with a slightly different move order. But Mark’s game took a different route and in the endgame Mark had a strong finish and won the exchange. Later he sacrificed the Rook for the Bishop to go into a King + pawn ending which was won. A needed win for the team. 2,5-2,5

Last to finish was Mike Richardt on board 2. I had to play Neville Senior with the white pieces. He played a different line in the Nimzo-indian opening then last time but I still managed to get ahead in time and with a slightly better position. In the middle game both of us didn’t find the right plans and ended up in a time scramble again. Déjà vu of last times encounter. Shortly after the time control Neville offered a draw and I wanted to win and tried to press. In order to do this I was in huge risk of losing and two moves later I offered a draw myself which Neville then agreed. Looking at the final position after the game it looks I was actually slightly worse. 3-3

Glastonbury players were quick to point out that it was the first time in nearly two years that Taunton didn’t win a match. A great winning streak has finished but we are still unbeaten which is still a fantastic result.

Our next Division 1 match is an away match against Yeovil on 29th February 2012. But before that fixture we have to face Glastonbury in the Somerset Cup semi-final in Glastonbury on 6th February 2012. We need 8 players for this game and Ben will not be available for this game as he is representing Sedgmoor in this competition.

DIVISION 1 v Yeovil 1/11/11

Please find below the match report of last nights encounter with Yeovil.

Nick was in Singapore last week so he asked me to organise a team for our match against Yeovil. After a few emails I had a great team available with Ben Edgell, Terry Stuttard, Mike Richardt, Mark Hassall, Dave Littlejohns and Nick Wilson. These are the 6 best rated player of the club. But then a blow before even starting the match. 3h before the match was due to start I texted Nick if he is still ok for playing and he texted me back that he has ‘man flu’ and can’t play. He just came back from Singapore and I didn’t want the whole team ill with avian flu next week so Nick ask if he could be substituted. After some frantic phone calls I suddenly had a choice of Players: Martin and Jerry. In the end Martin was drafted in as Jerry had organised to play his 1st round match against Steve last night. Thanks guys for stepping in in short notice.

Yeovil was burning to set the records straight from last season. In full capacity they have a great team with 3 players over 170 on the top three boards. Nevertheless 2 of their 3 top players turned up but on paper Taunton out graded Yeovil on every board on average by at least 15-20 points. A huge margin which might be decisive. Here are the games as they finished:

Board 2: Terry – Andrew Footner 0-1
Andrew is an experienced and dangerous player as my games against him are always entertaining. I don’t really know what happened exactly in the game but Terry with the white pieces had a solid position against Andrew’s interesting style of play. Unfortunately Terry overlooked a small combo by Andrew and lost a pawn and left terry with a ruin of a position. A few moves later and Terry resigned. 0-1

Board 4: Mark Hassall – Jim Fewkes 0,5-0,5
Mark had the white pieces and Jim played the Sicilian against Mark’s 1.e4! It looked like an Accelerated Dragon to me but both players castle King-side. In the middle game the queens came off the board which left Mark with an equal position, probably slightly better for black I thought at moment. Mark offered a draw and Jim agreed straight away. A good result for Jim who was out rated by 17 points. 0,5-1,5

Board 5: Roger Knight – Dave Littlejohns 0-1
Dave loves the black pieces. I have to agree with Nick’s previous match reports. Dave is the master in mixing concrete to avoid complications at all costs. During the game Ben and I were talking about Dave’s style of play and we both decided that the both of us never can reach such heights in dullness (or positional chess). He is truly THE MASTER OF DULL CHESS!!! J
In a Caro-Kann opening Dave played his usual c6, d5, e6, g6, h5, Bg7, Ne7-f5 line and seemed slightly better in the middle game but nothing major. When I came back to Dave’s board about 20 mins later he was analysing his game with his opponent. I asked for the result and expected a draw, Dave told me he won. He must have seen my puzzled look on my face and explained that his opponent blundered a piece (I think it was the Queen). I think Dave has to elaborate on that! Nevertheless a point is a point. Thank you very much. 1,5-1,5

Board 6: Martin Worrall – Mark Baker 1-0
It seems that Martin plays Mark in every match we play against Yeovil. I don’t know what happened in this game. Martin had the white pieces and when I asked what happened in Martin’s game someone told me he won. Great effort, especially when stepping in on short notice 2h before the match. 2,5-1,5

Two games to go and we need 1 point to win the match. Ben was next to finish:

Board 1: Patryk Krzyzanowski – Ben Edgell 0-1
Ben played the Queens-Indian against Patryk’s 1.d4 and after 10-12 moves the position was equal and Patryk started to think for a long time. After a long and hard thinking process Patryk decided to opt for an attack on the king side. Ben on the other hand had none of it and had everything under control. Not really sure what happened in time trouble but Patryk couldn’t find the best moves and had to resign with about 20 seconds left on the clock. Ben played some impressive moves to keep the position reasonably complicated to exploit Patryk’s time problems. Well played and a great win. 3,5-1,5

Board 3: Darren Freeman – Mike Richardt 0-1
I expected either to play Darren or Shane Roberts. I played my usual Philidor against Darren. Darren must have been happy with a draw before the match as he didn’t really employ the best position but settled for a rather defensive approach. In a complicated middle game I threatened to win a pawn which forced Darren to play more actively. We were both now in time trouble and after the tome control we ended up in a Q+N endgame with 6 pawns each but Darren had the more active Queen. After some careful manoeuvring with my King, Queen and Knight I achieved my desired position and sacked a pawn for some counter play. We both had to blitz now and I had some flashbacks to my last Division 1 game against Neville Senior where I bottled it in the end. But not this time. I had a clear plan and swapped off the Queens and exploited Darren’s weaknesses on both King and Queen Sides. In a lost position Darren’s flag fell. 4,5-1,5

Player Player
Taunton 4,5 Yeovil 1,5
Board Player Score Player Score
1 Ben Edgell 1 Patryk Krzyzanowski 0
2 Terry Stuttard 0 Andrew Footner 1
3 Mike Richardt 1 Darren Freeman 0
4 Mark Hassall 0,5 Jim Fewkes 0,5
5 Dave Littlejohns 1 Roger Knight 0
6 Martin Worrall 1 Mark Baker 0
Man of the match: Ben Edgell for his calm head when faced with a difficult position and keeping it complicated in time trouble.
Our next Division 1 match is an away match against Frome on 29th November 2011. I hope we get all 6 top players together for this match as Frome had some great additions to their team. Sorry it’s not like the usual match reports by Nick but to be honest I didn’t really see a lot of the other games. J
Also just a quick reminder that there a two games left in the 1st round of the Taunton Championship. Mark-Mike Ward and Nick-Mike Watson. Mark already told me he will play next week. Next week is the last chance to play your game!!!!

Cheers.
Mike

DIVISION 2 v Sedgemoor 11/10/11

Hi everyone
Here's a report about last nights first Division 2 match at home
against Sedgemoor. They didn't compete in this division last season.
The previous season they were run away victors of division 2 With the new grading system for div2 (An average of 145 for all
players) it means each captain's first weapon of choice is now the
calculator! Neville Senior and his team were not sure if Ben E was
coming along, and with his grade being just shy of 200 it means that
this has to be balanced out by an equally low graded player (ideally
about 90) or some mathematical fiddle! Ben E turned up and and after
some furious calculator work a team was decided upon. I didn't check
the total but I trust them!
This calculating is going to have to take place for all div 2 matches
and I would guess the odd team is going to get it wrong. What happens
if a team goes over by a few points or even one, and they win? Unlike Nick W's reports I cannot remember all positions of all games
and so I can only give an overview. Jerry played Steven Green. I suspected they both play similar slow
moving, pawn nudging positions and I predicted this would be the first
to finish with a most-pieces-on-the-board-draw. Steve Green was white
and played 1 e3. It was the first to finish with a
most-pieces-on-the-board-draw. Next to finish was Vic. Vic lost to R Jervis, but I only saw a couple
of positions and don't really know what happened. Next to finish was the clash of the giants. Ben Edgel (198) vs Terry
Stuttard (191). Again I was too involved in my own game to really
study this game but this ended in a draw. A good result for Terry who
was playing black. It's worth noting that Terry played six times on
board 1 last season in Div 2 and didn't lose, so his unbeaten run
continues. A great achievement for board 1 which is always a difficult
board in any division. Next to finish was Mike Ward who played Stan Hill. I only saw a couple
of positions in this game but one of them was a crucial position in
which stan seemed to go the exchange up. Although I didn't see what
happened after that Mike cam out the winner. Well done Mike Match score now was 2-2 Next to finish was myself against Neville. I was white and we went into
a French Advance. Blacks Bishop came out to b4 after only a few moves
to give check. Blocking with Nc3 or Bd2 would seem obvious but the
correct move here is Kf1! which I played. This now gives black nothing
to aim for and I soon pushed all his pieces back to his first 2 ranks
by pushing a and g pawns.
This was a great game as black kept things solid by NOT castling into
trouble or pawn grabbing, and eventually freed up his position. In the
end we agreed a draw with about 4 mins left each and 7 moves to make to
the time control. Perhaps white had a small edge and if we played on it
may well have been a good advantage but it would have been difficult to
see this with only a few minutes left. Draw. Match score 2.5 - 2.5 Last to finish was Stan playing white versus ungraded player (cannot
remember the name). So it was all down to Stans game. Going into the
endgame Stan was a piece up for 3 pawns, one of which was a passed
pawn. Stan had to force a result otherwise this passed pawn was going
to win. I suspect time was a factor here as after Queens and Rooks all
lined up for both sides attacking and defending one poor pawn, black
seeming made a questionable pawn push and stan was in with a rook and
queen. Or was he?? With time pushing, and everyone else gathering round
watching AND the caretakers hanging around by the door insisting we
finish in one minute! black looked like he found a repetative check
idea but somehow black got a second piece in the attack and white
position was probably lost when Stans flag fell. A very tense finish.
Hard luck on Stan, but a very good effort. Sedgemoor win 3.5 - 2.5 This match is a good example of how we must start as close to 7.30 as
possible. We had a couple of late arrivals for our team so i delayed
the start, which in turn means we are not in the caretakers good books.
I told them this was a rare occasion, but it happening on the first
match didn't help. I think they were alright about it in the end but we
must start at 7.30 in the future (or if there is a late start perhaps
knock 5 mins off everyone's time, therefore starting at 10 to the
hour??) Thanks to everyone who played. Next Div 2 match is away at Glastonbury in a couple of weeks time.

Martin

DIVISION 1 v Glastonbury 18/10/11

As current double/back-to-back Division 1 champions, we have taken steps to strengthen the team further - during the summer, Ben Edgell has transferred to our team from Sedgemoor. We are going for the triple! (And I heard a rumour that Mike Redman may also be able to re-join the team on occasion too - of course fantastic news for the team, and terrible news for the opposition (and me, as somewhat embarrassingly I may face the prospect of being captain of a team I'm not strong enough to play for...) Anyway, on to the here and now. The Div 1 season always kicks off with the match against Glastonbury. And sure enough we were full of confidence, and sure enough, yet again the 5.5 - 0.5 spectre of defeat from two years ago raised its ugly head.. We managed not to slip up last year, and we must not allow it to happen again! Ok, on to teams. Thankfully MikeR carried out some very efficient organising and put together a team which was almost at full strength - only our new signing, Ben, couldn't make it. We had Terry, Mike, Mark, Dave, Nick and Jerry - not 100% strength, but even so, should be good enough. Glastonbury were warned about both the annoying roadworks at Greinton and the early start time and promised to arrive on time. They turned up and brought, Rhys Cumming, Neville Senior (hmm.. they have a Sedgemoor transfered player too..), Paul Moody, Tim Wallis, George Galliano and Y Bhageria (sorry, didn't know his name...) Glastonbury have white on odds, and this meant I had black (this never happened when I arrange the team...) Games went like this - Board 6
J Kilby 1 v Y Bhageria 0
I missed the opening, but Jerry was a pawn up from the start. It was an opposite castling game and sure enough, Jerry was applying pressure. But the queens were off and it looked like possibly being a long struggle. But suddenly Jerry spotted a combo and won the exchange. With this, and the pawn advantage, the game was soon won. Taunton 1-0. then - Board 5
G Galliano 0 v N Wilson 1
I played my usual rubbish opening and ended up fractionally ahead on development, but 1 or 2 pawns down - not a good trade. Fortunately my opponent made a slip and lost a piece - although did pick up a further pawn in the process, so technically not really material down. I felt I had a positional edge with my active queen, and eventually after swapping everything off, my extra material won the game. Taunton 2-0. shortly afterwards was - Board 4
D Littlejohns 1 v T Wallis 0
Dave had a fantastic opening, racing ahead on development and keeping black's king stuck in the middle. He had a knight on d6 causing all sorts of issues and it really looked like this would soon translate into a won game. Well 'won game' game to me means being at least a piece up, but to Dave, 'won game' is being able to force everything off to a rook and pawn endgame where black had a isolated pawn. To be fair to Dave, his opponent did say "Draw?" at this point. This is the scenario every grinder likes - make the opponent think there is some hope, some light at the end of the tunnel, only to gradually squeeze and gently, slowly crush those hopes, and grind out the win. Dave did this. So Taunton now lead 3-0. Not only does this mean we are near to winning, but a nice pattern was developing - board by board from the bottom board upwards we were winning..., so on to the next one, board 3... Board 3
P Moody 0 v M Hasall 1
By the middlegame, Mark had a very strong position. Good central rooks. Active Queen and minor pieces. Whereas white looked cramped and awkward. Eventually Mark's pressure caused a crack in white's defences and won a piece. The game was over. Nice win and Taunton now take the match! Taunton lead 4-0. All we need now is for the board by board streak to continue, but sadly this happened - Board 1
R Cummings 1 v T Stuttard 0
I missed the early opening, but it was a queens early off and messy pawn structure affair. Although white seemed to have an edge with an active queenside pawn majority. Both players were short on time quite early on, but ultimately Whites position was too good and the pressure of the passed q-side pawns was too much and Terry resigned. Taunton lead 4 - 1. The final game was - Board 2
M Richardt 0.5 v N Senior 0.5
There was no doubt, Mike had the better position by the middle game. Lots of pressure and coordinated pieces. By the endgame, material was equal, but Mike's rook seemed to be keeping black pinned back. Black tried a break with this k side pawns, but Mike calmly swapped everything off an emerged a couple of pawns up in a R+B+P ending. By now both players were short on time and moving fast. Neville won one pawn back, but in the process Mike spotted an exchange sac that let him then fork the remaining rook with his bishop - surely game over? No! Neville spotted a way to avoid, but it meant he would still be a full bishop down (i.e B+P v P). Sadly, his king was well placed and he was able to force off mikes last pawn and therefore the draw, No final analysis was possible as the caretakers were now waiting in the wings. So we tidied up quickly and went off... Great first win for Taunton - 4.5 v 1.5!

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