Post by admin on Mar 18, 2013 10:41:45 GMT
On Friday we played a full strength Eastbourne team with Adrian Pickersgill playing on board 5 whereas earlier in the season he was playing on board 1.
Andrew on board 4 continued his fine run and applied strong pressure throughout the game. Eventually, instead of continuing with passive defence, his opponent saw the opportunity to counterattack but missed a tactic which won Andrew a piece and the game.
Laurence on board 5 couldn't quite decide where to put his king and started to go astray after the opening. Unfortunately, with his king still in the centre, an oversight allowed one of his opponents knights into the heart of his position and the loss was inevitable.
Jerry on board 3 looked to have a slightly difficult position out of the opening and his opponent was throwing everything forward on the kingside looking for a quick knockout. However with his queenside completely undeveloped it all looked slightly premature. Jerry offered a pawn, which was refused, and then found an accurate sequence to win the exchange. To add insult to injury the pawn continued to be a real nuisance to his opponent and the game ended prettily when Jerry gave up queen for rook in order to promote the pawn.
Bernard with black played very solidly throughout and comfortably held the balance to draw with Rasa on board 1.
Probably the most eventful game of the evening was Alan's on board 2. He had had to respond to a text message, received just before the start, and lost a few minutes on his clock despite us having arrived at the venue well in advance. About 20 minutes into the game he decided to check that he had in fact switched off his phone and in the process inadvertently switched it on. As this was accompanied by the usual tone Adrian, the Eastbourne captain, quickly pointed out that, although he was not in favour of the rule, this constituted grounds for them to claim the game .... apparently they had been on the receiving end of a similar incident against Worthing earlier in the season. Anyway, to his credit, their player indicated that he had come to play chess and the game continued. It all looked to be somewhat irrelevant as Alan, I think unsettled by the incident, misplayed the position and lost the exchange. However, although material down and quite lost on the queenside, he somehow, with minimal material, managed to whip up an attack on the kingside and reached the adjournment a pawn up in a rook and pawn ending. Although the position was possibly winning, because of the earlier incident and the state of the match, the players agreed a draw giving us an excellent hard fought 3 - 2 win.
I feel it is slightly unsatisfactory that Eastbourne lost the match in this way but also that it would have been incredibly harsh if Alan had been defaulted when he was only trying to ensure that his phone was switched off. I understand that an initial warning applies in county matches but I suppose the moral is that everyone must ensure that their phones are switched off and if they do need to check them, to do it away from the board.
I will be looking to get as strong a team as possible for our next match away to Horsham 2 on Tuesday the 23rd April.
Howard Tebbs
Andrew on board 4 continued his fine run and applied strong pressure throughout the game. Eventually, instead of continuing with passive defence, his opponent saw the opportunity to counterattack but missed a tactic which won Andrew a piece and the game.
Laurence on board 5 couldn't quite decide where to put his king and started to go astray after the opening. Unfortunately, with his king still in the centre, an oversight allowed one of his opponents knights into the heart of his position and the loss was inevitable.
Jerry on board 3 looked to have a slightly difficult position out of the opening and his opponent was throwing everything forward on the kingside looking for a quick knockout. However with his queenside completely undeveloped it all looked slightly premature. Jerry offered a pawn, which was refused, and then found an accurate sequence to win the exchange. To add insult to injury the pawn continued to be a real nuisance to his opponent and the game ended prettily when Jerry gave up queen for rook in order to promote the pawn.
Bernard with black played very solidly throughout and comfortably held the balance to draw with Rasa on board 1.
Probably the most eventful game of the evening was Alan's on board 2. He had had to respond to a text message, received just before the start, and lost a few minutes on his clock despite us having arrived at the venue well in advance. About 20 minutes into the game he decided to check that he had in fact switched off his phone and in the process inadvertently switched it on. As this was accompanied by the usual tone Adrian, the Eastbourne captain, quickly pointed out that, although he was not in favour of the rule, this constituted grounds for them to claim the game .... apparently they had been on the receiving end of a similar incident against Worthing earlier in the season. Anyway, to his credit, their player indicated that he had come to play chess and the game continued. It all looked to be somewhat irrelevant as Alan, I think unsettled by the incident, misplayed the position and lost the exchange. However, although material down and quite lost on the queenside, he somehow, with minimal material, managed to whip up an attack on the kingside and reached the adjournment a pawn up in a rook and pawn ending. Although the position was possibly winning, because of the earlier incident and the state of the match, the players agreed a draw giving us an excellent hard fought 3 - 2 win.
I feel it is slightly unsatisfactory that Eastbourne lost the match in this way but also that it would have been incredibly harsh if Alan had been defaulted when he was only trying to ensure that his phone was switched off. I understand that an initial warning applies in county matches but I suppose the moral is that everyone must ensure that their phones are switched off and if they do need to check them, to do it away from the board.
I will be looking to get as strong a team as possible for our next match away to Horsham 2 on Tuesday the 23rd April.
Howard Tebbs
