HA2 (3-1) Melton 3

• Rob scraped a draw by the skin of his teeth on board 3.
• On 4, John and Roy Toon played an exchange French Defence that ground down to a draw.
• Graham B faced Bird's Opening in a very sharp tactical game and gained the whole point.
• The strangest game was Captain Pete's. In the late middle game, playing with the black pieces, although material up and with a considerable advantage in time, Pete's pieces were all hostage in a corner on the queen's side. His bishop remained on c8 - not having moved throughout the game - and hemmed in by a pawn on d7 and a king on b7. Shaun had a number of good candidates for pawn promotion and it looked as if it would be difficult to stop them all. Pete's rook had remained on a8, until, in time pressure, his opponent placed his queen in front of his king. Pete then performed a swift and dexterous rook move from a8 to b8 pinning the white queen to the king - game and match over.

08 Mar		Heathcote Arms 2		v	Melton Mowbray 3
				3 - 1
1	B	153	Booley, Graham	1 - 0	Wallace, Robert	147
2	W	139	Ensor, Rob	½ - ½	Farquharson, Ian	134
3	B	138	Harrison, Peter	1 - 0	Cope, Shaun	128
4	W	122	Manger, John	½ - ½	Toon, Roy	110

Well done everyone.

HA1, HA2, and HA3 are all in action next week - the latter two on the Tuesday.

Colin