Ashby 2 Vs HA1

Graham B Reports

We won 3.5- 1.5

It wasn't as easy as the result suggests.

Dave dropped the exchange but his opponent luckily made a mistake the next move and he won it back, this led to opposite coloured bishops with a bit of play for Dave but he decided he was to many errors and opted for the draw.

Raj also struggled to break through and opted for the draw.

Mike and I both thought it a good idea to give our opponents a massive time advantage.

I looked at Mike's game and he was under tremendous pressure, he had used 40mins and his opponent only 10, they were on move 18.

A rook took his h pawn, with the g pawn pinned to the king and I thought it was curtains, I suddenly realized I had 12 moves to make in 5 mins, I snatched a pawn but overlooked a queen check that seemed to give my opponent an even game, I blocked the check with a pawn attacking the queen, he should play Q x g2 and the game is even but he tried to be clever and attacked my queen with his rook. I can just take his queen with my pawn, he plays Q xR but I win 2 pawns and it goes down to an easy won ending.

Back to Mike, after my time scramble I expected to see Mike lost or Losing, I look over to see him 2 pawns up with an overwhelming position and his opponent resigning. You'll have to ask Mike what happened.

Graham's game against Chris Tipper looked very dull and boring (Chris's words) but was last to finish and went down to 2 bishops and 4 pawns against Bishop, Night and 4 pawns, all on same side of board.

In typical Graham fashion he did try something and took H pawn on h7 and let Chris block his bishop in with g6 and he tried to get pawn roll going with the extra pawn, it made for an interesting end to the game but wasn't quite enough and the draw was eventually agreed with just minutes left on both clocks.

We're not firing on all cylinders at the moment, maybe a bit of complacency slipping in, but luckily the four teams below us keep beating each other and although we lost last week to Braunstone we are now 4 points clear and level on games played.

Graham B

09 Feb		Ashby 2		v	Heathcote Arms 1
				1½ - 3½
1	B	147	Tipper, Christopher	½ - ½	Sharpe, Graham	181
2	W	152	Gibson, Paul	½ - ½	Ganger, Rajan	173
3	B	137	Hayden, Lawrence	½ - ½	Bray, Dave	170
4	W	139	Dove, Tom	0 - 1	Cowley, Michael	159
5	B	125	Reynolds, David	0 - 1	Booley, Graham	147