Another Busy Week

A pretty busy turn out again last Tuesday with a number of games across several competitions all under way. Paul Richardson and Ian Comley had a return match in the knockout which resulted in typically sharp play with Ian finding a way to trap Paul's Queen. Meanwhile Julie Denning was victorious over David Gray.

In the Rook there was an important contest between Phil Stimpson and Lucy Bennet-Stevens. Phi tried his favourite Scandinavian and managed to win a Queen for Rook and Knight which resulted in a tricky and complicated position with Lucy putting up stiff defence. In the end he made the most of his advantage to win. There were also two interesting endgames with James winning a better Knight and pawn vs Bishop and pawn ending while John Marshall and Dix Roberts drew a King and pawn endgame.

Nick Warren was playing in the Bishop against Roger Waddingham. Roger played a Pirc defence but drifted into a passive position. Nick sacrificed material for the attack and Roger's pieces ended up on unfortunate squares - a Bishop on h8 and Knight on g8 are not an ideal combination with a fractured Kingside defence. Nick was able to win this game for a good start to his Bishop campaign.

Also in the Bishop was a newcomer tussle between James MacLean and Guy Turvey . I couldn't keep complete track of what was going on but it all seemed like a fairly even middle game when suddenly James had managed to combine his Bishop and Queen to mate Guy's King....watch out for these two!