Author Archives: David Faldon

Broadstairs     5                Ramsgate     2 

David Faldon writes:

Our second Millar Cup win of the season was a healthy step towards our goal of regaining the Thanet Shield from Ramsgate, last year’s winners. For a change, board 1 was first to finish. My risky plan of early queenside castling triggered a huge all-in assault as Brian sacrificed three pieces for an attack, but the white king proved hard to catch. The exchange variation of the French doesn’t have to be dull. The next four games to finish were the four draws, but none of these was exactly dull either. Bob P on board 2 found a nice move to defuse some annoying pressure and Bob C on board 5 scored his first half-point of the season with a very well-judged game from beginning to end. The board 7 game was equally well-played on both sides. The most exciting of the draws, however, was on board 3. Paul got a passed pawn to the sixth rank and seemed poised for victory, only for Steve to save himself with a clever rook-for-bishop sacrifice. By the time the last of these four draws was agreed, both of the remaining games looked very promising for us, and so it proved. First John wrapped up his game on board 4 when he took his passed f-pawn in for a touchdown and then Andy completed our 5-2 victory with a neat demonstration of the mischief you can cause with two knights against two bishops. All in all, a very satisfying win. Let’s hope this good form can carry over into the new year.

Broadstairs   1½              Woodnesborough    3½

David Faldon writes:

The match got off to a bad start for us when Mike’s speculative sacrifice met resolute defence. He fought on a piece down, then two, but in vain. Richard (playing black) got in trouble in the opening too, but he recovered well. Just when things were looking up a tactical oversight torpedoed his recovery. 0-2 to Woodnesborough. We now needed 2½ points from the last three games as that would tie the match at 2½ points each and we’d win on tie-break (wins on higher boards). For an hour or so it looked like we’d achieve our goal as Bob got a dominating centre and Paul cleverly won a bishop + knight for a rook. Unfortunately both positions became blocked and two draws were agreed: 1-3. The top board promptly agreed a draw, too, as their result no longer mattered. Congratulations to Woodnesborough and good luck to them in the final against Bridge.

Broadstairs     1½                Herne Bay     5½ 

David Faldon writes:

Our main success was that John on board 4 played a great game to defeat a strong opponent, one he’d always had a lot of grief from in the past. It was a smooth, positional win and John had the black pieces, too. Our only other positive result came from our hero with the black pieces: David H on board 2 produced a stern defensive performance to beat off a long, slow attack. All of the other games resulted in losses but in contrasting styles. David F on board 1 and Paul on board 3 both threw everything at their opponents but in both cases their opponents somehow managed to survive and then mop up once the attacks had petered out. The games on boards 5 to 7 were much calmer but with Bob, Andy and Reg on the defensive for long periods. Unfortunately, there were no survivors. Congratulations to Herne Bay on another hard-fought victory. This leaves us with one win from four Millar Cup matches with Bridge at home next on November 9th. What could possibly go wrong?

Broadstairs     5½                Margate     1½ 

David Faldon writes:

As usual we outgraded our local rivals by a considerable margin (the team’s average grades were 134 and 106) but also as usual Margate put up a great fight. They even took an early lead when something went spectacularly wrong with Bob C’s all-in attack with white on board 6. At that point most of the other games were pretty level so the fate of the match was in the balance. It wasn’t until about 9.30 that things turned in our favour. First, David H converted a nice position into a mating attack on board 2 and then Paul and John both took pawns in for touchdowns on boards 4 and 5 and suddenly we were 3-1 up. Tom on board 7 provided the most spectacular game of the evening – an early piece sacrifice for 2 pawns led to a long slow mating attack. 4-1. The final two games finished about 10.30 leaving us a precious few minutes to celebrate in the pub. To end, a question. Which board saw the game begin 1.e4 e6 2.d3 d5 3.Nd2 Nc6 4.Ngf3 g5? Answer – board 1, with David F to thank/blame for the outrageous/awful 4…g5. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Broadstairs     1½                Folkestone     5½ 

David Faldon writes:

Our second match of the new season got off to a bad start at about 7.15 when Folkestone turned up, sealing our fate. They’d brought a very strong team, which I guess we should take as a compliment. The board 5 game was over in a flash and board 4 didn’t last much longer: 0-2. All of the other games were very hard fought but in every case (bar board 7) the Broadstairs players were on the defensive for the most part. The third result came in on board 6 where Andy got a draw rather against the run of play. After that normal service was resumed. At about 10.30 Folkestone took a decisive four point lead when Alan on board 2 missed a nasty fork trick after holding his own with great determination for three hours. Tom’s well-deserved win on board 7 made no serious dent in Folkestone’s lead and the board 1 game finished just in time for the team to adjourn to the pub to drown our sorrows. Actually, we weren’t that down afterwards. A 30 to 40 grading point gap is huge in terms of expected results and most of the games were much closer than would have been expected. We’ll get them next time. Until then, many congratulations to Folkestone on their victory.