Broadstairs 1½    Bridge A 5½

David Faldon writes:

On the positive side, we made three draws in three very different ways. Board 1 was short and violent, with David finding a neat temporary knight sacrifice to defuse a dangerous situation. Board 5 was mid-length with middling levels of violence until most of the pieces suddenly vanished leaving a dead drawn opposite-coloured bishops ending. Board 2 was the best game of the match, with Alan and Arnaud swapping threats until both players ran short of time, at which point the player shortest of time, Arnaud, gave up trying to win and blocked the position.

Bob, on Board 3, also played a good game, defending hard for 60+ moves in a cramped position. His efforts went unrewarded, though, when Shany found a way to break through. Of the other three games, it’s probably best to say as little as possible – three tough opponents and three tactical accidents.

The other positive to take is that we have only two weeks to wait for our next match, Folkestone at home. Should be a doddle!

Broadstairs 5½    Margate 1½

David Faldon writes:

By 10 pm three results had been agreed, three draws. The draw on board 1 was sensible and a bit dull but the other two certainly weren’t. On board 4 one player dropped a piece, then the other, leading to deadlock. That was exciting, but the chaos on board 5 made board 4 look like a nil-nil draw. All sorts of weird stuff happened but the main action was John sacrificing (?) a rook for four passed pawns. That sounds like a promising deal for John, especially as his opponent was short of time, but the catch was that (to this outsider) all four passed pawns looked doomed. The one difficulty for Leon seemed to be in deciding which pawn to take first. Unexpectedly he chose to take none of them – instead he offered John a draw. Phew, I thought, a lucky escape for our man, but no … John saw a chance to set a nasty trap so he turned down the draw offer. The trap duly misfired and the passed pawns disappeared, leaving John down to one rook against two with no extra pawns. Fortunately Leon was almost as short of time as John was of rooks.

The other four games finished in four wins for Broadstairs, but none of them straightforward. Board 2 was a splendid game with David H sacrificing a pawn (just a pawn?) for long-term pressure. Harry defended really well, but in the end the pressure told. 2½ – 1½

On board 3, Bob P got a good position from the opening but then he dropped a whole piece for nothing. Not so good. The only positive was that Clive still had most of his pieces on their home squares. This gave Bob a chance, a small chance. It probably shouldn’t have been enough to win, but Bob cleverly kept his opponent tied up and eventually something went right. 3½ – 1½

The board 6 game was another hard-fought one, where John Clarke won a central pawn early on with a neat three-move trick. Andy fought back well and never looked like losing, but it took buckets of effort to turn the game around. 4½ – 1½

Board 7 saw more chaos. Opposite-side castling lead to big attacks on both kings. At one point Bob C had trapped his opponent’s queen AND had a mating attack of his own but the next time I looked the queen had escaped and the mating attack had stalled. More chances came and went until Bob found a pretty rook sacrifice to force the win. 5½ – 1½

Our second victory of the season. 5½ to 1½ sounds like a big win, and it is, but our opponents put up a great fight despite being heavily outgraded on every board. Let’s hope we can do as well next week against Bridge A when we’ll be the ones that are outgraded.