Broadstairs Chess Club’s final league game of the season saw the team live up to the name of the competition demonstrating true steel and grit. A win would secure a top of the league finish and Broadstairs first win of the Steele Cup in its modern history writes Andrew Flood.
As non- playing captain it was possible to follow from the start all four games, with Boards 2 and 4 being anything but steady and predictable. First game to finish was Nik making his debut for the team playing white on Board 4. What looked like a strong advantage for Nik became a likely lost game as Nik went a Rook down, however a tremendous fight back saw white’s bishop fork and capture back his opponents Rook through a checking manoeuvre, and then go on to play a strong ending to win the end game and his match.
Dominic on Board 2 was in real trouble with the white pieces. Attacking from the first move he overstretched himself and his opponent steadily got into a stronger position going 1, 2 and then 3 pawns up. With most of the major pieces on the board it was all that White could do to defend his position and his rather open King. White however managed to create some strong counterplay and Dominic surprised his opponent with a Queen sacrifice to mate his opponent and secure the second win of the evening.
Manoj was losing his game on Board 1 but there was an outside chance of a draw, and on Board 3 the match was even but Margate had a slight edge in positional play, but this was compensated by the time advantage that Paul Verrall had. Paul advanced his black pawn towards queening forcing his opponent to exchange his bishop for the pawn. The game continued and with very few pieces on the board a draw was agreed, thus securing a hard earned win for Broadstairs. Manoj resigned his position once the outcome of the overall match had been secured.
So, a big thank you to all who participated on the night and throughout the season. The overall match result was.
| Broadstairs | Score | Margate | |
| 1 | Manoj Natarajan (1867) | 0 – 1 | Peter McGill (1854) |
| 2 | Dominic Blundell (1659) | 1 – 0 | Keith Findley (1628) |
| 3 | Paul Verrall (1435) | ½ – ½ | Clive Le Bague (1490) |
| 4 | Nik Loginov (1414) | 1 – 0 | Roy McAloney (1412) |
| TOTAL | 2½ – 1½ | ||
Final league positions as following link https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/3131/tables