Match Archives - B Team

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Leamington B 3 v 1 Banbury A - Leamington Triumph in Christmas Cracker

Leamington B saw in the Christmas Season, with an early present - - our first of the season! Banbury were in Division 1 last season and outgraded us on every board. A 3-1 victory with everybody contributing was a great end to 2012.

On Board one, Ola had a very complicated game against Chris Evans and came out on top.

On Board two, Ben faced Neil Staples and an unusual line of the Pirc. An endgame was reached quite quickly. Both players worked away at the position until the time control, when it became obvious that the game was dead drawn. Much enjoyment was had in the bar afterwards as the position was analysed further, but with the same conclusion.

On Board three Tom Darling continued his excellent start to his debut season. He was Black against Egils Vikanis, and played the Alekhine. His opponent gave up the exchange and a pawn very early on in the game, but had pawns on e5 and d5 as compensation. This made it very hard for Tom to coordinate his pieces, and left him with threats of checkmate to worry about, as well as Egil's of his pawns Queening. Fortunately, I was eventually able to exploit a pin to pick up one of the pawns, and was able to simplify to a won endgame from there. He resigned with a Bishop and 1 pawn against my Rook and 3."

On Board 4 David had a good game against Nick Martin. Again a very complex position ensued and both players offered draws during the course of the evening, before peace was finally agreed around the time control. A very interesting game and another good result for the team.

A great way to end the year, which lifts us to mid table. Bring on 2012!

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Chipping Camden A 2 v 2 Leamington B

Leamington travelled to Chipping Camden and played out a tight 2-2 draw.

On board 1 Adrian had White against Richard Dobedoe, graded 147, whom he has played twice before, once with each colour. Because he had answered Adrian's usual e4 with a Pirc last time out, Adrian spent a couple of days boning up on it, and sure enough, he played a sort of Pirc/Modern opening, featuring g6, d6, Bg7, a6 and c6. Adrian was a little thrown by the move order and lack of knight moves, and chose to put his Bishop on c4 instead of the usual d3. Richard managed to force a queen swap very early, and offered Adrian a draw on move 20. After thinking long and hard, Adrian could not see a way to force a decisive advantage and decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and took the draw. Fritz agreed with Adrian's assessment that the final position was dead equal.

On Board 2, Ola had one of those nights against the canny Peter Drury and Peter picked up the point.

On Board 3, Ben had a frustrating night against Gordon Mills. He had much the better of the game and possibly had winning chances even in the endgame, but stubborn defence from Gordon meant a draw had to be agreed when a position of lone King v lone King was finally reached!

On Board 4, Tom Darling was Black against Bill Nash. Bill steered the game from the Alekhine defense into the Vienna, and we soon entered territory that neither of us was familiar with. Tom was able to win a couple of pawns after he went wrong in a complicated middle game, then Bill got his Bishop stuck behind my pawn structure and eventually had to sacrifice it. Even with an extra Bishop and Pawn in the end game, it was still a challenging position, but Tom held his nerve to ensure the team picked up a point on our travels.

1 e4 Nf6; 2 Nc3 e5; 3 d4 exd4; 4 Qxd4 Nc6; 5 Qd1 Bb4

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Daventry Disaster ... Leamington 1 crash out of the U-700 Cup

All credit to Daventry, who knocked us out of the U-700 cup on one of those nights when little went right for Leamington.

On Board 1 Steve Burnell had white against in form Tim Lawson. Tim made his intentions plain from the beginning by playing the Albin Counter Gambit. A very lively, double edged game resulted which could have gone either way. In the eventual rook and pawns ending, both sides promoted twice. In the final position, white had queen and rook's pawn against black's' queen. However, black had a significant time advantage and the agreed draw was a fair result. Observant onlookers pointed out after the game how white could have won during the ending - but that's chess!

On Board 2, Oladejo Olaleye had his debut win for the club, with a comfortable victory over Robert Stevens. Doubtless the first of many wins Ola will have for the club in the years to come.

After that, it's probably a case of the least said, soonest mended. Adrian agreed a draw in a position that was actually much better for him. Ben went haywire and managed to lose. Reg put up tough resistance, but was ousted in the end.

So, we lost 3-2.

Congratulations to Daventry. Bring on next year!

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Leamington B 2 v Daventry 2 A

This match was played just before the Cup disaster. A good result. A win for Tom and draws from Ben and David saw us pick up a solid point here.

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Leamington B 1.5 v Kenilworth B 2.5

A case of what might have been. A good win for Tom and draw for David looked to have the team well placed. Unfortunately Ola and Ben both lost games that could easily have gone either way. Just not our night...

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Leamington B pipped by Shirley B

20 September 2011

A closely fought encounter between Leamington B and Shirley B took place at Leamington on the 20th September, which resulted in a 2.5 - 1.5 win for the visitors.

On Board 1, Jason Madden continued his good start to the season with a draw against Eric Ward. Eric played the Reti opening and developed a strong position. However, Jason came back well, to find himself in a good position but very short of time. Jason offered a draw, which Eric accepted after long consideration.

On Board 2, Ben Graff played Jon Asbury and developed a good position against Jon's French defence. Ben developed good pressure on the light squares and built up threats on both sides of the board. Ben's offer of a Knight sacrifice was wisely declined, but Jon still had to resign a few moves later when mate/ heavy material loss was inevitable.

On Board 3, Tom Howarth played Louis Rawson. Louis Rawson had won the night before when playing for Shirely A against Leamington A and he capped a good week for himself against the Leamington teams by winning here as well. Essentially Louis gained an advantage out of the opening and never let go. An interesting game though.

On Board 4, it was a case of what might have been. David Hodgkins played a very nice game against Frank Jimenez that was tight all the way through. The ending appeared to be heading for a draw, but Frank found a resource that just pulled out the victory Shirley needed to win the match.

So a narrow defeat, but everybody could take some positives from their performances as we missed out on securing a point by a whisker.

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Leamington B v Stratford B

Leamington B kicked off their season on the 6th September at home to Stratford and earned a creditable 2-2 draw.

On Board 1, Adrian played black against the very strong Colin Searle. A London System ensued. Following an early exchange of Queens, Adrian developed a slight plus. However, Colin got on top in the endgame and edged an interesting encounter.

On Board 2, Jason made his debut for the B team against Septal Singh. After a cautious start, both players set each other a number of traps and Septal went on the attack. Jason neutralised the pressure with careful play and ultimately Septal forced a draw by three fold repetition.

On Board 3, David played Phil Bennett and faced an unusual gambit line. He ended up with a piece against two pawns, but Phil had significant pressure and a draw was a fair result.

On Board 4, making his debut for both the team and the club, Tom Darling produced the performance of the night, winning a marathon game to earn the team a point. An unusual line of the French allowed White to gain space on the Kingside, and launch an attack which eventually led to the gain of a Pawn. Black later restored material equality thanks to a Knight and Queen combination, and an endgame with Bishop against Knight was reached. A shortage of time then caused a mistake from Black, who had to give up his Knight for only two pawns; White's Bishop was then strong enough to ensure a win in 75 moves.

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