| Worksop C | 4 | 1 | Nomads E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rob Porter | 0 | 1 | John Woollard (w) |
| Andrew Smith | 1 | 0 | Eric McKenna |
| Nigel Baxendale | 1 | 0 | Robert Shaw |
| Tim England | 1 | 0 | Jo Woollard |
| Alan Story | 1 | 0 | Gordon Shaw |
Gordon lost his queen to a knight fork early on, and never really recovered., eventually resigning when out of strategic options.
Robert also lost his queen to a knight fork, while distracted by a potential attack on his rook. He recovered some material, including winning Nigel’s queen with a rook fork, ending up with a rook and five pawns against a rook, bishop, and six pawns. When Nigel forced promotion, Robert resigned.
After a quiet opening, Eric was gradually outmanoeuvred.
Jo and Tim swapped off queen, knight, and bishop early on. Tim’s king looked fairly open, with a weak pawn structure, but Jo couldn’t quite get her pieces into his position. When Tim forced promotion, Jo resigned.
John was the last to finish. Early on, he had castled kingside, and fianchettoed his bishop on b2, gaining a solid defensive position. He also had a considerable time advantage. At the 20 move mark he had 30 minutes left to Robs’s five.
At move 30, John and Rob had two rooks and four pawns each, but John still had an extra 15 minutes on his clock. After he won a rook with a rook fork, Rob resigned, giving us our sole victory of the night.
Fellow e team members, you will be glad to know that 2 days after the event, I have yet to show any signs of the ebola like illness which was being spluttered over the board at me all night 🙂