Ashby 3 were 3-1 winners at Market Harborough 3 on Tuesday. Dominic was first to finish with a draw on board 4. The engine showed his opponent as being +5 but, for reasons best known to himself, he offered the draw and Dom bit his hand off !! Les put us in the lead with a straightforward win on board 3, where he was all over his opponent like a cheap suit. Next to finish was Tom on board 1. He went into an endgame with King and 3 Pawns against King and 4 Pawns and looked destined to lose. Fortunately for him, his opponent was distracted by Tom's lone Queen side pawn, giving Tom time to get over to the King side and start gobbling pawns. The end result was Tom having a King and an unstoppable Pawn, giving him what, a few minutes earlier, had looked an unlkely win. Steve was the last to finish on board 2 when his opponent offered the draw, which he accepted, overlooking the fact that he was able to win a piece on his next move !!
Ashby 2 remain without a win following a tough match at Braunstone last night, where their board 5 outrated our board 1 and, unsurprisingly, we went down by 4-1. Thanks to Team Captain, Larry Hayden for the following report;
"I was sitting there dreamily on
board 3 in a warm room, the exchange and a pawn up in an endgame, no
problems.....thinking that I would soon be marking 1-0 to me on the
scoresheet....against an 1810...when my opponent , apologising profusely ,
informed me that I had just lost on time !? Last time I looked, I had
about 7 minutes left...........then failed to look again !
Chris also lost on time against an
1826.......just as he was mounting a promising attack.
Les accepted a draw offer from a
1768, when he was a pawn up, as we had lost the match and there were
opposite coloured bishops.
Andrew ground down a 2035 on board 1
and had to accept a draw.
James, in his first Div 2 match ,
did well and had a plus against a 1779....but lost by blundering
away a piece to a fork......missing a zwischenzug check.
Oh well, we'll just have to beat Ashby 1 on 6th Feb !!"