3/1/23
| Saxmundham B | | 2 – 2 | Woodbridge B | |
| 1 | Mike Usher | 1784 | 1 – 0 | Alan Lewis | 1554 |
| 2 | Matthew Lawes-Wickwar | 1650 | 0 – 1 | Daniel Such | 1559 |
| 3 | Hugo Brown | 1333 | 1 – 0 | Harry Elman | 1400 |
| 4 | Lee Osmon | 1364 | 0 – 1 | Bernard Ross | 1291 |
After the festive break the B Team were back in action last night, playing host to local rivals Woodbridge B. After a long tussle the match ended 2-2 with all the games decisive, with added drama thrown in at the end.
All the games were hotly contested and lasted well into the evening. Hugo was the first to finish with a good win, followed by Matthew painfully losing, having built up an excellent position and then blundering.
After suffering during the opening, Mike was able to exploit his opponent’s imprecise play to activate his pieces and go on the offensive. As the Woodbridge player grew more desperate, he decided to sacrifice a piece, unsoundly as it turned out, and Mike closed out the game quite easily, despite being short of time.
Meanwhile, on Lee’s board, his opponent had stopped the clock, complaining of an illegal move. With only 45 seconds left on his clock Mike, as Acting Captain, was unwilling to stop whilst the Woodbridge Captain tried to sort things out, but when it became clear they couldn’t resolve the issue he stopped his game in order to help.
The crux of the matter was that when an illegal move is made, the opponent is entitled to have 2 minutes added to his time. This mattered, given that he only had 29 seconds left! The illegality had arisen after he gave Lee’s King a check, but didn’t announce it. Lee, concentrating hard on other parts of the board played an illegal move (i.e. one that did not get out of check). Whilst Lee was miffed that his opponent didn’t announce check, it is not a legal requirement, and many players do not bother to do so, and so the illegality stood.
However, neither Mike or the Woodbridge Captain could remember how to alter the clock to give the player the extra time., which was a little embarrassing. The matter was resolved when Lee sportingly resigned the game, as he was worse and was only playing on because of his opponent’s acute time trouble. You can guess what Mike’s homework was for the evening…..!