Tough Fight at Manningtree

30/11/22

Manningtree B2 – 2Saxmundham A
1Rod Saines1850½ – ½Simon Wilks1936
2Robert Stephens1735½ – ½Malcolm Lightfoot1896
3Simon Webber16891 – 0Sam Gaffney1833
4John Price15450 – 1Mike Usher1773

Despite being much stronger on paper, Sax A struggled against a plucky Manningtree team. Simon and Malcolm were never in trouble but couldn’t find a breakthrough. Sam was winning his game quite comfortably but then inexplicably fell into a mate. Mike evened the scores by piling the pressure onto his opponent until he eventually cracked.

Sax thrash Manningtree

15/11/22

Samundham AManningtree B
1Simon Wilks1997½ – ½
1 – 0
Simon Webber1911
2Malcolm Lightfoot17680 – 1
1 – 0
Robert Stephens1812
3John Feavyour19551 – 0
1 – 0
Adrian Sanderson1722
4Sam Gaffney1671½ – ½
1 – 0
John McAllister1662
6 – 2

Sax A had a comfortable win in the Division 2 Rapidplay Cup to win through to the next round.

Close at the top

1/11/22

Saxmundham A2 1/2 – 11/2Bury St Edmunds B
1Simon Wilks19271/21/2Laurie Pott1844
2Malcolm Lightfoot18991/21/2Steve Lovell1793
3John Feavyour18431/21/2Mark Heffer1678
4Mike Usher17671 – 0Default

Sax A entertained Div 2 league leaders Bury B at Benhall on Tuesday, beating them in a hard fought match by 2.5-1.5 though this was not enough to overtake them at the top. Although stronger on paper, Sax only won by virtue of a default when one of the Bury team failed to arrive.

The three games played all ended in draws, by very different paths. Malcolm finished first, playing the white side of a theoretical duel in the Spanish Opening in which neither player could find any advantage and an early peace was signed.

On top board, Simon played in his usual dynamic style, involving an unbalanced position and complex tactics. When the dust had settled he had two Bishops versus one Rook, but with the pawns all on one side, he could not find any way to break through.

Lastly, John had got a rather passive position out of the opening, but once his pieces started to unwind he won an important central pawn and seemed ready to roll his opponent up. But just as the win seemed likely, his Queen got into trouble and he had to sacrifice a Bishop to save it. Fortunately he had enough fire power left to convince his opponent to end the game peacefully.