Our first match of the new season, and we were hoping to emulate the demolition job Ipswich Sports Club had inflicted on Sudbury two days earlier. After all, the title could well be decided on how well the top three teams handle the bottom three. Rowland got us off to a good start, finishing first, and some way. He quickly established an advantage with the white pieces and wasted no time pressing home with it.
  It was quite a while before Panagiotis made it 2-0. He faced a Dutch opening and had a slightly better position throughout the opening. His opponent started burning time on the clock and soon enough Black's position became unpleasant. Down to a few minutes, Black moved his knight to b4 and resigned after Panagiotis responded by playing a5 with tempo (and taking that square away from Black's a-pawn), as the knight would soon be captured.
  Phil made it 3-0 after a trendy White line in the Caro Kann Exchange System (6.h3) quickly led to a set-up where Black gets the 2 Bishops at the price of an isolani d-pawn. Then Lots of manoeuvring for an advantage by both sides with nothing tangible, until Black grabbed White's a4 pawn on Move 25, unleashing a ten move flurry of tactics almost from nothing. The isolani d-pawn unisolates itself and becomes the hero of the hour, advancing to e3, granting his comrades a monster attack against White's king, none of which the player of the Black pieces had planned or anticipated. White wards off mate at an overly high price in material, counters with verve, traps and tricks but has to resign on move 40.
  Three nil up, but the chances of getting a clean sweep were looking very slim. Something went badly wrong for Andy against Tim Lunn's anti-King's Indian Smyslov System. Tim achieved a huge space advantage with powerful constraining pawns on d5 and f5, and a half-open h-file from which to attack the Black King. Both players ran short of time, and either side might have won in the chaos of the final 20 moves. An entertaining game to watch, from which a draw was probably the only fair outcome.

With three of our squad unavailable for this crucial match against fellow contenders Bury St Edmunds (the team with the highest average rating in the league), we feared we would go down heavily and suffer a huge dent in our hopes of keeping Ipswich Sports Club within touching distance. And while Bury were without two of their squad, they still out-rated us by an average of 135 points per board, so it was a great achievement to share the points with them, although we were so very close to causing quite an upset by actually winning the match.
  Jim finished first, which was a little ironic as his board was played at the slowest pace - about half that of the other three boards. After 1.e4 e5 Jim continued with the rarely seen Bishop's Opening, which explains the slow pace as both players carefully trod some unfamiliar paths. It was a solid performance, with little coming off the board, and with neither willing to risk everything on speculative manoeuvres a draw was agreed.
  It was some time before Graeme followed. He opened with a Sicilian in which his opponent gained a significant special advantage on the queen's side and Graeme came under a significant amount of pressure. His opponent miscalculated a piece exchange and recaptured with the wrong pawn and lost his b-pawn, or it could have been a deliberate sacrifice, for it didn't look like a pawn that could be held for very long. Graeme had a very long think before trying to hold on to it, for a couple of moves at any rate, and the position rapidly descended into a rook and bishop ending, with Graeme now a pawn down and a significant time deficit. And when the remaining pieces came off the pawn ending was looking decidedly precarious, but thanks to some very precise defending Graeme was able to hold on and keep the match score level.
  Meanwhile Panagiotis was putting in a tremendous performance on top board. His English had led to a fairly complicated middle game when his opponent ill advisedly captured Panagiotis's d-pawn with a bishop following which he immediately faced the loss of that piece. He had a very long think before responding, which meant he was not only material down he put himself so far behind on the clock that he ended the game on the increments. He managed to fight on however in spite of his material deficit until a pseudo rook sacrifice threatened mate in two. He declined the sacrifice of course, but Panagiotis followed it with a check whereby the only legal move was to accept the sacrifice, so he resigned instead.
  We now found ourselves in the unexpected position of being ahead, and an assessment of Bob's position gave us reasonable grounds for hope that things would end that way. Bob kept his usual Modern approach and developed very well to equalise out of the opening. The board was threatening to become pawn-locked and as the pieces were exchanged we entered a rook and bishop ending with seven pawns each. On top of that, the bishops were of opposite colours, so a draw looked decidedly possible. Time was running low for both players, and Bob's opponent was clearly not going to be satisfied until he'd exhausted all avenues. Had Bob been able to exchange the rooks a draw would be easy, but constant attempts to break through finally succeeded when Bob ran out of moves and had to resign when his bishop got trapped and could not be saved.
  Considering how things could have gone, we were very happy with a draw. And while we may be seven points off the top, we have two games in hand, so a couple of 3-1 wins and we're back in the fray. Not much to ask is it?

Once again we were upstairs tonight as the lighting problem in the main hall is still outstanding. And this seems to be the room of choice now, due mainly to the excellent lighting there. Mind you, it is a little bit cramped for two simultaneous matches, not helped by the fact that the smaller tables appear to have disappeared, and some of the longer ones are even longer. In spite of being significantly out-rated, Ipswich put up a spirited fight and made us work hard for our points. This result puts us second in the table and 3½ points off the lead, who we just happen to be facing in two weeks. That will be a crunch match and will no doubt go a long way towards determining who will be lifting the trophy this season. But back to tonight.
  Panagiotis and Rowland were relatively early finishers while Phil was making headway in his game where he had exchanged two minor pieces for a rook and two pawns. His perseverance paid off and he was eventually able to convert that into a win. With two and a half points from three, Andy was bringing up the rear.
  Andrew Shepherd as Black put up stubborn resistance against Andy in a Nimzo-Indian. Andy obtained a small advantage in a triple minor piece ending (B+B+N) vrs (B+N+N). The best that Andy could do was to trade pieces into a Bishop ending a pawn up. That ending was defensible with best play. However, Black had almost run himself out of time, and Andy converted his advantage without difficulty.

Ipswich Sports Club is a very active place, so much so that the newly formed Chess Section already has 26 names taking part in its club championship (according to the table on the notice board anyway). And while we were playing our match, there was a mixed doubles tennis match taking place on the floodlit court in the rain outside. Such dedication! Unfortunately that activity is prone to invade the chess playing area, and the concertina doors are hardly sufficient to keep the noise out. Especially as they make even more noise when you need to open and close them to visit the loo. All very reminiscent of Felixstowe's Dooley Inn, and not somewhere you would want to play during the run up to Christmas. Ear plugs are worth considering.
  If you look at the stats, Bury, ISC and Manningtree are the highest rated teams (in that order) so we started the season thinking we would need to hold own against Bury and ISC and hope that we would score better than they do against the rest of the field. And while we did that against Bury (even though we were three men down) little did we imagine we would thump ISC, even with our full squad. Mind you it has to be said, we did have a slight head start when we discovered that for the first time this season they were without their board two, veteran Stephen Gregory.
  As the games got under way a common theme seemed to be running through the boards - expand the pawns, and after an hours play all boards were finely balanced (that's a euphemism for "didn't have a clue who stood better"). Panagiotis was the first to pick his way through the complications. His game started as a symmetrical English, with David Spence opting for the Botvinnik triangle formation (c5-d6-e5). Panagiotis failed to demonstrate any tangible opening advantage and went for a threefold repetition before move 30; this was probably not a very memorable game, but it gave us a crucial half point against their formidable board one.
  Phil then gave us our first full point of the evening. On move ten of a Caro-Kann he obtained a strong central pawn duo at the price of granting his young opponent the two Bishops. Phil then strove to keep the pawn centre under restraint, while his opponent tried to liberate it, and in conjunction with an open f-file, launch a major attack on Phil's king. To this end his opponent offered an imaginative but speculative temporary sacrifice of his knight on c3. Phil had to accept or go under but in the longer run his opponent had misjudged his attacking potential. Phil defended with central play v wing attack, taking over the central files, winning the exchange with the dark square bishop, whose counterpart had been allowed to be exchanged for a knight. Phil's opponent's back rank was weak and on move 24, Phil's queen took a bishop, putting itself en prise to his opponent's remaining rook. However, if taken he would be mated in one and if declined, would be left to play on with three pieces down, so instead he resigned.
  Of the remaining two boards, we looked to be winning on board one, but board three looked precarious, although according to Rowland, it was all under control. In an Italian, in which Rowland had spurned a fried liver, he played an early a4. But it was sometime before it advanced to a5, and by the time it got to a6 (unsupported by the way) it looked more of a liability than an asset, but in the end it proved to be the killer. Rowland played an outstanding game where every defensive move was an attack in disguise. His opponent may be a little rusty, returning for his first season in five years, but he is still a formidable force to be reckoned with and Rowland showed he can handle a quieter game just as much as one full of fireworks. And he finished the minor piece ending with precision, giving us a two point lead.
  Would we make it three with just Andy left to finish? As Black he faced Martin Fogg in a sharp, theoretical Richter-Rauzer Attack against the Classical Sicilian. Neither player knew the theory, and White offered a pawn sacrifice for nebulous compensation. When Andy seized a second pawn, a few moves later, forcing the exchange of queens, this should have been the end of the matter. However, to his credit, Martin continued to play actively, forcing Andy to play accurately, right until the end when both players were playing on the increments. On another day, Martin's tenacity might have been better rewarded.
  Coming away with 3½ points was more than we could have hoped for, and it puts us just half a point behind ISC in the table with a game in hand.

Although defeated, Sudbury will probably see this result as something of a victory, and while it has put a small dent in our championship campaign, we are still on track, so long as we don't suffer too many more of such hip-cups. The evening started without fireworks and without too much in it on any of the boards. It wasn't long however before both Panagiotis and Rowland squeezed wins from their respective games and put us on course for a comfortable win.
  Unfortunately Phil slipped up along the way and found himself in rather tricky waters, eventually being forced to give up the exchange. It only delayed the inevitable as a dangerous central passed pawn proved decisive.
  From a Queens Gambit Declined, Andy laboured to prove a technical advantage in an IQP position. However his opponent, Robert Sanders, defended stubbornly. Chasing the win, Andy overpressed in a B+N endgame, and walked into an obvious tactic. Fortunately, his opponent, with only 2 minutes left on the clock, cautiously offered a draw in a now highly favourable position: which Andy had no choice but to accept.
  Although this leaves us eight points off the leaders, we have three games in hand, and as our next two league matches are against the bottom two teams, we will soon have a pretty good idea whether or not we are going to catch them.

Is it a coincidence or has Caďssa got it in for us? A week or two ago we received notice that for three nights from February 9th the road into Manningtree from Suffolk would be completely closed from 7:00pm until 5:00am. Something unheard of in living memory. Also unheard of in Manningtree's memory is having three matches on three consecutive nights, which also started on February 9th. Now factor in the fact that two of those matches were away to Felixstowe and Saxmundham. Only Bury could have given us a further starting point for the long diversion home.
  While it took ages to get out of the Manningtree station car park, our trip to Felixstowe was quite uneventful and we arrived with a 15 minute cushion. But where were Felixstowe? Fears of being at the wrong venue arose, but after a few minutes a couple of them turned up but couldn't begin preparing the playing room because they didn't have the key to the equipment cupboard. That's all we needed, a late start with two of our team dependent on last trains and a long circuitous route back to the station. With less than five minutes to spare the captain appeared and the match finally got under way, surprisingly only five minutes late.
  Rowland was off to a quick start. After barely more than half an hour his opponent overlooked a tactic that got his queen skewered. Panagiotis wasn't too far behind giving his opponent all kinds of trouble with a pair of knights planted in the heart of his position that eventually yielded the exchange and not long after that, the game.
  By contrast Phil and John's games both went the distance. Phil's game was quite tactical but he navigated the complications better that his opponent and kept the score sheet clean. John blundered a pawn in the middle game but after a desperate struggle his opponent blundered a knight. With a bishop for a pawn and a pair of rooks each John thought he should win this, but a repetition of moves could only be avoided by giving up another pawn. It was a terrible decision which cost us that clean sheet. It remains to be seen how much it will cost us in the race for the title.

In many respects we were lucky to come away with three points from this match. And in a few other respects we were unlucky not to get all four. Half way through the match our prospects were not looking all that good. Panagiotis's attack seemed to be running out of steam, Andy's position looked far from convincing, Phil looked OK but not dominant, while Rowland looked chaotic enough to go either way. But let's start at the beginning.
  Panagiotis deployed his queen early in his English Opening tonight, and exchanged his fianchettoed king's bishop to disrupt the enemy queen's side pawns. Panagiotis was playing very quickly and gave his opponent no end of things to work through, so much so that after half an hour of play he was 25 minutes ahead on the clock, which eventually become 45 minutes. Tim Lunn was not squandering his time however, and eventually reached a reasonably safe looking queen, rook and bishop ending, a pawn up and offered Panagiotis a draw. Panagiotis rose from the board only to see a lot of uncertainty on the other boards, and it was some time before he retuned to continue his fight. He somehow managed to resurrect his attack and eventually break through Tim's defences to claim victory.
  Rowland had answered his opponent's Sicilian with an early g4, leaving his king in the centre. This had the effect of both creating huge complications and causing his opponent to consume a considerable amount of time deciding his response. The threats to the enemy king had to be answered but at the expense of a severely underdeveloped queen's side. Conversely, all of Rowland's pieces, that's two rooks, two bishops and a queen were bearing down on that king, along with several advanced pawns. Rowland had already sacrificed one pawn, so when his opponent had to give up the exchange, gaining a second pawn in the process he might have thought it possible he could hold out, but the final thrust of Rowland's last remaining king's side pawn proved to be the final nail in the coffin.
  Things were now starting to look better. Andy had rapidly equalized against Stephen Lewis's London System, but overlooked an enterprising exchange sacrifice. Stephen obtained full compensation for the exchange in an endgame, with 2 Bishops, a pawn, and the initiative; but he followed up inaccurately, allowing the exchange of pieces and a bind on the dark-squares. Andy then converted his material advantage without difficulty.
  With three points under our belt it now looked as though we were going to get a clean sheet. Phil's Caro-Kann had developed steadily, but as we entered the ending Phil was two pawns up. His opponent was running short of time and had to give up a bishop for one of those pawns, and now with queen and bishop versus queen, Phil began hoovering up his opponent's remaining pawns. And then, quite uncharacteristically, Phil made a one move catastrophic blunder by placing his queen en-prise when taking one of the last of those pawns. With just a bishop to fend off a queen, Phil immediately resigned, and we were all left to console ourselves with the thought that at the half way stage of tonight's match we would have been content with a 3-1 victory.

Of all the matches we have left (apart from the showdown against Ipswich SC) we expected this to be the toughest, especially as Bury defeated Ipswich Sports Club 3-1 last month. As it turned out, we did rather well.
  While Panagiotis got off to a racing start on board one, it was Andy who finished first - and by quite a margin. The Dutch Stonewall is associated with a solid approach by Black, but not in the hands of Alan Watkins! Alan threw forwards his K-side pawns, without developing his Q-side. Andy offered a neat sacrifice to enable his queen access to the exposed Black king. Alan declined the sacrifice but got quickly mated anyway. A rare victory for Andy in under 20 moves and just over an hour's play.
  It was a long time before Phil was able to chalk up our second point. Phil opened with a Ruy Lopez, his opponent an Italian. A steady and largely equal game progressed with Phil accumulating small advantages that gave him a very strong middlegame. In the complications Phil's opponent lost a bishop, but he fought on and made Phil work hard for his victory.
  Panagiotis's King's Indian proved very effective, giving him a slight but definite plus throughout the game. It was still hard work, and quite nail-biting for the spectators as his opponent didn't go down without a fight. This game will shortly appear in our games section.
  With three points in the bag all eyes turned to Rowland, who was playing his last game for us this season - although not for ever we hope. This wasn't a typical Rowland game in that knife edge attacks were very much absent. It was a long time before the first pair of pawns were exchanged and a long strategic battle commenced. Although a pawn up Rowland appeared to have lost the tread for a while, allowing his opponent to penetrate a rook behind his lines. Rowland was now most definitely on the defensive, and he showed he was just as adept at that as he was at attack. However Laurie Pott had smelt blood and was pushing his advantage to the point where Rowland had to surrender a bishop to avoid mate. Laurie's only problem was the clock, and running very short of time he blundered his bishop leaving a rook and pawn ending that he had to concede could not be won.
  Three and a half points was a lot more than we could realistically have hoped for, but keeps us firmly on the heels of Ipswich Sports Club.

The omens for this match were not boding well. First of all this is the postponed match from September and we were now without Rowland. Second, the road to Sudbury via Hadleigh was closed, and without any advanced warning, you didn't find that out until you got there. A U-turn and a recalcitrant satnav meant the captain arrived with no time at all to spare. And third, the said captain had failed to notify three quarters of the team that Sudbury had changed their venue so they turned up a the Quay Theatre only to find that out for themselves. Fortunately Bob was able to find Sudbury's web site and deliver his section of the team to the Sudbury Institute Club as required, although as neither Panagiotis nor the captain had arrived, there was some anxiety that they might be off to the old venue as well. Fortunately that was not the case, and with nothing further going wrong the match was started, albeit five minutes late and with incorrectly set clocks (more on that later).
  The Sudbury Institute Club had quite a lively chess atmosphere with a dozen or more members playing on six tables in the bar. The match itself is in a side room off the bar, not ideal as it's quite small and noise from the bar tends to filter in, especially when the door is opened. That being said it is quite comfortable enough.
  Bob finished first after a somewhat unusual game the second move being h4. This is almost the same as what Jamie faced in last week's C-Team match against Sudbury C, so clearly there has been some team analysis of this opening going on in Sudbury, variously know as the Despréz, the Kádas, the Anti-Borg, the Samurai Opening, Harry's Opening or Reagan's Attack (according to Wikipedia). Bob responded with 2…h5, fianchettod as normal, and castled (eventually). After twenty or so moves, many of said moves made by pawns, and few of which involved exchanges, a very busy and rather blocked position developed without a single pawn coming off and no open files to fight for control over. Without willing to risk anything drastic both players agreed a draw.
  It was a while before Panagiotis put us in front. His English was off to a flying start, but after the queens and three pairs of minor pieces were exchanged things began to look rather drawish. And as the game entered a 2R+B v 2R+N ending with equal pawns the pace slowed down and Panagiotis began do develop a hefty time advantage. The bishop proved to be the stronger piece and Panagiotis had it, and he was eventually able to obtain a pair of connected passed pawns on the queen's side and start moving them up the board. His opponent defended well and things didn't go quite to plan so Panagiotis had to give up one of those pawns and switch his attention to the king's side. He eventually managed to squeeze out the win, but there were times when it looked far from certain.
  Phil kept us in front but had a tough time doing so. He answered a Sicilian with 3.c3, which incidentally was the same line adopted by Rob Sanders on board 2, but the black players diverged after that and a long struggle began on both boards. As the game developed Phil became hampered with an advanced c-pawn that he was never given the time to defend with his b-pawn, and when it eventually fell things were looking doubtful. In a queen and knight ending Phil had a little compensation in a well placed and active queen, and when his opponent tried to advance his king's side pawn majority Phil was able to grab a pawn back and a draw was agreed soon after.
  Now it was up to Andy to get us to our target of three points per match for the rest of the season. Rob Sanders as White played a solid c3 Anti-Sicilian. Andy equalized comfortably, but it was very hard to see how Black could make progress. Unfortunately, White was over eager to exchange rooks; and on move 20 he lost his h-pawn to a neat tactic. Further exchanges helped Black and after 50 moves Andy looked close to victory in a B v N endgame a pawn ahead, albeit with both players close to playing on the increment.
  But on move 54, the game hit the buffers. Andy's teammates had noticed that his clock was not giving the full increment of 15 seconds per move, while still giving Rob his full increment. Thinking there must be a fault with the settings the clock was stopped. Based on what had been seen it was estimated that Andy would have lost about 6 minutes during the course of the match. Unfortunately, the Sudbury club has yet to master the complexities of their newly acquired DGT2500 clocks and proved unable to make the requisite adjustments, but in their attempts to do so they discovered that the fault was not with the time settings, but that the home team had set the clocks to a Bronstein rather that a Fischer increment. To the relief of the home captain, Rob threw in the towel in a demonstrably lost position and we were relieved, not only that a major incident had been averted, but that we had achieved the minimum three points we wanted.
  We are now just half a point behind Ipswich Sports Club with a game in hand, but that by no means makes us favourites, there is still an awful lot that could go wrong between now and the end of the season.

A fantastic result and our first clean sheet of the season. This puts us on top of the division with every chance of staying there. The crunch match is after Easter when we welcome Ipswich Sports Club to Manningtree. The thing about a crunch match like this is that every half point we get means one less half point for ISC, therefore two and a half points will give us the title regardless of the result of the remaining matches. That's a big ask without Rowland, especially if they come with their full squad, but as long as we get at least one point we're in with a good chance.

Just half a point kept us from sealing the division one trophy tonight, but we should consider ourselves very lucky to have even got that close considering the state of play at the half way stage. Andy was in trouble, Phil was lost, Panagiotis looked dodgy (and offered a draw) and Bob had just lost his b-pawn. It was beginning to look like we would need a big score in our final match against Felixstowe if we were going to wrest the trophy from the current holders, Ipswich Sports Club.
  As it happened Bob's pawn loss was temporary, and he even gained a slight advantage from the open file. After the draw was agreed Bob realised he had missed a winning move, which would have come in very handy, but such things happen all the time (to most of us at any rate).
  Andy wanted to practice a line against David Spence's 2 c3 Anti-Sicilian that allows White options for a comfortable draw (if he wants it) or double-edged play for a win. Spence chose the latter and after a while Andy was in a very uncomfortable position with his king's defences on the verge of collapse. Andy had to give up his queen for a rook and a bishop and was then struggling to hold his own with the added disadvantage of shattered pawns. He managed to reach an ending with queen v bishop and rook and hopes were rising that he might be able to hold out for a draw, even though his opponent had a passed and advancing a-pawn. Andy had the queening square covered with both bishop and rook, but then he made a very uncharacteristic one move catastrophic blunder. Picking up an enemy pawn with his bishop he left his rook en-prise, and that was that. Caďssa was certainly favouring Ipswich Sports Club so far tonight.
  Panagiotis's English had not quite given him the sort of game he excels at, and he found himself being pestered by a pair of knights. Being somewhat on the defensive Panagiotis offered a draw, but his opponent felt he could do better, in spite of being way behind on the clock. Panagiotis defended well and things were even starting to turn in his favour when Caďssa appeared to change her mind and give Manningtree some of her favour. In a rook and bishop v rook and knight ending, Stephen Gregory inexplicably captured a pawn with his knight that was defended twice. And soon after losing the knight the rooks came off and Panagiotis had a clear path to victory with several pawns and a bishop.
  Phil had pretty much managed parity from his Caro-Kann but as the rook and pawn ending arrived things were not looking good. There were six pawns each and his opponent had control of the open d-file and a rook on the seventh. Played correctly Phil was quite lost but Caďssa seemed to favour Manningtree again and diverted Phil's opponent from taking control of the seventh and allowed him to improve the position of his King. Allowing the exchange of the rooks also went in Phil's favour and when it was clear that the enemy king could not enter Phil's defences a draw was agreed.
  There was a collective sigh of relief as the possibility of a 3-1 defeat had been averted. Had that been the case, instead of just half a point being required from our last match against Felixstowe, we would need two and a half points, and without Andy and Rowland that could be problematic.

A fantastic result and our first clean sheet of the season. This puts us on top of the division with every chance of staying there. The crunch match is after Easter when we welcome Ipswich Sports Club to Manningtree. The thing about a crunch match like this is that every half point we get means one less half point for ISC, therefore two and a half points will give us the title regardless of the result of the remaining matches. That's a big ask without Rowland, especially if they come with their full squad, but as long as we get at least one point we're in with a good chance.

After that nail biting match against Ipswich Sports Club last week we started this match knowing that just half a point was needed to seal the title. However, we also had a secondary target to aim at, that of getting two points so that we could finish the season as the only unbeaten side in the league. Perhaps that explains the cautious start as everyone was determined not to risk anything until at least someone got that much needed half a point.
  Well not everyone was cautious. Rowland came out of the blocks with all guns blazing and achieved one of those positions that at fist glance looks as though it's been composed by someone who doesn't know how to play the game. Rowland went on to win with a terrific finish that gave us the boost we needed, not to mention two half points.
  Maybe it was too late now to turn around the initial caution for all three of the remaining boards were not looking particularly enterprising. Panagiotis finished next, going down to his only defeat of the season, although he will still win the Player of the Year award. John thought he had a mate in three and very nearly blundered a piece about to execute it. He was offered a draw with little left on the board and accepted it as his opponent stood slightly better. And Phil brought up the rear, unable to find his way through his opponent's defences but gave us the other half point we needed to keep our match record clean.

We arrived at Ipswich to begin the season very early, with full nominated teams on both sides. Ipswich switched around their board order, but so did we to keep everyone on their toes.
  Quite early on in the match things were looking good. Simon had the best out of the early opening in his match, and the other boards were looking even better. Graeme quickly caused problems in the centre and won a pawn. Jim's opponent went for a dubious knight sacrifice, netting only two pawns for it and not nearly enough compensation, and Bob soon found himself able to simplify to a rook endgame with an extra pawn on both sides of the board. Graeme, Jim and Bob each made it look relatively straight forward to convert their advantages, and never looked in any danger.
  Simon, on the other hand, facing a familiar KID, sacrificed his c pawn for queenside activity. This proved unwise and he was always on the back foot after that. The game went the distance though, and with 2 minutes left on the clock he overlooked a single drawing chance, and after that the game was up.

On paper this is a match that we should have won in reasonable comfort, but on the day it looked to be heading for complete disaster. At about half time all four boards looked to be in trouble, and the spectre of a 4-0 defeat was hovering, especially after Graeme moved his queen into the fray that left a bishop hanging. Lady luck then played her hand. Simon was put under constant pressure, but had weathered the storm well, however just as he had turned the game in his favour he missed a one move check that ended it all. Unfortunately Bob was unable to turn his game and luck was not in his favour as he attempted to retrieve a below par opening strategy. Luck now turned in our favour after Graeme's opponent failed to spot that hanging bishop and followed it with some less than accurate moves that Graeme took full advantage of and in the end cruised to victory in a king and pawn ending. Meanwhile Jim was struggling to salvage his game after he had to give up a piece earlier in the game. With just a rook facing a rook and bishop he was able to whittle away the pawns with persistent checks that in the end left his opponent with little choice than to accept a draw. We came away with that distinct feeling that we should have done so much better, but also relieved that it wasn't a whole lot worse.

Woodbridge and Manningtree B are two very closely matched teams, but tonight we came out on top due in large part to a very early lead given to Simon. Bob played a solid Modern, keeping his opponent at arms length and keeping the team ahead. As the evening wore on it looked as though John was in trouble and Jim was heading for victory. As it turned out John had managed to equalise into a rook and bishop ending when his opponent left his bishop en-prise, and Jim underestimated his opponent's threats and his game turned on just a handful of moves.

We had a slight hic-cup before tonight's match in the form of a lighting malfunction. The lights in the main hall failed and when a quick search for the circuit breakers also failed, we set about playing back upstairs again. One thing that can be said for upstairs is that the lighting is brilliant. On the downside the floorboards still creak a lot and the room somehow seems smaller than it used to be.
  A look at the league tables before the match would suggest that we were the favourites tonight, and while the end result reflected that, it was far from a foregone conclusion. The results finished in board order with Bob opening the score after steering a powerful central advantage to an impressive victory. It was a game in which both players had castled behind a fianchettoed king's side but it wasn't long before Bob developed a significant special advantage. His control of the centre with steadily advancing central pawns slowly but surely increased the pressure on his opponent's defences and eventually he had to surrender a knight to halt the advance. As well as the piece Bob had also picked up two pawns and although the game went on for several more moves the end was never really in doubt.
  Simon made it 2-0 after facing an early f5 response to his English. After half an hour's play he had a slight advantage with the bishop pair and a significant time advantage. However the complexities of the position meant the time advantage soon disappeared and it was difficult to see who stood better. Either an oversight or a miscalculation allowed Simon to pick up a pawn, and after the major pieces came off that extra pawn proved crucial. Simon did very well to force the victory for it was far from straightforward and his opponent was not going down without a fight.
  Shortly after that Jim made it 3-0. Like Bob's game, Jim's featured a double fianchettoed king's position. But that was the only similarity. It was looking like a battle down the open a and b files, but in the end it was a mating attack down a half open central file that Jim's opponent appeared to have overlooked that sealed the game.
  With only Graeme left, was it possible we would get a clean sheet? Unfortunately not. Graeme had faced a Caro-Kann along with some very tricky positions, and following a queen exchange he decided not to castle. Graeme entered the ending with a pawn or two for a bishop, but he was unable to hang onto his pawns and made a valiant attempt to swindle a stalemate in a rook v rook and bishop ending. It went on for quite some time but in the end his opponent was nothing if not extra careful, and in spite of both clocks running very low, Graeme resigned when his king was facing a mate that could not be made stale.

Saxmundham are the highest rated team in this division - over 100 points higher than us. But that only counts if you can field your nominated team, and so far Saxmundham haven't been able to do that even once so far this season. And this is only the second time they've fielded their top three, which made it pretty tough for our top three.
  It was Jim's turn to take the heat on board one tonight, who's opponent was here only last week holding off Panagiotis to a draw. The early advance of all three c-e pawns was a sign of things to come and Jim had to cope with lasting pressure, but even after the loss of a pawn Jim fought on, making his opponent work for his point. Meanwhile Bob had managed to maintain parity on his board, trusting in his Modern, and after the minor pieces came off, he was if anything looking slightly better. It was only slightly however, so when his opponent offered a draw Bob accepted.
  Simon was facing Saxmundham's veteran of the board and was very soon under a lot of pressure. It was not looking good, but when that veteran miscalculated, Simon picked up the exchange and the game turned on its head, which just left Graeme to determine the match result. This game was far from the usual, and started with both players making two of their first three moves with the same knight. The next unusual feature of the game was that it developed into a middle game with all four minor pieces exchanged but not a single pawn. Graeme then set about opening up the h-file and eventually a pair of pawns was exchanged. But it was difficult to see how either player could make any headway, and Graeme's opponent belied his much lower rating by finding just the right moves in spite of his shrinking time. Graeme turned down a draw offer but was still unable to find a way in, and after using up his own time he had to bow to the inevitable and return the offer.

We came into this match knowing a three point win would leave us clear at the top of the division for the Christmas break, and also knowing on paper we would be clear favourites to win.
  Things started quickly and well. Most games were still in the opening when Graeme's game finished. One moment pieces were being developed, and at next glance there were no pawns in front of his opponent's king and it was being chased from square to square by Graeme's queen. Resignation followed and Graeme could spar with club mates for the rest of the evening.
  Jim played a form of Sicilian Defence. Instead of creating a sharp attacking game, his opponent quickly went for simplification, early king activation, and an endgame with an extra pawn. Jim was a tempo (and a pawn) behind. Still, it felt like he would have drawing chances but when it came to the final position white had the opposition and Jim was forced to yield.
  Simon had faced an exchange Caro Kann and soon managed to create an isolated queen pawn to play against. He followed a strategy of trading off minor pieces to target this pawn, and in the process found a tactic to win a pawn and then another. The endgame was drawn out but when faced with a five pawn deficit his opponent finally conceded a straight forward win.
  So we had two points, and were looking to Bob for the crucial third. This game was complicated throughout, with Bob having fiancettoed both bishops, played h5 and g4 early on, conceding the centre space to his opponent. Bob created a key weakness by doubling black's f-pawns and blocking them both with his own f-pawn. However, this exposed his king as the h-file was semi open and then e and g files fully opened. With most of the minor pieces swapped off, black had excellent attacking chances but missed his opportunity to win a rook. With material equal but the position highly imbalanced, Bob was offered a draw. When he declined, black tried to incorrectly claim a draw by repetition. As black had used a lot of time analysing an attack which would not work, Bob declined the offer and then seized his opportunity to win most of black's pawns. Although his opponent tried to draw the game via perpetual check, Bob was able to get his king to a safe square and eventually create a second queen, by which time they were about to start on their second score sheet it took so many moves.
  Top of the festive table!

Before tonight we were comfortably in line for second place, with an outside chance of even finishing top, while Ipswich C we languishing in the bottom two. Factor in a significant rating advantage and you would think that we would be comfortable winners tonight. However, the same situation presented itself last October when our rating advantage over Ipswich C was even greater, but we still came unstuck. And thus we suffered our second defeat of the season, and both of them to Ipswich C.
  Simon finished first after a fairly level game that finished in a pawn and minor piece ending. When his opponent offered the draw Simon accepted as there were no clear chances for either player. John finished next after his opponent lost one, and then two pawns but put up stubborn resistance, almost locking the pawns across the board. John had to give up his advanced, protected h-pawn to force a breakthrough.
  With one and a half points from two you would be forgiven for thinking that we were looking good, but unfortunately things were far from good on the remaining boards. Graeme had sacrificed two pawns (at least we assume he sacrificed them) for a hectic attack with the action taking place on the central files. His opponent defended very well but as the attack was faltering Graeme managed to get one of those pawns back by clearing all of the queen's side pawns at the cost of slightly disconnected pieces. The 3v4 pawn deficit on the king's side looked more manageable but it led to an unusual ending with two rooks and two knights each. Easy to slip up in such uncharted territory, and while attacking one of the knights Graeme overlooked the fact that the attack could be ignored because the other one was able to deliver a mate in one threat from which there was no escape.
  Meanwhile Jim had found that he hadn't quite handled his advanced French with sufficient care, and once again his opponent played far better and more accurately than his rating would suggest. Already being the exchange down and facing multiple threats, Jim too had to surrender when there were no escape routes for his embattled king.
  A brief look at the table will show that this hasn't made much of a dent in our objective of finishing second, but it certainly reduces our chances of catching Ipswich B.

As we get to the business end of the season, we are keen to put points on the board and keep in touch with league leaders Ipswich B. With a full team we were optimistic.
  Things started promisingly. Some opening prep allowed Simon to get a good position on Board 1 with a Queen's English Defence. Jim's French Defence had achieved an excellent position, Bob had plenty of play, and Graeme quickly established an advantage in the opening in a sort of Ruy Lupoz after his opponent delayed playing a6 and lost his e pawn.
  Things then took a turn for the worse. Simon's game continued in a balanced fashion with battle for control over e4, as is typical in these structures. Minor pieces were steadily traded off and things were heading for an endgame when Simon overlooked a queen sacrifice tactic by white that ended up winning a whole bishop, and the game went from even to lost with that one mistake.
  Bob was facing an aggressive kingside pawn storm by his opponent, which hemmed in his light squared bishop. With some manoeuvring he managed to break up these pawns and open up for his bishop, but at the cost of a pawn and a dangerous passed e pawn for black. In the ensuing tactics Bob lost a rook and he could not find enough complications to hold after that.
  So we were two points down, but things were looking better. Graeme had full control on board 4, having turned pawn structure and positional advantage into pressure that won a bishop, and he never looked like making any mistakes with a dominant pawn structure too. Pawn after pawn fell until checkmate was imminent and the game won.
  Jim's game was going the distance. Faced with a terrible backward pawn on c3 that would ultimately fall, his opponent launched a dangerous kingside pawn storm that succeeded in opening up Jim's king. Jim won a pawn with some clever tactics, but with checkmate on the open g file coming he had to give up the exchange in order to get the queens off the board and nullify the threat. This proved an excellent decision as with a devasted pawn structure and only 2 minutes on the clock, white could not handle Jim's knight which ran amok and mopped up pawns and eventually won the exchange back, entertaining the spectators and leading to a resignation.
  The overall match draw was probably a fair result, but Jim's heroics to find a win at the end really deserved better from the top boards. There's a crucial game against Bury St Edmunds in March where they can show what they are made of.

This is a very tight division indeed, with just three points separating the top six sides. In fact, before the start of this match we were second from bottom in the table. And while this raises us to 4th, we are just two points behind the leaders, with a game in hand. We play that game next week, where we hope to take our place immediately behind the promotion spot.

The fight for the top spot could hardly be closer, although in truth no one (not even Ipswich B) relish the consequences of promotion that could go with it. With three teams hot on the heels of Ipswich B, all on 22 points and all with a game in hand, the run down the final straight in this division is going to be interesting. Simon finished first with a creditable draw, followed by Bob who achieved an even more creditable draw. Graeme and Jim on the other hand will both be very disappointed with their results, but had they got another 1½ points between them we would be sitting at the top of the table, and do they really want that?

This is Manningtree B's fourth defeat of the season, and all by the same narrow score of 1½-2½. So while our match results stand at 50%, our board results are slightly higher at 53.4%. This makes the race for second place tantalisingly close between Saxmundham A, Manningtree B and Bury B, with Bury having a game in hand. However, the final matches of the season pit Saxmundham against Ipswich C, Bury against Woodbridge and us against bottom of the table Ipswich D. So there is still all to play for.

This has been, without a doubt, a season of two halves for our B-Team. In the first half it was W4 D1 L1. In the second half is W0 D2 L4. It was still a very close finish though, as we were only two points from finishing second. It's strange to think that had the second half of the season been a repeat of the first half with us finishing W8 D2 L2, we would have been only marginally better than league leaders Ipswich B. And yet even with their impressive match results, their board points were only 3½ more than ours.

We weren't too sure if we could maintain a C-Team this season, but we decided to give it a go anyway, and thanks to new boy Oliver, we started the season without a default. Oliver set off with gusto, and while his inexperience showed, he made a good fist of it with great enthusiasm. Ipswich Sports Club does not use the DGT2010 digital clocks and it was clear that not many of us knew how to operate them. Just to get them ticking was a challenge that required several button presses before the right combination was hit. It was also clear that not everyone in Ipswich SC knew how to set them up as at least one of the clocks in the division one match that was being played alongside us was not adding the increments. When one of the players noticed it they had to pause the game, count the moves, multiply them by 15 seconds and reset the clock accordingly. Something to think about when we next play there.
  John H faced a Sicilian defence against an opponent who appeared to be dressed up like a chess piece. The game went on to settle evenly with both sides castled king's side and central advances impeded by pawns. Black found an opportunity John had overlooked using a bishop to skewer his queen against a rook. He was partially relieved to escape that but at the cost of a knight in a counter that had good attacking options. His real undoing was the mismanagement of a passed black pawn on the b file and missing the glaring threat of it capturing his rook on a1 with promotion.
  David's game started off very well and he soon found himself in a very strong position believing he was heading for a win. Unfortunately he missed the strongest continuations and the game began to drift. His opponent fought back resourcefully and eventually turned the game around. This proved to be one of those that got away.
  John M overlooked a distant check in his Nimzo-Larsen that lost him his a-pawn. However, the half open a-file proved to be more of a liability than an asset to his opponent and after forcing John to soak up a lot of pressure on the king's side his opponent decided to abandon the a-file in order to increase that pressure. John went from a pawn down to a pawn up, had control of the a-file and his opponent's king's side attack had more or less stalled. And just when John's mind was turning from holding on to possibly winning, catastrophe followed. In his haste to drive his opponent's king into the open he hit a blind spot and placed a rook en-prise. Game over.
  We should have come away with at least 1½ points from this match, which would have been quite respectable, but no matter, we are not seeking promotion just yet.

We arrived quite early in Sudbury tonight, mainly because they have found a new venue to play in and we wanted to make sure we could find it in the dark, and also because we needed to make sure we could find somewhere to park and we didn't know how far from the venue that might be. As a result of this, when we entered the room they were still looking for a fourth table and it was several minutes before the equipment arrived. Having said all that, they still managed to get everything set up and ready to go with a good five minutes to spare. The playing room itself is in a small room off of the bar, and while not ideal, it was fortunately relatively quiet. It remains to be seen if that remains the same in the weeks running up to Christmas.
  When setting up the pieces one of their number asked, "The queens go on their own colours right?" which didn't fool us for a minute and as the games got under way things were looking quite level on all boards. However Jamie's somewhat passive opening meant that he was on the back foot throughout the middle game. But it was only after a series of exchanges that left him a pawn down did he come to discover how just a single pawn can be so decisive in a rook and pawn ending.
  Our latest recruit, Harrison, had quite a game in his first experience of over the board league chess. He was doing extremely well and applied considerable pressure to his opponent's king's position, which eventually led to his opponent blundering a rook. This looked cut and dried for our first point of the season, but his opponent was not without some compensation and did his best to mix things up. And it worked for him when a not so obvious oversight allowed a knight manoeuvre that led to the loss of Harrison's queen, and now, being a rook for queen down it really was cut and dried.
  The honour of getting that first point went to John H, who was engaged in quite an unusual game. Unusual in that at one point John had four central pawns, two each on the d and e files, with open c and f files. John had got off to a shaky start playing 1.e4 d5 2.Nc3 d4 forcing him to retreat his knight in spite of having rehearsed this line earlier. His opponent thus gained advanced pawns with an early focus on d4. At risk of his queen being trapped John succeeded in clearing the centre and his breakthrough came attacking a rook and simultaneously exposing an attack on a bishop. His opponent gave up the exchange and John was comfortably ahead in both material and position. Mistakes followed that could have turned the game either way, and John was relieved to seal the win after two and a half hours of intense, nervous play.
  John M brought up the rear to level the match in a Nimzo-Larsen where his opponent castled queen-side and had to face the advance of John's queen-side pawns. John's superior position was evident but his opponent put up stiff and accurate resistance to the point where John feared that he might have to settle for a repetition of moves in a rook and pawn ending. Thankfully inspiration arrived and a way through was found, which gave us a much improved result over our first match.
  All that was left to do now was to find our way home in a dark and torrential downpour, which seemed to take a lot longer than the journey there.

We were expecting a full team tonight, although had we had one, Harrison would not have got a game as their board four also failed to materialise. We gave our respective absentees about ten minutes and then re-paired the two players facing empty chairs so they would both get a game. And Harrison did not let us down. In only his second match for the club he deployed a line of the Caro-Kann he's been exploring to good effect and got his first win for us under his belt.
  John H had a game of intricate mid game calculations and he thankfully maintained his game discipline to avoid clear errors. He's been working on the Italian game and his opponent countered with two knights and castled kingside. John decided to castle queenside and launch a kingside pawn storm. He ended with a commanding pawn on the 7th rank committing black's resources, and on review might have used other sequences in the late jockeying. Overall, it was a good game and he didn't feel let down in conceding to his opponent's final winning tactics.
  John M paid the price of underestimating his opponent's chances. Having miscalculated a piece winning manoeuvre he lost a pawn instead, but then couldn't stop a series of exchanges that led to a rook and minor piece ending. It was pretty sterile and could easily have been drawn, but John spurned the drawing lines, which would have been fine if he'd taken a bit more care. And even in the rook ending when it was clear he was now worse off, he failed to bring his king into play early enough and suffered the consequences.
  It's been a sorry start for our C-Team this season, but at least we've been able to field one, and with new and willing blood like Harrison, we should be able to do so without too many defaults.

We had high hopes of ending our drought of match wins this evening as we travelled to Ipswich to face the only team below us in the stats table. Alas it was not to be.
  There is a line in the Nimzo-Larsen in which Black avoids all the fireworks and White has some risky choices to make. Tonight John M's risky d3 failed to produce the desired result and he had to concede an ending with bishops of opposite colours. In spite of consuming twenty or more moves trying to capture an isolated a-pawn, his opponent managed to find the right moves at the critical moments and John had to settle for a draw.
  David had faced an Italian Game, which developed well enough but then started to drift away from him. As the ending approached his opponent had clear winning chances, but less than accurate play on his part and determined effort on David's turned the game around giving us our only win of the night and just our fourth over sixteen boards so far this season.
  Jamie is nothing if not enthusiastic for the game, and while his game developed reasonably enough, Jamie has that weakness known to many of us and difficult to get rid of - turning games on a single instinctive move that turns out to be disastrous.
  John H faced a queen's pawn opening. All four minor pieces were quickly traded in early play, and both castled kingside and then exchanged queens. So it was a short fuse to the endgame with seven pawns and two rooks apiece. The balance of control swayed and John gained a useful time advantage, although neither player offered a draw. Regrettably John lost out to white's eventual success in a pawn race and was left to chew on another blank.

While we were still unable to find our first match win this season, the end result was probably better than we could have hoped for at the half way point where we were looking in danger of a near whitewash. If Felixstowe went over their games afterwards they were no doubt lamenting a number of missed opportunities.
  Unfortunately for us that was not the case on board three where John had miscalculated a knight placement and lost a central pawn. A phenomenon experienced by all of us now and again then took over in which one bad move is followed by an even worse one. Immediately after losing the pawn John advanced his g-pawn, leaving his knight on f3 undefended. This was promptly captured, which also led to the loss of a rook. John fought on but his opponent was not about to let him of the hook. This is one game John would rather forget about as soon as possible.
  Jamie had made a similar mistake in overlooking the loss of his crucial e-pawn, which was followed by the immediate loss of his f-pawn. Jamie rallied his forces and the phenomenon mentioned above ended there. Things were still pretty bad for Jamie, but he made it as difficult as he could for his opponent, who consequently failed to find the right plan to capitalise on his advantage. It boiled down to a pawn ending and Jamie redeemed his earlier inaccuracies and overturned his opponent's pawn surplus and finally managing to tie a pawn race, following which his opponent immediately offered a draw. With several pawns and a queen each Jamie thought for a while wondering if the tide had now turned, but he accepted the draw offer, which was probably wise.
  David gave us our second half point after a long struggle with his opponent's English. He never looked in any serious danger even though his opponent maintained White's opening initiative for much of the game. David however, had weakened his opponent's king's side pawn structure and the fight for control of the open e-file dictated a lot of the play.
  Oliver brought up the rear. After an interesting response to a Sicilian, Oliver ventured down some risky paths and on two occasions should have lost a piece. His opponent however failed to spot either opportunity and as the game progressed Oliver appeared to be getting the better of the ending. Having driven his opponent's king up the board a little, a mate in one presented itself, although it required an exchange "sacrifice" in order to execute it. Fortunately Oliver saw it and calmly dismissed a defending bishop with his rook. His opponent didn't see what was coming and after taking the rook was summarily mated.

Although Ipswich Sports Club are running away with Division Three, this should have been (on paper at least) quite an evenly balanced match. And indeed it was until the pieces started moving. We continued the current habit of playing upstairs, but that was probably our first bad move. Unlike our rapid play tournament before Christmas, the wall heaters blew out nothing but cold air, and the temperature in the hall started dropping such that by half time everyone was playing in overcoats. In contrast, the hall downstairs was comfortably warm AND they have replaced the bulbs in the spot lights around the walls, so the lighting was up to spec as well. Such is life.
  Jamie was first to finish, facing the London System he paid the price of a hasty move without thinking it through (and who hasn't done that before?). Unfortunately for Jamie, it was in the opening and it lost him a piece. He tried to get himself back into the game but the damage was already done, and there was not only a lack of any compensation, his opponent always seemed to have a plethora of good moves to follow up with. As the pieces were swapped off, one of those good moves netted his opponent the exchange, so rather than play on a rook down Jamie resigned.
  It was a while before Harrison's board finished. He had faced a Caro-Kann and seemed to be handling it quite well, playing the advanced variation. Before long the position opened up considerably after Harrison mistimed a central strike and his opponent was able to build up an attack and win both of Harrison's central pawns as well as forcing the exchange of queens. It became a very difficult game after that, trying to solidify under a lot of pressure and ultimately ended with Harrison resigning after 32 moves, a piece and a few pawns down.
  David was unable to stem the tide, although it was far from a foregone conclusion. He had faced a sort of King's Gambit, except that he hadn't played 1…e5 to his opponent's 1.e4. A huge battle for control of the queen's side followed, which David had handled pretty well. Attention soon transferred to the centre and things started to drift in his opponent's favour. David put up resourceful resistance, but as the ending approached he found himself a pawn on each wing down in a rook and bishop (same colour) ending. His opponent played well to advance the extra pawn on both wings and after forcing David to exchange rooks all hope was gone.
  It was now down to John to salvage a little pride for the team. Like Harrison, John had faced a Caro-Kann, which got off to a slow start that led to a pawn congested centre concealing the threats behind. The balance of power shifted after John lost first one pawn, and then a second. He was looking quite lost but then his pawn deficit was reduced back to one. A little later and the pawns were level, and we were now hopeful for at lest half a point. Under considerable king's side pressure John managed to force off the queens, neutralising that pressure and was suddenly two pawns up into the bargain. Unfortunately they were difficult to hold on to and they entered the ending with equal pawns again. A draw was offered and John accepted, not only because the position was now dead drawn, but the fingers of both players were in danger of freezing to the pieces and nobody wanted that. On review both players missed opportunities, one of which was John missing a tactic to pin his opponent's queen! Nonetheless it was an intriguing game and a welcome result on the night.

The omens were not looking good when David had to pull out on the day, but thanks to Jamie we were at least able to avoid a postponement, if not a board default. It was the usual journey to Saxmundham, dark and wet, and having left road works and closures in Manningtree we were greeted with the same as we arrived in Saxmundham, although the closures didn't affect us thank goodness.
  Going by their nominated squad Saxmundham B should be up there with Ipswich Sports Club B, vying for the top spot, but instead they were near the bottom with us. They started the season well enough beating Felixstowe B 3½-½ but prior to tonight they had only collected six more points in their next five matches. And unfortunately of course, we had to give them another one before the match had even started.
  John H finished first and it was a long night for a short lesson that he'd had before. His opponent played a somewhat offbeat opening 1.Nf3... 2.d4... 3.e4.... and John countered with his customary c and d pawns, but unwisely thought to disrupt his opponent by pushing them too far, c4 and d5. That unduly exposed his kingside and delayed development whilst needing his Queen to support the advanced pawns. His subsequent play was OK, nothing stupid and no major oversights, but the unwise opening which he'd "learned" some months before undermined the rest of his game and led to another painful defeat.
  Jamie had curbed his impulses for rapid replies and gradually developed a very good position with good chances of winning. Material stayed level until the ending when Jamie went a pawn down in a rook and queen ending. He continued to play actively and managed to get that pawn back. After the queens and a pair of rooks came off he was facing an advancing isolated a-pawn supported by the enemy king and rook. On the other wing he had pawns on the g and h file facing another isolated enemy pawn on the h file. It was a classic situation where Jamie would have to deploy his king towards his own pawns, give up his rook as the enemy pawn queens, and force his opponent to do the same on the other wing. Unfortunately Jamie left his king too long on the queen's side and his opponent was able to pick off his king's side pawns and eventually queen his own a-pawn.
  John M was last to finish in a game that was balanced from the start, which was unusual in that the Nimzo-Larsen usually produces the exact opposite. John had decided that he would go for the sharpest lines because he thought he was probably going to lose anyway, so might as well have some fun. His opponent however declined the opening moves that would lead to such lines and the game continued in which the only imbalance was 3v2 pawns on the queen's side and 3v4 on the king's side, with the struggle for control of the open d-file dominating the game. That resulted in the exchange of all four rooks resulting in a queen and minor piece ending that would require the skill of a Master to win for either player so a draw was agreed.
  Although we only came away with half a point, there was great compensation in being able to leave Saxmundham at 9:30, so in spite of the road closures in Manningtree we managed to get home earlier than we do on most club nights.

The evening started badly for our C Team when Oliver, on board four, was confronted with a Caro-Kann and unfortunately got onto a muddle very early and lost a piece. Although he struggled on, the piece deficit resulted in an early defeat.
  Jamie, on board three, levelled the score with a well deserved win and his first of this season. He made sure that the advice agreed by the C Team before the start (to take time in the opening moves and remain calm and focused) was put into action. His opponent opened with h4 and then g4 which threw him a bit, but he remained calm and played d4 and e4 respectfully. This led to an early exchange of all four bishops and a few moves later his opponent lost a tempo and took h4, which was an error because later on that led to a huge problem once Jamie castled King side. His opponent miscalculated as he launched an attack with his knight as he didn't have enough material to deliver mate. Eventually Jamie's opponent conceded the game when one of Jamie's pawns was about to Queen.
  David, playing black on board one, was involved in an evenly balanced game, which remained so until well into the later part of the game. David then slowly took control in the end game, pushing his pawns forward and making good use of the extra pawn he had, which helped him to push forward for the win.
  Board three was looking good for Manningtree but gradually the position equalised toward the end. Harrison then mistimed the advance of his king resulting in the loss of a pawn and a winning position for his opponent. Thus the night ended with our third draw of the season and that elusive win still eluding us.

It was a long time coming, but we finally got our first match win of the season. All right, we were give half of it on a plate, but it means we have the possibility of lifting ourselves of the bottom rung, especially as we face Felixstowe C in our final match, and have a game in hand over them.
  Starting the match 2-0 up meant that we obviously needed just a draw from either of the Johns to take the match. And thanks to an excellent performance from John H we got more than that quite early in the match. Black responded to John's e4 opening with a symmetrical game, leaving an open centre after early exchanges. After he'd castled kingside black created a strong bishop and queen threat along the b7-g2 diagonal. However, black then inexplicably moved his king to d7 under no threat and leaving it exposed, whereas castling queenside would have been obvious. John struggled to see what he might have missed, but he then found an excellent exposed threat on the unprotected black queen by interposing a knight on that diagonal with check. Black now had to give up his queen for two minor pieces and then resigned in the face of John's domination after barely twenty moves.
  Meanwhile John M had faced a Queen's Gambit (by transposition) and followed more or less traditional paths. As the game developed however he was in danger of losing a pawn and initiated a risky response that should have lost, but his opponent failed to fully capitalise, allowing John to maintain material balance and achieve a drawn queen and pawn ending with both sides having a pair of connected passed pawns on opposite wings. John then let his guard down and placed his king on exactly the wrong square to allow his opponent to force the exchange of queens leaving his king unable to reach his opponent's passed h-pawn. When will this guy learn?

Just like London busses, you wait all day for one and then two come along together. And not only that, this second consecutive match win lifts us off the bottom of the table, albeit by match wins only, but we will likely stay there with an outside chance of also overhauling Ipswich E. Most of the credit for tonight's win must go to Harrison, who managed to pull off an impressive win from what looked like a very unlikely position. However, we shall start at the beginning.
  The two Johns more or less finished together, giving us a 1-1 start after little more than an hour's play. John M's opponent once again sidestepped the sharp lines of the Nimzo-Larsen and a closed game was beckoning. However, an injudicious challenge of the a1-h8 diagonal on f6 should have lost a central pawn, but John's opponent had blocked in one of his rooks, so he lost the exchange instead. With seven pawns each the rook v knight ending was far from simple, but less than accurate play from his opponent allowed John to break through and clear a path to victory.
  John H on the other hand wasn't having any such luck. His game was a solid book opening in which John played a Sicilian defence. John was behind in development but had a good pawn structure, although without any immediate attacking chances. The focus grew on John's d6 pawn with both layering firepower on that single square. Without any stupid mistakes John ended up with doubled black pawns on the e file, one of which later fell to the white queen. Thereafter the game subsided into a series of exchanges, with gradual material losses and eventual defeat.
  It wasn't long after that that David agreed a draw on his board, leaving the score level at 1½-1½. This was a well fought, evenly played game with neither player making mistakes and both players matching each other's moves until the draw was agreed.
  This just left Harrison, who had had to give up a pawn to avoid losing his queen, but later reversed the situation and captured his opponent's queen, although at the cost of a rook and a knight. The material balance was theoretically level, but the position was far from clear and difficult to say who, if anyone had an advantage. With just a queen and a rook facing two rooks, a knight and an extra pawn Harrison offered a draw. His opponent declined, but then seemed to go into defensive mode, following which Harrison put on a very impressive demonstration of how to break open a king's position with a rook and a trio of pawns. Harrison's opponent continued his defensive strategy, which by now was being forced on him, and in spite of some resourceful defensive play Harrison found the correct manoeuvre to deliver mate and give us the match.
  It was a very pleasing result that even the closure of the A14 and a woeful lack of adequate detour signs cold not dampen our spirits on the journey home.

With two wins under our belt we were looking for more so that we could lift ourselves off the bottom and maybe finish mid-table if we could continue the run. And we thought we were on track for doing that until the realisation on the following day that we had messed up and should have played Oliver on bottom board instead of Jamie. Jamie's rating is greater than 80 points above John Huke, our board four nominee.
  And speaking of Jamie, it was his board that finished first. He had slipped up in the opening and carelessly lost the exchange, but he put his head down and fought back to deny his opponent an easy game. A combination of good play and good luck turned the tables and we were unexpectedly two points up.
  It was some time before Harrison made it three. He controlled his game and was rewarded with an extra rook as they entered the rook and pawn ending. His opponent played on long after most would have resigned but it gave Harrison a chance to show how efficiently he can dispatch an opponent in a hopeless position.
  On board two David was the last to finish. He had the black pieces and was doing well against his opponent, pushing towards checkmate but unfortunately, he took his eyes off what his opponent was up to, which resulted in David being mated instead.

Manningtee C were hoping to continue their run of four matches undefeated, and they would have done if John hadn't sleep-walked into a mate. He had a commanding position out of the opening but miss-handled the threats coming down the king's side, which could have been stifled without difficulty, and even missed the mate in one.
  First to finish was Jamie, who was aiming to extend his run of unbeaten games, and started determined to finish the season on a win. But he felt the game was slipping away from him, and when his opponent offered a draw he overcame his initial reluctance and accepted.
  Oliver finished next and didn't start very well, coming out of the opening a rook down. From what looked like certain defeat Oliver proved to be our only win as his opponent snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
  With the match level it was now all down to David. He had come under a lot of pressure but managed to survive and maintain material equality, but his position was hampered by a dangerous advanced central pawn. As he entered a two rook and minor piece ending David had to give up the exchange to hold things together, which his opponent game back to enter a pawn ending with a one pawn advantage. There were drawing chances, but impossible to find in such positions without the help of a computer.
  Although defeated tonight, we should have finished the season half a point ahead of Felixstowe, with every chance of finishing above Saxmundham as well, thus keeping ourselves comfortably of the bottom of the table. Unfortunately Saxmundham did it again and defaulted two matches and thus their results have all been deleted. This means we finish level on points and match wins with Felixstowe, but are bottom of the table due to the aggregate of our individual matches with them.

For the second time in two matches our A-Team was severely depleted, and Stowmarket were no doubt delighted to see that, expecting as they no doubt did that they would be facing a hammering. Depleted we may be, but we did not go down without a fight. And special mention must go to Phil who did an excellent job on top board, giving us a fighting chance. After the first round the score was level, but as the second round was drawing to a close it seemed just 1½ was all we were going to get. Needing that extra half a point to take us to a play off John persevered, trying to squeeze a win out of a drawn position, if he could just avoid the checks in a queen and pawn ending with only minutes left. He managed to do so in a rather unique fashion by placing his queen en-prise.

While we have won both the division one and division three rapid play cup trophies, we have not yet won the division two trophy. And this season it is the only one of the three that we are still left in.
  This victory tonight puts us straight through to the final, where we will face Bury St Edmunds B on May 6th, who we dispatched 3-1 in the league back in November. Rapid play of course is a very different kettle of fish in which just about anything can happen, so we will need all the help Caďssa can offer and no injuries to any of the team.

The damage was done in the first round, and if it wasn't for some last minute rear guard action from Simon it would have been even worse. Bob and Graeme rallied in the second round but it wasn't enough, except to make the final score a little more respectable. This is the one trophy (apart from the U1650) that we have yet to get our name engraved on. Next season perhaps.

We went to Felixstowe with a mountain to climb, starting with a 2-0 deficit before even a pawn was pushed. And with only 1½ points from the first round, Jamie commented that all we need is a 3-0 result from the second round and we'll be through. Well we got that 3-0 result thanks to a sudden lapse that must have been contagious as all three of us dropped a piece during the opening phase of each game and in spite of strenuous efforts to recover the end was never really in doubt. Still, we did manage to get half a point more than last year, which is some sort of improvement, especially considering we had a full team then.

Last week it was Manningtree C, this week it's just Manningtree, that's two visits to Saxmundham in a week, and once again we were not in the usual playing room. Which was just as well for the noise coming from the darts match in the main hall would make Felixstowe's Dooleys appear like an oasis of calm. And for some reason this seemed to make those engaged in their post mortems less hushed than usual. That notwithstanding, as defending champions of the Suffolk section of the Norfolk and Suffolk Cup we did the job and go into the final.
  As the games got under way there was no sign of the margin of victory that was to follow. Rowland felt the need for an early draw tonight, so he offered his opponent one. Not in the usual manner mind you. He saw the possibility for his opponent to give up a piece and go for a perpetual check, so he offered it and his opponent accepted. In the meantime Simon Wilks had played an Exchange Variation against Andy's King's Indian, swapped off the queens, and obtained a slightly favourable position. Andy sacrificed a pawn on move 15, but Simon miscalculated and soon found himself worse in an ending in which the two bishops proved decisively stronger than a bishop and knight.
  Shortly after that Phil finished his game, which kept us one point ahead. It was a while before John converted his one pawn lead (given to him on move four) into final victory on move thirty four, and now we just needed half a point from either Graeme or Bob to secure the match.
  Graeme's was a typically active game which eventually led to him giving up both his rooks for a queen and a pawn. It was later to become several pawns plus the exchange but when we reached the stage where it was Graeme's queen and knight versus his opponent's rook and two knights, his opponent allowed an exchange that would have lost him all three of his pieces if it were it followed through, so he resigned instead.
  Now Bob had to suffer the pressure of more than half a dozen pairs of eyes scrutinising his every move while every minute or two a load roar would enter the room from the darts match. Bob had by far the better position with passed and connected a and b pawns securing his long term future, but also he had to be careful not to fall foul of a crafty mate delivered along the half open h-file. With his opponent running on increments Bob's breakthrough came in the centre with a pair of bishops and the match was over. And as far as we know (apart from a 6-0 default win) this is the largest margin of victory we have ever had in this competition (although we have been on the receiving end of a 5-1 beating in the past).

Last year in our match against Bury we had the exact same squad in the exact same board order and defeated Bury 4½-1½. This year they have beefed up their squad with Alan Merry and a couple of fast improving juniors, and it has clearly paid off.
  Bob finished first and was not best pleased about that, having made a good start with his Modern and then missing the correct continuation. It wasn't long before Simon followed suit, playing a line in his Caro-Khan that he won't play again. He was dragged into a complex line that resulted in him having to give up his queen for a rook and a knight. The hapless place of his two rooks on their original squares prevented him holding off his opponents many threats.
  Two down and we were now left to contemplate the fact that we needed three points from the remaining four boards, while Bury only needed 1½. And we had a lot of time to do that contemplating as it was a long time before any other results were declared as all four boards went the distance. Phil's Queen's pawn opening travelled rather quiet waters and after a great deal of probing and manoeuvring Phil finally managed to enter the endgame with a pawn advantage. It was R&B v R&B with same colour bishops, but his opponent was not giving in without a fight and managed hold off all of Phil's attempts to break through. The game was drawn long before Phil conceded that it was, even after his opponent had won his pawn back.
  Now we needed two and a half from three, and while it looked as though two was quite possible, any more was problematic (to say the least). It was now that Rowland's result came in, although on his board it was Rowland who was at a considerable disadvantage. His Italian was also relatively quiet with Rowland biding his time with small incremental steps. After the middle game exchanges things started to drift in his opponent's favour and Rowland had to play very carefully especially after the final pieces were exchanged and we entered a queen and pawn ending. His opponent had an extra isolated but passed pawn, which was threatening to move ever further up the board. Rowland's compensation was the position of his opponent's king and the fact that he could deliver perpetual check unless his opponent's queen could keep control of a crucial back rank square. As it happened his opponent couldn't control that square and advance his pawn at the same time and Rowland was able to find just the square for his queen to prove that before a draw was agreed.
  Two points from our top two stars is always possible, and as often as not happens, but unfortunately not tonight. Panagiotis had played his usual English and the game developed very carefully, relatively quietly and very slowly - after two hours of play we had barely reached move twelve, and only one pair of pawns had been exchanged. This was in stark contrast to their previous encounter back in October last year, where tactics abounded. As the game progressed and the board cleared a bit it looked a draw was on the cards but an unfortunate placement of his king led to a check that lost Panagiotis his rook, which resulted in instant resignation.
  The match could no longer be salvaged but Andy was nonetheless creating havoc on board two. His Sicilian led to a lively game with Andy pressing down the centre with slowly advancing pawns. Andy had to give up, no let's say he sacrificed, the exchange, which didn't seem to disadvantage him at all. Pushing down the centre, as well as the open h-file, his domination was impressive, and the final pseudo sacrifice of first one piece and then another to advance his d-pawn was even more impressive. While the first sacrifice could be ignored, the second could not and we thus ended our Norfolk and Suffolk Cup campaign for this season with a 2-4 defeat.

There may only be three teams in this competition this season, but as the holders it would still be nice to win it again, especially as we have only done so twice in the competition's thirty odd year history (although we do have a pretty healthy record of finishing last). Undaunted by that last thought we set off for Ipswich with confidence, in spite of the efforts by Essex Highways to close the border with Suffolk. and Ipswich Borough Council hiking parking rates and installing machines that refuse to issue parking tickets after taking your money.
  It was clear that going solely on the basis of ratings, we should win this match comfortably, but in reality it was anything but comfortable. Jim was the first to experience that having entered a very complicated game that took an inordinate amount of time to figure his way through. His chances were not looking good, but in the end it was the clock that defeated him.
  John followed soon after facing a very lively Italian Game that trod paths he was completely unfamiliar with and he felt he was about to enter a prepared opening trap (and not for the first time). Having navigated the numerous threats and being finally able to castle at move twenty, his position gradually improved. He even managed to win a pawn but was too hasty in advancing it, allowing his opponent to break through with a pawn of his own in the centre. It was a repeat of Jamie's situation in his game the previous evening, where John had to give up his rook when the enemy pawn queened and then had to advance his king and pawn to make his opponent do the same.
  With only half a point from two boards things were not looking too good. Bob seemed to have an edge but it was difficult to say if it was enough, and what Simon had was hard to describe, but it certainly wasn't an edge. The funny thing is that both games ended in identical ways, thanks to a certain amount of luck (or was Caďssa taking pity on us for having messed up our week so much?)
  Simon had bravely entered a dangerous trap by accepting the tempting offer of his opponent's rook on a1 with his queen. He should have lost it for an additional bishop but his opponent miscalculated and Simon got two rooks for his queen instead. A very difficult game ensued but the uneasy balance was maintained to the ending where two rooks and a knight were facing a queen and a knight, with equal pawns. One of Simon's central pawns was under threat so he did the only sensible thing and defended it with his knight. His opponent then increased the pressure overlooking the fact that Simon's knight move wasn't a defensive one at all and immediately resigned when his king and queen were forked. The match was now level.
  Bob's game had come down to a bishop v knight ending, with Bob holding the knight. Bob was a pawn up but it was a backward h pawn and it was difficult to see how he could make that pay. Bob cleverly positioned his knight for a trap, allowing his opponent to attack that backward pawn with his bishop, which he did. That pawn was then advanced h2-h4 turning it into a passed protected pawn. Without much thought beyond the danger that such a pawn posed, his opponent exchanged pawns en passant allowing another deadly fork of king and bishop, resulting in instant resignation once his opponent realised he was in check. It is very early days, but this puts us tie with Bury at the top of the table. And our first encounter with them is next week, at home.

This is the second match in our bid to retain the U1800 Trophy, which for the third consecutive season has only us, Bury and Ipswich competing. And after tonight's victory we are definitely on track.
  With everyone arriving in good time we had a nice early start. There were no early exchanges however and after an hour or so of play the boards were all looking decidedly crowded. On the plus side all of our guys were starting to build up a useful time advantage.
  Jim was the first to finish after his time advantage had done a 180. His French had produced its fair share of complications which eventually led to Jim emerging with a passed a-pawn after all of the major pieces were exchanged. However, his two knights versus a knight and bishop were not up to the task of even keeping that pawn, let alone advancing it, and along with an exchange of knights, the pawn went with them. Although a pawn down on the king's side, they were locked and Jim's remaining knight was ideally posted on a square opposite to the colour of his opponent's bishop. There was no way his opponent could penetrate so Jim offered a draw, which was duly accepted.
  Bob and Simon more or less finished together, giving us a one point lead. Bob adopted the King's Indian in response to his opponent's English and that early time advantage grew quite large as the game developed. It ended with Bob having five pawns to his opponent's knight and three pawns. Such endings can go either way and Bob advanced his pawns to good effect. His opponent's knight however proved up to the challenge and when the final position of three pawns versus one pawn and a knight became locked a draw was agreed.
  Simon's Queen's Gambit developed fairly quietly, but after a great deal of queen's side pressure Simon was able to pick up a pawn. While he continued to push this advantage his opponent put up stubborn resistance, but it took its toll on her clock. After the queens were exchanged Simon's grip on the rook and bishop ending was such that his opponent was hard pressed to find any move that didn't lose. With his king now threatening to enter the fray his opponent was ready to resign when her flag fell.
  Graeme responded to the Centre Counter rather quietly with 2.d3 and a slow build up of opposing forces developed. Graeme's early time advantage disappeared but his position improved and he eventually emerged a pawn to the good. After the pieces were whittled down to just a bishops of the same colour Graeme pick up another pawn. And then a third. They weren't all connected but with four pawns against one he started their advance, and while his opponent struggled on we had no doubt how this would end.
  A valuable victory that puts us firmly on the top. The return matches for all three teams are not until April, so we'll be there for quite a while.

This was not the result we were looking for; a draw or even a 1½-2½ loss would have still given us a reasonable chance of retaining the title, but this gives us a mountain to climb. Now we need to win at least three of the four boards in our final match against Ipswich. Anything less could need a tie break, or worse, we could lose the trophy altogether.
  John finished first in a game that moved along at quite a pace, reaching move thirty while the other three boards were still mid-teens (in fact when John finished his 48 move game Bob was still on move 13). It was a very open Nimzo-Larsen that boiled down to a rook and pawn ending with John slightly better with an extra pawn. It wasn't enough as John was unable to gain the opposition after exchanging rooks to avoid a perpetual.
  It was a long time before any of the other boards finished. Jim was engaged in a tough battle and came under a lot of pressure with not so much as a pawn coming off the board in the first hour of play. He held things together well, but was running low on the clock. His opponent then miscalculated and lost the exchange for a pawn, but still had a playable game therefore a draw was agreed. David finished soon after having struggled to fend off multiple threats throughout his game. It was essentially a game of attrition as first one, then two, then three and finally four pawns were lost. He battled on to a rook and minor piece ending hoping his opponent might slip up, but no such luck.
  We were now 2-1 down as Bob brought up the rear. His King's Indian had become extremely complicated, although Bob appeared to be slightly better. His opponent appeared to have all the critical squares covered, so it was difficult to see how Bob could find something decisive. As pieces were exchanged Bob's advantage diminished, but he wasn't giving up and as so often happens, in trying too hard for a win you end up losing.

Just one board win and we would have retained the title. It was not to be and Bury regain the trophy for the seventh time. Looking forward, we will have even more trouble winning this trophy next year if Bob's rating stays where it is come September - not that we would wish any poor results on him of course.