Knight ‘trick’ clinches surprise victory
Derby League Division 1
The combined Burton and Lichfield ‘A’ side scored a surprise 2.5 – 1.5 victory over a strong Chesterfield side in a tense encounter hosted on neutral territory at Spondon Chess Club in Derby.
Mircea Mesesan, playing on Board 1, continued his excellent recent form with a solid draw with Black against 2090-rated Chesterfield stalwart Peter Ackley. The Queens were exchanged early in the game, and neither side ever held a significant advantage.
On Board 4, John Hoddy offered a draw which his opponent rejected. His opponent continued to push, but in doing so left weaknesses around his king. John exploited these, forcing the loss of an exchange to avoid a mating attack. He neatly converted his advantage to win the game.
Adam Routledge, playing Black on Board 3, looked to be in trouble after his opponent blockaded a key central pawn with a rook. Adam fought for piece activity, giving up two pawns to free his position and transition into a rook and pawn ending. Black’s rooks found strong squares within White’s position, and his opponent struggled to make any progress despite his material advantage. A draw was agreed; a resilient performance from Adam that kept Burton and Lichfield ahead in the match.
Attention now turned to Board 2, where Richard Anderson, playing White, had held a space advantage in the middlegame, but used up too much time when trying to increase his advantage. He over-pressed, weakening a key pawn as the game transitioned into a knight and pawn endgame with Black a pawn up. The endgame was clearly lost with best play, but with Richard playing only on his 10 second time increment, and his opponent also looking to play quickly to force a blunder, it was instead Black that went wrong, allowing white to develop and push a passed pawn. Richard found a simple trick in which his pawn promoted to a knight to force a quick draw, and to confirm an unexpected, but very welcome match victory. The match scorecard is here. (Match played: 4th November).