'A' Team Kick Off 2015 With A Win

It was a nail biting finish to our first match of 2015 last night. Top of the table Meir fielded a strong team against us and the match could have gone either way. Ray, who had been feeling ill all day, took an early draw on board 1. Kas found himself in an awful position on board 4 after about 10 moves. His opponent sacrificed a piece and Kas's failure to Castle and develop his pieces put him under relentless pressure which led to the inevitable outcome. Boards 2 and 3 looked very even and a Meir victory looked likely. However, Rob's opponent on board 2 blundered a Rook in an endgame of 2 Rooks and a Bishop against a Queen and a Bishop. Rob gratefully snapped up the Rook and the match was level a 1.5 - 1.5. Mike then stepped up to the plate on board 3, snaffled a couple of pawns and forced his opponent to either give up a Bishop or allowing a Pawn promotion. The Bishop was duly given up and with just under 3 minutes remaining on his clock Mike mated his opponent to give us a 2.5 - 1.5 win, a result that looked very unlikely halfway through the evening. You can click here to view the full match scorecard. There is another big match next week when we travel to 3rd placed Alsager 'B'.