Last night we took on the Dons at home (it was the bottom club versus the second from bottom club) and to make matters worse, we were missing three of our regulars (Gerry,Javier and Simon). Gerry was swanking about in Oman..oh man!! Into the breech came Nigel and Charlie,to join Phil and myself. The Dons had perhaps the stronger boards one and two and weaker on the lower boards although we actually out-graded them 3-1.
Nigel played Antov and I saw none of the game, but Nigel offered the draw which was accepted in a deep Bulgarian voice. Charlie had already departed; I only saw him for a brief moment..a lull in the great wingspan of life and then he was gone, clutching his draw. Again,I saw nothing of the game, but it must have been a "quickie". Phil had the nicest guy in the chess firmament -Stephen Crane - I caught the ending of their game and it was queen, rook and six pawns apiece in a pretty equal-looking end game so it was no surprise when it was announced as a draw. I had Greg Tebble who was around 130...a very solid player. Well the long and the short of it was that after a solid opening playing an attack variation I had never played before....opening with the C pawn and a double fianchettoed...wow! I felt hemmed in and in trying to strike out of what was actually an even position lost my queen. I felt like resigning there on the spot as I saw the ghost of a thin smile playing on Greg's lips. But hey, my name isn't Mister Resignation. I fought on and actually when the horror had subsided a bit, found I had bishop, knight and pawn for the queen,but in a wickedly weak position. However,more fight back saw me take his rook for knight and pawn, and now in chess numbers he had 21 versus my 20, and although all my pieces were on the back two ranks and I was fully expecting a pawn storm, he suddenly offered the draw. I accepted it before the words were fully out of his mouth. I haven't put it in Fritz yet -the game,not the mouth, but I'm sure the German will tell me what I knew all along....that yet again I buggered it up, but saved the day by the skin of my fore....the story of my chess season....won 2 lost 2 drawn twelve!!! So it was a 2-2 draw with all four games drawn.I had the prediction spot on,though I thought Nigel would be playing John Dolamore. I suppose the 2-2 draw hurts us more than them....in a very congested and tight division,it raised us out of the slime and into the not so fetid mid-table level where the air is less rancid. Come the end of the season there will be so many cut-throat games it will be like Hannibal Lector at the teddy bears' picnic. Before I forget there must be a well-done and a pat on the back for our friendly and likable Riddler aka Nathan,who has gained eleven grading points in only a few months,and if you read his profile on the website, you will notice he only took up serious chess not so long ago. Richard Downing
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