Lower boards save the day

Redditch visited Sutton Coldfield on Monday in Division Two of the Birmingham League - the club's final match before entering the Christmas break. Pushing for promotion, Sutton Coldfield posed a real danger to struggling Redditch - a situation not helped by Redditch unfortunately missing Dave Spowart and Jason Cole.

The first game to finish was on Board 1 where Dan Lambourne's French Defence against John Mildenhall led to a Rook and Bishop endgame where the interlocked pawns proved too much of an obstacle for either player and a draw was agreed. With Dan holding a 19-point grading superiority over his opponent, it could have been argued that Sutton Coldfield may have taken some advantage from that draw. However, they were to soon be definitely ahead after Tom Robinson succumbed on Board 2 to 152-rated Marek Soszynski - another upset. With the rest of the grades favouring Sutton Coldfield, things looked bleak for Redditch and matters worsened when, as may have been expected with such a gap, Andrew Wiggins had to concede defeat on Board 3 to 151-rated Lawrence Hayden.

However, the bottom three boards had other ideas as to how the match should finish. Steve Crockett sacrificed the exchange on Board 4 against 147-graded Roy Lawrence, picked up a further couple of pawns and finally checkmated his opponent on a8 with the use of King, Bishop and Pawn. Peter Seeley played passively on Board 5 against Shailesh Jobanputra but managed to weather an inital storm. His 145-graded opponent summoned up the reserves to win Rook, Bishop and Knight in exchange for his Queen and go into what should have been a superior endgame. One slip, however, allowed Peter to threaten a repetition of moves from which the only escape was to give up one of those pieces. Jobanputra chose the latter option and then compounded his error by giving up a further pawn, allowing Peter a passed a-pawn that should have allowed him an excellent win. Peter, however, completely missed the opportunity to push this pawn, instead allowing Jobanputra the chance to cause some mischief with his rook. Whilst Peter still had a won position at the end of the game, he didn't have enough time to convert it and instead had to settle for a draw and a missed opportunity.

With Redditch still a point behind, it came down to Michele Clack against 130-rated Iqbal Dhesi on Board 6. Avoiding Dhesi's Marshall Gambit, Michele won a knight in the middle game before returning it and taking a pawn advantage into a Rook and Pawn endgame. Michele missed an initial opportunity to convert before Dhesi missed the drawing line. Michele ultimately promoted the final pawn on the board to secure a 3-3 draw for Redditch and take them into the Christmas break with prospects looking a little brighter.

Redditch play a 'Mince Pie' quickplay on Tuesday as a final social gathering before Christmas. With 15 minutes each on the clock, anything can happen.


Closing thought: "The most powerful weapon in chess is to have the next move." - David Bronstein