Last Wednesday saw Cumnor 1 take on Didcot 2 at the Marlbourgh Club in Didcot.
Unfortunately, Cumnor’s team was suffering even before the first pawn had been moved: both Andrew and Zoe became unwell on the day of the match, forcing Zoe to pull out. Special thanks goes out to Robert Steel who stood in at a very short notice.
| Didcot 2 | Cumnor 1 | ||
| 1 | Thetford, Roger (130) | 0-1 | Terrington, Simon (173) |
| 2 | Harvey, John (129) | 0-1 | Glenn, Liam (147) |
| 3 | Webb, Andrew (127) | 1-0 | Varney, Andrew (147) |
| 4 | Harkins, Sam (128) | 0.5-0.5 | Alvarez, Francisco (115) |
| 5 | Jacobs, Robert B (123) | 1-0 | Steel, Robert (85) |
| 6 | Reynolds, Gary (126) | 1-0 | Slade, Richard () |
| Match played on 3 Dec 2014. | 3.5-2.5 | ||
The bottom two boards, Richard and Robert, did not have the best of evenings.
Both lost their games but they were playing strong opponents with much higher grades.
Pako had to dig-in when he went against two connected outside past pawns but with some pressure on theKingside he managed to exchange down to an endgame with Knight v Bishop and pawn. The Knight was just about to sacrifice itself for the Pawn when the players agreed a draw.
Andrew, who was feeling unwell, played well but then made a mistake which eventually proved fatal.
With the match already lost for Cumnor, the top two boards carried on regardless. Simon reached an interesting endgame with no easy win, but in true Simon-style came through a combination which saw him in a much better position.
Liam’s game was also very interesting, and you can play it through below.
The result keeps Cumnor 1 in fourth place in division 2, and demonstrates that one week you can beat top of the table Bicester then the next week lose to bottom team Didcot!
