AoaLCP#6: Some more wins as black

Hello all,

In my previous blog I mentioned two wins and said that I may show them in a later blog. Well, the time has come! In both games I was a heavy favourite, so I'm lumping them in with yet another game I played as black last Thursday which was much more competitive.

The first was a second division game against an Ian Carrigan. As is usual in second division games I had a nice rating advantage, which he unknowingly confounded by allowing my beloved dragon.

I've just realised that both the remaining games are also dragons, which I suppose explains my victorious run! My next game was against Kevin Plaxton who was playing board three for the worst team in the first division. As before, I have a higher rating than Kevin, but he always puts up a good fight on the chessboard. This one ended up being a long grind, milking a pawn won in the opening to an eventual victory.

 The last game was played in the first division on second board. Our troubles with getting the strongest players to play are sadly continuing. Fortunately, my opponent was actually very similarly rated to myself so I had a good chance to contribute to the team. It was shaping up to be a really close match, and that indeed transpired. We won third board very quickly (Yousuf bin-Suhayl vs Richard Cowan), but soon board one went the other way as Siyuan went down to Gavyn Cooper. It got worse, and we ended up 3-2 down with my game the only one left going...

So the team drew 3-3 thanks to my nervy win in my first ever board two game. I've been very happy with my chess over the last year, and I'm really looking forward to continuing to improve moving into my next tournament (which will likely be Blackpool) Until then, as ever, happy chessing!

See y'all in the next blog!