Simul V K Arkell

As the season becomes a real battle to avoid the drop, there appears to be clear divisions in the table appearing the top 2 Newport and Oswestry fighting it out for the crown, then a tightly packed bunch ourselves,Telepost,Shrewsbury, Ludlow  all trying to string some results together to firmly cast a drift the bottom 2 Telford and Wellington.

Well after a terrible day I was in no mood for chess at all, this obviously was not going to help the team as Im rather an  erratic player on my good days, was a slight plus was upon arrival at the venue it was clear that the pub had improved the lighting ,still enough for our opponents to pass comment but had they been there over Christmas they would have seen candle light was about the playing conditions..

Well having sat down to play Francis once more a total blank hit me when I opened e4 and he replied with d5  prior encounters had put me in trouble, I just thought Im not playing this tonight, so after blitzing the first few moves by move 5 I drew a smile from my opponent as I offered queen exchange I think he was half expecting me to offer the draw there and then but he played c6, but if there was any doubt I would be happy with a draw on the night it was ended when I took his queen off the board. Then in a world of my own for much of the game a mix of sloppy play and laziness had come over me , it suddenly dawned on me I could actually still  lose this game. Thankfully I was actually woken from my slumber by the fact next to me Glyn and Danny were having abit of fun in their game , it gave me chance to have a quick look at how the boards looked , Adrian on one was not doing great but he knows that type posistion way better than me so hard to be sure if my thoughts were accurate, Glyn was facing a tidal wave of pieces coming at him but it always felt like Danny had gone over the top and would be exposed at some point , Steve was clearly winning and just a matter of time til he won and Gary the same. Well by some weird coincident Glyn said to Danny your sacrafing a pawn are you , I too had the same idea on my board which in hindsight may have not been the best idea but still playing odd I was able to set up a few traps and not manage to lose, Francis obviously very aware I was looking for a cheap trick was happy to play passively and the result of which was a draw, match wise a great result as by now both board 4 and 5  had won so assured us at least a point. The point in the bag attention turned to the remaining games Danny absolutely throwing everything at Glyn and walking a very fine line between collapsing and keeping pressure on, David on 1 was fully aware of the match situation and was continuing what by now was a certain drawn position against Adrian, he kept looking at Danny's game it just wasn't happening both players clocks were dwindling and no breakthroughs, eventually Davids resolved broke and he offered the draw and conceed the match. A big 2 points for us as we were the closest to the bottom 2. Danny knowing the game was up to gave up hope and although he had no mating net he had the posistion to set up a forced draw and thats exactly what he did (a shame really as he had played really well and Im sure he should have won at some point).

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