Honours even

Settle Chess Club has been playing in the Wharfedale League over the past few weeks. This is a small local competition with teams of 3 in an all-play-all G60 format (which I don't like, have I mentioned how much I prefer playing with an increment?). 3 teams from Ilkley, two from Saltaire and one from Settle. Having enthusiastically signed up for this, I was embarrassed to find out that I had a holiday arranged that meant I missed the first 3 rounds but the club made light of my absence and bounced back from a first round 0-3 loss to win the next two matches. 

Tuesday night we were taking on one of the Saltaire teams, and were a bit surprised to see two of the players who had played against Settle in the previous round, rather than a fresh three! I suspect they might have got their teams mixed up. Anyway with me coming back in to the team everyone had a fresh opponent at least. I had the pleasure of taking on a young and improving player - she is up 200 points in the past year so perhaps her current 1680 rating is a bit of a lagging indicator. I thought I had a decent advantage out of the opening, but couldn't see a way to press it home. I then played a rather silly move that should have lost the game, but she failed to convert the endgame and I escaped with a draw. The other two players had already won before my game reached its conclusion, so we ran out 2 1/2 - 1/2 winners in the end.