Post date: Dec 3, 2012 8:12:39 PM
A third successive win in Wolverhampton League Division One came with a relatively comfortable 4-2 home victory over a weakened Kidderminster side.
Stafford were 2-0 ahead after less than a hour's play, with Gerald Acey's opponent blundering a piece and Stephane Pedder crashing through with a strong kingside attack, and the result of the match was never really in doubt from this point.
Pavel Nefyodov grabbed a rather warm-looking pawn on b2 with his queen which looked to be in some danger of becoming trapped. Extracting the queen cost him the exchange, but with his pawn and well-placed minor pieces he had good compensation and was happy to take a draw in the light of the match position.
Denis Nesbitt, making a rare appearance in Division One, played a very nice game on board six to secure the match. Patiently building up a kingside attack, he restricted his opponent's counterplay effectively and then finished things off on the kingside.
The one blackspot of the evening came on board three. Ray Hyde had looked to be slowly outplaying his opponent and built up a promising intiative on the kingside. However, as time began to run short, Ray played a rather speculative piece sacrifice in an attempt to open up his opponent's king, but followed it up by blundering a rook and had to resign.
In the final game to finish, Malcolm Armstrong had looked to be well on the way to victory when he won a pawn in queenside complications, but as the game went past the time control and into the allegro finish he allowed his opponent's knight to reach a strong square on e4 where it supported a passed d-pawn and was a much better piece than Malcolm's bishop, with both players also having a rook. Although still standing better, Malcolm was reluctant to run undue risks with time running short in the allegro finish, and accepted his opponent's well-timed draw offer.