Post date: May 7, 2014 10:36:22 PM
In what was quite possibly a first for Stafford Chess Club, Wednesday evening saw 3 Simon Cup matches played simultaneously, which resulted is some significant manoeuvring towards the semi-final stages.
Kazik Wozniak completed the last of his round 1 matches against the sleeping tiger, Lee Grinsell, who took his first 3 points in the competition having won a minor piece relatively early in the game.
Malcolm Armstrong and Andrew Leadbetter both had a win under their belts prior to their encounter, which went Malcolm's way, pushing him into a semi -final position for the time being at least.
The last match of the evening to finish between Roger Butters and Pavel Nefyodov attracted some attention towards it's conclusion, as Roger seemed to have the initiative in the centre, with Pavel fighting for counter play. In a close run endgame, the match went Roger's way, although he himself needed a second look in the post-match analysis to be confident in dismissing his opponent's chances.