The Halesowen match was drawn.  Kazik Wozniak was able to achieve a quick draw on board one but Halesowen took the lead with wins on boards four and five.  Peter Evans was under a lot of pressure on board 4, as his opponent sacrificed a piece to ruin Peter’s kingside pawns.  He then had to sacrifice his queen to avoid a mate on the f file, and although he had two rooks he was unable to defend and fell into a mate.  

On board 5 James started well, but he fell to a combination attack and was forced to resign when faced with the choice of losing his queen or allowing a smothered mate from his opponent’s knight.

The higher boards fared better; Andrew Leadbetter achieved a strong attack on the kingside side with his queen, two rooks and the white squared bishop.  Time was also on Andrew’s side as he was able to force his opponent’s king away from its defenders, leading to a good win for Andrew.   On board two Ken McNulty secured the match draw by producing a knight check fork that won the Halesowen players rook.  

The Walsall match was a little easier.  On board three Peter Evans’ opponent failed to appear giving Stafford an early advantage.  On board one Ken McNulty, playing white broke the habits of a lifetime and made a double sacrifice of rook and knight to expose the black king.  As his opponent defended accurately denying Ken a move to reinforce his queen; a draw by perpetual check followed.  On the remaining boards each Stafford player managed to reach the middle game ahead by the exchange.  Has this occurred before?  On board two Andrew avoided complications in the centre and he was able to drive his opponent’s king over to the queenside and achieve a mating attack with queen, rook and pawn. 

James Topp was promoted to board four with the black pieces.  He won an exchange early in the game then had to defend accurately against an active white bishop.  James was able to nullify the threats and his attack with Queen and rook was decisive.  It later transpired he was confident enough not to take the win on time. 

On board five Sumit Raisinghaney nearly found time against him on board five.  He won the exchange early and the game developed on the open f and g files.  With the clock running down he was able to achieve a mating attack with queen and rook on the Walsall captain’s second rank. 

Captain Peter Evans would like to thank all who have played for the team this year and to congratulate them on their good results so far.  There are hard games to come before the season ends in March.