SBL D2: Farnham B v Guilford B
Guildford B opened their Border League Division 2 campaign with a 2.5–2.5 draw away against Farnham.
James Toon had a heavyweight draw with Clive Frostick on board 1. The players followed mainline Neo-Catalan theory for quite a while. James had some pressure but Clive defended well and in the end James had nothing better than liquidating to a drawn ending.
Julian Shepley lost quickly on board 2 to a kingside tactic.
Tim Foster developed strong central pressure on board 3, forcing a pawn to d7 and winning the exchange to force resignation.
Alex Thompson had a tragi-comic game on board 4. He played well to reach a better major piece ending, then traded down to a winning rook and pawn ending, then exchanged rooks to reach a pawn ending where his opponent found a drawing resource. He then went wrong in a difficult position and lost.
Neil Crosswell's opponent on board 5 seemed to be holding until the middlegame but overlooked a finesse and lost a piece, after which the ending was easy.
We outrated them by a quite a lot on average, so maybe this was one that got away.
James Toon had a heavyweight draw with Clive Frostick on board 1. The players followed mainline Neo-Catalan theory for quite a while. James had some pressure but Clive defended well and in the end James had nothing better than liquidating to a drawn ending.
Julian Shepley lost quickly on board 2 to a kingside tactic.
Tim Foster developed strong central pressure on board 3, forcing a pawn to d7 and winning the exchange to force resignation.
Alex Thompson had a tragi-comic game on board 4. He played well to reach a better major piece ending, then traded down to a winning rook and pawn ending, then exchanged rooks to reach a pawn ending where his opponent found a drawing resource. He then went wrong in a difficult position and lost.
Neil Crosswell's opponent on board 5 seemed to be holding until the middlegame but overlooked a finesse and lost a piece, after which the ending was easy.
We outrated them by a quite a lot on average, so maybe this was one that got away.