In a week that saw all first division teams in action Emperors and De la Beche A continue to struggle while the White Knights club continues to dominate.

On the Monday De la Beche A travelled to Morriston and found themselves facing a Morriston B team that had more strength in depth. It showed in the final 3½-1½ result with the only totally unexpected result being John Strange’s draw against Andrew Smith. The other matches all featured White Knights’ teams. On the Tuesday Morriston A made the journey to Llanelli to face White Knights B. The Morriston team have had a dismal start to the season having already lost to their own B team and White Knights C and if they were geared up for victory in this match they were disappointed. At least they did not lose and went home with the draw. The White Knights club is keeping a close watch on all their games and sent in the following report. “It was a very gritty match. The first to finish was the board 2 game where David Buttell and Peter Bevan played out a draw after Peter had held a slight advantage; on board 5 Tony looked lost but slowly swapped off to a defendable endgame draw; Tomasz and Chris Howells on board 3 each attacked on opposite flanks with Tomasz blinking first as Chris Howells bulldozed his pawns through the kingside; on board 4 Keith had won a bishop for a couple of pawns and slowly simplified to the win. Last to finish was board 1 where David Guy from a worse position in a complex game started a series of checks that gained initiative. Eventually Moss claimed a draw by a repeated position while final analysis revealed David had a mating attack.” On Wednesday it was the turn of the Emperors to suffer at the hands of White Knights A with only Martyn Griffiths stopping the whitewash by drawing with Alan Young. 4½-½ to the Knights. This time it was the turn of Bill Hewitt to send in a report. “Not quite as straightforward as it seems. On board 3 Martyn offered a draw when Alan thought Martyn was probably winning. On board 1 Gerry wasted some time and last I saw was going an exchange down, though as usual Steve had a lot less time, they were last to finish. On board 5 David had won a piece by 7.25 pm, on move 11. Jason won next on board 2. On board 4 I (Bill) had an ending of 6 pawns v 2 and a rook each & I had 3 connected passed pawns on the queenside. In the middlegame I sac'd a piece and if he took the knight I had a simple pin to win it back. Later, he told me he didn't know why he couldn't take it, but played something else anyway.” On Thursday White Knights C (3 wins from 3 to date) travelled to the RAFA club in Neath where they played Nidum. It should have been a done deal for the stronger Nidum team but yet again it was an example of ratings being overcome and the match ended in a draw. Chris Daniels sent in yet another report. “Mission improbable started with a draw on board 3 where Nigel and Rob rattled through a lot of theory and agreed a draw where Nigel had the edge. At the time I thought saving the whitewash; next on board 5 Malcolm agreed a draw with Mark; Tomasz dropped a pawn against Craig on board 2 and despite being very low on time Craig squeezed the win. With board 1 looking like it was going south for David Buttell I (Chris) offered a draw on 4 which Ian accepted. Ian had held an advantage but I had threats and at the end I had Q,R +3 v Q,Kn +5. Shortly afterwards David’s impending loss had become a win after he had mated Adam Musson. At the moment as a collective the C team do not appear to know the word lose.”

In division 2 there were just two matches. Morriston C, having lost two of their previous three matches, were presumably intent on gaining some ground when they travelled to Upper Killay to face Merlins. Morriston were the much stronger team and it was almost all one way traffic. A draw between Steve Edwards and Les Philpin was the only positive for the Merlins who went down ½-4½. In the other match De la Beche B made heavy weather in achieving a win against Morriston E. Their top two boards had to be content with draws against weaker opposition and only wins on boards 3 and 4 gave them a 3-2 victory; it allowed them to leapfrog Morriston D and head the table.

Division 3 was even quieter with just the one match between De la Beche D and Briton Ferry Brunel. It started off fairly well for the De la Beche side with Vaughan Thomas and Lyndon Todd agreeing a draw early on. After this, however, it was all downhill for the Sketty team and they lost the other 4 boards. 4½-½ to Brunel to keep them level with CN Tribunes at the top of the table. They meet on the 7th November in what should be an interesting match.

26/10/2019