Having disposed of their own lower ranked teams White Knights A have now moved onto meeting more serious competition. This week it was League leaders Morriston A who are currently without Carl Strugnell, an absence that moves the other players up a place. Overall this resulted in the Knights having the stronger team and it showed in the final result. Wins for the Knights on the top three boards plus a draw on board 5 saw them see off the Morriston team (3½-1½) and draw level on match points with a match in hand. They now face Nidum this coming Tuesday when a win, draw or just 1½ game points will take them top.

Swansea University entered the fray when, although nominally away, the played host to Briton Ferry Nidum’s second team All Blacks. In a very close run affair there were four draws on the top boards and the match was only settled with a win for the University by captain Sipho Donovan on board 5 (3-2 for the University).

The Morriston A result was not the only woe facing the Morriston club. This fixture, nominally a home one for Morriston A was played at the White Knights’ venue as the Morriston club are apparently no longer welcome at the Coopers Arms in Plasmarl. Originally it had been thought that some lower division matches could be played there if they started early and adopted a faster time control. However, in the second division the Morriston C v UK Merlins match was unavoidably abandoned when the teams turned up to find the Coopers closed due to a lack of custom. The match gets recorded as a 5-0 win for the Merlins with five defaults against Morriston C. It is possible that the Morriston club may ask for the defaults to be taken off the slate due to “unavoidable circumstances”.

Swansea University B were due to play their first match of the season but it was postponed at the request of their opponents De la Beche A. The only second division match that was actually played was, therefore, between White Knights D and Morriston B. Although not at full strength the Morriston team made it look easy with a ½-4½ victory. The Knights’ top board Tomasz Miga stopped the whitewash.

Division 3 was the busiest of all three. De la Beche C defaulted their top board against Upper Killay Hawks but in spite of this they still managed to win 2-3. The following night, however, De la Beche B lost to the youngsters of Morriston E by the same score; a result that moves Morriston E into joint first place alongside De la Beche B and BF Brunel. The latter team had an uncompromising 4½-½ win over St Michael’s school. The final match of the week was between Morriston F and Tribunes. The Morriston team are likely to have mixed feelings about this match since although they won 3-2 the Tribunes more or less threw away the match when they turned up two players short.

A reminder that the West Wales Closed Championship starts in just over two weeks with the first round taking place at the Upper Killay Chess Club. June Evans is the person to contact if you want to get your entry in. It costs just £5 to enter the 5 round contest with the entry fees all being returned as prize money. The League is also offering a £50 first prize and supplementing the other prizes with £20 overall.

07/10/2017