S&DCL Div 1

Illogical

Rayleigh put up another strong team for this rearranged match, one which on paper should probably have caused us more trouble than the Wickford setup on Wednesday. However, with our third team also playing theirs at the same venue, it would appear that the Rayleigh resources were more stretched than ours were and three of the twelve boards were defaulted.

John Gazzard failed to arrive, thereby giving Ellen a wasted evening, just as he had done in our first match last October when Nick was the beneficiary. Unfortunately, Matt's nightmare season continued - Justin Baptie isn't the sort of player you want if you are out of sorts - and this was a horrible crush. We all have bad runs from time to time and it saps your confidence, but it is important to keep playing through it. One fine day, when you are least expecting it, you get a good result in elegant style against a strong opponent and the bad run is over (it would be just my luck for Matt to end his lean spell when he and I meet in the Club Championship later in the month!)

The evening wasn't very old by the time Dan had removed the queens and was three pawns ahead. Nick was doing well, my own game was level but Mike had a fairly passive position. Nick played a very good position with reduced pieces (Q & LSB v Q & DSB) and black's weaknesses on the light squares left his king bereft of cover. In the space of about 6 moves, Nick had converted from a positional plus to a piece ahead and then with an unstoppable mate. Copybook stuff!

Around the same time, Mike told me he was thinking of resigning: Paul had found a continuation which won the exchange. We were 3 - 2 up and I had a level position, R & 5 v R & 5, although my rook was less passively placed. I was quite content to draw and evenually, two or three moves after I had offered one, John returned the compliment and we had won the match.

It's quite a remarkable turn of fortunes. Not so many years ago the S & DCL was dominated by Rayleigh and Southend Clubs and everyone else lived off scraps. This season we have accumulated 7 points, all at the expense of these two waning giants. It's a pity we keep getting eaten by the minnows.

Jellett,N - Yardley,A [C01]
S&DCL
[Walker,Peter]

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Nf3 Bd6 5.Bd3 Ne7 6.c3 0-0 7.0-0 Bg4 8.Be3 Nd7 9.Nbd2 c6 10.Qc2 h6 11.Be2 Nf5 12.Rae1 Re8 13.Bd3 Nxe3 
14.fxe3 Qc7 15.e4 dxe4 16.Rxe4 Nf6 17.Rxe8+ Rxe8 18.h3 Be6 19.a3 c5 20.Ne4 Nxe4 21.Bxe4 cxd4 22.Nxd4 Qb6 23.Kh1 Bd7 24.Bd5 Be6 
25.Nxe6 fxe6 26.Qg6 Rf8 27.Qxe6+ Kh7 28.Rxf8 [ 28.Be4+ Kh8 29.Rxf8+ Bxf8 30.Qf5 g6 31.Qxf8+ Kh7 32.Bd5 h5 33.h4 Qd8 34.Qxd8] 
28...Bxf8 29.Qg8+ Kg6 30.Qxf8 Qe3 31.Qf7+ Kh7 32.Qf5+ Kh8 33.Be4 [ 33.Bf7]  1-0