The E team has probably had more issues than other teams in rotating the players from the available squad. Including this match, they have fielded a total of ten players of whom only two have much, if any, experience of League chess. Marshalling so many newcomers is tricky but for the match with Bath B Per brought in two players for their first game on the top boards and also one of our band of young tyros on board four. All four were ungraded!
Indeed, Frazer was first to finish after calmly building pressure against William, resulting in reaching a pawn ending with one extra. He was able to shepherd it home and resignation soon followed. Very well done and a great start to the match!
Krishna was under pressure from a passed pawn on the Q-side but he had it suitably blockaded and eventually bought both his rooks and his King to bear on it. When it fell he was left with a four pawns to two majority on the K-side and a bishop that was more active than Roy's knight. Once his rook reached the eighth, the writing was on the wall and he finished off with a pretty checkmate on the h file. It had been nicely played to overcome various problems along the way.
Ryan's first game for the club was very entertaining. Some of his sacrifices were not sound but he kept the threats coming. He ended up a rook down to Andreas but with serious possibilities to promote a passed pawn. There was one move that would have turned the tables in his favour but he tried another way which, sadly, didn't quite work. Never mind, a great first effort for the club.
Jack's game against the very experienced Patrick was extremely complex with each player coming down to opposite coloured bishop, knight and four pawns. But all the pawns were on opposite sides of the board where they potentially had a clear run to promotion. Patrick's main threat was his a pawn, while Jack's was his h pawn. It was a question of which minor piece (and King) might be better placed to hold up the enemy pawns. Suddenly the odds swung significantly in Jack's favour when he skewered the White King with his bishop and collected the knight for nothing. But Patrick still had three advanced Q-side pawns much closer to promoting and also threats to win the piece back. It came down to Jack with the only two remaining pawns and his dark squared bishop supporting one which had advanced to h2. With his King in close enough attendance to force the enemy bishop to give itself up when the h pawn promoted, his other pawn ensured victory. A very tense finish had been played, against the clock in the final stages, no doubt with inaccuracies on both sides but none the less exciting for that. Another maiden win for the club!
This win clinched the match score at 3-1, meaning that the E team had earned its first victory and one which had come against very decent opposition. Let's hope for many more to come. Now all we needed was a few quick wickets against Australia.