Fenton pipped Meir to the Division 3 Championship by a point with a 2.5 - 1.5 win against Stafford last night. This is the 3rd time in 4 years that we have won this Division and the year that we didn't win it was because we were playing in Division 2. Rob's game on board 1 finished as a draw fairly quickly but the other 3 games were all nailbiters. Kasian was offered a draw on board 3 but, after he had looked at the other games, he declined and played on. Unfortunately he was a pawn down in a Queen and 2 Rooks against a Queen and 2 Rooks ending and, after a series of unavoidable exchanges, the extra Pawn proved decisive. Danny had another tremendous game on board 2, playing the Scandinavian Defence again. After castling Queenside he looked to be in trouble against a strong attack from White, but he kept his nerve and won a piece after a miscalculation by his opponent. After this it was relatively simple to force the win. This left the score level and it was down to Ernie on board 4 to save the day. He had looked to be in serious trouble at one point, with his opponent breaking through on the 6th and 7th ranks with his Rooks and a Bishop, and was soon 2 pawns down. However, he defended excellently and, after gaining control of the Queen Rook file, he got a check in on the back rank, followed by a discovered check with his Queen. This led to him winning both of his Pawns back, plus the exchange of a Bishop for a Rook. However, Ernie being Ernie, he made it as difficult as possible for himself to win what should have been a straightforward endgame and missed numerous chances to finish the game off quickly. In his defence though he had less than 2 minutes on his clock. In the end he won another Pawn and his opponent was forced to give up his remaining Bishop after Ernie promoted a Pawn of his own, leading to a simple King and Rook against King endgame. You can click here to view the match score card.
So it has been a wonderful ending to the season for the Club, with the 'A' and 'B' teams both winning their respective Divisions with their very last matches. Not only that but with the last games to finish in both matches. Well done to everybody who has turned out for both teams during the season.
