Badgers v Minnows 17/02/2014

This was a close one!

After being demolished in round 1 Badgers nearly got back for the win. As usual with this format there were plenty of errors.  Mention should be made of 2 in particular both involving Badgers board 4.  In round 3 Iain S was ahead in a RvP ending.  Instead of pushing his potential passed pawn for a likely win Iain opted to walk into a help-mate in 2 moves.  Lucky David, unlucky Iain

In round 4 it was top v bottom when Ian R played David.  All was going as predicted with Ian well ahead on material till suddenly David produced a Knight move which forced mate – or at least it should have.  Ian had only one check which was played giving David a choice (always good to give opponents a choice!).  The options were either play to a square allowing at least another check or go to a ‘safe’ square with no more checks and apparently no saving moves.  The former was a win but David chose the latter allowing Ian to put a piece where it could be taken any of 3 ways but each capture allowed a fatal repercussion.  Lucky Ian, lucky Minnows.    

Badgers	7 ½ - 8 ½	Minnows
F Biancalana	0-1	I Robertson
K McGeoch	½ - ½	I Sneddon
D McGilvary	0-1	G Webb
D Marshall	0-1	T Doherty
	½ - 3 ½
F Biancalana	1-0	T Doherty
K McGeoch	1-0	I Robertson
D McGilvary	0-1	I Sneddon
D Marshall	0-1	G Webb
	2 - 2
F Biancalana	1-0	G Webb
K McGeoch	1-0	T Doherty
D McGilvary	0-1	I Robertson
D Marshall	1-0	I Sneddon
	3 - 1
F Biancalana	0-1	I Sneddon
K McGeoch	1-0	G Webb
D McGilvary	1-0	T Doherty
D Marshall	0-1	I Robertson
	2 - 2

Update for the game above. Below is a pic from near the end, the rook on a1 is actually on e1.

My next move was Rf7+ Kg6 and then I played Rxb7.  David then came up with the winning Ng3!  I played Bf7+ and David went wrong.