Dunfermline V Badgers Brook 11/02/13

Draws are good

Despite being out-graded on 4 boards Dunfermline A recorded their third successive win to keep open their league title chances. Michael had been in superb form in his allegro games but showed excellent judgement in choosing this match to get his first win of the season at classical time controls against the previously unbeaten league leaders. The game itself had some blunders with ambitious but flawed attacking play by Jonathan and inaccurate but successful countering from Michael and the game was all the more exciting for it. Under time pressure Michael did well to avoid giving stalemate and delivered mate with about a minute left on his clock. On top board it was mostly level. Ian missed a pawn snatch opportunity mid–game but Mark’s error was levelled with Ian making a error himself as both players got to the final few minutes each but it was quite hard for Mark to spot with so little time left to think and a draw seemed fair. Gavin got next to nothing for his gambit of a pawn but Kenny made 2 horrible blunders giving Gavin a winning material advantage. The first blunder was not that obvious and required Gavin to find a Q-sac but the second one should really have been curtains for Kenny. Kenny however played really well after his mistakes and built up a staunch blockade to hold the draw. Jim and Bryan both came out the opening superbly and pressed their opponents all the way. Both were unlucky not to have found wins to make the match a fairer reflection of the play which Dunfermline dominated.

	Badgers Brook			Team	DunfermlineA
Board	Name	Grade	Pnum	Result	Name	Grade	Pnum
1	Mark Cooke	1922	20648	½-½	Ian Robertson	2102
2	Kenny McGeoch	1839	14326	½-½	Gavin Saxton	1748
3	Jonathan Rowney	1821	8493	0-1	Michael Roy	1689
4	Andrew McHarg	1723	20886	½-½	Jim Webster	1626
5	Graham Kerr	1546	10613	½-½	Bryan O'Rourke	1412
		TOTAL		2-3