Conceding a point on the bottom board and out-graded on all but the top board it would need an exceptional performance from Broadstairs Chess Club to avoid a defeat. An exceptional performance was exactly what was provided by the Broadstairs team.
The match score was equalised to 1 – 1 when Mike Jenkinson was the first to finish on Board 6, racing to a win beating his opponent on time. Leon was unable to cope with Mike’s speed and precision.
Second to finish was Dominic who from the opening gained an advantage and then the point for win, so Broadstairs were leading the match 2 – 1. This game was quickly followed by a draw for Paul Carfrae, who with black fought back from an early lost pawn in the opening stages to agree a draw against veteran Michael Micklethwaite (remember MM from the 1st and 50th Thanet Chess congresses in 1970 and 2019 respectively).
Yours truly, as the stand in captain and team organiser, on Board 4 found that his admin exceeded his chess playing skills on the night, having overlooked the loss of my Knight in the opening. Margate’s Colin Gregory was always in control and made the score interesting with his win tying at 2.5 – 2.5. The chess continued to be played Boards 1 and 5 to a finish.
Arnaud on the top board had his opponents King in trouble threatening mate with his Rooks, Bishop and Queen all acting together in a concerted mate attack before his opponent lost on time.
All gathered around the final match on Board where Paul Verrall was playing his best chess game on finally beating Clive le Bague and forcing his opponent to resign with the pending threatened mate and / or loss of Queen.
An excellent, perhaps unexpected win 4.5 – 2.5 for Broadstairs who were without the services of two of their Individual Kent Chess Champions (Trefor and Manoj).
| Margate | 2.5 – 4.5 | Broadstairs |
| Peter McGill 1825 | 0 – 1 | Arnaud Wisman 1960 |
| Michael Micklethwaite 1750 | 0.5 – 0.5 | Paul Carfrae 1683 |
| Keith Findley 1638 | 0 – 1 | Dominic Blundell 1630 |
| Colin Gregory 1615 | 1 – 0 | Andrew Flood 1593 |
| Clive le Bague 1548 | 0 – 1 | Paul Verrall 1369 |
| Leon Garfield 1480 | 0 – 1 | Michael Jenkinson 1263 |
| Roy McAloney 1352 | 1 – 0 | Default |