The Bradstow Mill benefitted from the Christmas lights shining brightly, once the flashing programme was sorted, alas in the match Sandwich outshine Broadstairs Chess Club.

The experienced Harry Sharples on board 1 playing white dominated the early opening moves, with Manoj having to make up time from a late start and having the black pieces. Manoj fought back very strongly to get parity but then blundered a pawn before having to concede the game, for an early Sandwich point and lead.

Paul Carfrae battled with Jon Hunt on Board 2 in a tight match before a draw was agreed to get Broadstairs first half point of the evening.

Dominic Blundell with the Black pieces eventually lost a close game against his opponent which meant that Sandwich had won the match.

On board 4 one of the nights tightest battles was continuing. After 2 hours nothing to choose between Fredy Reber’s position and that if his opponent Mike Davies. After 3 hours the position was unchanged with both having 7 pawns and equal minor pieces. Mike did have a double pawn though. With the clock-time reducing and only minutes left before the full-time control of 3.5 hours had passed, a deserved draw was agreed with both players playing near faultless chess in an evenly balanced game.

So a 3 – 1 result in favour of Sandwich.

Welcome to the latest Game of the Week – as promised played in the recent Millar Cup match against Margate. This was the last game to finish and Paul Carfrae, playing for Broadstairs, had to win to level the match

Enjoy the game

 White:  Carfrae, Paul     Black:  Le Baigue, Clive

Millar Cup

   1. e4 c5 2. Bc4 {Unusual but still a good move} Nc6 3. Nf3 e6 4. Nc3 g6 5. d4 {   Excellent, White senses that Black may have long term problems on the dark   squares} cxd4 6. Nxd4 Bg7 7. Ndb5 {Very nice, one idea is to stop Black   castling with Nd6+} Be5 8. f4 Bxc3+ 9. bxc3 Nf6 10. Nd6+ {White achieves his   first goal} Kf8 11. Ba3 {Preparing a discovered check} Kg7 12. Bc5 Qa5 {   Black could have tried Nxe4 here} (12... Nxe4 13. Nxe4 d5 14. Bd4+ Nxd4 15.   Qxd4+ {White is still better}) 13. Bd4 a6 14. O-O {Nice play White gets his   King safe and brings the Rook to the half open f file} Qa3 15. Bb3 Qa5 16. Kh1   Rf8 {White's advantage is his safe King, domination of the dark squares and   the Black pieces stuck on a8 and c8} 17. Bxf6+ Kxf6 18. e5+ Ke7 19. Qd3 {   Black now gives up a piece to relieve his cramped position} Nxe5 20. fxe5 Qxe5   21. Rad1 {Brilliant, now all of White's pieces are involved in the attack} f5   22. Rfe1 {I passed the board here and thought that Nxc8 looked strong. Paul's   choice is even better} (22. Nxc8+ Raxc8 23. Qxd7+ Kf6 24. Rfe1) 22... Qc5 23.   Nxc8+ (23. Qg3 {very strong!}) 23... Qxc8 24. Qd6+ Kf6 25. h4 {White take a   moment to give his own King a square as well as closing the cage on the enemy   monarch} Rd8 26. Qe5+ Kf7 {White now finds a way to win in style} 27. Rd6 Re8   28. Red1 Re7 29. Rxd7 {Brilliant, both recaptures lose} Qc6 (29... Rxd7 30.   Bxe6+ Kf8 31. Qf6+ Ke8 32. Bxd7+) (29... Qxd7 30. Rxd7 Rxd7 31. Qxe6+) 30.   Rxe7+ Kxe7 31. Qg7+ 1-0       

A photo from our club’s recent Christmas Dinner, all drinks were taken en passant

Broadstairs Chess Club fielded their strongest available team against Bridge in the Hargreaves Shield requiring just 1 point, the equivalent to 1 win on either of the 4 boards, to secure winning the Hargreaves for another consecutive year.

Early on the Broadstairs team had the advantage on 3 of the 4 games, and it came as no surprise that the first game to finish was on Board 1 when Manoj (Kent County Intermediate Champion) won his match and secured the necessary point. Having gained an early exchange advantage, he took it through to the end game. The other matches continued through to within minutes of the 11.00pm closing deadline.

The last game to finish was Paul Carfrae who eventually lost on time, something almost unheard of for Paul. An exchange up for 2 pawns, he appeared to have the advantage before an erroneous forcing move by Paul, whilst under time pressure resulted in his opponent converting a pawn into a Queen, before the flag went down on Paul’s clock and game.

Andrew Flood secured at least a match draw for Broadstairs in the second game to finish. A very close game went into the end game stage with white having a minor disadvantage of all even but having an isolated pawn. Black was able to attack and remove the pawn and then advance his own extra pawn to convert to a Queen and then mate his opponent.

Board 3 saw Broadstairs in a dominant position right the way through to the final moves of what seemed to be a certain won end game. A tired move and rare error by Dominic resulted in Gary Hilleard (ex Broadstairs) managing the greatest of escapes securing a match draw for Bridge. Gary not only avoided losing, which appeared 3 moves earlier to be an impossibility, he actually won the game . Such is chess

Bridge	2 – 2	Broadstairs
Peter Blundell 1698	0 – 1	Manor Nataragan 1780
Alan Evans 1680	1 – 0	Paul Carfrae 1683
Gary Hilleard 1623	1 – 0	Dominic Blundell 1630
Zach Stonier 1566	0 – 1	Andrew Flood 1593