match report by Andrew Flood
It was a real pleasure to be playing Herne Bay following their absence from league competitions for a few years now. Their chess playing numbers had now increased reflecting the national trend of acquiring new members attracted to chess by “Beth Harmon”, the star and chess prodigy in the successful “Queens Gambit” series.
The newly refurbished Herne Bay Angling Association venue proved a happy hunting ground with Broadstairs “catching” the most points to register a win.
All games were evenly matched until late into the evening. It wasn’t until around 10.00pm and 2.5 hours of hard fought chess play, before the pattern of the evening and the result began to emerge.
First to finish was my game on Board 3 where I out – rated my opponent. My opponent, a recent Beth Harmon convert to chess, played a good solid game, and managed to gain a real advantage on the Queens side where I had castled. He accelerated his “A pawn” to the 6th rank, and was lining up his queen and rook to force a mate. Fortunately, I was able to mount a Kingside attach and trap his Knight, open up his Kingside and with forcing play register Broadstairs first point 1 – 0.
Dominic was next to finish around 15 minutes later, in what was a complex game, with play and counterplay and multiple pieces covering multiple squares and each other. Paul Arnold made a slip resulting in a lost bishop, a crumbling defence and a resignation, so Broadstairs were 2 – 0 up.
On Board 1, Paul Carfrae was out-rated and playing against Bob Pooley, a draw would have been a good result, but Paul with white was playing some excellent chess and got an exchange up (a Rook for a Knight) before forcing the exchange of pieces and a pawn race to queen. Converting his Pawn into a Queen in the coolest of endings Paul allowed his opponent to get their black Pawn to the 7th rank, which Paul then utilized in the mating of his opponent.
Fredy was the last to finish, playing some solid chess, he managed to get into the end game a pawn up, unfortunately his opponent had better utilised his double rooks and soon Fredy was a pawn down. By now it was getting late, and a draw was agreed.
The rarity of car going back to Broadstairs with no losers this time. In truth though all were winners, particularly Herne Bay who from the brink of folding were able to field a very competitive chess team with a home venue in the Thanet and East Kent Chess League which is probably the best venue in the league.
| Herne Bay | 1/2 – 3 1/2 | Broadstairs |
| Bob Pooley 1803 | 0 – 1 | Paul Carfrae 1683 |
| Paul Arnold 1585 | 0 – 1 | Dominic Blundell 1630 |
| Tom Bellamy est 1400 | 0 – 1 | Andrew Flood 1593 |
| David Howdle 1390 | 1/2 – 1/2 | Fredy Reber 1188 |