Maurice's top board victory not enough to save Lichfield 'A'

Birmingham & District Division 1

An under-strength Lichfield 'A', outgraded by nearly 100 points per board, fought valiantly to get something from their away fixture against South Birmingham 'B', but were ultimately defeated 4-2 despite a great win for Maurice Staples.

The match got off to a disappointing start when David Hulme, playing Black against Neil Clarke on Board 5, missed an attacking tactical idea in a sharp opening line and was forced to resign within 15 moves.

The other games were all in the balance. Stand-in Board 6 Albert Chacko completely justified his promotion into the team by playing out a combative draw with Mark Drugan. There was still lots of play left in a tense position when the players elected to repeat moves and shake hands after 22 moves.

The star performer of the evening for Lichfield was undoubtedly Maurice Staples, playing up onto Board 1. Maurice, playing Black against 2070-rated Cory Hazlehurst, seized on an opportunity to trap his opponent's Bishop in a complex middlegame position. When his opponent then also misplayed the followup, Maurice expertedly converted his advantage to secure the win - the first by any Lichfield player in Birmingham Division 1 this season.

Richard Anderson, playing White on Board 2 against 1990-rated Richard Mycroft, misplayed the opening slightly, and was forced to give up a pawn, albeit with some compensation in the form of better piece development. Initially playing well to generate further piece activity, he then stumbled in allowing his opponent to exchange Queens, resulting in a position that looked drawish. His opponent lashed out as the game entered the ending phase with an f5 move, and Richard followed up correctly, forcing the game into a King and Pawn ending with a short tactical sequence. The ending was still drawn until his opponent played a natural but losing move to activate his King, but Richard failed to notice the correct winning idea. The game subsided into a drawn position with the two Kings facing off but neither able to invade.

On Board 4, Tony Green, playing White, looked to have some advantage as the game progressed into the middlegame, but was also significantly behind on the clock against his young 1910-rated opponent Sathya Vaidyanathan. The complexities and time trouble eventually caught up with Tony, and he made a sudden mistake and lost.

With Lichfield now 3-2 behind, it fell to captain Adam Routledge, playing Black on Board 3 against 1950-rated Martin Smyth to try and win his game to salvage a match draw. Earlier in the game it looked like Adam had good chances - as Martin said after the game "You were always one move away from winning" - but White found the right defences, and then developed counterplay. The game evolved into a Rook, Knight and Pawn ending, but with White holding the advantage. Both players had less than five minutes on their clocks, and Martin played well, allowing pawns to be captured to push forward a passed pawn of his own and activate his King. With Adam's pieces pushed back into passive defensive positions, defeat was inevitable, and checkmate sealed a 4-2 match win for South Birmingham.

Three match defeats from three is obviously not an ideal start to the Birmingham Division 1 season - let's hope that better results are to come.

(Match played: 22nd October)