To-ing and Fro-ing

Aberystwyth B's match against Gywddbwyll.com at the St David's Club on Tuesday 20 January was a good example of the vicissitudes of club chess. The games on the top three boards could all have gone either way, as the players took it in turns to make mistakes. I played a slow positional game against Iwan Griffiths, building up to an e4 break, but my impressive pawn centre only lasted a move as I miscalculated and lost a pawn. With both players scrambling to make the time control, my desperate bid for counterplay paid off and I got the pawn back with a winning rook ending to follow. Mike Weston got a rook trapped against Owen Llywelyn and had to give up the exchange. Instead of getting the rooks going, White created a weakness on the kingside which Mike exploited with a bishop that turned out to be very useful in the ensuing counterattack. Ian Finlay likes to use his Queen's Gambit to launch a kingside attack. Against Tegwyn Jones, he was too inflexible in this strategy, passing up several opportunities to invade via the weak white squares on the queenside. In a complex game, both players missed a succession of tactical chances, till Black, now very short of time, brought matters to an end by putting his queen en prise. Only the game on board four was one-sided throughout, as Jamie Friel rolled his kingside pawns forward in a Dutch Defence. Emyr Llywelyn tried to escape by castling queenside, but got a bishop trapped, after which his king came under attack anyway, leading to a quick victory for Black. A useful 4-0 win for Aber, but it could easily have been 3-1 the other way.

Matthew Francis - Iwan Griffiths 1-0

Owen Llywelyn - Mike Weston 0-1

Ian Finlay - Tegwyn Jones 1-0

Emyr Llywelyn - Jamie Friel 0-1