Friday 23 March 2012

Grantham 2 continue to score well

Another week and another match for Grantham 2, this week against Radcliffe and Bingham 2. As some of our student members are back from University, Captain Chris Holt stood down to enable Will Grummitt to get some match practice. There was a quick draw on board 1 between Ivan David and Nick London after a mere 18 moves of the aptly named London System. Things were much harder fought on board 2 with Andy Hebert and George Murfet trading tactical blows in a Modern Defence. Analysis by Ivan David can be found on his site here and you can replay and enjoy some of the interesting twists and turns. On board 3, Trevor Palmer and Marcel Taylor traded down to a drawn and blocked position. Board 4 saw Ben Mason convert a positional advantage after considerable pressure. Will Grummitt played a good game against his opponent and saw him off in the endgame. That left the score as a very creditable 4:1 and reversed the loss earlier in the season.

Thursday 22 March 2012

Parking in Morrisons' Car Park

It has come to our attention that one of our members was penalised for parking over the two hour limit in Morrison's car park on a club night by the new parking enforcement Company that they have employed.  In the past, many members have happily used the car park with no problems in the evenings. While there is some debate about the legality of such penalties (there are long threads on various sites such as this one about the Company concerned) we would recommend that members or visiting teams do not use Morrisons' car park if they wish to avoid any problems that may arise from overstaying the parking limit in the evenings.

Saturday 17 March 2012

Grantham beat Spalding in the Lincs League

In their last match of the season in the Lincolnshire League, Grantham took on Spalding. The match ended in a comfortable victory 3.5-0.5. Grenville Wollerton made light work of his opponent and had a winning position in about 7 moves. Jo Scarborough was a piece up but let it slip but still maintained the advantage and went into the end game two pawns up. After a caution start Ben Mason's opponent went into a very attacking mode and in the end Ben was able to win a couple of pawns before J Smith accidentally lost a piece and resigned. Andy Hebert was slightly behind in a blocked position but with the other games finished and the match lost for Spalding his opponent offered the draw .


The match score leaves Grantham 3rd place in the table for the season.

Thursday 1 March 2012

Grantham 1 falter again

Grantham 1 was again beaten at home, this time by Gambit 1 in their latest Nottinghamshire League match. The match was close with Boards 2-5 ending in draws but it was Nigel Birtwistle's loss on board 1 that swung the result 3 to 2 in Gambit's favour. Nigel tried hard for a win in a wild game and also in time trouble but it backfired. On bottom board, Ivan David had some chances in the endgame but was again denied by the lack of time at the time control on move 35 and let the position slip to a draw. The result still leaves Grantham 1 at the top of the league but gives some hope to the other teams that the usually invincible Grantham team are beatable on the night.