Wiltshire v Gloucestershire - Jan 05

Wiltshire squeezed to victory over Gloucestershire at the

Nationwide building in Swindon on Saturday January 31st.

Early draws, albeit with black, for Peter Richmond and

Jonathan Bourne was not a promising start. Gary Tanner's

premature resignation, under the misapprehension that

he was losing a piece, was quickly balanced by Richard

Carver's opponent allowing a simple mate. Alex Webb,

Gordon Chapman and Andrew Bosworth produced relatively

steady draws, but the three remaining games in the lower

half were wild. Robbie Dams blundered a piece in the

opening but inept defence enabled Robbie to sacrifice his

rooks for perpetual check. Mick Dams only turned up to drop

his son off, but volunteered to play to avoid a default caused

by the late indisposition of Andrew Cooper. Mick sacrificed

a piece in an attack on his opponent's king, but the defence

held and Mick's valiant efforts went unrewarded. Josh Hall

made a major positional error early in his game, and had to

struggle. He won the exchange with a neat tactic, but a

second error proved fatal. Draws from David Tomboline and

Dan Hall were split by Richard Haydon's ruthless exploitation

of a careless pawn move. With John Conway a clear rook up,

and both top boards going well, Wiltshire were now in the

driving seat. John had a grade in the 170s a decade ago,

and judging by his win he is a dangerous attacking player

who has already proved himself to be a real asset to the

county team. Tim Headlong, with just seconds to make his

final move before the time control, chose the wrong one of

two attractive looking possibilities, allowing his opponent to

escape with a draw. Sven Zeidler wore down his talented

opponent by combining imaginative aggression and

remorseless accuracy in his impressive win.

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 Diagram #6

Sven Zeidler's game. He can win in various

ways, but can you match him (black to play) in finding the

clearest continuation?

Answer here

Thanks to Peter Richmond for the report.