Brown Jack Chess Club

 4NCL  03/04 -  Division 4

 Mar 04 - Rounds 5 & 6

Brown Jack replaced Oxford 1 at the top of the 4NCL

division 4 table by beating them 3½-2½ in their fifth round

encounter on March 27. A 3-3 draw with Slough 3  in the

sixth round dropped Brown Jack back to second.

Metropolitan, whom Brown Jack meet in round 7, have

10 match and 22 game points, just half  a game point more

than Brown Jack. However, Metropolitan have still to play

four other promotion rivals whereas Brown Jack have no

other top seeds left to meet.

A health scare ruled Richard Haydon out for the weekend

and with Tim Headlong having worked till 8am, Brown Jack

fielded their weakest team of the season in the showdown

with Oxford 1. David Bareham got the team off to a flying

start when a simple skewer gave him victory in just 18

moves. David Tomboline produced a valuable draw but

missed an opportunity to win. Peter Richmond won with a

kingside attack but Johnathan Bourne fell victim to an

overload on his queen and Jane Richmond's enterprising

play was insufficient to hold her in-form opponent. This

made Fenella Headlong's game the most significant in the

division so far. After snatching a hot looking pawn early on

she managed to simplify the position with some tactical

strokes and then produced an excellent technical

performance to win the resulting rook ending. Brown Jack's

unbeaten record looked in danger for much of the match

with Slough 3. David Bareham and Johnathan were held

to early draws and Tim to a later one. Gary Tanner

and David Tomboline were struggling coming out of the

opening so Peter needed to win. He was faced with a long

and difficult ending when he was gifted a piece. Gary

managed to turn his position into a complicated mess with

chances for both players, but blundered in a time scramble.

David suffered from lack of space but hung on to reach an

ending with bishop, knight and pawn against two bishops

and three pawns. Usually this would be a simple win for the

superior forces but here White's light squared bishop could

perform no useful function. After six and a half hours

David's heroic resistance drew game and match.

Thanks to Peter Richmond for the report

Brown Jack 4NCL_03/04