Wiltshire v Hampshire - Mar 04

Wiltshire gained a hard-fought, if slightly fortuitous, win

against Hampshire on March 13th in Swindon. Wiltshire

also therefore win this season's West of England County

Championship with four wins from five matches. Wiltshire

take the title they last won in 2001, and qualify for a

quarter-final place in the National Minor County

Championship. With three games still in play in the

match, the scores were level, but Johnathan Bourne was

losing, Tim Headlong battling to draw and Charles Cobb

still trying to prove that his advantage was enough to win.

Johnathan had an interesting game, but both players

became very short of time and Johnathan blundered.

Johnathan was eventually relieved when his opponent

managed to lose what was a clearly won endgame.

Tim reached an endgame with rook, bishop and three

pawns against two rooks and three pawns, all on the

kingside. Without the extra rooks this type of ending is

generally lost as the stronger side can usually manage

to obtain a won pawn ending. Tim therefore avoided

exchanging rooks and his opponent could not find a

way to win. Charles eventually managed to convert his

positional edge into an extra pawn and then solved the

remaining technical problem of activating his king.

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 Diagram #8   Sven's position had been level until two

indjudicious moves led to the diagram. How did Sven,

white to play, now shatter black's resistance?

Answer here

Thanks to Peter Richmond for the report.