Fuller - Sidcup v Lewisham Match Report

Captain's Report
Sidcup v Lewisham
Played at Lewisham on Wednesday 18th November 2009

Last Wednesday our Fuller team lost to Lewisham.

The game was played away at Catford Cricket Club in their Pavilion where we were playing black on boards 1 & 3 and both boards 1 & 3 lost.

Board 2 finished first when I (Keith Thompson) accepted a draw from a position which I thought was going to be hard to win; neither of us making any grave errors in the game. My only chance came on move 17 when I could have played a pawn move to g4 which could have given me a pawn up. I saw the move but having lost a bad game the previous week decided that my confidence was at a low and needed to play safely. COnsequently, I didn't want to take too many chances, where playing g4 could have led to opening my king to attacks which I did not feel confident of repelling. So the game petered out into a draw which at the time I thought may be quite good.

Then unfortunately, Ken (playing on board 1) made an error in castling on move 18, which immediately lost him a pawn and he went on to lose in 27 moves to Ian Moody.

Stephen Moon then lost, surprisingly, to Ken Smith.

Lastly, Peter Houching then won a fine game (which at one stage looked as though it was heading for a draw) playing an endgame in which he created a passed pawn which black was not able to stop from queening. He won the game after a hard 58 moves played.

Keith Thompson

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Fuller - Sidcup v Beckenham Match Report

Captain's Report
Sidcup v Beckenham
Played at Sidcup on Wednesday 11th November 2009

With both Beckenham and Sidcup having won their first matches and only 4 teams in the league this year, this was a match between the top two teams at this stage of the tournament.

The evening started off well for Sidcup with Stephen Moon playing on Board 3 (white) beating a very experienced player in Alan Fraser.

Keith Thompson (black) on board 2 then missed a winning chance on move 18, but never really got back into the game and should have had at least a draw. He went on to lose, playing badly from thereon in.

Ken Grist playing board 1 (white) against Richard Putham, agreed a draw on move 40.

Unfortunately for Sidcup and Peter playing on board 4 (black), time for the evening ran out and at the end, a draw was agreed, although there was still a lot a play in the game and white had just made a mistake which could have proved costly if play had carried on.

In the end, a draw for both teams was a fair result, but I am disappointed that Sidcup did not secure all the points.

Keith Thompson

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Club Member Profile - Ken Grist

I have been playing chess since 1986 originally with the former Swanley Club. During this time we won the final of the Harvey Cup in 1979. We also ran a Junior Grand Prix tournament for 10 years in St Peters Church, Hextable.

I used to go and play in tournaments around the country, Hastings, Portsmouth and Nottingham being the main ones. I found this better than the Kent League as over a weekend you usually won a few games whereas if you lose in the league it's a long time often to trying to win in the next match. I have had some fluke wins, sneaky draws and sickening losses.

At Portsmouth I enjoyed the ambience of this seaside city in between games, my grandfather lived here and was a member of the Portsmouth Chess Club at one time.

My sister lives near the venue in Nottingham so I used to call to see her and also make a visit to Carsington Water where we spent a family holiday one summer. At Hastings I played games in the mornings, enjoyed the resort in the afternoons then prepared the annual accounts for our church in the evenings.

Ken Grist

Kent League

This is a game played by Peter Houching for the Kent League. Some comments have been made within the game.

Keith Thompson

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Fuller - Sidcup v Petts Wood Match Report

Captains Report
Petts Wood v Sidcup
Played at Petts Wood on Friday 6th November 2009

Sidcup had a good win against a good Petts Wood side, which on paper looked a very evenly matched game; the average rating being only 1 point difference with Sidcup 104 against 103.

After winning the toss, Jack Hollands (board 1) decided to play black. Sidcup got off to a good start after about 1 hour's play when Keith Thompson (white) won the first game in 36 moves on board 2 and Stephen Moon (black) won on board 3 about 10 minutes later.

The win for Sidcup looked on the cards; it was just a question by how much the margin was going to be.

Peter Houching's (white) game on board 4 could have turned out very differently if Roy Ellis (Petts Wood) had taken advantage of an early mistake by Peter on move 11. After Roy missed this chance, Peter fought his way back into the game and in the end could have won it. Peter finally secured the win for Sidcup accepting a draw (from what looked like an advantage for white with a pawn up) to give the half point Sidcup needed to take home the win for the team.

Jack Hollands drew the last match on board 1 after what was a 2 hour struggle of 64 moves, finishing at 10.30pm with only the 2 Kings, a rook and a pawn each, on the board.

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