Sidcup(2) v Lewisham(6)
Played at Sidcup on Wednesday 14th January 2010
After the difficulties of the winter condition, we are now able to resume playing chess after the weather enforced extended Christmas break.
Sidcup fielded a strong side with :-
Board 1 Ken Grist 119 v Ian Moody 111
Board 2 Dennis Halton 112 v Delroy Bennett 104
Board 3 Keith Thompson 107 v Ken Smith 98
Board 4 Peter Houchin 95 v Daniel Dacra 95
On paper it looked as though we had the stronger side, but things aren't always as they seem. We started the evening off well by winning the toss and decided to play white on the odd board.
I got us off to good start by beating Ken Smith with the white. I have played Ken on 2 occasions before, having won with the white piece and drawn with the black. He tends to play e5 to my e4 so I can play the Spanish or the Ruy Lopez, which I play when e5 is played. On this occasion, Ken played the Steinitz Defence. I was never in too much trouble and it was the first game to finish.
Then Dennis got us 2 points up by beating Delroy Bennett. I think after about 20 moves, Delroy offered Dennis a draw, but from what I could see, there was still plenty of play left in the game, so I think it was more out of hope than anything else. Dennis managed to exchange 2 pieces for a rook and from then on, he just had to take care to secure the win.
Peter had one of those nights where nothing would go right for him, but he played on to the end, where his opponent had pawns ready to queen. Peter said he was in a lost position from about move 10. It was a surprising loss as this is his first lost for the season and Peter has been playing well, where we could have hoped he would secure a draw at least.
The last game to finish on the night was Ken. I was hoping he could reverse his previous loss earlier in the season. Although Ken put up a brave fight, he was a piece down when I started looking at the match and after about 35 moves he was in a losing position.
So at the end of the evening, the result was 2-2. This was a better than when we played the away fixture (where we lost) so they have taken 3 points off of us this year.
As I wrote earlier re: being the stronger side on paper: even though we had beaten Petts Wood in our first game of the season and they had beaten this Lewisham side, things don't always turn out as expected.
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Play 
Keith Thompson
