Last week saw a match up in the Club Championship between the top two rated players (Ross and David). After Alan’s win against John Whibley, putting him on 10 points overall, both Ross on 7.5 and David, our current Club Champion on 8, were in need of a win to keep their hopes of winning the Championship alive.
Unfortunately for David, his bad run of form continued, and with 3 consecutive losses his chances of defending his crown are over.
In the third pairing, Gordon Lyall played Alistair McGowan in an entertaining match. With neither player gaining a significant advantage in the early stages, both had winning chances which were missed over the board. Unfortunately for Alistair, whilst pushing hard on the Queen side, he overlooked a rook sacrifice which if taken would be followed by checkmate.
After a couple of moves, a gracious resignation from Alistair saw Gordon take the spoils and join Ross in =2nd place.
In the B/C Tourney Rick lost his opportunity to join Mark Summers at the top[ of the table with a loss to Mark Woodwood. Rose Kingston won her match against Valera and with Savanah not attending Mark Summers was granted a Bye.With three rounds to go is neck and neck for the B/C grades.