Our junior squad picked up their first win on the road with triumphant 4-0 victory over Medway 3 this weekend. A quick victory by Chris Parry on board 4 set the scene for the juniors biggest ever victory. Chris nicely combined all his forces into an unstoppable overwhelming attack which his opponent couldn’t see a way to defend and resigned under the pressure 1-0. Next up was Alex Lebedev who saw his chance against a very weak King, applied the pressure, picked-up the opposition queen on route and finished the game off nicely 2-0. William Cobb on board 2 had the toughest game, but after going an exchange up early doors managed to grind out the win, and what a grind it was, a 7 pawn each blocked endgame with R+R+N vrs R+B+N. It wasn’t clear how Will would breakthrough and his opponent was applying the pressure advancing his pawns high up the board but find the breakthrough he did, queened a pawn and mated the King behind enemy lines 3-0. Last to finish was last-minute substitute Mason who outgraded his opponent 50 points, missed an easy tactic early on to win a rook (don’t tell the juniors!), and eventually scraped a win in a Rook & pawn endgame, 4-0. Our juniors were very magnanimous in victory and a real credit to the club.

MID Intro Cup Sat 25th Jan 2020