Eastbourne 4 Score Big Win in Division 3
On Thursday 19th October, Eastbourne 4 travelled through a thunderstorm to take on East Grinstead Bookshop’s 2nd team. The journey was worth it, as the team played very well, defeating the home side 0-4, with both Tadeusz Tompsett and Colin Clark beating opponents with significantly higher ratings.
Tadeusz’s game on board 1 began with a strategic, offbeat and positional opening and middle game. However, after a slow grind and finding two brilliant moves including a rook sacrifice, Tadeusz was able to secure the full point. The rook sacrifice is shown in the image below.
On board 2, Colin Clark entered the ending with two rooks and three pawns against his opponent’s bishop and queen. Colin managed to shield his king from continuous checks and pin the bishop against the enemy’s king. This forced the exchange of all the pieces leaving a won pawn ending.
Ian Goodyer made a bold sacrifice on board 3 of a knight for a pawn with the white pieces against the French defence. Although Black gave back the knight shortly afterwards, black found himself with his king in the centre, behind on development and with weakened pawns. Ian converted this into a win.
John Wright was black on Board 4. The Giuoco Pianissimo Variation of the Giuoco Piano Game was played, and after a very close opening and middle game black had a slight edge in the endgame. This was enough to convert into a win.
A great result for the 4th team, who have 1.5 points from two matches to start the season.