09 Mar 2002
Barry Chess Club’s first, fourth and fifth teams held East Glamorgan league engagements last week and recorded three fairly respectable results.
The Gambits travelled to North Cardiff B on Tuesday evening and were well satisfied with their 2½ all draw against a team which stood much higher than them in division 3.
The Bosons achieved a similar score in a division 1 home match against Cardiff A on Wednesday but this was a somewhat harder task as the points were gained from only four boards with one board being defaulted in Cardiff’s favour due to the unavoidable absence of a Barry player.
The club’s only win of the week was recorded in Wednesday evening’s second home fixture when the Saracens entertained local division 4 rivals Barry Island. The Saracens’ low position in the league attests to the fact that they have had to regularly default boards this season but on this occasion all five boards were filled. The Saracens started well with wins on boards 4 and 5 but as the visitors soon levelled the score with successes on the top two boards the outcome of the match revolved around a lengthy board 3 game between the Saracens’ Phil Jones and Eric Blackwell. A precious passed pawn finally proved decisive for Phil in this rook ending as his opponent capitulated for the Saracens to record a rare 3:2 victory.
Barry Chess Club meets every Wednesday evening at 7:45 p.m. on the first floor of the Witchill Hotel, Barry Road while a variety of chess information including the latest club, league and cup match details can be obtained by visiting the club`s web site at www.barrychessclub.org.uk.