Nottinghamshire League, Division 1: West Nottingham-1 2½ : 2½ Grantham-1

It was not very good evening for Grantham-1 which played away against West Nottingham-1. And if you have a look at the result table you can see that West Nottingham players were grossly outgraded on all boards!

Nigel Birtwistle lost on time in worse position. Steve Prior, who had played excellent chess in Brighton last week and was placed on 4^th place in Challengers A, also lost! To make the matters worse, I have difficulties on the bottom board where I faced to John Collins, very solid player, and I was not able to find out the way to victory in slightly better position and finally it was John who had upper hand having gained a pawn. In an opposite coloured Bishops ending he did not have the chance to win, however, it was close.

On the board two Paul Cumbers played solidly and his opponent eventually blundered in complex position when he overlooked a “zwischenzug” and lost the rook.

Nick Payne is getting better from one match to another. He humorously comments this fact that he has been always better after the Christmas.

West Nottingham-1		2½:2½	Grantham-1
Levens D	160	1:0	Birtwistle N	182
Kingston I	173	0:1	Cumbers P	197
Kenyon M	140	0:1	Payne N	183
Williamson E	172	1:0	Prior S	186
Collins J	147	½:½	David I	172

So draw  is not very flattering result for Grantham-1, the defending champion, with such a massive advantage in gradings,  however; to stay positive it is another point which brings the team closer to the champion’s title.

The League cross-table of Division 1 after this round looks like that:

   Division 1 (2011-2012)    

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Df	Pn	Pts
1	Grantham 1	10	8	1	1	35	15	20	0	17
2	Gambit 1	10	6	0	4	27.5	22.5	5	0	12
3	West Bridgford 1	9	4	3	2	25	20	5	0	11
4	Mansfield 1	10	4	3	3	26.5	23.5	3	0	11
5	Ashfield 1	8	4	1	3	21.5	18.5	3	0	9
6	West Nottingham 1	10	2	3	5	22	28	-6	0	7
7	University 1	8	2	0	6	15	25	-10	0	4
8	Ashfield 2	9	1	1	7	12.5	32.5	-20	0	3