Grantham 1 Convincingly Beat Gambit 2

Yesterday evening Grantham 1 team convincingly outplayed Gambit 2 and won ½:4½.
Let's have a look at the result sheet of this match.

Gambit 2		½:4½	Grantham 1
Swain J	169	½:½	Mangione C	203
Sudar D	164	0:1	Birtwistle N	196
Hayward B	167	0:1	Prior S	181
Roper K	157	0:1	David I	159
Jennings G	155	0:1	Hebert A	159

Claudio Mangione this time nearly lost and there were several twist and turns in his game with John Swain. In the final position, John, who had 10 minutes left comparing a few minutes on Claudio's clock, offered a draw. The offer came in rather juicy position which was, according to a computer analysis, certainly a draw, but John missed his chance couple of moves before.

Nigel's opening strategy was really mysterious and I think he attempted to bamboozle Drag completely. Whether it worked or not it knows only Drag himself. The truth is that Nigel finally obtained a winning position with several pawns, however, he was in terrible time trouble. Drag then displayed tremendous sportsmanship and feeling for fair play when he resigned having plenty of time on the clock while Nigel's flag ominously hung in the air. Here is the position 10 moves before the end - Nigel, from obvious reasons, did not keep the record till the end.

Sudar vs Birtwistle, 10 moves before the end of the game

Steve's game was in the style of Nimzo-Larsen attack and there were some moments where he could played even stronger moves. Final position is real delicacy.

Prior vs Hayward, final position

What to say about my game against Keith Roper? Rather drawish and bit boring ending Keith seasoned with blundering an exchange. Here you have how I turned the advantage into the final victory.



I do not have Andy's game. He did not play opening very well and in one moment I believed he was lost having troubles with deadly pin on a7-g1 diagonal where Black dark-squared Bishop was bearing down to the King-side pinning the White Knight+Queen+King. Andy himself was of opinion that he could have lost a piece several times. However, he is real warrior. Not only bailed himself out of difficult position but he won a pawn and then he went to win the rook and pawns ending which he played splendidly.