Wednesday 12th January

Captain's Corner

After thrashing Chesterfield A 6-2 in the league in November, we were confident of victory in this Cup quarter-final match. However, without Mithun and Prasun it was going to be close. Every game looked tight, but things started to go Chesterfield's way. I can't remember the exact order of events, but losses on the bottom two boards (Mohammad tragically ran out of time) put us on the back foot. Jon won an obscure King's Indian game, capitalising on his opponent's time-trouble. Chris couldn't make any headway against a solid Veresov set-up, so we found ourselves needing 1½ out of 2 from the remaining 2 games. Jeremy finally succumbed, giving Chesterfield the 3½ points they needed to win. Oh well, it wasn't to be! So ends our Cup run for another year. My game was the last to finish - a complex struggle involving mutual pawn majorities and a race to queen. I regretted winning the exchange earlier on after it became clear that my opponent's resulting passed f-,g-, and h-pawns were a force to be reckoned with. Just in the nick of time, he walked into a cheeky trap, crippling his kingside pawns. I was left with the unusual situation of a winning opposite coloured bishops ending!

Paul Cumbers