Last Wednesday our 3rd team played a home match against Gravesend but despite being very enthusiastic did not perform too well and went down 3 -1.

Playing on Board 1 was Ken Smith (117) against Paul Le Breton (135) who again had to face a player who was of a much higher grading and went down in the endgame.

On Board 2 was Keith Thompson (112) playing against John Fowers (120) who didn’t really use the advantage of playing White and come out of the opening in a bad position and never regained equality.

Don Chapman (74) playing on Board 4 against Paul Loasby (65) went down to an endgame but had to resign when his opponent managed to secure a passed pawn which Don could not stop from arriving at the eighth rank.

Our only success of the evening came when Chris Cheeseman (99) playing against Peter Belkka (111) played a great game and was a Rook, Bishop and 2 pawns up when White decided to call it a day and resign.

Keith Thompson