Newton Abbot 2 Tiverton 2 (Schofield Cup)

Thanks to Ivor Annetts for sending me this. The title to this post links to the Tiverton Chess Club site, which has this report along with pictures from the match amongst other things.

After a most exciting match on Saturday 10th April at Newton Abbot, it was Stephen Schofield the home team captain who lifted the Schofield (Ken, deceased of Exmouth and no relation!) Cup.

This one went right to the wire. Tiverton needed to win the match to take the trophy and only just failed to do so.

Stephen Thorpe-Tracey on board four (Black, Tiverton) found himself facing a King's Gambit. His opponent played extremely well and won significant material in a complicated position. The win for the home team was then straight forward.

On board three Keith Atkins (Tiverton) did all of the pressing but his opponent defended extremely well. Keith won a pawn and this advantage persisted into a rook and pawn endgame - three against two on one side of the board. This was not a straight forward win but Keith persisted and eventually prevailed.

The result of the match depended on two very close games on boards one and two. On board one, Ivor Annetts (Tiverton), played a c3 Sicilian against Stephen Schofield who responded with the increasingly popular fianchetto of the king's bishop. Ivor managed to squeeze a Black pawn weakness out of the position but in a knight and pawn ending this proved insufficient to win

On board two John Morrison (Tiverton) played a Nimzo-Indian against Charlie Howard. But he played badly in the opening and lost a pawn, For some time Charlie had all the play and the pawn advantage persisted. But later with the two bishops and tactical threats, John regained the pawn and looked to have the advantage. Charlie was short of time and the game developed into rook and black squared bishop against rook and white squared bishop with equal pawns. With less than two minutes left on his clock, Charlie invoked the 'two minute rule'. [For a draw to be declared the defending player, short on time, has to demonstrate that his opponent can not make progress by normal means.] After some head scratching, this was accepted by both sides and the game was duly declared drawn.

Three teams, - Tiverton, Teignmouth and Newton Abbot - contested this division of the DCCA League and the result was a three-way tie. Newton Abbot took the trophy on 'goal difference'. Tiverton came really close!!