Clean sweep for Carmarthen
Carmarthen 5 - 0 Hydras Our home match against the Hydras from Morriston brought some memorable wins as our West Wales League campaign shifted up a gear with a 6th straight team victory and first 5-0 clean sweep! Robert captaining the side weathered early pressure from his opponent's scary looking h-and g- pawn storm against his Kings Indian Defence, using his Knights to bring the centre under control and build up an attack (where his opponent's prior jettisoning of his Kingside Pawn cover soon came back to haunt him). Robert eventually forced his opponent's capitulation with a Knight sacrifice on f3 and Queen check that forced his opponent's King out into the centre of the board where it was clear it would be at the mercy of Robert's better co-ordinated army. Jack played a Vienna Gambit and quickly caught his opponent off guard with a flurry of tactics, first winning a piece with an untouchable Bishop on f6 due to a threatened Knight fork of King and Queen, then exchanging down to a dream position with a strong pawn lodged on f6 and open g-file where he won an exposed Bishop, and now two pieces up he doubled his Rooks on that file with the imminent invasion forcing his opponent's resignation, maintaining his 100% record with his fifth straight win. Bradley was better out of the opening winning a pawn, but the game then developed into a complex unbalanced struggle when his opponent sacrificed a Knight for 2 Queenside Pawns to bring his Bishop pair to aggressive outposts - an exchange of Queens didn't relieve the pressure and the game transformed further with Bradley's Rook, Bishop and Knight working together to contain his opponent's Rooks and passed Queenside Pawns. Just as the position looked to be getting to a critical point Bradley confused his opponent with a Knight advance, a well timed tactic as his opponent took the bait allowing him to deliver checkmate on the back rank. Ewan's game was a tense manoeuvering affair in a Dutch defence with a closed centre. Ewan gained a slight positional edge, trading Knight for Bishop thereby doubling his opponent's Kingside pawns, and establishing a bind with pawns on d5 and f5 with both sides contesting the e4 square. Just as his opponent seemed to be holding on he brought his Rook in to the defence of the e-file too hastily, allowing Ewan's protected Bishop to pin his opponent's Queen to the Rook, winning the Exchange and the game. Peter faced a rare Owen's Defence where his opponent counterattacked on the Kingside and this took some careful play to neutralise. The late Middlegame became a fascinating sharp long range struggle of Queen, Rook and opposite coloured Bishops, where Peter's attack proved faster by invading with his Queen, pinning his opponent's slightly misplaced Rook to his King and setting up a discovered check and mate in 3 before his opponent's menacingly poised Bishop and Queen battery could break through. A fitting finale to a memorable evening's chess, an apt way to break in our superb new match night chess sets!