WELLNGTON Chess Club got their league season underway with a home match against Wells who nearly called off the game due to a lack of players. This would have been a real disappointment to Wellington’s players who were raring to go to get their league season underway

Fortunately Wells managed to find a team of four at the last minute and the match went ahead with all players looking forward to the match. .

Wellington lined up with a strong and varied team with Alex Conway on board 1, John Morrison, new member Chris Southall and promising youngster Ollie Sells. Wells arrived with a fairly solid team but it appeared Wellington were slight favourites on the night.

All games really went the distance with all continuing for over two hours of the possible three hour playing session. First to finish was team captain Alex Conway, starting off the season with a solid win on board 1 against an experienced opponent. Alex grabbed an advantage at the first possible opportunity and did not let it go. Eventually this led to him winning a pawn but with a serious positional advantage to go with it. This was soon too much for the Wells man to hold and he resigned.

With one win in the bag all three other games looked very close. Next to finish was Ollie Sells who was only taken into the team at short notice on the night. Ollie rose to the challenge well and played a controlled game throughout. He won a pawn late on and correctly converted the endgame position.

With Wellington 2-0 up John Morrison was next to finish on board 2, he had been involved in a wild game throughout and unfortunately lost an important pawn that left his opponent to push through and make some space. This lead to John being faced with a pawn that was likely to promote to a queen and he had no option but to resign a very hard fought game.

Wellington were 2-1 up with just Chris’s game left to finish, this went right to the wire with both players having very little time in an incredibly complex position. Pieces were getting rapidly swapped off all over the board and Chris eventually came out down two pawns but managed to create chances with a pawn that was well advanced. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite enough and Chris was in a losing position when he finally lost on time.

This was a very competitive match with all games being decided by the difference of only a pawn or two. A 2-2 draw to begin the season was certainly a good start from which Wellington hope to build on.