Wolverhampton Chess Club fixtures : BDCL 2010/11

Wolverhampton needed to win their last three matches in order to earn promotion to Division 1. It looked like a difficult task, considering the fact that those matches took in the league leaders Solihull and promotion contenders South Birmingham A. As has been the story of the season, Wolverhampton fielded a severely depleted team for this crunch match. The early exchanges left Oladejo Olaleye a pawn up but Juaherman Chua a pawn down. Dave Wightman was the first to finish, recording a steady draw, and this was soon followed by Phil Porter who also drew. For over an hour, this remained the position, until the time control approached. On Board 6, Juaherman Chua's opponent got into severe time trouble in a complicated position. Unfortunately, in the excitement of the ensuing time scramble, Juaherman stopped recording the moves while still having more than five minutes on his clock, and this allowed his opponent to claim the game on a technicality. This was followed by a draw from Gordon Sands and, after another time scramble, a draw from Peter Pearson-Jones. Oladejo Olaleye was unable to force home his pawn advantage, as the open rook and queen endgame offered too many opportunities for defensive checks for both sides. Sadly, the result ends any remaining hopes of promotion, but it was a valiant effort against a team that are now favourites to join Solihull in Division 1 for next year.

BDCL A begin their season at Bushbury Wed 29/09/10 with Gordon Sands as captain. The team has been arranged. Good luck to our BDCL A. Hope it's an enjoyable and fruitful night.

29/09/10 Well BDCL A a solid start to the season at Bushbury. Wolverhampton win 1-4* on the night with Mike Townsend on board 1 adjourned, his opponent resigned later hence final score 1-5.. All scores and writeup in fixtures section.

21/10/10 Olton A defeated in BDCL Div 1 but it was a tough battle and Wolverhampton won by a tight margin. Match report and fixtures in fixtures section

14/10/10 BDCL A team a closer contest than anticipated but Wolverhampton were victorious against S Birmingham B.

14/12/10 Wolverhampton lose their first BDCL match of the season at Birmingham. However, our team was somewhat depleted due to the unavailability of some A team regulars and defaulting a board gave our opponents an early lead. Match report and full scores on score link..

Facing potentially the strongest side in the division, Wolverhampton were fortunate to have very nearly a full strength team to face Kynoch & Barn. With only a few grading points between the teams on all except Board 6, it was always going to be a tight encounter. Mike Townsend was the first to finish, converting a powerful double rook attack against the queenside castled black king into a win. Rob Marshall was a pawn up and Max Wootton was a pawn up that soon converted into a piece advantage, so things were looking good. Dave Wightman succumbed to a mating attack having had his king trapped in the centre in an otherwise level position and Peter Thompson quickly followed, losing in controvertial circumstances for the second match running following an illegal move. Max Wootton finally overcame stubborn resistance to force home a passed pawn and secure the win. The match was level at 2 - 2 and the outstanding games were both adjourned. Both Rob Marshall and Peter Pearson-Jones were in materially level positions, but with some positional complications which offered hope of positive results. Good luck to Kynoch for the rest of the season.

Peter Pearson Jones and Rob Marshall both win their adjournments and thus the final score a 4-2 win to Wolverhampton. 8 BDCL points.