The Chester Chess ChronicleCapenhurst's Jeff Smith has won the Chester & District League Individual Championship for a now record fourth time after a near perfect 3½/4 performance. Eighteen other players took part in what was a closely fought competition.
Round 1
Competition controller David Jameson used an accelerated Swiss system for the round 1 pairings, and it produced some interesting ties.
On top board Chester's David Bryan was the first to take on Jeff Smith. The two players had met at the exact same position eleven days earlier in what was an exciting match in which Smith demonstrated his skil-
Meanwhile, contender John Blore of Colwyn Bay/Llandudno took on Chester's Steve Lloyd on board three. Lloyd seemed to have the got the better of the opening with his Barry Attack, and caused Blore to play the unusual Kf8 instead of the more natural Kingside castling. However, Blore used his skill to break through and attack the Queenside. Lloyd attempted to generate play by sacrificing a pawn but this proved to be unsound. Later analysis showed that Lloyd sacrificed the wrong pawn. Lloyd would be able to recapture the lost pawn a couple of moves later to gain a good centre for himself and a slightly better position.
Elsewhere, Mike Lee of Colwyn Bay/Llandudno took on another conte-
Round 2
Jameson's bizarre pairings for round 2 saw many players on one point taking on players on no points, although "normal" looking pairings were used for the top two boards.
On board one, Jeff Smith took on fellow contender John Gorman in what proved to be an exciting and tense match which saw both players get into time trouble. more