Colchester B drew and won their last two matches to finish the season unbeaten and finish in 1st place in NECL Division 2, improving on their 2nd place last season. They were 5 points clear at the top of the table (from Clacton A, Chelmsford B and Baddow B), this was a larger margin than that achieved by the A team in this division last season.
The team's final match was a 3-1 win against Chelmsford B. Felix won the exchange after the opening (an open Sicilian), but an inaccurate move and his opponent's strong bishop resulted in a draw by repetition. Mike held onto the gambit pawn in the Milner-Barry variation of the French Defence, he won a further pawn and was comfortably winning from then on. Mark got a strong position after the opening and converted this into an extra pawn. However, this wasn't quite enough to force the win in a rook and minor piece endgame. Nathan comfortably equalised as Black but then blundered a pawn when trying to open the game up. As pieces came off it looked like an outside chance of a draw at best, until his opponent blundered twice as time started to run out - once to a completely level endgame (it would have been knight and 3 isolated pawns against a rook with no way of stopping the rook being exchanged for the three pawns) and then into a mate-in-one.
Date: Apr-2016 |
NECL Division 2 |
|
Brd |
Col |
CHELMSFORD B |
Result |
COLCHESTER B |
Col |
1 |
w |
David Chandler (177) |
0 |
1 |
Nathan Barnes (146) |
b |
2 |
b |
Elliot Cocks (159) |
½ |
½ |
Felix Schnell (167) |
w |
3 |
w |
Ed Porter (147) |
0 |
1 |
Mike Wagstaff (148) |
b |
4 |
b |
Peter Brander (125) |
½ |
½ |
Mark Johnson (104) |
w |
|
|
(avg=152) |
1 |
3 |
(avg=141) |
|
Ten matches were played by the B team, with seven wins and a draw (against Clacton A) in the league; a win and a defeat in the knockout (against two division 1 teams). The player statistics (by board) are:
Board 1 (Total 8/10) |
Svein Kjenner | 2/2 |
Norbert Voelker | 2/2 |
Nathan Barnes | 1.5/2 |
Felix Schnell | 2/3 |
Mike Wagstaff | 0.5/1 |
Board 2 (Total 8.5/10) |
Svein Kjenner | 3/3 |
Norbert Voelker | 3/3 |
Felix Schnell | 2/3 |
Clive Bellinger | 0.5/1 |
Board 3 (Total 7/10) |
Norbert Voelker | 2/2 |
Nathan Barnes | 1/1 |
Clive Bellinger | 1.5/2 |
Mike Wagstaff | 2/3 |
Phil Daley | 0.5/1 |
Svein Kjenner | 0/1 |
Board 4 (Total 5.5/10) |
Norbert Voelker | 1/1 |
Martin Harris | 1.5/2 |
Mike Wagstaff | 2/3 |
Clive Bellinger | 0.5/1 |
Mark Johnson | 0.5/1 |
Nathan Barnes | 0/1 |
Brian Remmer | 0/1 |