Rounds 5 and 6 took place over the weekend of 8-9 February, with Crowthorne first and second teams playing.

On Saturday, Crowthorne 1 (Division 3) suffered their first reverse of the season, going down 3.5-2.5 against Wessex B, who fully deserved the victory. Crowthorne 2 (Division 4) also went down against the much higher rated Sussex Martlets 3 team, and unfortunately had to default a game due to illness.

Click here for full results for Division 3 round 5
Click here for full results for Division 4 round 5

Sunday saw Crowthorne 1 winning their round 6 match against Iceni 1 by 3.5 to 2.5. Crowthorne 2 scored 3-2 over five boards against Watford 2, but unfortunately the default rule means that this counts as a match loss (fortunately we were in time to warn the opposition so that there wasn’t a wasted journey).

Click here for full results for Division 3 round 6
Click here for full results for Division 4 round 6

Saturday’s result meant that Crowthorne 1 lost top spot in Division 3, but they will still go into the promotion pool (which means that they are in contention for promotion to Division 2) after round 7. After Round 6, the Division 3 table (more precisely, Division 3 South Pool B) looks like:


Click here for full tables

On Wednesday’s (29 Jan) match against Guildford A, Ken Coates played an attacking game against Alan Punnett – who responded with a strong counterattack that produced tremendous complications for both players to solve. The game follows, and it is fun to play through and try to work out the variations:

This win helped Crowthorne to a welcome first match victory in Division 1 this season.