Those of you who are interested in chess will be pleased to know that our team won the first Play-off round. Our rivals were the Barcelona chess club "Peona i Peó", which means "Female Pawn and Male Pawn". They are reputed to be quite strong and, in fact, had two teams playing the first play-off round. Unfortunately for them, both teams lost their opportunity to go up a category.
In our case, the team in fact drew 4-4. However, draws are resolved by a special point system which gave us the victory (8 points for the first board, seven for the second, and so on). Boards number 1 and 2 drew. We won in boards number 3, 4 and 6 (total of 14 points), whereas they won in boards number 5, 7 and 8 (total of 8 points). My own rival, a seventeen-year-old girl with an enchanting smile, whose playing strength is similar to mine, asked me for a draw which my team leader would not allow me to accept. We both played on and, unfortunately for her she made a slight mistake which was sufficient for me to get a slight advantage. In the end, I sacrified my queen in a winning combination.
The position just prior to my sacrifice was as follows:
Whites (Joe Rahal): Re1, Kh1, Ph2, Qb3, Pg3, Re5, Pd7.
Black (Aina Delgado): Qf2, Pa7, Pb7, Rf7, Pg7, Ph7, Rd8, Kh8.
In this position, I played Queen takes Rook f7, to which she replied Queen takes Queen. I followed with Rook to e8 check, and she resigned. (After Rook takes Rook, Rook takes Rook, ckeck, she would be forced to take my Rook with her Queen and I, in turn, would take her Queen with my pawn giving checkmate). An interesting game which started off with Knight to f3, my usual opening move. For details of the full game send me an e-mail.
I drew in my other game, in the Terrassa open. So, one and a half points out of two is not at all bad for a weekend of chess. Let's see what next weekend has in store for us!
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