Sea and Snow.

Yep…winter arrived with a bang as we traveled to Portmarnock in our Quest for points. Portents of a difficult night coincided with a undesired detour of Dunnes car park in Swords and fierce flurries which made us all dash for the safety of the Clubhouse. Unusually, board One finished first, courtesy of a vicious double attack on a knight …with more gains to come…a fine win for Sean to maintain his 100% record over the previously unbeaten Michael Dempsey. Gavin was too strong for the venerable Michael Kelleher, and board five saw Piotr patiently build on an early Queen gain to make another point, with Shane O’Reilly having to endure a long and painful evening before accepting the inevitable…
Sadly, playing with Black did not fare so well in our hands either. Robbie gave up a Bishop in a complex game and despite battling on, their Captain Brian McGrath engineered the full point. Our Captain went for his opponent’s throat early and ended up guarding his own very carefully for the rest of the game as unrated Shane Healy took the game to him. The position was seemingly drawn with opposite coloured Bishop’s and a few pawns, but care had to be taken to avoid a devilish mate which would have befallen any unwary player. Fortunately, Stefan’s king direction was better than his driving, & both agreed to split the point, but his opponent certainly deserved the credit for his ingenuity in the middle and end-game.
Final score. Portmarnock 1.5 Blanchardstown 3.5 and we maintain our aim for Promotion. Well done Guys.