The league 2021 week2 - Civil Service plays another two matches

The Civil Service first team got to play Belfast South A at Queens. Its brilliant and we owe some thanks to Queens Chess Club and to Strand Chess Club for allowing other teams to use their rooms for their matches. Another fantastic way that the chess community in Ulster works together to get chess played!

Again so heart warming to see fellow chess players we haven't seen for a while. David Ruben, Sergio Sanchez, Martin Kelly, William Storey and Gareth Annesley.

Martin always holds his team list close to his chest. Our list will be quite fixed. Its a brilliant team and its good to see Peter May on board 2. With our secret weapon of Tahmankar Mandar on board 1. Chris Kelly (bd3), Karina Kruk (bd4), Richard Gould (bd5). With the team lists swapped the battle commenced.

(I have put the league standings at the bottom of this article).

We lost 2 - 3. Gareth picking up a piece early on in the game and taking out our secret weapon - Tahmankar one of his first looses.

Chris Kelly had some complex combinations against David Ruben and Karina and Williams game was a tough fight with what look like advantageous on both sides. Richard and Paul agreed an early draw in a position that looked well drawn. With us beating The Strand A team and now beaten by South Belfast 1 - the first division is warming up to be an excellent battle.

The results of the Civil Service games: Titanic Knights getting a good win 3:2,

The last game was Adrian v Andrew - and it was nail biting - Adrian had an full on attack, sacrificed some pieces and Andrew defended and then Adrian didnt have enough pieces to finish off his opponent and with both Kings exposed - Adrian had to knock his King over. Exciting stuff.

Also I was watching Micheal Devine play Sett Podean - a Queen against a minor piece and a Pawn on the seventh!

Finally how do the divisions stand after two weeks.

Division 1 Standings.

Division 2 Standings