WELLINGTON chess club pulled off what was probably their best win of the season last week when they hosted Sedgemoor in a West Somerset League Division Two match over six boards.

Wellington’s team captain John Jeremiah suffered a blow when the club’s top player Alex Conway had to pull out in addition to the unavailability of the board four player.

David Smith and Chris Montag took their places on the bottom two boards with everyone playing on a higher board than they would otherwise have done.

This meant that Sedgemoor had a higher grade player than Wellington did on five of the six boards.

Clearly Wellington needed to pull out all the stops and rise to the occasion to stand any chance of a successful evening.

The first matches to finish did not augur well for Wellington with David Smith and Alan Stonebridge both losing but that was as bad as it got.

John Jeremiah played his usual unorthodox attacking game and had a minor advantage of an extra pawn.

As the game progressed John eventually got all his pieces active and was able to close out a much needed win with his opponent in time trouble. 

The match was all square following a great performance by Simon Pickard on board two.

Simon took a break from playing following a series of disappointing results but has come back this season and has played like his old self.

Simon’s opponent used a rare but sound opening which Simon had never encountered in match play before.

However Simon found all the best moves, taking full control of the centre of the board to enter the endgame a pawn ahead and with the big advantage of two connected passed pawns.

His opponent had to sacrifice a piece to prevent a pawn promoting and resigned soon after.

Simon rated this his best performance of the season and looked back to his best.

The even position in the match remained even as Chris Montag settled for a draw in his match after a long battle.

All three match results were possible with the focus on John Morrison on board one.

The match scheduled for three hours was well into the last 15 minutes with time being a critical factor.

John’s persistence, quality play and time pressure eventually led to a mistake on the part of his opponent which enabled John to wrap up a win for himself and for the club on the night to the delight of his teammates by the narrow margin of 3.5-2.5.

John modestly claimed that he won because he just hung in there and got lucky. A view not shared by the Wellington contingent.

This win moves Wellington comfortably into a mid table league position.