Lindores – the Stuttering Giants, the Heroes turned Villains, the Heirs turned Mares, the team that haven’t won since the opening week. A team that has also got very similar characteristics to a certain Liverpool. So close to title glory last season, turning the title into their hands at the ideal time, only to falter at the last, to this season where they currently sit just above the relegation zone. There was no departing Suarez to lay excuses upon, and there was no £100 million spent on recruits, all their signings were paid for by their departing clubs (Messrs Redman and Gould) Could they bounce back against their fierce but friendly rivals at Muldoons?! Or would this be an early final nail in the coffin of the Lindores title hunt?!
Last week saw a very hard fought draw with title favourites Ballynafeigh 1. In turn it also saw a first defeat in Lindores colours for Gabor Horvath. Definitely a chance missed to close the gap and Lindores were again without Mike Redman who is serving a lifetime ban due to a debut loss against Damien Cunningham. Richard Gould, the ex Muldoons man was the man chosen to come in as the secret weapon. Muldoons meanwhile placed Nick Pilkiewicz up to board 2 in an attempt to nullify the dangerous Lindores top order with Danny Mallaghan being burdened with the must win board 5 fixture.
2 hours into the matches and all 5 boards were very even, Gabor had sacked a Bishop on h7 but a clever follow up Queen move looked likely to win material back should Gareth take. Your author was enjoying a controlled Queenside attack against Nick Pilkiewicz whose pieces were tied down in a Zugzwang type position. Ross and Des Moreland just looked completely equal on board 3. Board 4 between Fred MacDonald and Stephen Wood looked double edged and dicey throughout. Board 5 was between two players who are no strangers to each other, Richard Gould and Danny Mallaghan. Richard had a holdable but ugly looking Kingside pawn structure but central control with plenty of play left for both sides.
First to crack was Fred MacDonald, perhaps overlooking a strong f5 move and missing a chance to force exchanges and nullify the threat, instead Fred tried to create his own threats but found his opponents attack far too quick to deliver the first point for the home side. Shortly after Ross and Des agreed a draw when neither side looked able to realistically win. Muldoons in the ascendency.
Gabor levelled things up as his attack had just too many threats and pieces and your authors Queenside attack converted into a winning rook and pawn ending despite taking a move later as Nick missed tactical chances with f5 as a result which was his only hope of salvaging a draw in his desperate time trouble.
With Lindores needing a half point on board 5 to secure victory, Richard Gould was trying to find a perpetual with a Rook and Knight , with him being two pawns down with 45 seconds on his clock vs his opponents 4 minutes. After a frantic blitz finale, Richard kept finding threats and asking questions and outblitzed his opponent. However, his opponent converted it with 4 seconds left to give Muldoons a dramatic draw and a fair share of the spoils to boot.
1/ Gareth Annesley 0- 1Gabor Horvath
2/ Nick Pilkiewicz 0-1 Calum Leitch
3/ Des Moreland 0.5-0.5 Ross Harris
4/ Stephen Wood 1-0 Fred MacDonald
5/Danny Mallaghan 1-0 Richard Gould
Lindores Chess Club 