MALVERN Chess Club played St Johns at home in the County Division One and a 3-3 draw resulted.

St Johns had white on the odd boards. The individual results are given below, Malvern names first.

1) B Turner - P Kitson; 2) I Clarke - S James; 3) G Herbert 0-1 N Harris; 4) S Fuchs 0-1 S Foster; 5) J Knee 1-0 A Kirkland; 6) D Spencer 1-0 J Loynes.

Draws were agreed on boards one and two.

On board three, Black used a cunning move in order to trick Geoffrey Herbert into playing the Pirc defence, which he was not familiar with. He soon fell victim to black's central advance.

On board four, Steve Fuchs missed a move in a time scramble and lost the game.

John Knee played the Caro-Kann Defence on board five and obtained a strongly-posted central knight, which thwarted Arnold's attempts to attack on the king's side. Arnold then lost the exchange and his pieces were too scattered to resist the advance of two passed pawns.

On board six, Black played the Nimzo-Indian defence and established a strong attack aided by a powerful central knight. Denis Spencer lost two pawns while extricating his king from the centre. In an ensuing time scramble black lost a piece and then the game.