MALVERN Chess Club's bid to repeat their Worcestershire League and Cup double of 2004 ended when they crashed out of the cup in round two to Kidderminster Rooks.

The need to defeat their division two opponents by two clear points, due to the handicap system in operation, proved too much for them.

The results were as follows, Malvern names first with white on the odd boards.

(1) B Turner 1-0 J Varilone; (2) I Clarke 0-1 P Thomas; (3) G Herbert 1-0 W Pugh; (4) D Spencer 0-1 T Pountney.

American grandmaster Pal Benko wore dark glasses during one game of the 1959 candidates' tournament in order to avoid future world champion Mikhail Tal's hypnotic gaze. Malvern players might do well to consider a similar strategy when playing Terry Pountney.

Malvern have obtained theoretical winning positions in their last five games against him and gone on to lose four of them. Denis Spencer became the latest victim. He had to defend for a while after winning a pawn in the opening but was unable to win another pawn to secure a large advantage. However, Terry launched a speculative but unsound attack on the black king. Denis's defence went astray and he eventually was checkmated.

This levelled the scores, as Geoffrey Herbert had earlier defeated Bill Pugh on board three. Geoffrey obtained a small advantage in the opening, won material by attacking in the centre and on the king's side then liquidated a winning endgame.

On board one, Brian faced the dangerous John Varilone, a former runner up in the Worcester and district individual competition. Brian played very passively against the Sicilian and John soon had a strong attack. He misjudged some exchanges and allowed Brian to neutralise the attack and emerge with two rooks against a queen. Brian was able to keep his own king safe and set up a mating net to win the game.

Ian Clarke had the black pieces on board two. He opened the centre and developed some pressure against the white king. An oversight allowed Paul to exchange queens and diffuse the pressure. The match situation meant that Ian needed to win but he lost a piece from trying to extract some advantage from a level position. Paul soon won the endgame to put Kidderminster into the semi-final.