MALVERN Chess Club played Halesowen in the County League Division One at home and lost 1-4 .

Halesowen had white on the odd boards. Individual results are given below, Malvern names first.

1) B Turner -1/2 S Fishburne 2) I Clarke -1/2 J Edge 3) J Knee 0-1 R Thomas 4) P Walker 0-1 D Jackson 5) D Spencer 0-1 R Grimes 6) M Ginger -1/2 A Ambrose.

On board one, Brian Turner prepared a new opening variation for his game as black but white found an improvement on the book that left Brian with a poor pawn structure. He was fortunate to have just enough counter play to hold for a draw after a very long evening's defending.

Ian Clarke played a queen's pawn opening on board two and disturbed black's pawn structure. Black pushed his central pawns to free his position and Ian became rather passive. After a number of exchanges black attacked Ian's weak queen's side pawns whilst Ian played down an open file on the king's side. The resultant endgame was agreed drawn.

On Board three John Knee had to face white's favourite Trompovsky attack. He played carefully and obtained a position where his king was well covered but his opponent had a passed queen's pawn. After much manoeuvring white established a bind and was given the win on adjudication.

Perry Walker played the Smith-Morra gambit against the Sicilian opening on board four but made a mistake that freed black's position. Perry's position gradually deteriorated and he had to resign.

On board five Denis Spencer played a King's Indian and white advanced early on the king's side. The queenside became blocked allowing Denis to castle long. Denis mistakenly exchanged his powerful bishop and then had to resign when he missed a knight fork.

Black played a Pirc Defence on board six and castled long against Maurice Ginger who won a rook for piece and two pawns. Black exchanged his knight for Maurice's bishop but this restricted his own rook. This left Maurice with advantage as he had passed pawns but agreed a draw at the time control.