On board 6, Black missed a beautiful checkmate after white blundered with f2 x e3 on the last move. Black to play and mate in 4.
Having won all 5 of his games this season prior to this match, Alex was promoted to board 1, and quickly continued his form, first winning an exchange and then the game with another impressive display. On board 4 Phil also won reasonably quickly from the black side of a Schliemann Ruy Lopez, a great advert for this opening as all of his pieces were directed towards the white king position assisted by the trademark half-open f file.
Board 2 was a bit more of an up and down affair in a Pelikan Sicilian, but a blunder from the white side allowed Aaron to notch another win. On board 3, I hesitated at a crucial stage in a technical rook endgame against Mike. This allowed enough black enough counterplay and a draw was agreed.
On board 6, Jon’s creative opening had left him with good attacking chances, and a slip from his opponent allowed him to win a rook (although as Jon’s annotation shows it could have been mate). Nevertheless, although white had a collection of pawns it wasn’t enough compensation and Jon wrapped up the point. Similarly, Harvey’s game against Dave featured some strong attacking play, although at the end, with the clock becoming a factor, the players decided to agree a draw.
To be fair, Downend B were somewhat under-strength for this match, missing some key players. However, we’ll take the 5-1 result, and hope we can continue our winning run. Of course, our own B team (next up) may have other ideas!
(1) S. Meek 0 – 1 A. Easton
(2) I. Pickup 0 – 1 A Guthrie
(3) M. Brigden 0.5 – 0.5 D. Pugh
(4) D. Conterno 0 – 1 P. Nendick
(5) D. Tipper 0.5 – 0.5 H. Atkinson
(6) A. Munn 0 – 1 J. Fisher
DOWNEND B 1 – 5 HORFIELD A
NB: Horfield were black on boards 2, 4 and 6.
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 