Clifton’s Alan Papier crashed through on board 2 following an exchange sacrifice on f6. Until then Mike Harris had been holding well.
It took a while to find the venue. No one had mentioned that the Town House was now Rosa. But we all assembled and got underway by 7:40.
On paper, Peter had the tough game, while the rest of us outgraded the opposition by a comfortable margin. We might lose on top board but surely we could manage to get 3.5 points from the other five. It started off that way, with Chris setting enough problems to grab and keep an initiative and eventually win. I, meanwhile, was doing okay for a change on board 6 and mated with a pawn in 29 moves. Last time against Clifton B, I was playing Chris on top board; my slide to bottom board has been ignominious. 1-1.
Our other players with the black bits did not have a happy time. Brent had a rare loss, while Mike bemoaned having lost a won game. Jon, however, was cleaning up nicely in a knight and pawns ending. 2-3.
So, we needed Chris to win to tie the match. Anton had some nasty looking pawns marching down the queenside, while Chris was trying to find a way down the middle. Chris had a clock advantage but time looked like the only way to a win. All the pieces except the queens came off and Chris checked on e8, driving the king to h7. Chris had a pawn on f6 and Qe8-f8 would have threatened an unstoppable mate, but he played to e7 instead. When the chance came round again the mate had vanished; Anton could take a perpetual. 2.5-3.5
(1) Beaumont, Chris R 1 – 0 Kirby, Peter J
(2) Papier, Alan R 150A 1 – 0 Harris, Michael T
(3) Muller, Anton M ½ – ½ Jones, Christopher JA
(4) Coxwell, Jim 1 – 0 Perrin, Brent
(5) Jankowski, Tomas 0 – 1 Fisher, Jon
(6) Smolka, Robert 0 – 1 Richards, John E
CLIFTON B 3.5 – 2.5 HORFIELD B
NB: Horfield were black on boards 2, 4 and 6
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 