Horfield B 2.5-3.5 Downend A

1.Krzyzanowski 0-1 Hoskin

2. Helbig 0.5-0.5 Meadows

3.Candelario 0-1 Stubbs

4.Attar 1-0 Munn

5.Radford 0.5-0.5 Conterno

6.Holmes 0.5-0.5 Saunders

The B team suffered it’s first loss of the season last night after leading before the last two games had finished as wins for Downend. On top Board Patryk had gone in for a an early attack which gave him some advantage by making Nigel’s king dance around the board thus preventing white from castling. Unable to maintain pressure Nigel forced Patryk’s pieces to retreat. Nigel then began an assault of his own on black’s position which amounted to an eventual total rout of the black defence. With time running out and no hope of any way to save the position Patryk resigned . An excellent fightback from Nigel.

Paul came out of the opening with what seemed a slight plus, and began a menacing assault on Mike’s kingside, and it looked very promising but Mike had other ideas and decided to break it up by mixing it with Paul’s Queen with his own supported by a Knight. Having declined the draw offer Paul continued on but with exchanges reducing the threat, the game fizzled out. Nothing more was left and the game was agreed a draw,

Matias and Oli fought out a an interesting game which led to Oli winning two pawns but not without pressure as compensation. However, Oli was able to stay focused and saw off all attempts from Matias to find a way back into the game, showing great composure. Oli finally won through in the end game with the two pawn material advantage. An impressive win indeed from young Master Stubbs!

Rob outplayed Andrew in a game where the Downend player used up a lot of time adding on extra pressure to that being applied by his opponent already in what became a difficult position because of a backward central pawn becoming a target. Trying to defend this was in no doubt a miserable place to be in when your incapable of any real counterplay. A fine winning performance from Rob who is showing the sort of form that he produced the season before last.

I had the pleasure of playing Dominique for the first time and after attempting to counter his double fianchetto opening, managed to keep him quiet enough to eventually obtain a draw. . Dominique believed he had gained the upper hand when he invaded the seventh rank with his rook hitting two pawns at once but had overlooked an adequate defence intervening with a rook protected by a Knight. The rooks came off and with the second offer of a draw refused by Dominique the end game led to an equal position of K+N+6 pawns each and eventually the offer of a draw was returned to which I accepted.

Tom stood in for John Richards who was unwell and played with great determination and confidence. Unfortunately he lacked the technique to work out how to win the end game in which he had a slight advantage. When Aron eventually activated his Bishop and harassed a pawn Tom had little choice but to defend it, which stopped Tom from progressing further. Tom then offered Aron a draw which was warmly welcomed. So an opportunity missed but nevertheless, Tom still managed to draw with one of Bristol’s highly talented young juniors, who I myself have fallen victim to. Aron will no doubt benefit from this endgame experience.