Bs Go Top Of Division One !

Horfield B 4-2 Grendel A 1.Krzyzanowski 0-1 Gilbert, 2. Helbig 5-5 Humphries 3.Candelario 1-0 Furnevall, 4. Dilleigh 1-0 Flexman, 5.Richards 1-0, 5. Attar 5-5 Radford.

The B’s went top of division one last night for at least 24 hours before Bath A play Clevedon A. It may be short lived affair as by the time the next league result update is out, it may show Bath top again. So for the benefit of all those that love to dream here is the league division one table as it stands today!

Division One
Club		Played	Points	Game Points	Def Pts
Horfield	B	9	12	28.5
Clifton	A	8	10	28
Bath	A	8	10	27.5
Clifton	B	7	10	23.5

So coming back down to earth again this is what happened. As the midnight oil burned well into the night, Matias had taken a long time trying to sort out his opening which seemed to have gone wrong. Mark did not make the most of it and was horrified as his planned sac went pear shaped with his knight trapped in the centre of the board with not enough pieces to protect it and was mercilessly attacked until it fell. The game was effectively over as Mark continued for awhile trying to recover but knowing how Richard 3rd felt with those immortal words “A Horse, A horse, my Kingdom for a horse” resigned.

So with one win under our belts next to finish was John who got the advantage on a black side of a Grunfeld Defence nabbing a pawn and held it until the opportune time to give it back in a double rook end game. Then after the rooks came off John was left eventually with the simple task of K+4 pawns v K+2. Showing good technique he pushed his past h pawn leaving Will with no choice but to chase it. This would leave the centre with his two pawns unprotected, and with John’s King poised ready to pick them off. Will decided to not draw out a lost game and resigned.

2-0 up and next to finish was Paul as his game with Jerry was all to do about nothing as they cancelled each other out . Jerry’s adventure down the B file never came to anything as they began to repeat the position and on the second time of asking the offer of a draw was happily accepted.

2.5-0.5 Rob and Ben finished their bottom board match with Ben playing the black pieces and comfortably dealt with his higher rated opponent’s London System from becoming anything to fear. The pieces came off thick and fast leaving both players with just a double rook ending and 6 pawns each. Ben had offered a draw which was refused but later the offer was returned and accepted by Ben. The game ended all smiles and with just two games left the score was now 3-1. The B’s have got a point in the bag can they get at least another draw from the two remaining games? Alistair playing white on top board had played a very slow developing hyper modern style opening with a fianchetto of both bishops after surrendering the centre to Patryk. So now we have Alistair taking the role of the black player by position and Patryk the white player with most of the space advantage and control of the centre. Eventually the status quo was breached with a flurry of exchanges and when the dust settled Alistair had come out with a passed central pawn reaching the 7th rank backed up by a rook and white squared bishop and several other pawns. Patryk likewise had a rook and a black squared Bishop and several pawns.

Patryk got into deep time trouble and after almost equalizing was forced to take the passed pawn when push on and promoted. This then allowed white to get the rook onto the second rank with check. A dangerous situation now occurred where black had to place the king on a protecting square of the Bishop or it would be taken by white’s rook. unfortunately though Patryk had put the king on a diagonal that the white Bishop was on hidden behind the rook. which allowed Alister to swing his rook across and win the h pawn but worse still when Patryk with no more than 10 secs left moved his king one square away from the the bishop creating a lost position as the rook could move onto the back rank and it did, threatening the bishop again but this time Patryk could not save it and just managed to resign before his clock fell. Score 3-2

The game left was Steve and Patrick on board 4. Unfortunately, though level on material Patrick’s position was getting more and more untenable and as Steve drove two connected passed pawns down the board reaching the 7th rank Patrick resigned. Final Score 4-2.

Grendel were out graded on every board but fought hard with no reward. However if they maintain their determination to fight to the end they may well escape the drop back into division 2.