Match Report: Horfield B v Clevedon B (28 September): Strength in depth counts.

We expected to be mainly out-graded on the night and Clevedon confirmed our expectations by arriving with a strong team.

The first result of the night was Oliver beating Alex. A very open game became even more fluid when Alex castled long into the teeth of Oliver’s advancing pawns, which promptly broke through. Sadly for Horfield black was a tempo too slow to launch his own attack against white’s still central king and wasn’t able to find a way to successfully defend his position. Kana struggled for equality throughout his game against Stephen, went material down, and was unable to recover. On board two Mikey’s attack was faster than Chris’s and he demonstrated a cool head to retain control on the board and finish the game nicely after fatally exposing Chris’s king. On board one Mike was quite pleased with his play against Stuart’s b4 and won a pawn and weakened white’s kingside however black was unable to press on and with time slipping away the game was agreed as a draw.

So a lost match which makes it one loss and one draw in matches with Clevedon this season; hopefully the A team on Monday can level it up.