We were one of two matches at the Folk House on Thursday as well as a number of games of friendly chess being played in the other room; it was good to see the club so busy with chess.
It looked to me as if we were doing OK across all the boards out of the openings into the middle game. Prakash and Ian had entered a very open position with bishops and rooks and no central pawns. On two I felt I had equalised comfortably with Gareth. On three Piotr and Jason were into a complex positional battle and on four Scott had established a clear advantage in the middle of the board.
And then the wheels fell off. On one Iain won a central pawn and began to shepherd it down the board. On two I completely lost the thread and Gareth created a dominant fixed advantage. Jason had made more of the position on three opening the centre to his advantage and winning the exchange. Then on four Scott miscalculated and gave up his knight for a pawn.
And then we sort of stuck the wheels back on. Prakash continued to battle into what looked like a possibly drawn ending with bishop and 2 vs bishop and 1. I managed to be more active with my king and knight which made it hard for Gareth to progress and allowed me to break up the pawn chains and level-up material securing a draw. Piotr was still battling but was very short on time and missed a pin on rook which would have given him the advantage. David kindly gave up a knight allowing Scott to take control but then showed enough nous to get rook more active and secure the draw.
And then they came off again. Iain showed high quality endgame technique to turn a probably drawn ending into a winning one by forcing Prakash’s defending bishop to the short side of the pawn and getting his king round the back. Piotr played about 25 moves in his last minute but in the end couldn’t hold on and ceded the game as Jason’s rook began to eat up pawns.
3-1 but close games and reasonably adequate play. I’ll console myself with winning isn’t the only thing.
| 1 | Iain Bourne (1885) | 1 | Prakash Chatterjee (1638) | 0 |
| 2 | Gareth Cullen (1715) | .5 | Peter Marks (1660) | .5 |
| 3 | Jason Blaxill (1645) | 1 | Piotr Zielinski (1581) | 0 |
| 4 | David Neagle (1712) | .5 | Scott White (UNG) | .5 |
| South Bristol A | 3 | Horfield C | 1 |
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 