Match Report: Clevedon A vs Horfield A (4 October): A team off the mark.

A terrific win for our A team on a wet and windy night.

Phil’s match finished first as he eased past David to win it in 17 moves. Derek on board one was next to finish coming out the wrong side of a double rook ending (Carl’s rooks were on the 7^th). On board three Peter created an advantage out of the opening but a temporary piece sacrifice to try to open up the centre for his bishop pair and centralised rooks resulted in mass liquidation of pieces and equality. So all square at this point.

On board four Nigel, in his first game of the session, got into a passive position and feared Andrew would focus his aggression on the kingside but instead white chose to open up the queenside which involved swapping off the rooks. Nigel gave up a pawn to allow his queen unopposed entry behind enemy lines and wreaked havoc putting us ahead in the match. On five James won a pawn out of the opening but then gave up his beautifully positioned knight and Leonid created a dangerous passed d pawn. However James was able to create a counter-threat with his own passed pawn and Leonid, short on time, blundered the position. White’s king was harried to h4 in front of its pawns, and Leonid resigned with mate threatened next move. 3.5-1.5; match won.

Finally Matias seemed to have created an overwhelming advantage; a pawn up with a kingside attack and a massive unassailable knight on e5. However Matthew found a well-timed exchange sac which netted a couple of pawns and all advantage had gone resulting in a draw.

So the points didn’t come from the games one would have expected looking at the team sheets, but we got enough of them! University next.

1	Carl Bicknell (2153)	1	Derek Pugh (2169)	0
2	Matthew Wilson (1912)	.5	Matias Candelario (2138)	.5
3	Paul Spiller (1885)	.5	Peter Kirby (2036)	.5
4	David Peters (1796)	0	Phil Nendick (1969)	1
5	Andrew Chapman (1898)	0	Nigel Pollett (1788)	1
6	Leonid Chindelevitch (1813)	0	James Facey (1663)	1
	Horfield A	2	Downend A	4