Match Report: Grendel A vs Horfield A (16 November): Third win of the season

A win in Henleaze. The top two boards finished first with Matias winning quickly and Peter maintaining his unbeaten start to the season. Matais had pressed Alistair from the beginning and had won a pawn and created a dominant position when black called it quits. On three Phil won a pawn in the opening after Mark got his move order wrong and then ground out the win. Will won Grendel’s only full point of the night on five against Nigel and on six Mikey and Ben tested the open d file before a series of exchanges simplified the position and a draw was agreed.

With five matches done we were 3-2 up and just board four to finish. In a wild game; Patrick went two pawns up; Mike confessed it was close to resignable but a miscalculated sacrifice from white (now short on time) swung it back to Mike. But with an open board and time running out they ended up repeating moves with about 20 seconds left each. The mother of all battles (I know, I know, but I couldn’t help include at least one reference to Beowulf). The half point took us over the line but it was close.