Match Report: Horfield B vs University C (23 November): The kids are alright

Close but no cigar.

Mikey won comfortably on board one (and continues his unbeaten run this season) ; he was in control of the position throughout and after all the pieces had been exchanged off Conor was left with a queenside pawn majority and Mikey a kingside one. However Conor’s extra pawn was backward and Mikey’s wasn’t. Enough for black’s king to stroll through with white having the impossible task of trying to defend both sides of the board with his monarch. On two Alex had lined up his heavy pieces down a semi-open file but Dougie was able to defend the position and with time running down Alex offered the draw which was accepted; probably a fair result.

On boards three and four we got nothing from two games that could have ended very differently. Mike had what looked like an even rook and pawn end game; he exchanged rooks thinking his king was better placed than Jonas’s. However this turned out not to be the case and after an inaccurate pawn move from black the game was over. Scott and Prithvi played a wild game that could have gone either way at various stages. Scott was material up early but his king was exposed in the centre and with the pawns breaking up Prithvi activated his pieces and create a series of threats. Sadly white missed a temporary rook sacrifice which would have equalised and black comfortably used his queen and rook to shunt white’s king into the corner and oblivion.

2.5-1.5 the final score; we had chances to do a bit better but on the night the University were that little bit better.