Match Report: Horfield A vs Clevedon A (8 February): Honours even.

A match that went right down to the wire.

Peter finished early, he got an advantage out of a unorthodox opening from Matthew and felt he was in control of the position. Black put some pressure on c4 but it didn’t amount to much and white won the exchange and once his rooks broke into black’s position the game was over. Board five finished next. Piotr was making his first A team appearance and comfortably held the higher rated David. Both players were compact and the game looked very much like a draw from early on and so it was. 1.5-0-5; points in the bank. We then had to wait for a long time for the next match to finish as the clock ticked passed 10. Hendrik playing his first match for the club drew with Oliver on board six. There was probably still play left in the position but it was difficult to see obvious plans for either side and with little time remaining black offered a draw and white prudently agreed. Shortly afterwards Phil won his game on board three. Andrew had sacrificed a knight early to break up the cover in front of black’s king but Phil held the position together and once queens came off the board he converted the endgame into a won position with his bishop being too good for white’s extra pawns. 3-1 with two matches to go. James had worked hard on board 4 to have built a slight advantage in the position. Paul offered a draw but James opted to play on however he then blundered a knight and white got his rooks to the seventh and hoovered up the pawns and black finally bowed to the inevitable. 3-2 and one match left. On board one Max had built an advantage but Derek was holding on tenaciously. As the time ticked past 10.30 both players were into their last three minutes with Derek having knight and a pair of connected passed pawns on the queenside whilst Max had a rook and three versus two pawns on the king side. The extra pawn on the kingside was ultimately the clincher as black had to keep his king on that side allowing white to deal with the passed queenside pawns with king and rook. When the action swung over to the other side Max traded down to a single pawn and the rook and king were too strong (eventually) for Derek’s king and knight.  

So 3-3 was the final score.