Match Report: Horfield A vs Grendel A (22 March): Biggest win since….

We expected to out-grade Grendel and we did. To make it harder on themselves they were without Alistair and anyone on boards 5 or 6. Clearly they like a challenge.

First to finish was Derek and Mark on board 2. Derek had much the better of the game with the white pieces and comfortably worked his way to victory. Next up Callum had too much for Jerry on board one. In the end black had queen vs rook and knight and the job of co-ordinating his pieces and keeping his pawns secure was too hard for white and Callum won through scoring his first, of hopefully many, wins for us. The games on boards 3 and 4 lasted deep into the evening. On board 3 Steve secured a pawn advantage against Patrick and this soon became two. White was endeavouring to hold the line with rook and bishop but black found good moves and his knight and rook and material advantage prevailed. Finally the game on board 4 gave us the toughest challenge of the night. Peter went awry in the early middle game and was forced to castle by hand allowing Will a big lead in development and this advantage translated into a dangerous passed pawn on c3 and more active pieces for black. White held on and a mass liquidation of pawns led to an equal looking but complicated position on an open board. In time trouble queens and bishops were exchanged and Peter was able to double his rooks on the 7^th and secure the win.

So an average grading advantage of over 200 on boards 1 to 4 turned into four wins. Our first 6-0 win in the top division since October 2017 when we turned Clevedon over in our title winning season. Also (and I’m sure this was on everyone’s mind) revenge for Grendel beating Horfield B 6-0 back in September 2008 when Derek was playing for the other side. One more league match left this year, if we beat Bath we’ll finish a creditable third.