A splendid final round for the three Horfield teams.
Firstly the D team were at Clifton. With Kana unwell we only took three players, but it was enough to secure a draw. Hendrik won very rapidly on board 1; he was already in a strong position when Joel overlooked a one move mate with his king still stuck in the centre. Jack won on his debut for us; in a relatively even early middle-game Dylan left his white bishop unprotected and from there white was able to control the board and steadily improve his position and win more material eventually mating the black king with knight and rook. James suffered a death by London in his game (part 1 of 2); grrrr.
Secondly the C team was at home against a strong Thornbury side. As with the D team the white pieces made the difference. Nigel had a pretty even game with Mike where it wasn’t entirely clear how either player was going to progress; however after considerable jockeying white squeezed an advantage from the position, black in considerable time trouble lost the coordination of his pieces and ultimately lost as his flag fell. Scott, on board 4, also with the white pieces, overcame a sticky constrained start to build a decent position with good outposts for his knight. The white knight harried black’s slightly misplaced rook ultimately forcing it into a position where it and the queen were forked by a pawn and that was that. Mike battled for a draw with David on board 1 having been under considerable pressure out of the opening but found enough resources to equalise. On three Piotr struggled to create counterplay against the always consistent and accurate Andrew who had a strong passed b pawn. With both players down to the last minute or so black hoped to give up material to leave himself king vs king, bishop and knight and hope white wouldn’t be able to find the mating pattern in the time scramble. However he couldn’t achieve this aim and the b pawn queened and the game was done. So as with the D team the white pieces decided the result 2.5-1.5 in our favour.
Finally the B team was away to Grendel. Mikey won comfortably on board 1. He always had the initiative in an opposite-side-castling-throw-everything-at-the-king-game (I assume there is a German composite noun for that?), won material, and won the game. I managed to lose on board 2 to a London (part 2 of 2). Grrrr x 2. On three Mike made fast work of his game; Richard had failed to develop his queenside bishop and rook and white was able to infiltrate to the back rank with his rooks and with black’s knight pinned to the king Mike had more attacking pieces available than defenders. On board 4 Harry won his first game for the club after a near miss last week. He created decent threats with knight and rook and Robin wasn’t able to find a useful and safe square for his queen allowing black to win material and the game. The match was won 3-1 meaning the B team tied for third in division 2 which is a pretty good outcome for us.
6-0 to us with the white pieces and of the 11 games played Harry was the only victor with black. MKO next week with rematches against Clifton and Thornbury; fingers-crossed for similar results.
| 1 | Joel Pearce (1597) | 0 | Hendrik Wessels (1708) | 1 |
| 2 | Tom Last (UNG) | 1 | James Facey (1698) | 0 |
| 3 | Dylan Wilkinson-Browne (UNG) | 0 | Jack Knipe (UNG) | 1 |
| 4 | Peter Fisher (1464) | 1 | Default | 0 |
| Clifton B | 2 | Horfield D | 2 |
| 1 | Mike Levene (1909) | .5 | David Vaughan (1819) | .5 |
| 2 | Nigel Pollett (1766) | 1 | Mike Townsend (1843) | 0 |
| 3 | Piotr Zielinski (1616) | 0 | Andrew Borkowski (1804) | 1 |
| 4 | Scott White (1552) | 1 | Mike Minshall (1489) | 0 |
| Horfield C | 2.5 | Thornbury | 1.5 |
| 1 | Aimee Lowry (1718) | 0 | Mikey Wright (1702) | 1 |
| 2 | Ewan Hunt (1778) | 1 | Pete Marks (1677) | 0 |
| 3 | Richard Harris (1422) | 0 | Mike Jennings (1504) | 1 |
| 4 | Robin Brown (1317) | 0 | Harry Duckworth (UNG) | 1 |
| Grendel B | 1 | Horfield B | 3 |
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 