A new season! We had significantly higher ratings across all six boards against Clevedon but they have a track record of pulling results out of the bag. Looking at the games early most of them seemed balanced and as it happened most of the games went the distance.
Steve finished first on board 3 and scored our first point of the new season. The game had been mainly even throughout but Steve gained a small initiative through the middle game and Matthew decided to liquidate down to a rook and pawn endgame and offer a draw. However black, with the benefit of a queenside pawn majority, decided to play on and white under pressure to find best moves lost out to passed a pawn. 1-0 up and the first of many conversions of small advantages on the evening. Peter made it 2-0 shortly afterwards. Andrew had developed a space advantage on the queenside but black took control with the bishop pair and doubled pawns for white. The two bishops became a significant feature along with the weak pawns, and a pawn was won. The centre then opened up and a pin on the d-file against the Andrew’s queen proved to be decisive as Peter won a piece and the game. Shortly afterwards it became 3-0 as we made a clean sweep with the black pieces as Matias on top board proved too strong for Max who had been struggling to hold the position for a while.
Turning to the white games then; all of them went into the time-scramble zone. Andy on board four making his debut for us (and playing his first club competition since 1995) had gained a small initiative in the opening, let it slip but then benefitted from a few inaccuracies from David (P) and made certain of the match result by converting his advantage. On board 2 David (P-K) had played soundly against Derek and into the middlegame the position was balanced but complex. A lot of manoeuvring ensued with white’s knights trying to find entry points into the black position. Eventually the position opened up after David gave Derek the opportunity to sacrifice the exchange for a pawn, the initiative, and strong knight on d5. The position proved difficult to defend, particularly down to the last few minutes, and ultimately the tactics worked out in white’s favour. Finally Phil won on board 6 to make it a clean sweep. Stuart had done a good job of keeping the position equal but Phil turned down the draw offer and as the clocks ticked down was the more accurate and converted the win.
6-0 then on the evening; all the games were close but we maximised the marginal gains and played better under clock pressure. A great start to the season.
| 1 | Matias Candelario (2137) | 1 | Max Walker (2076) | 0 |
| 2 | Derek Pugh (2124) | 1 | David Painter-Kooiman (1983) | 0 |
| 3 | Steve Dilleigh (2073) | 1 | Matthew Wilson (1932) | 0 |
| 4 | Andy Hill (2019) | 1 | David Peters (1789) | 0 |
| 5 | Peter Kirby (2048) | 1 | Andrew Chapman (1852) | 0 |
| 6 | Phil Nendick (1987) | 1 | Stuart Iles (1808) | 0 |
| Horfield A | 6 | Clevedon A | 0 |
The C team didn’t fair quite as well. James and Lionel were on the top two boards based on their provisional rankings and were likely to face tough challenges but I was hopeful we’d pick up points on the lower boards. First to finish was Lionel who was undone by Kandara’s kingside blast; he probably didn’t see the danger until too late and was a tempo too slow to cover the threats. I finished next on board 3; Deb got a little positionally lost and I was able to capitalise and create serious threats ultimately resulting in ending a tactical sequence a full rook ahead and with white’s complete control of the board black recognised there was no point in carrying on. The match was level at 1-1. James got lost in theory in a new (for him) opening and with white’s pieces out of position Miguel was able to win a piece and James accepted the inevitable. Harry seemed fine into the middle game but hadn’t developed his white bishop allowing Jacob to take advantage of his disconnected rooks to firstly win a pawn then make a mess of black’s pawn structure. Exchanging down into a winning endgame led to a solid win for white and took North Bristol into a 3-1 lead. Piotr and Michael were mostly even throughout and as pieces came off it became clear no one was going to be able to force anything from the position and a draw was agreed. Finally Scott on five had had a slight edge throughout and entered a knight and pawn endgame where he won Tony’s knight with a tactic then cleaned up without any alarms in a solid display. A pleasant evening at a friendly venue; just a shame about the result.
| 1 | Miguel Espinosa (1718) | 1 | James Kirk (1843) | 0 |
| 2 | Kandara Acharya (1716) | 1 | Lionel Germaine (1805) | 0 |
| 3 | Debaditya Dasgupta (1706) | 0 | Pete Marks (1683) | 1 |
| 4 | Michael Stinchcombe (1390) | .5 | Piotr Zielinski (1613) | .5 |
| 5 | Tony Golding (1350) | 0 | Scott White (1541) | 1 |
| 6 | Jacob Parker (1590) | 1 | Harry Duckworth (1471) | 0 |
| North Bristol B | 3.5 | Horfield C | 2.5 |
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 