Match report: Horfield C vs Clifton B (13 September)

A short road trip to Redland Green. Igor had been trying to arrange a team from his holiday in Croatia and managed to get 5 together, pleasingly he had kept us informed prior to the match so we knew the situation beforehand.

I didn’t see much of the games; by the time I’d arrived boards 1, 2, 4, and 5 were done. James K on one has been trying a new opening this season and it hasn’t gone well finding the positions difficult to understand and play from. Both he and Lionel on board 2 came unstuck pretty early. Piotr won very comfortably on board 4, and whilst Scott was detained for 51 moves he was never in any trouble and was home and hosed by 9.30.

So with a score of 3-2 it was all about board 3. Remi had a piece for two pawns but Matt had shredded the cover around white’s king and had his rooks lined up on the open g file and Remi’s king was stuck on f1 with his own pieces blocking escape routes to the queenside. The paralysis of white’s position meant the black queen was able to pick up pawns on the queenside and it looked pretty bleak for Horfield. However as white’s clock dropped to the last minute and Remi’s series of ‘only move to hold the position together’ began to run out black began to blitz out moves rather than using the ten plus minutes he had available and failed to spot a free white bishop was in fact a protected white bishop and gave up his queen. Remi let out an audible sigh of relief and was able to force the exchange of both rooks and unsurprisingly his queen vs pawns proved to be too strong. I guess you make your own luck by battling on.

4-2 the final result. Our first points of the season, onwards and upwards!.