Match Report: Horfield D vs Clifton C (8 November)

The D team were at home for the away fixture against a temporarily homeless Clifton C team. Board 1 was first to finish with Ted effectively dealing with Alex’s opening and middle-game approach to put Clifton 1-0 up. However things looked better on the other boards where we looked better on two out of three and certainly not worse on the other. The next match to finish was on board 4 where Harry had won a pawn in a nice tactical sequence, then shortly afterwards he trapped Tom’s misplaced black bishop for his g pawn. Even though the black king was a little denuded of cover this extra bishop nicely blocked the centre of the board and the mobility of the white rooks. Then a bishop skewer cleared one of white rooks and a tactical sequence allowed him to exchange down into a won 3-1 pawn ending. A well-earned first win of the season and the match level at 1-1.

Board 3 finished next. Joaquim had won a pawn that was pinned to Jack’s queen in a series of exchanges. Following this white pretty much controlled the centre with a dominant black bishop aiming at the heart of the black defences. Black tried to create counter-play but the loosening effect allowed white to swarm down to the back rank and with mate inevitable on f8 Jack resigned.

Finally Mike felt under pressure for most of the game but defended reasonably well until allowing a passed pawn on the queenside and then placed his knight on an inferior square. Peter eventually picked up the knight for a pawn but as part of exchanging down the heavy pieces black managed to win another pawn so it was into an endgame of knight and bishop and 3 vs same-coloured bishop and 5 (although two of them were loose). White was short on time and offered a draw which black accepted as it secured the match 2.5-1.5. Mike did a good job of staying in the game and by the end a draw was a fair result.

So 4 wins out of 4 for the D team this season. The only 100% team left in any of the divisions. As the departed Leslie Philips would say, ding dong!