The A team season ends with a double-header versus Bath. The rearranged away fixture produced a very satisfactory result.
On board 1 David and Callum ended up in a French type pawn structure with the white king castling kingside and the black king queenside. The race was on. Callum sacrificed his b pawn on b6 to keep the b file open and white’s attack was quicker as he managed to get both rooks on the b-file. Black tried to grab a pawn in the centre however it took his queen away from defending his king. Callum brought his queen and knight into the attack and was able to beat David to the mate. On board 2 Matias played an excellent positional game against Steven. Black had harried white’s black bishop which ended up on h2 behind his own pawns. Steven tried for a complicating sacrifice on f7 but Matias calmly gave back the material for an overwhelming positional advantage with the bishop still trapped meaning white was playing a piece down. Steven tried for pressure down the g file giving up a pawn but Matias had comfortably enough resources to hold the position and keep the bishop stuck in the corner . Black then picked up the a pawn to create a passer, forced the queens off, and with two active bishops and knight vs two knights another pawn fell and that was that. A lovely conceptual game based on the trapped black bishop.
On board 3 Derek found himself particularly distracted by the noise from the bar. Unable to concentrate he offered Roy a draw after 9 moves. Roy showed his class by recognising Derek’s disquiet and accepted the offer. On board 4 Steve and Clive had an unbalanced opening where both kings got displaced. The white king ended up on d2 and black’s monarch on f8. White also had pawn weaknesses so Clive decided to throw everything at Steve’s kingside. His scheme of development enabled him to threaten to triple up against either g7 or f7 requiring precise defence from black. Once Steve had neutralised the threats he was able to launch a quick counterattack on the queenside and with all of Clive’s pieces offside on the kingside the queenside defences crumbled and his king became helpless against Steve’s invading pieces.
On board 5 Patrick played an unusual opening allowing Peter a broad pawn centre, which black then tried to challenge. White then initiated a tactical exchange with a flaw which blundered (or ‘optimistically sacrificed’) a pawn. There was however sufficient compensation to deter black from attempting to keep his extra material and Patrick sacrificed a pawn back and then another black pawn was lost. The ensuing endgame with bishop and three pawns vs knight and two was held by black who created a blockade to stop white making progress. Finally on board 6 Andy was pleased with his game against Rob. No time trouble, no throwing away a superior position, and an aesthetically pleasing finish. The middle game saw a typical French type centre with black putting pressure on d4 with the queen on b6 and knights on f5 and c6. White made the decision to dislodge black’s knight on f5 with g4 and then pressed on with g5 and then g6, sacrificing a pawn to open up the g-file. However, this was all a bit too slow and Andy was able to re-route a knight back to f5 and exchange the light-squared bishops, ensuring that the knight on f5 would not be dislodged again. Piece exchanges resulted in a queen and knight ending with black having an extra pawn. White tried a tactic that backfired allowing black to drive the white king from g1 to h5 with a series of checks and setting up a forced mate with the queen and pawns.
| 1 | David Buckley (2283) | 0 | Callum Brewer (2207) | 1 |
| 2 | Steven Riley (2051) | 0 | Matias Candelario (2131) | 1 |
| 3 | Roy Philips (2185) | .5 | Derek Pugh (2125) | .5 |
| 4 | Clive Walley (1921) | 0 | Steve Dilleigh (2053) | 1 |
| 5 | Patrick Flores (1934) | .5 | Peter Kirby (2033) | .5 |
| 6 | Rob Hearne (1941) | 0 | Andy Hill (1975) | 1 |
| Bath A | 1 | Horfield A | 5 |
Less impressive was our D team’s trip to Downend where our long, and slightly perplexing, reign at the top of division 4 was abruptly brought to an end when we were comprehensively beaten by Downend E. Mike had chances against Dan and Kana got a credible draw against Alexis. But not our finest night.
| 1 | Elmira Walker (1596) | 1 | Graham Strickland (1471) | 0 |
| 2 | Dan Parcell (1571) | 1 | Mike Jennings (1523) | 0 |
| 3 | James Thomas (1498) | 1 | Harry Duckworth (1517) | 0 |
| 4 | Alexis Malibiran (1450) | .5 | Kana Balasubramaniam (1341) | .5 |
| Downend E | 3.5 | Horfield D | .5 |
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 