A trip to South Bristol on Thursday for the unbeaten and already Division 2 champions.
On board 1 Phil took a pleasant space advantage and control of the centre out of the opening. Tony tried to undermine d5 with b5 but it was a miscalculation as Phil was just set the task of deciding which if the three ways to win the pawn was best. From there he eased through by neutralising Tony’s attempts at counterplay and advancing his passed c pawn then creating a pair of central passers. Very smooth. On board 2 Rob’s 100% league record came to an end against Richard. Black had effectively neutralised white’s attack and conjured up the win of the exchange (a theme for Rob this year). It looked as if it was a case of finding the best way of giving back the exchange to get rid of Richard’s d7 pawn and go into an ending one or two pawns up, but the pawn bit first allowing Re8+ and the winning of a rook and the game.
On board 3 John was playing David for the first time for 11 years (the previous two games were both draws). The key moment was at the position below. White had just played 23. Rxe7, supposedly winning a pawn and with a nasty pin on the bishop.
But as David settled into a long think John realised that he had a crushing move: 23…Nd5! Fortunately for white black played Nd3 and after 24.Rc2 Nb4 John played 25.Nd5!
David tried for 25…Nxc2 and the game finished 26.Nxf4 Nxd4 27.h3 Nxf3+ 28.gxf3 g5?? 29.Nh5 Kg6 30.Nxg7 Kf6 31.Rxb7 1-0
On board 4 Judd took a draw against Gareth from a strong position because me was dog tired and was delighted with an early finish. Black had two minor pieces and a rook for queen following a slightly inaccurate exchange initiated by white. Whilst black was ahead it is easy to get the extra pieces into a tangle so avoiding a long and complex middle game with the potential for traps was prudent.
On board 5 Nigel took a positional advantage out of the opening and was able to disrupt the Chris’s queenside pawn advantage. White won a pawn with a tactic pinning the queen then a second pawn leaving the black king exposed. Black’s attempts at counter play including an exchange sac made it worse and Nigel eased through with doubled rooks down the a file and then won the rook with a check. Job done.
Finally on board 6 James had another of his trade mark ‘finished-in-no-time’ games. This one lasted 13 moves. Alessandro made a couple of mistakes in the opening and then blundered a mate in 1. Although the position was quite horrible already.
So another win for the dynamic and powerful B team who are one game (against North Bristol) away from an unbeaten season. Forza!
| 1 | Tony Harvey (1859) | 0 | Phil Nendick (2008) | 1 |
| 2 | Richard Garrett (2001) | 1 | Rob Attar (1930) | 0 |
| 3 | David Neagle (1713) | 0 | John Richards (1905) | 1 |
| 4 | Gareth Cullen (1704) | .5 | Judd Chidwick (1758) | .5 |
| 5 | Chris Edwards (1773) | 0 | Nigel Pollett (1752) | 1 |
| 6 | Alessandro Coppola (1361) | 0 | James Facey (1716) | 1 |
| South Bristol A | 1.5 | Horfield B | 4.5 |
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 