The A team’s last match of the season was against a Bath team short of a number of regulars (and a full complement of players).
Callum won on board 1 against David. This was his third meeting and third win over David this season, which is mightily impressive. A closed position ensued out of the opening however white managed to open up the f-file with an f3 push and led to further activity with an exchange sacrifice for a pawn, opening up the black king. Callum’s defence fortunately mainly involved natural moves and David missed a chance to gain an edge allowing black to position his bishop in the centre of the board taking advantage of white’s now weakened king. White then sacrificed a piece to further expose the black king but Callum was able to give up his queen for rook and then give back a bishop and rook for David’s queen, leaving black with a winning rook vs knight endgame. On board 2 Matias, with the unusual treat of the white pieces, got the better of Rob. After losing a pawn in the opening white opted to complicate the position forcing black to burn a lot of time to find the right defensive options. As the clock ticked down Matias continued to make the position as difficult as possible and under severe time pressure Rob lost his queen and the game.
On board 3 Derek lost to Oli. Black tried to exploit white’s under-developed kingside with a pawn thrust, whilst maybe not correct, allowed black to build a very dangerous attack leading to the following position where Derek (later) spotted Bxd3 wins. Can you see the continuation?
Instead play continued with Qf3, white defended with Rd1 followed by Rd2. Maybe black should have just accepted being a pawn down with a slightly safer king, but instead Derek tried for more with a speculative sacrifice, and attempts to generate a perpetual were in vain. Credit to Oli for keeping calm under pressure and defending well to stabilise the position and secure the win. On board 4 Steve got the better of Meeran but it wasn’t all plain sailing. White was ambitious in the opening and went for both space and initiative, ending up with space but not initiative leading to a middle game where Steve hovered between having a significant advantage and just being over-extended. However black was forced to do something and went for a counterattack on the kingside, but advancing pawns in front of your king is risky, and Meeran had to be precise. Steve spotted an inaccuracy and got his attack in first advancing a pawn to g6 and delivering mate in picturesque fashion. Finally on board 5 Andy and Mauro were quickly out of the book. White tried a speculative sacrifice of two knights for a rook and two pawns. However it left black with the bishop pair ready to cause havoc. Andy was able to line up pressure on g2 with queen, rook and bishop and shortly afterwards he was able to crash with a knight sacrifice that led to mate.
So a comprehensive win to round off the season and farewell to Callum who played his last league game before he leaves Bristol. It’s been a (too brief) pleasure to have him playing with us.
| 1 | Callum Brewer (2228) | 1 | David Buckley (2271) | 0 |
| 2 | Matias Candelario (2147) | 1 | Rob Hearne (1932) | 0 |
| 3 | Derek Pugh (2135) | 0 | Oli Thornley (1741) | 1 |
| 4 | Steve Dilleigh (2018) | 1 | Meeran Mohammed Sharifdeen (1758) | 0 |
| 5 | Andy Hill (1977) | 1 | Mauro Farina (1672) | 0 |
| 6 | Rob Attar (1922) | 1 | Default | 0 |
| Horfield A | 5 | Bath A | 1 |
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 