The intra-club derby. A mix of quality and early season rustiness led to a match that swung wildly.
Up on board one Peter gained a spatial advantage out of the opening but his white bishop was limited, and exchanges led to the possibility of a good knight vs bad bishop endgame for Matias. On two Steve had created what looked like a dominant structural advantage out of the opening and Phil was faced with a series of tough choices about how to maintain his position. Black’s attempts to simplify allowed white to increase the initiative and recover a sacrificed pawn. On three Andy gave up the exchange for the bishop pair and activity. Rob’s position looked solid but the potential for Andy to target the kingside with Rob’s pieces looking harder to coordinate meant there was a lot of play to come. Board four saw Mike and I play an equal opening and enter an even middlegame. On five Alan was mainly sound with the black pieces against Judd but as the middlegame approached a couple of inaccuracies allowed white to build a positional advantage. Finally on six an even battle had ensued with two semi-open files as targets for heavy pieces, it looked even.
So in order of how they finished. Firstly Alan lost his grip of the position and each move to try to shore up the centre created holes which Judd was able to exploit to the extent a loss of a piece was inevitable and black resigned putting the B team ahead. Not long after I turned an even position into a completely lost one when a lack of a functioning brain meant I failed to spot the very basic threat of a knight move forking my king and queen. Suddenly the B team were 2-0 up and scenting a match win. Not long afterwards the A team pulled back a point on board six. Piotr had given up a pawn in the centre and Joaquim’s battery of heavy pieces kept the board under control. The combination of material and positional advantage proved enough for white to take the game.
Onto the business end on the top boards. On board two queens came off and Steve was left with a big advantage due to his outside passed pawn. It looked winning but having progressed the pawn to a5 the offer to exchange rooks on a6 was snapped up by Phil as it allowed him to box in the white king in front of the a pawn and with no chance of a break on the kingside white couldn’t make any more progress. A draw. Then the last two games finished at almost the same time. To avoid the risk of bad bishop vs good knight Peter had played actively and tried to trap Matias’s black bishop, but the bishop wasn’t trapped, and the approach led to the loss of a pawn. An opposite-coloured bishop endgame then followed with Matias still a pawn up. However, time-trouble for Matias became a factor and he missed winning chances and eventually Peter was allowed a white square blockade and a draw was agreed after 75 moves. The last game to finish was board 3. Andy had got an attack on the kingside going and Rob had to give up material to prevent being mated. The result was black with knight and bishop vs white’s rook allowing Andy to gather a number of weak pawns and taking the game. Match drawn at 3-3.
| 1 | Matias Candelario (2152) | .5 | Peter Kirby (2024) | .5 |
| 2 | Steve Dilleigh (2021) | .5 | Phil Nendick (2007) | .5 |
| 3 | Andy Hill (1980) | 1 | Rob Attar (1922) | .0 |
| 4 | Pete Marks (1745) | 0 | Mike Levene (1881) | 1 |
| 5 | Alan Clarke (UNG) | 0 | Judd Chidwick (1712) | 1 |
| 6 | Joaquim Luque (1639) | 1 | Piotr Zielinski (1602) | 0 |
| Horfield A | 3 | Horfield B | 3 |
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 