Two matches this week
The E team were at home on Tuesday against Yate. The match was done by 8.38 with four positive results for the white pieces meaning overall honours even. Scott finished first (by 7.55). Kevin had seen a tactic to win a pawn and make a mess of white’s structure but had missed an intermezzo move which resulted in Scott winning a piece and after a rapid exchange down the game was done. Shortly afterward (8.04) Alex succumbed on board 1. He missed a fork of king and rook and couldn’t find any counterplay to disturb James’s equilibrium. Board 3 finished next (8.20) with Harry turning a reasonable position into a losing one against James. Finally board 4 finished at 8.38 with Kana cleverly sacrificing a rook to set up a mating net. Very good! Everyone home for 999: On the Front Line on Channel 4 at 9.00.
| 3 | Alex Dunn (1559) | 0 | James Bartram (1558) | 1 |
| 4 | Scott White (1558) | 1 | Kevin Langmaid (1560) | 0 |
| 5 | Harry Duckworth (1521) | 0 | James Steer (UNG) | 1 |
| 6 | Kana Balasubramaniam (1340) | 1 | Robert Hawkins (1517) | 0 |
| Horfield D | 2 | Yate B | 2 |
Wednesday say us take on Bath in the cup. We unfortunately had a withdrawal shortly before the match and went with seven rather than a full complement. Carl was making his re-debut for us and quickly levelled up the fixture when his opponent failed to make the 8pm cut-off leaving Carl to drive back to Bristol without moving any pieces around.
The first game to finish was board 6 where Andy and Steve were playing a crazy loose and complicated game. Black opted not to take the ‘poisoned pawn’ on b2 and sacrificed a pawn in the middle game to thwart white’s attack. However Steve found a great knight sacrifice, which Andy declined only for him to sacrifice the other knight. Whichever knight black took his king was horribly exposed and material loses or mate was going to follow. Game over. Elsewhere most of the games looked close. On board 1 Matias had given up a pawn in return for messing up David’s structure and some piece mobility he had however burnt a lot of time to get to the position. On 3 Roy had the early positional advantage over Phil with a potential breakthrough on the kingside. Mike had worked an significant advantage against Matt on board 5 but black was doggedly holding on. Board 7 saw Clive with pressure against Rob’s kingside. It wasn’t clear where white’s counterplay was going to come from so it was a case of digging in and trying to hold the line. Next to finish was Pete and Rob’s game on board 8. An even game in a highly recognisable structure resulted in an even ending where progress wasn’t possible and a draw was agreed.
To the business end.
On board 3 Roy misplaced his queen allowing a winning sequence that was difficult to find and wasn’t found. However it allowed Phil to pretty much equalise with black running low on time a white win or draw seemed the likely results. Roy hung on and a draw was agreed. Rob had won the exchange but the kingside pressure from black was intense. White found a perpetual and the game was drawn. On the top board Matias had decided to complicate and create uneven material however David had more time and was able to use his bishop pair to good effect to block out white’s rook and pick up potential passers and secure the game and with it the match. Finally on board 5, as pieces were exchanged, black’s position became easier to hold and Mike accepted a draw was reasonable.
Close on some boards but overall Bath deserved what they got and that, for us, is the Cup done for another year.
| 1 | David Buckley (2260) | 1 | Matias Candelario (2152) | 0 |
| 2 | Andreas Stalidis (1615) | 1 | Default | 0 |
| 3 | Roy Philips (2185) | .5 | Phil Nendick (2007) | .5 |
| 4 | Default | 0 | Carl Bicknell (2153) | 1 |
| 5 | Matthew Timbrell (1904) | .5 | Mike Harris (2052) | .5 |
| 6 | Steve Riley (2040) | 1 | Andy Hill (1980) | 0 |
| 7 | Clive Walley (1906) | .5 | Rob Attar (1922) | .5 |
| 8 | Rob Hearne (1927) | .5 | Peter Marks (1745) | .5 |
| Bath | 5 | Horfield | 3 |
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 