Monday saw our first trip to Portishead and a successful one resulting in our first over the board match win of the season. Scott comfortably held Andrew on the top board, Harry got a bit lost in the middle game and fell to a pin and Graham and Kana brought home the points on boards three and four. Graham won a piece for a pawn early then a second piece reaching an end game of two bishops and five versus seven pawns which was enough. The word is Portishead have a nice venue in the town centre with good parking and there is a high degree of enthusiasm at the new club. Looking forward to them thriving.
| 1 | Andrew Borkowski (1799) | .5 | Scott White (1568) | .5 |
| 2 | D Livingstone (UNG) | 1 | Harry Duckworth (1517) | 0 |
| 3 | Frank De Vocht (1800P) | 0 | Graham Strickland (1440) | 1 |
| 4 | Tom Alpi (UNG) | 0 | Kana Balasubramaniam (1355) | 1 |
| Portishead | 1.5 | Horfield D | 2.5 |
On to Tuesday where we had two matches at home. Not splendid.
Firstly the A team was up against Bath A with both teams below their maximum strength. On board 1 Peter and David were equal going well into a late middlegame but black’s position was difficult to play as white had a strong, but isolated and blockaded, passed pawn on d6 and more space. A passive approach might have been enough to for Peter to draw, but attempts to find counterplay let David find a way to breakthrough and promote the d6 pawn. On board 2 Mike reflected if he should have won his match against Bath in the KO last time out he definitely should have lost this one. He’d blundered a piece after 14 moves and for the next 20-25 moves the evaluation was -6 to -7 to Matt. Then, with the alacrity of a modern day Houdini Mike managed to wriggle out of the worst of it trading down to a rook vs rook and knight ending. Black tested theory for a fair few moves but in the end a draw was agreed.
On three Andy had equalised against Rob’s full frontal attack then blundered and lost. Meh. John describes his opening as ‘dubious’ and soon found himself two pawns down. From there, it was a long struggle for white to stay in the game. As it happened Andrew gave back one of the pawns and John offered a draw immediately as the game was about to go into a bishop and 3 versus a knight and 4 ending. To his relief Andrew accepted the offer.
On five Phil took on Christian’s opening gambit but chose to be ambitious and look for more which was the start of his problems. White played well and won material and whilst Phil had chances it wasn’t enough. Finally on six Nigel had the majority of the play but in time trouble missed a probable win on move 45 then offered a draw with 30 seconds left and Barry aware of the match situation accepted.
| 1 | Peter Kirby (2029) | 0 | David Buckley (2277) | 1 |
| 2 | Mike Harris (2048) | .5 | Matt Dishman (1949) | .5 |
| 3 | Andy Hill (1980) | 0 | Rob Hearne (1933) | 1 |
| 4 | John Richards (1906) | .5 | Andrew Gregory (1854) | .5 |
| 5 | Phil Nendick (2012) | 0 | Christian Brown (1763) | 1 |
| 6 | Nigel Pollett (1743) | .5 | Barry Raynes (1604) | .5 |
| Horfield A | 1.5 | Bath A | 4.5 |
The C team shorn of a couple of our top boards were up against a Yate team which looks much stronger than last season; the addition of Mike and Alex into their roster means they’ll be formidable this season. First to finish was board 5 where Mike and Ben reached a very drawn position, on review it became obvious black had missed a winning tactical sequence. Then board 6 concluded. Joe was much better out of the sharp sacrificial opening with James under significant pressure but white couldn’t quite find the continuation and not having enough pieces attacking allowed black to untangle and take advantage of his extra material to secure the full point. Not long afterwards Pete and Andy drew (as they always seem to do) on board 1. A mainly accurate game where black had a couple of moments of missed potential advantage ended in a drawn queen and pawn ending. Scott escaped with a draw on board 4 against Alex. Black had controlled the board from the start and won a couple of pawns but white was able to steer the ending into opposite colour bishops and set up the blockade to hold the game. With two games left the match was still up for grabs for either team.
On board 2 Jeremy had sacrificed a pawn for activity and open lines but Joaquim had bravely left his king in the centre and was close to calming the position down and removing pieces. Board 3 looked very even as Piotr and Mike were test each other’s positional patience. White had a slight spatial advantage as was asking reasonably tricky questions of black’s defence. Board 3 finished first and with it Yate took the match. Piotr couldn’t find a way not to exchange queens and Mike’s advanced queenside majority was too far away to catch. Finally the highlight of the night for us (and the only game we won over the 12 boards) was Joaquim coming through against Jeremy. White was able to get his king and rook active to create a passed pawn and deny black’s king access. A very good win.
| 1 | Pete Marks (1748) | .5 | Andy Penn (1802) | .5 |
| 2 | Joaquim Luque (1646) | 1 | Jeremy Gardner (1710) | 0 |
| 3 | Piotr Zielinski (1593) | 0 | Mike Townsend (1810) | 1 |
| 4 | Scott White (1568) | .5 | Alex McKeigue (1883P) | .5 |
| 5 | Mike Jennings (1496) | .5 | Ben Mumford (1636) | .5 |
| 6 | Joe Fearnhead (1291) | 0 | James Bartram (1568) | 1 |
| Horfield C | 2.5 | Yate A | 3.5 |
So Yate and Bath march on with 100% records and we don’t. Onwards and upwards!
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 