Tuesday.. The A team were away to Clifton. It was a match of two full strength teams and we scored a fine victory.
Matias maintained equality against James for the majority of his game and possibly had some opportunities at the end to mix it up but low on time he sensibly chose to agree the draw. On board 2 Carl scored his first ever classical win over Chris. White came out of the opening better after Carl had forgotten the critical line. After 30 moves of tactics galore Chris had increased his advantage but went astray towards the end as black’s rooks got active and white resigned with a forced mate in 4 on the board. The key position below.
Board 2: White played 42.Rd5? allowing 42…Ra2+! 43.Ke1 Rc1 44.Rd1 Nd3+ 45.Kf1 Rd1 Mate.
1.5 out of 2 points against the Clifton IMs set us nicely on the way. On board 3 Mike lost out to Dominic in a game he feels he should have got a draw on balance. White came back well from dropping the exchange to a clever tactic from black and maybe even had the better position later on. However the game was lost when Mike picked up the wrong pawn to push and lost. On board 4 Steve bested his often Nemesis Gareth. An unbalanced opening led to white dropping a pawn in unclear circumstances., the resulting complications used up most of Steve’s time but ended with him two pawns up. Black steered the game into a rook and knight ending and white gave up a third pawn to close in on Steve’s king with all his pieces. A draw looked likely but with less than a minute left on Steve’s clock he found a tricky move with an outside passed pawn. Gareth was forced onto the defensive and with the storm blown out black took a good win.
On board 5 Andy used his space advantage against John to good effect. Black exchanged his light squared bishop for white’s knight on f3 very early on, which allowed Andy to get pressure down the e-file and a well-placed bishop on h3. In attempting to break out of a cramped position John missed a tactic that lost him two pawns. Black’s remaining pawns were all isolated and his king exposed and he resigned after losing a third pawn. Finally on board 6 John had worked his way smoothly into a completely winning position against David. He had identified a winning sequence then spotted an even better move; a crushing revealed check. Sadly John picked up the horse and it somehow found itself put down on the wrong square which allowed white to win material and the game. A pity indeed but overall a great win for the team.
| 1 | James Cobb (2379) | .5 | Matias Candelario (2131) | .5 |
| 2 | Chris Beaumont (2269) | 0 | Carl Bicknell (2157) | 1 |
| 3 | Dominic Goodwin (2071) | 1 | Mike Harris (2048) | 0 |
| 4 | Gareth Morris (2026) | 0 | Steve Dilleigh (2005) | 1 |
| 5 | John Curtis (2015) | 0 | Andy Hill (1999) | 1 |
| 6 | David Collier (1953) | 1 | John Richards (1893) | 0 |
| Clifton A | 2.5 | Horfield A | 3.5 |
Wednesday. The D team were away at Downend and we played a fashionable six-board match. We raced into a two-nil lead with wins on 5 and 6 under junior time controls. Fortunately neither Joe nor Kana got flustered by playing blitz-speed young ‘uns and eased to victories.
At this point it was very much in the bag. Mike and Mark had agreed a draw on board three and we certainly had the balance of play on boards 1 and 2. I’d built a strong positional advantage over Miguel and won a pawn to add to my control. Cruising. Scott stood much better than Joe into a bishop vs knight ending with black’s knights completely dominating the board and certain to pick up queenside pawns. On 4 Graham was maybe under the pump against Nick but still had a lot to play for. Then the games switched. I fell asleep, allowed Miguel to win the exchange, then as I was still cursing myself for my idiocy I dropped a pawn as well and black was in complete control. On board two Scott simply dropped a piece to a despairing one move tactic from Joe. Suddenly moving on from our 2.5 points looked tough.
Fortunately Graham had found ways to draw his game taking us to at least a half in the match.
As it happened Scott and I mentally dusted ourselves off and carried on. I managed to wedge my bishop on a good square and stopped-up and entry points for Miguel’s rooks and after some manoeuvring black offered the draw as he couldn’t see how to get through. Scott worked hard to make it difficult for Joe who, a little low on time, offered a draw and Scott gladly accepted. We should have won, we should have lost, we drew. Patzer chess. Match won. Nothing more to say.
| 1 | Miguel Estevez (1775) | .5 | Pete Marks (1757) | .5 |
| 2 | Joe Wing (1511) | .5 | Scott White (1567) | .5 |
| 3 | Mark Thwaites (1486) | .5 | Mike Jennings (1496) | .5 |
| 4 | Nick Woods (1287) | .5 | Graham Strickland (1457) | .5 |
| 5 | Carolus Tang (1401) | 0 | Joe Fearnhead (1341) | 1 |
| 6 | Charles Higenbottam (1335) | 0 | Kana Balasubramaniam (1371) | 1 |
| Downend F | 2 | Horfield D | 4 |
Thursday. The D team were at Grendel and we shared the honours. Almost 100% for the week but the match just slipped out of our grasp.
2-0 up early in the piece. Jack had a quick win on board 4 with Aimee resigning very early after missing a discovered check. Similarly in Joe’s game on board 3 John resigned on move 20 after blundering a rook. Joe had an advantage at that stage but that did change the balance somewhat.
On board 1 Ben and Liam were very even at this stage and Ben offered the draw and Liam, mindful of the match situation decided to play on. White was a pawn up and had neutralised black’s king side attack but was a lot of time down on the clock. On board 2 Dan took advantage of an open f file to double his rooks then sacrificed his bishop on h6 to open-up the kingside. Graham had pieces to defend but wasn’t able to coordinate them effectively and the attack proved to be decisive. Then Ben, in terrible time trouble, lost his advantage and then the game to level the match up at 2-2.
Considering the rating advantage to Grendel still a very creditable result and the E team remains unbeaten.
| 1 | Liam Wheen (1640) | 1 | Ben Learoyd (1580) | 0 |
| 2 | Dan German (1633) | 1 | Graham Strickland (1457) | 0 |
| 3 | John Paton (1571) | 0 | Joe Fearnhead (1341) | 1 |
| 4 | Aimee Lowry (1666) | 0 | Jack Knipe (1553) | 1 |
| Grendel B | 2 | Horfield E | 2 |
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 