A trip to Little Stoke resulted in us continuing our good run of results and climbing to the heady heights of second in the division 3 table. We had a big grading advantage so the result was no surprise but probably the margin of victory flatters us somewhat.
Judd finished almost before he’d started on board 3. Michael got lost in the position and hung his queen. Shortly afterwards Piotr made it 2-0 on board 6. He’d got into trouble in the opening and given up queen for two pieces but stuck at it. Advik was playing exceedingly fast but Piotr stayed calm and turned the game around by pinning queen to king and reaching a totally won end game. A triumph for perseverance. Seeing it was 2-0 and other matches favoured us Pete offered James a draw in a drawn position on board 2 and the offer was accepted in a game where the evaluation hovered around in the +0.5 to -0.5 range throughout.
North Bristol pulled a point back on the top board as Richard continued his splendid season (P10, W8, D2) by beating Alan. White had got slightly behind in tempo in the opening and then underestimated black’s threats to h3. Alan played on but ran out of problems to set and accepted the inevitable. However boards 4 and 5 strongly favoured us. On 5 Joaquim had created a large space advantage, won the exchange and constrained Tony pieces from developing. He took his time to avoid any tricks but made sure of the win comfortably to secure the match points. Nigel put the icing on the cake by winning on board 4. He’d had an advantage against Jason throughout and into the rook and pawn endgame created connected passed pawns. A scare at the end when black presented white with a drawing chance but with almost no time on the clock Jason missed it and Nigel, with a sense of relief, took the game to wrap up the victory. Scorecard details here: Mainly straightforward
Bath C next week at home. Let’s hope we can carry on winning.
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 