The third year in a row we’ve travelled to Bath in the first round of the Big Cup. 0-2 to date. Like in previous years we were not at our strongest and Einstein’s quote about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result came to mind. Fortunately, Bath were weaker than we’d anticipated. A few players have left the club and others were unavailable so maybe we weren’t quite as crazy to give it a go again.
The first result of the night came on board 7 where Greig and Mike agreed a draw in a balanced position with a lot of play left but neither player had a clear plan and were more worried by the downside of trying to be active. Shortly afterwards I won on board 8. Barry came a little unstuck in the opening losing a pawn but had positional pluses. Black managed to steer it into a rook and pawn ending and my more active rooks led to the capture of a second pawn and a blunder from white just brought forward the inevitable. The match was level again by 9.30 as Roy’s opening play was sharper than Tom’s setting up the pressure that led to winning material. There was no compensation for black and Bath were ahead on board count if everything else remained equal.
Looking across the five remaining matches it wasn’t clear how we were going to win the match. Board 3 looked favourable but it looked very complicated and/or slightly worse on the other boards.
A series of draws. Firstly Phil and Barry on board 5. Black had countered a sharp opening nicely and looked to have the pressure with white’s king still central and potentially exposable. As it happened both players were accurate enough to reach an agreed draw. On board 6 Brent and Andrew reached a heavy piece endgame and with white having a better pawn structure Brent was happy to take the draw. Then board 4 finished in another draw as Mike withstood Patrick’s active pieces and a difficultly placed king to equalise into a very drawn position.
Just two matches left and Matias accepted that a draw was the best he could manage from his game against David on board 1 so all eyes turned to board 3. Andy, after trying to find a direct attack on the kingside stepped back the ambition and entered an endgame a pawn ahead. A well-considered bishop reroute to take black’s rook out of position allowed him to force his pawn home. And at the last we’d done just enough to finally win a KO match.
Next up Downend. We’ll be at home for that one after Christmas.
Scorecard here: Doing just enough!
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 