Both teams were missing some players. We had Steve and Peter were otherwise engaged, scoring well at the Guernsey International Chess Festival, but our strong supporting cast meant that we were still favourites.
Those of us who blinked missed the game on board 1. After playing a few opening moves I looked up to see the white queen on d5 and black king on d6. It was over in 10 moves and under 20 minutes. Matais had capitalised on an opening inaccuracy with a bishop sacrifice and his queen and knight then combined to give mate.
For the next couple of hours, the main drama came from the rehearsals next door, which have become something of a tradition for us over the years.
I wasn’t comfortable in my middle game and decided to give up my d pawn for some freedom and then regained the pawn a few moves later. I had a slight edge in the ending with my 2 bishops against bishop and knight before it became a good bishop ending which got us our next point.
Derek gambited a pawn in the opening for which he had much better activity, but there were no obvious weaknesses in the opposing camp. His opponent was having difficulty completing his development and tried to relieve some pressure by exchanging Derek’s menacing knight on f4. The resulting opening of the g file soon proved overwhelming with the white king’s position facing doubled rooks and bishop aimed at g2.
Next, we had a couple of games that I didn’t see finish but both went the way they had been going.
Mike got us over the finishing line after enjoying a space advantage and his bishops applying long-range pressure on his opponent’s king position.
Rob came out of a slightly sticky opening with a decent position but then his opponent had a more active knight which caused Rob some problems in the double rook ending.
Finally, Tom seemed to be making the running in his game but without landing a killer blow in a congested position. It boiled down to a queen ending with Tom having a supported passed pawn which looked like it could be decisive. When Tom retreated his king out of harm’s way Hayden took the opportunity to free his position by offering an exchange of queens which couldn’t be accepted, after which perpetual check from one side or the other was inevitable.
Phil Nendick
Match card here
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 