Two Minor Knock-out matches this week.
On Monday we disappointingly lost out to Grendel. Andy overcame Dave Osbourne and Alan won his game against late replacement Jack. Elsewhere not so good. Mike fell into a opening trap and was done by 8 and Brent, Scott, and Ashish couldn’t get anything from their games.
On Tuesday we were on the good side of a 4-2 result vs Clifton. Two strong teams and a match that could have gone either way.
Joe lost early to Mathew but then Graham and John put us 2-1 up before 9pm. As it happens Igor was a little late and Clifton players had not sat down in their agreed board order without their captain to shepherd them into the right chairs. It resulted in John having an easier ride than he may have done otherwise but the flipside was James was up against a much stronger opponent. As it happened board three was probably the decisive game. James was under the pump for most of the game and felt he had pretty much run out of moves but somehow managed to extricate himself from a difficult position and turn around the action on the board and take the point to take us 3-1 up.
Needing just half a point from Boards 1 and 4 there was a long wait as both games went the distance. The top board looked even whereas Duncan had a clear advantage over the board and on the clock against Richard. As black tried to keep his position viable in his last few minutes white showed his experience to use his time sensibly and to keep asking questions. In the end Richard blundered his queen and that was the match at 4-1. Board 1 finished after curfew. In a pawn and knight end game Igor showed good technique to exploit a slightly better pawn structure and create a passed h pawn that duly strolled to h8 and glory but by then it was only a consolation for Clifton.
So one out of two teams into the semis in April for a match against another Clifton side. Who knows we could be on our way to Wembley.
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 