We’ve been on a tremendous run since mid November; our teams have won 15 and drawn two matches since our last loss. But this week was a little bit less stellar.
E team win.
It started well with a super result away to Clevedon on Monday. Duncan took a draw on top board and Joaquim, Graham, and Jacob eased to wins to make it a comprehensive match result. The E team is still unbeaten and nicely tucked into third in the table.
Then two matches at home on Tuesday
A team draw .
Clevedon brought a strong team and were looking to replicate their famous victory against Clifton A from earlier in the season. Unlike a previous memorable encounter which ended in 6 draws, this generation were up for a fight, launching into gambits on boards 3 and 5. It looked like we might be gifted a point early on but Max arrived 3 minutes before default o’clock.
It took a while for Steve to get developed, not wanting to castle into his opponent’s ready-made kingside attack, but he had a good grip on the queenside light squares. Eventually, he managed to unravel and pick up another pawn with the win following soon after. Matias fell victim to a savage tactic that won at least a pawn, dismantling his position in the process and he eventually succumbed after a brave fight. I was applying prolonged pressure without finding the killer blow but then played for a cheeky tactic. Dave, down to 2 minutes, missed it and that decided the game.
So we were back in front but the remaining games weren’t looking too good. Derek’s pawns were steadily being mopped up leaving him in a hopeless endgame. Peter was in a rook ending a pawn down which turned out to be worse than that sounds. This left Tom to salvage something from the match: With bishop, knight and 4 pawns against rook and 3, the crowd were anticipating a repeat demonstration of mating with bishop and knight, but this wasn’t to be. Tom skilfully coordinated his pieces to halt DPK’s kingside majority whilst simultaneously pushing his queenside pawns, which ended up costing a whole rook, sealing the game and levelling the match.
A match point gained or a match point lost? Time will tell.
C team lose. Ach. The C team were up against South Bristol B without three of our regular top 4 boards. Scott and Jo finished first (before 9), sadly that left us 2-0 down. Chris trapped Scott’s bishop and then it was a slow wearing down. Joe had sacrificed a pawn out of the opening forcing the black king onto f7. He then proceeded to play Qe2 with a plan to long-castle and attack Gareth’s exposed monarch, only he hadn’t played Qe2, he’d actually played Ke2!! 3 pawns down at one point he managed to claw back the deficit to just 1 pawn, and an equal position according to the computer, but a mistake in the ending allowed Gareth to convert. Judd pulled back a point. He was better into the middlegame and then set a trap with Qc1 from the position below.
Thuvaragan went for fxg5 and Qc8+ Qf8+ Qg8+ did the job.
Mike had a reasonable position out of the opening but drifted into a passive position in the middle game struggling to find a plan. Jon won a pawn then Mike offered another pawn to enter an opposite coloured bishop endgame. However he wasn’t able to hold a difficult position.
Duncan and Dave have played many times before often ending in draws. At 3-1 in a very blocked position Dave understandably offered a draw. Duncan of course declined but after further ossification of the position he accepted the offer. Finally, Nigel won his game against the highly rated Gideon. Some tactics in the middle of the game resulted in Nigel swapping both knights for a Rook and two pawns. This allowed him to push his extra pawns to create the pressure and forced wrong choices from white under a bit of time pressure. In a rook against bishop endgame Nigel managed to convert his advantage and take a decent scalp.
Hard fought but our second 3.5-2.5 loss to South Bristol this season. We are still in the race for second mind.
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 