The A team won against Downend B to keep themselves in the title race (although they need other results to go their way). Scorecard here and pithy report from Phil below
We were decent favourites on paper but at 9pm I couldn’t see where we’d be getting the points. Matias had sacrificed a piece for an attack that Oscar seeming to be surviving. Peter was a pawn down without any obvious compensations and boards 2, 3 and 4 looked pretty level.
Oscar put Downend ahead, soon equalised by a win from Tom. Derek put us ahead after some central pawn tactics led to an initiative then cashed in for a winning ending, with Andy drawing in the meantime. My game was very tactical from the start and continued in that vein with my queen and bishop facing 2 rooks and opposite coloured bishop swarming around my king. Ultimately the extra pawns proved decisive and we were over the finish line. Peter battled tirelessly to improve our score but ultimately to no avail, giving Alan a well earned win.
Elsewhere the C and F teams both lost to Cabot A and Hanham B respectively.
The match against C team’s season drifts to a midtable finish. A win for Joe in about 5 minutes but not much joy elsewhere. Scorecard here. The highlight for the F team was a good win for Ash who pinned his opponents queen to win the game. Martin, Ryan, and Siobhan all came out on the wrong side of their results.
Horfield at the Congress
Brent was our sole representative in the Open and scored 1.5 including a good draw against Chris Beaumont but it was a tough competition this time. Pete scored 3 out of 5 in the U1950. In the U1750 Judd finished on an unbeaten 4 out of 5 for a share of second and Duncan scored an excellent 3.5 out of 5, also going unbeaten. Joe finished on 2.5 after a strong start, Scott 2 out of 5 and Piotr and MIke found the going pretty tough. In the U1550 Ashish scored a super 3.5 and won the junior prize (well done!). Graham finished on 2.5 and Siobhan had a bit of a tough tournament. Well done everyone – details here
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 