The A team secured all the points in a tight-fought match with Clifton A and briefly climbed to the top of the table. Only one decisive game which saw Derek beat Gareth on board 3. After sacrificing a pawn unnecessarily black won it back and seemed to have eked out a positional advantage. There was then a curious stand-off where white offered the exchange for about 13 moves while Derek manoeuvred slowly to get to a position where it would be worthwhile taking it (particularly with the position opening up and Gareth running very short of time). After a mutual blunder the game settled into a rook and two pawns (for Derek) vs two bishops (for Gareth) endgame. This turned out to be winning for black as the bishops weren’t able to find stable squares while stopping the runaway a pawn. Bit of a 1-0 to the Arsenal but nice to have an unbeaten night. Match card here.
The D team had a comfortable win against Downend E to make it a good Tuesday. First to finish was Scott on board 4, from a position where nearly everyone would be asleep, he spotted an opportunity to apply some pressure and then aided by Greg delivered a checkmate. Ryan shortly afterwards made it 2-0 by beating Shaun on board 5 by finding a discovered attack which won white’s queen and the game. Duncan continued his excellent season by outplaying Carolus on top board. He consistently targeted white’s still central king and opened up lines to attack which resulted in winning enough material to make the outcome unavoidable.
Joe looked like he was completely lost in his game against Lara, just about got back into it, then it turned out he was indeed lost. Graham agreed a draw with John in a slightly better position. As an aside Graham had the worst bishop I’ve ever seen but fortunately John decided to swap it off and allow Graham back into the game. Finally Mike won against Nick on the bottom board. They entered an equal rook and pawn endgame but white had the more active rook and won first one pawn, then a second. With cover for his king he was able to guide one of them home and deliver a mate with a comfortable 52 seconds left on his clock. Match card here.
Finally for the week the E team went to table topping and formidable Bristol 4 Knights and the result wasn’t unexpected. Decent half points on boards 3 and 4 for Mike and Alex. Match card here.
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 