Two matches to report this week.
On Tuesday the D team completed the double over table-topping Hanham A and made it two straight wins after a tough first half of the season. Duncan hung in against Steven for as long as he could but the flag fell in a losing position. Piotr took what turned out to be a crucial half-point on board 2 against the significantly higher-rated David. We won the match on boards 4-6 with Scott, Graham, and Mark winning their games. On 6 Mark won material against Jim early at the expense of his king being stuck in the centre, but he was able to keep it safe and push on to a quick victory. Scott on 4 created double threats on queen and bishop against Phil that led to a game-winning advantage. Graham had earlier broken open Matthew’s defence, but after black was able to swap off rooks and win a pawn it evened up until Graham found a mate with 20 seconds left on his clock. Ice cold. Match card here.
The F team had a tough night against University D. Report from Siobhan and team (thank you).
On board 1 Jason came up against the rarely seen Saragossa (1.c3), he was fine until blundering his knight on move 12. Internally seething at his folly he dug in, defending obdurately against Jake, but was unable to prevent the inevitable and white won as often players do a piece up. On board 2 Martin took a slight advantage into the middle-game against Manuel. Black built a degree of pressure on white’s uncastled king but Martin dealt with it comfortably and then found a tactic to win the exchange. However, the endgame foiund Martin with bishop and four pawns versus six pawns and Manuel was able to maintain his pawns with an active king to win through.
On board 3 Kristian’s game with Katie was even until black unbalanced the game to try and secure an advantage. However, pieces were exchanged resulting in an equal rook and bishop end game. Kristian managed to win pawns through more active use of his pieces but when the rooks came off white’s opposite coloured bishop and king were good enough to hold back black’s two pawns from promotion. Our sole half point from the night. Finally on board 4 Siobhan was equal out of the opening against Dillon but miscalcuated the complex centre possibilities and dropped a pawn. The game ended when a queen exchange led to a white dropping a piece and Siobhan resigned in a lost position. Match card here
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 