Apologies. Not much content the last couple of weeks but no one particularly likes to write or read about losses. A summary of our glory: The A team got well beaten by Clevedon A with Derek providing our only full point (scorecard here). The C team lost heavily for the second time this season to Yate A, Judd our sole scorer on the night (scorecard here). The E team have lost twice, a close one to Clifton F and a heavy one to Portishead B (scorecards here and here). Anyhow three matches this week.
The B team put a strong team out in January to end the 100% record of University A, the runaway leaders of division 2 (scorecard here), Andy and Mike winning on the top boards made the difference. Another strong team this week had far too much for a struggling Downend C. Andy had an exciting game with Elmira on top board. Opposite-side castling and for a while it looked like white might breakthrough first but Andy covered the entry points and crashed through on the kingside. With rooks well placed on g8 and f7 and a piece sacrifice Andy delivered the mate. Mike (H)’s passive opening gave away space but as Ian over-extended he left space behind allowing knight and queen to infiltrate in the endgame and forced black to resign. On 3 Brent ended his ten game winless streak with a win against Alan. Whilst it went to an opposite colour endgame white had too many pawn weaknesses and resigned when it became clear he couldn’t hold it.
Rob picked up his first win of the season. An early endgame occurred, a tactic to win a piece and an early night with a full point. Jeremy had the better of the game against Carolus winning a couple of pawns. However exchanging queens into what should have been a winning game gave white a chance and the young’un clung on to score Downend’s only half of the night. Finally Mike (L) seemed to be winning a miniature against Grant after winning queen for rook and knight but had to regroup before forcing his queen into black’s position. With the threat of further material loss Grant resigned. Highly satisfactory result. With a full team we look pretty formidable and definitely are looking up rather than down. Scorecard here.
Also on Tuesday the D team came up short against Clifton E. Piotr was level for long-stretches but Matt’s knight was better than Piotr’s bishop in the endgame and that proved to be enough. Duncan lost his way in the opening and dropped a bishop for a pawn. He worked hard for some counterplay but an even worse blunder resulted in an early finish. Scott did well to hold a difficult king and pawn endgame to get a half on the board. On 4 Graham lost out to Cassian’s better placed pieces in an even endgame with lack of time a (not unusual) factor. On 5 Mark was the winner of our sole full point. He allowed Hugo a choice of recaptures and black chose the wrong one leading to a fork of king and queen a move later. Nice. Finally Jason also came up short. He had some threats against Rafal with queen and pawns but white kept his composure and black timed out looking for the winning solution. This was Jason’s last game for the club as he is moving to Kent. Good luck! Match card here.
Finally the F team were away to Harambee B. Once they’d managed to get into the building the match started with Harambee’s top board not arriving and by 8 we were 1-0 up with a default point. On two Kristian had a tough loss against Chris lasting only 14 moves. Black was unable to find any squares for his pieces in a difficult opening and a g and h pawn advance from white won a piece and left Kristian’s king un-defendable.
Longer games on boards 3 and 4. Martin went a pawn up into the endgame but Kofi won it back. Martin offered a draw which was rejected after he had seen black could engineer a passed pawn, but Kofi didn’t see it and in the end it was white who made the successful break. Martin avoided falling for a couple of stalemate tricks and delivered mate in 75 moves. Finally, Siobhan went down after a long struggle. She was two pawns up into the late middle game but fell for a fork and lost the exchange and then a little later a bishop. There was still hope with a pawn on the seventh but Simba kept it under control and was able to deliver mate after 63 moves. So a 2-2 draw and still in the mix for a top two finish. Match card here.
Horfield & Redland Chess Club 