A couple of match wins. Wonders.

Four matches last week and a slightly better story to tell with two wins and two defeats.

The B team mathematically secured their division 2 status with a win over University B. Andy and Brent picked up full points. Match card here

The C team did what they needed to do against Downend D to win 4.5-1.5 and go top of the division 3. Early wins for Duncan (by 8.30) and Joe (who had to win it twice) set us on the way. Duncan was the grateful recipient of a blunder from Dave which cost a piece and left his position in tatters. Joe won a piece early, gave it back, then had too much know-how for Hector and made the most of his extra pawn and positional advantages. Draws for John (offered 3 times and turned down, then accepted Alan’s counter-offer) and Pete (missed a winning tactic, got into a rubbish endgame, held on for a draw) took us to the threshold of the match win. Nigel took us over the top with a good win in a rook and opposite coloured bishop ending allowing Alan to cease hostilities in a complex rook and minor piece ending with four isolated pawns for each player. Match card here

The E team were always up against it versus Bristol 4 Knights who enjoyed an average rating advantage of almost 300 per board. 0-4 came to pass. Match card here

Finally, the F team came unstuck in a 5 board match against South Bristol D. Somehow they remain second in division 7 despite having a -8 game points difference. Match card here

Match report below from the F team. Thank you.

Tom provided the only win for us on the night. Simon had applied some pressure on white’s centre but in attempting to convert that to a material gain, committed a tactical error and lost his d-pawn. This simplified the board into an endgame where Tom’s passed d-pawn exerted constant pressure and he took an opportunity to exchange one of his rooks for black’s strong dark-squared bishop, which enabled Tom to force further trades that left him up 2 pawns and a bishop vs black’s king and remaining pawns. Black’s king was eventually cornered, and Tom was able to checkmate with his a-pawn on move 49.

On board 2 Graham’s king was vulnerable as he hadn’t castled and Sean had an extra two pawns and open files on both sides of the boards. White found an excellent square for his knight, and supported by his bishop was able to attack both of black’s rooks and king. Job done. On board 3 another tale of woe. A speculative g pawn advance by Kristian in front of his castled king led to a winning queen, bishop and rook attack.

On board 4 Mike and Alessandro reached a very congested position in the middlegame. All the pieces and pawns were still on the board until move 15 and no pawns were exchanged until move 33. Mike engineering a partial advantage by creating a semi-open f-file whilst white tried to build an attack with his queen and knights. However black was able to avoid any nasty surprises and with both players low on time and material level Mike accepted a draw. Finally on bonus board 5 Martin was even into the middle game with Ryszard.  However, he fell into a tactic which quickly allowed Ryszard to go 2 pawns and with promotion inevitable Martin resigned.