Author: peterdmarks

Two cup matches. Not enough players to win both of them; the joy of arranging fixtures during the Easter break! We only had four against the five of Thornbury but came really close to scoring a remarkable win. Mike J won early against Mike M on board 5. He worked a good positional advantage and …

Continue reading "Match Reports: MKO games (19 April): One out of two ain’t bad"

A splendid final round for the three Horfield teams. Firstly the D team were at Clifton. With Kana unwell we only took three players, but it was enough to secure a draw. Hendrik won very rapidly on board 1; he was already in a strong position when Joel overlooked a one move mate with his …

Continue reading "Match Reports: B, C, D teams (12 April): All white on the night"

Wet in Bath last night (I know, I know). Board 2 finished early. Derek, after the delight of dentistry in the afternoon, got the wrong side of Steve’s very sharp pet line. The pressure of the position and white playing his first 19 moves instantly told and a blunder on move 20 made the position untenable, although …

Continue reading "Match Report: Bath A vs Horfield A (6 April): A win to finish the season."

The derby, a seven-board extravaganza of chess brilliance. On board 1 Rob managed to get a comfortable positional advantage out of the opening against Mike (L) and then won a pawn, he looked very much in control. On board 2 I was playing as a late sub against Mikey and we played the first 12 …

Continue reading "Match Report: Horfield B vs Horfield C (29 March): Magnificent seven"

We expected to out-grade Grendel and we did. To make it harder on themselves they were without Alistair and anyone on boards 5 or 6. Clearly they like a challenge. First to finish was Derek and Mark on board 2. Derek had much the better of the game with the white pieces and comfortably worked …

Continue reading "Match Report: Horfield A vs Grendel A (22 March): Biggest win since…."

Hmm. Two matches we expected to be tough turned out to be tough. Firstly on Wednesday we managed to muster three players against a Cabot A side who was going to be higher graded than us. This turned out to be a mistake. Shalome, playing his first league match for us, finished first against the …

Continue reading "Match reports: B and C teams (16 and 17 March): Oops"

Clifton have had a boom in new players this year and they are trying to introduce as many as possible to league chess. Our team had three players who have started this season meaning seven out of the eight participants are new this year which surely is a good thing for chess in Bristol. Board …

Continue reading "Match Report: Clifton E vs Horfield D (15 March): A clean sweep."

Our strongest team of the season with Callum making his debut for us, Steve playing his first of the season, and Mike his second. It isn’t often we out-grade a Downend team but they were probably more match-fit with all their players having played regularly this year and not needing to shake the rust off …

Continue reading "Match Report: Horfield A vs Downend A (8 March): Honours even"

Our fourth fixture against a University team this season. Before last night we were 0-3. Everyone obviously knows this is the one that mattered though. It was a night of four short games at the Student Union; with the longest lasting only 32 moves. So in order of shortest to longest here we go: On …

Continue reading "Match Report: University C vs Horfield C (3 March): Three wins in a week"