Horfield & Redland Chess Club

We had eight players at the Bristol Rapid play. This is not a tournament report but instead something much more parochial; similar to 'Fog in the Channel; Continent cut off'. Derek finished on 5/6, half a point behind the winner. His blot was against Chris Beaumont and his last round evisceration of Aron Saunders was …

Continue reading "Bristol 2nd Autumn Rapid Play Tournament (30 October)"

The D team played on Monday away to Clevedon. A very satisfactory result and the team now has three wins out of three. Board one was first to finish. Ben had traded down to a winning endgame a pawn up however Alex was able to exploit the black king being stuck on the back rank …

Continue reading "Match reports: D team (24 October), B team (25 October): Top of the league(s)!"

Splendid. Downend were without Oli and Graham but had managed to whistle up Michael as an excellent board 1 replacement and Tena, a WFM with a previous rating of 1960, for board six. We were 4 A team regulars short of a full team but the B team replacements did an entirely adequate job of …

Continue reading "Match report: Horfield A vs Downend B (19 October)"

The B team: A curates egg of a match for the B team. On board one Phil transformed a solid two pawn advantage and an opportunity to open up the centre onto Fergus’s king into something less palatable, by, and I quote, ‘contriving to play moves that made his otherwise innocuous attack work’. John on …

Continue reading "Match reports: B and C teams in action (18 October)"

A late start to the league season for the B team who played their first fixture at Keynsham. On board one Phil and John K played a wild game in which white was very pleased to accept the draw offer from black. On two John R, still easing his way back into chess, moved a …

Continue reading "Match Report: Horfield B vs Keynsham A (13 October); starting with a win"

Two home matches and a tough night. The A team hosted the defending league champions and came off worse against a strong team performance from the students. Callum and Matias lost on the top two boards and Steve and Andy finished on the wrong side of games that, with a different wind,  might have been …

Continue reading "Match Reports: Horfield A vs University A and Horfield C vs Bath B (4 September)"

The second of our MKO games this week. We took four players with us, which many would say is a high-risk strategy. I knew about one default before the match and had let Alastair know, the second not. As it happened one of Cabot’s players failed to show making the deficit slightly more manageable. Pleasingly …

Continue reading "Match Report: MKO vs Cabot (28 September)"

The first of our two MKO games this week. On board one a slog of a middle game had been reached; it looked pretty difficult for either side to make progress. John had a space advantage but Igor had well structured pawns making any pawn-breaks difficult for white and no obvious entry points or outposts. …

Continue reading "Match report: MKO vs Clifton (27 September)"

Barely into autumn and the first round of the Cup has arrived. We took a strong team to Bath and expected if we could hold their big guns on the top boards we should have the edge further down. As it turned we did rather better than just hold the top boards. Callum gambited a pawn …

Continue reading "Match Report: Horfield ease past Bath in the Cup (22 September)"