Horfield & Redland Chess Club

A tough night for us. Firstly the A team were up against the league-leading University A team. We started out by defaulting on board one (which isn’t the ideal) however we scored with the first result of the night on board four as James launched a kingside attack which Tom bravely decided to castle into. …

Continue reading "Match Reports: A and C teams in action (15 February): Oh dear."

Off to the cricket club with the romantic coastal view for chocolates and roses chess. On one Piotr, had an open and dynamic game with Brian. The opening was watchful but black decided to expand his queen side pawns and the centre exploded and white’s pieces were better placed to take advantage of the open …

Continue reading "Match Report: Clevedon C vs Horfield B (14 February): Valentine’s Day victory"

A match that went right down to the wire. Peter finished early, he got an advantage out of a unorthodox opening from Matthew and felt he was in control of the position. Black put some pressure on c4 but it didn’t amount to much and white won the exchange and once his rooks broke into …

Continue reading "Match Report: Horfield A vs Clevedon A (8 February): Honours even."

Three matches in a night again. Exciting times. B team vs Cabot A Scott finished early. Unfortunately the wrong side of opening know-how as Alastair created an enormous centre and black had no squares for his pieces, was unable to get his dark-squared bishop out and his king died in the middle. Mike J dropped …

Continue reading "Match Reports: B, C, and D teams (1 February): Mixed blessings"

Downend A are very strong this year and consistently strong on all six boards. So what came to pass wasn't entirely unexpected. Before the match there was a degree of amusement that Downend had decided on a board order to avoid Nigel and Oli playing Peter and Matias. Half right. So in board order: On …

Continue reading "Match Report: Downend A vs Horfield A (26 January): Out-graded, out-gunned"

We’ve added a fourth team to give some of our new recruits a chance to play regular league chess and last night they did themselves proud. Two of our matches were at home. The B team took on Hanham and the C team were playing Cabot B, the third match of the night was our …

Continue reading "Match Reports: B, C, and D teams all in action (19 January): Oh what a night."

Off to Yate to play North Bristol. Our hosts were a man short so I sat out the match and we promoted everyone up a board so Remi and Owen got matches whilst I counted ceiling tiles waiting for the games to finish and the pleasure of chauffeuring the team back into the city. Piotr …

Continue reading "Match Report: North Bristol B vs Horfield B (9 December): Victory in Yate."

We were significantly stronger than Bath who certainly didn’t have their best team out; the new world has impacted some clubs more than others. James finished quickly mating Roy in 21 moves after white blundered a knight and got his queen trapped in the first ten moves.  Nigel and Mikey didn’t have too many problems …

Continue reading "Match Report: Horfield A vs Bath A (30 November): Another win."

The inter-church hall battle; a fixture that gets the synod a flutter. We’d brought, by our standards, a decent team and I was hopeful we would get something out of the match. On one Nigel and John had got wild early with white giving up a knight for two pawns to try to get to …

Continue reading "Match Report: Keynsham vs Horfield C (25 November): A comfortable win."