Close on the scorecard but Downend were worthy winners. We were without our top two but Downend didn’t have Indy and Graham so neither side had a full complement. On board one Derek tried to undermine Michael’s system with an early e5 but it allowed white to play e4 and d5 to gain a strong …
Match Report: Horfield C vs Bath B (8 February): Close but not quite
We lost. I expected we would but it could have been very different as we pushed the best team in the division all the way. So after some typical Bath specific ‘where did you park?’ chat we settled into a really entertaining match. On board 1 Luke and Clive were testing each other’s theoretical knowledge …
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Match Report: Horfield B vs Keynsham A (7 February): Marching on
Our march to promotion continued last night with a comprehensive victory over Keynsham. We were aided by a default on board 6 which resulted in a shuffle up of the lower boards for Keynsham making their task even harder. Mike and John were first to finish on board 2. White had broken with his a …
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4th Bristol Blitz
We had eight players at the Blitz to play eleven rounds of 5+3. 79 players and a really good event put on by Igor. Thank you Igor. Usual mix of blunders, overlooked ideas and the occasional bit of cleverness. Callum was our best scoring player with 7/11 with Phil and Rob on 6.5. Mike and …
Match Report: Horfield A vs University A (2 February): Very much in the title race
We lost the home fixture 4-2 so were hoping for a better result this time to keep us in the title race. Two draws first on boards 4 and 5. On 5 Peter was sharp out of the opening against Ian and obtained a slight advantage. Opposite side castling was followed by a pawn storm on …
Match Report: Horfield B vs University B (26 January): Top, unbeaten, maybe a touch lucky
A top of the table clash against the students. Win the match and clear daylight at the top of the table. We’ll come back to the top match as it was the last to finish but will take them in order for boards 2 to 5. On Board 2 John and Sam had a bit …
Match reports: C team beats Hanham and D team loses to Grendel B (24 January)
Our rearranged fixture from December against Hanham was played last night and saw the uptick in the C team’s results continue. In the battle of the Kirks on board 6 James, playing his first game after a short break, gave Richard absolutely nothing. White accurately piled on the pressure, kept black’s king in the centre, …
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Match Reports: A and C teams in action
It was very cold on Monday on the hillside above Clevedon, coats, gloves, visible breathing, so in an impressive display of hardiness 12 brave chess-players battled out a drawn match in division 1. Callum on Board 1 and Steve on board 4 started proceedings with draws. Steve had the advantage of the bishop pair into …
Match Reports: Two MKO matches: Neither glorious.
Two cup games during the week. Meh. Firstly Horfield 2 on Wednesday. In the last round we’d managed to squeeze past Cabot with only four players. This time we had a full team so that was a plus. But as it turned out there wasn't a lot else to be delighted by. Dave and I …
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