University arrived as an unknown quantity, whilst we were pleased to welcome Aron and Alexis as Mark took a watching brief.

The first thing he could watch was me (Nigel) making a mess of the opening on Board 5 and getting a totally passive position with all my pieces tied up defending a weak pawn. It was a relief when James spotted a winning tactic and I could resign.

Aron had by now established a dominant position on Board 2 and soon equalised the match. Alexis on Board 6 had launched an early attack on the White side of a Sicilian which looked promising. However, he lost momentum and his position went downhill, so University were now 2-1 up.

James had a strange and unbalanced game; the balance swung in his favour as his g pawn surged forwards in the ending to equalise the match.

Oli had one of those annoying games in which he won a couple of pawns early on with his opponent trying to attack the weak pawns to equalise the material. Oli retained control at the cost of one pawn and then was able to coordinate his pieces to win two pieces in the endgame and force a mating attack against an opponent who adopted the fashionable habit of playing on when resigning seemed a better option. 3-2 up now!

Reinhold had slowly increased his space advantage with the White pieces to the extent that he managed to get both a bishop and later a knight all the way to e8 and tie up his opponent’s two knights completely. He engineered the winning of a pawn and thus the game and the match 4-2.

A happy ending after a poor start. We visit our friends at the seaside for the next match.