On Wednesday we had an all Downend clash in Division 1 for the second time this season as Downend B hosted Downend A. These matches are known to go either way so everything was to play for in what was expected to be an exciting match. Due to player unavailability and illness, we decided on a 5 board match voided on board 3, which everyone was happy with.
On board 1, I faced Oscar, who was playing only his second game this season and is a very welcome addition. Over the board we had a Caro-Kann two knights variation, where white tends to look nice with the bishop pair and more space, but black is very solid and can slowly improve his position. He aims to swap off one of the bishops which often just leads to equal positions.
On board 2 Andrew Cooper faced Nigel Hosken in what started out as an entertaining opening in a French Winawer. The opening theory was bashed out quickly and a good game looked in sight, but then came the inevitable draw offer which was quickly accepted.
On board 4 Andrew Munn faced Martin White and, as expected, a Sicilian grand prix attack quickly appeared on the board. The opening stage was fairly even, but Andrew knows these positions well and, after a mistake by black, he was quick to pounce with a strong e5 leaving black a pawn on d4 which was inevitably going to fall.
Board 5 was Dominique Conterno against Mike Brigden. Dominique wheeled out his favourite Reti system whilst Mike, with aggressive intent, took the centre. White continued with the standard slow Reti moves but black was after the king, launching his g and h-pawns against the castled king, so an exciting game was ahead.
Board 6 was Ian Pickup against Toby Kan and a sharp mainline Sicilian Najdorf quickly appeared on the board, followed by another early draw offer. Toby is an up and coming, fast improving youngster so it didn't take him long to decline it and an exciting and complex battle lay ahead.
Back on my game, Oscar had put his queen on h4 and was looking to stir some trouble up in the kingside which I had to be a little careful of, but after all the inevitable exchanges, we were left with pawn symmetry on both sides of the board with my rook and knight vs Oscar's rook and bishop, The game finished drawn by repetition.
On board 4 Andrew won the pawn on d4 and black was just a clear pawn down and his bishop hemmed in. Martin went for an exchange sac to mix things up, but Andrew had it all under control to wrap things up for the first win of the night. On board 5, Mike's aggressive intentions had seen Dominique's king exposed and black's pieces quickly came in for the kill in a very nice game by black which will no doubt be a strong contender for game of the month.
Finally on board 6, the game had become very complex with Ian throwing g and f-pawns up the board leaving Toby with a difficult decision as to what to do with his king. He opted to castle queenside which could have lost to a strong f6. However Ian played a quieter knight move accompanied by a draw offer, which was this time accepted.
So a 3.5-1.5 win for the B-team winning against the A-team for the second time this season.