This report includes feedback from Dave and Peter. We welcomed University B to the Fishponds Club, which was the second time they had visited us recently, having beaten our C team only last month. We were hoping the B team could go one better.

It didn’t start off the way we wanted because Dave reports that he didn’t see much of Martin’s game on board two but knows that he lost the exchange and, a bit later, the game.

Humphrey was next to finish. With Black on board three he got better piece play from the opening and was virtually a pawn up according to the engine by move 11. His attacking play, together with a neat combination, led to the win of pawns and later his better placed pieces overwhelmed his opponent’s, which by then were hanging and vulnerable. So this levelled the score at 1-1.

Dave’s game (White on board six) was next. By move 19 all the pieces had been swapped off except the rooks and a bishop and knight each. Once the minor pieces were exchanged too, the pawns became more interlocked and, although Dave had a theoretical plus, there was no obvious way to make any progress and the game was agreed drawn on move 45.

So now it was over to Alexei to try to break the deadlock. He reached a middle game with better prospects thanks to his long range bishop on an open board coupled with more mobile rooks. He was able to win two pawns and then White blundered on move 40 to lose a catastrophic amount of material which put us back in front.

This left it to the Malibirans, father and son, to try to convert the slender lead into a won match. After 40 odd moves Aldrin had a plus and Alexis was pretty much dead level. But, of course, it didn’t work out like that in the end! A sole pawn down in the ending, Alexis’s opponent went astray and lost; while Aldrin, in a very tricky ending, also slipped up and had to settle for a draw, although the match, by now, was won. Those watching the photos on WhatsApp afterwards could be forgiven for wondering what was going on in Alexis’s game, until you realised that the White King was on b8, not g1!

With much to be learned from these games, it was great to see that many of the University players stayed on to discuss rook and pawn endings and all in the best of good spirits.

This 4-2 result puts the B team back in contention for a promotion place, although still a long way adrift from University A. It’s all to play for in the second half of the season.