Both sides were missing one of their top players, but with Dave Tipper coming in on Board 6 we still had a rating advantage on all boards, so we started as favourites, but avoiding complacency.

Our first point came from our stand-in captain, Mark. He established a space advantage early on against a Pirc Defence (a reason why the Pirc is not popular at grandmaster level) and Tom’s attempt to free his position only led to a fatal weakening of his Kingside, which Mark exploited clinically.

My (Nigel) game on Board 5 started with a quirky line of the French, but the position soon became blocked and there was nothing to be done to avoid the draw.

James was much more successful in his French Defence. He generated lots of play on the Queenside and this produced a position in which all the Queenside had been cleared off, leaving James trying to infiltrate with his one remaining rook and bishop against Richard’s rook and knight, with all the play restricted to the d to h files. He successfully reached a favourable rook ending, which may have been drawn with best play. However best play did not happen and James won to put us 2½-1½ up and in sight of victory.

Dave stood well on Board 6, with a space advantage and play against a weak d6 pawn and with Patrick’s King still in the centre. Dave missed the complicated best line - a knight check to keep the King trapped - and Patrick was able to escape with long castling. With time running short, Dave was happy to exchange off the Queens then to neutralize the dangers on the h file and to agree the draw which ensured we could not lose the match.

There was still drama to come. Haroon had been struggling from early on, having lost a pawn to a knight sally on his King; Reinhold’s position was level - a typical Grunfeld in which he had a central majority on e4 and d4, whilst Jerry was sniping at it from all angles.

Eventually Reinhold went for an h4, h5 thrust to pressure Jerry’s King. The defence was tricky and Reinhold broke through in the centre with his Queen and could have forced a favourable ending. However he mistakenly also brought his rook into the attack (it is usually good to bring everything to the party) and this allowed Jerry to play a sudden counterattack which won. Suddenly the match result was in doubt!

Haroon had long been struggling; a pawn down but his position was not getting worse and the manoeuvres were complex. Ultimately he generated sufficient activity to reclaim the pawn deficit and was then pushing for a win. As time ran away, a level rook ending was reached and the position was repeated to get us the draw we needed to win the match 3½-2½, and maintain our position at the top of the table. Horfield next so that won’t be easy!