Yate have strengthened their squad considerably over the last year or so and now look like strong promotion contenders from Division Three. They out-rated us on the five boards where ratings were known.

The match started with two fairly quick results. Nigel was gambitted, the Milner-Barry in fact, which he plays himself, and soon found, unfortunately, what a dangerous weapon it can be. Meanwhile I settled for a draw with Andy Penn.

The other four boards were all set for the long haul. Elmira, with Black against new recruit this season, Mike, ex Thornbury, was under pressure. Alan, by the time I looked, had a most strange position against newcomer Rajani - his King was somewhat exposed in the centre but he had an extra bishop! Dave’s game against Jeremy, who was now able to drop down to board five, soon became somewhat gridlocked with only the heavy pieces remaining. Dan’s game was hardest to figure out - the upside was that he had an extra pawn and more space against Andy Hewitt; the downside that he had not yet castled and his pieces were somewhat overstretched.

A closer look at Alan’s game shows that he had won a piece to a simple tactic by move ten but needed time to unravel his remaining pieces, while Rajani had some threats with his rooks on an open board. Once Alan consolidated his position, his opponent could comfortably have resigned at any time but chose to hang on until it was K + R v K after about 60 moves! This was in fact the last game to finish.

Dan had been a pawn up from the QGA but in a complicated middle game both players missed chances. At one stage the engine says that his opponent had a telling advantage but Dan was able successfully to confuse matters and after a wholesale exchange of pieces they reached an equal R + N ending with scattered pawns.

Meanwhile Dave defended carefully against a K-side attack and, while this gave him space to operate on the other wing, his opponent was equally careful and the draw was soon agreed.

Elmira’s development was always just behind and the pressure eventually told as she lost a pawn on each side of the board. While four against three on the K-side might be tenable in the long run, two against one on the Q-side was a more immediate problem. However, while Mike was trying to figure out how to get a passed pawn, Elmira started operations of her own against the White castled King. She succeeded in mixing it up so well that the only King in real danger was Mike’s and, to avoid a disastrous turnaround, he was obliged to force a draw by repetition, just before Alan won.

So, after some tense final minutes, the match was drawn. The result had looked in jeopardy, and special credit was due to Elmira and Dan, who had both saved their games after facing various difficulties.

Yate remain the clear leaders on 14 points but there are five other teams, including the D team, bunched on 12, 11 or 10 points, any of which could challenge for promotion if they put a decent run together.

Ian Pickup