The A team were two players short for this match as Aron was playing chess in Menorca and Martin was on an extended holiday in the lake district, with the B team playing the night before finding replacements was proving tricky. Aldrin fresh from a superb win the night before was available along with Rob who came in to replace Aron. Horfield turned up with their best team so the sides were well matched on grading and a close match was in prospect. with great expectations which were not to be disappointed.
First to finish was Board 5, where solid efforts by Peter and Peter saw the position peter out to equality, followed in short order by Board 4. In this game Nigel and Stephen trod a well known theory line, not dissimilar to the World Championship game that day. Stephen knew all the wrinkles, successfully breaking out from a passive structure to gain more than equality in a heavy piece position in which Nigel's determined defence of his weak backward pawn convinced Stephen to not take any risks in opening the position. The agreed draw would not have shocked the viewing public, whose money may have been on this result from the start.
Plenty of excitement was to come in the remaining games, which all merit more analysis than I can give them here. On Board 3 Derek was giving full rein to his creative talents from an unusual opening. Steve grabbed a couple of pawns at the cost of getting his king trapped in the centre and allowing Derek's rook in at g7, with the threat of a dangerous looking bishop sac on e6, after more fuel had been thrown on the fire with an h4 pawn sac. It would seem that 22 .... Bg5+ followed by Qc5 then if Bxe6 Rd8 may have been the way to go, but these lines are nigh on impossible to calculate over the board, and indeed my ancient Fritz 6 keeps changing its mind. As played Derek's attack raged unabated and he won Steve's queen for a rook and a motley collection of pawns. Time trouble now intervened and Derek blundered his queen, no doubt overlooking the e5 enabled the bishop on f5 to cover the rook on c8. A bishop ending was reached with both sides having dangerous looking passed pawns. Steve had more pawns, but Derek's looked more mobile, and indeed Steve gave up his bishop to reach the safe haven of a draw where more time may have enabled him to spot some studylike wins involving allowing Derek to queen first, or with Steve giving up his bishop to get his own h pawn through. Both players deserve lots of credit for this game.
The top two boards were no easier. On Board 1 Rob conceded a space advantage to get a solid position. After some shuffling around he broke out with ...c5 and potentially d5/d4. Callum was alert to the danger and as time ran short he upped the ante with a pawn lunge f5/f6 followed by a knight sac on f5. This gave good practical chances but Rob was able to rush his knight over to g6 to cover the threats and, as both players traded tactical blows, Callum ran out of steam and Rob's counterattack won the game.
As the match entered its last few minutes the result was still in doubt. On Board 2 Oscar had launched an early f5 thrust against Matias' king but Mathias was holding firm. Oscar then increased the tension with a pawn sac for more kingside play. This gave good practical chances as his pieces swarmed around the black king from all directions. As so often the difficulties of balancing the demands of defence with possible counterattack proved too much (e.g. 26...Bh6 looked natural but Nxh3 or even Qxa2 which is very unhuman, taking the queen away from the king or 34 ... Qf7 are possible lines) and Oscar won the queen for rook and bishop. Both sides were very short of time and a string of checks followed in the course of which Oscar missed a chance to win the bishop and then drove Matias' king up the board so he too had mating threats. Finally Mathis' flag fell in a position where all three results still looked possible. The match was won and the crowd was emotionally exhausted!
There still remained Board 6 on which Aldrin had obtained a promising looking position in a unusual line against Andy's French Defence. However French players tend to be a resilient bunch and this proved to be the case here as Andy emerged from the complications with a winning ending and, despite Aldrin's efforts with lots of checks as time ran short, Andy steered the boat in to a win and a final match result of a win to Downend by 3.5-2.5; clearly it could have gone either way!
On then to a possible title decider at home v University on April 26th. Don't miss it!