A busy night at The Cross Hands saw two matches with the A team welcoming Grendel and more players in action in the2020 Minor Knockout final v Clevedon. Team lists were exchanged and the A team had a significant grading advantage on all boards. Still 'the play's the thing'.
Steve soon got an equal but dynamic position on Board 1 which he traded for a safe draw with the black pieces to get us off the mark. Boards 2 and 3 were both Exchange Slavs but treated differently. I went for an unusual line in which I traded off bishop for knight early to weaken black's pawn structure at the cost of conceding the g file which might be used for attacking purposes, whilst Aron and Will had developed conventionally with Aron's bishop active on f5. Board 4 also had a conventional feel with Reinhold having some space advantage in a Queen's Gambit. Board 5 was anything but conventional as Aldrin had thrust his h pawn forward very early in an attempt to neutralize Bob's great experience in Sicilians. On board 6 Mark had obtained free development and attacking potential.
The first game to finish was Aron's; he made good use of his active f5 bishop to win the exchange and then controlled the tactics as he combined simplification with threats on the back rank and to f2. Next to win was Aldrin in a complex game in which he used his talents well. So 2.5-0.5 at the halfway stage and the remaining games were looking promising. On Board 2 Patrick had attempted an attack down the g file but the blocked centre had stopped his bishops joining in and much chopping of plastic had produced a rook ending where all the chances were with me as I had control of the c file but prising open the position was going to be tricky. Reinhold had a dominant knight on d6 whilst Mark's early attack on the dark squares around black's king had been blocked at the cost of yielding Mark extra space and the e file.
Mark duly infiltrated and secured a well deserved victory. In my game I attempted to create some weakness on the queenside but Patrick rebuffed this and then as time ran short he allowed the rooks to be exchanged (if he waits patiently with Kd7 instead of Rc6 I wasn't sure how to progress) after which the pawn ending is won for me due to the weak h pawn- a rare success for my long term strategy formulated on move 5! Reinhold didn't let anything slip and a fifth win was finished off efficiently to give us a decisive match result 5.5-0.5. Off to the seaside for the next match in 11 days time!