Our first match against a non-Downend team this season against Horfield B started with an early morning email advising Horfield were only going to be able to field three players. It would have been more enjoyable to have a full match, but then again 1 - 0 before breakfast is not a bad start to the day.

I didn't see very much of the match as I was downstairs playing against one of the many new members. When I first came upstairs to inspect, I saw Tom had had a mishap in his game. After starting well and engineering a slight edge, temporary blindness on move 19 led to the swift loss of a bishop and an unfortunate turn in fortunes which became too much to recover from. 1 - 1

Peter Chaplin's game against Peter Marks was progressing steadily, with equal material and no obvious advantages on either side. Steve seemed to be in control of his game against Mike Jennings having seized control of the d file, with a couple of rooks already in residence there, as well as a mighty looking knight out-post on the same file.

After another spell downstairs I returned to Peter's game around move 30. It was still equal on material with a queen and four pawns each, but Peter C's passed b pawn with local support from the queen made it look like careful play would lead to victory. And indeed, Peter was able to work the position until the opportunity to swap off queens into an assured win was possible and Peter M resigned. 2 - 1

A while later Steve's game had moved into the final stages. Both players with equal material (queen, rook, bishop and seven pawns) and both fairly low on time, but with Steve having a powerful looking Bishop anchored on f6 in front of the f7 pawn restricting Mike's king, and with Mike's pawn on g6 leaving a big hole for Steve's nearby queen to threaten to enter. Mike fought well and a draw looked possible at one point. It became very tense with only a minute or two each on the clock when Steve eventually saw his chance for a lovely sacrifice to lose the exchange but gain two pawns with his king, that had trekked down the board, and in the process clear the path for his h pawn to queen.

Final score. A 3 - 1 win for Downend C.