Alan Papier had the White pieces on board 1 vs James Bingham. He says: Black played the opening passively so by move 7, White had total control of the centre with all the initiative and all the options. We both castled queenside and White was only a pawn up by move 27. And the initiative always stayed with Alan, leading to his victory.

I had the Black pieces on board 2 vs William Mullaney. I tried the aggressive version of the Black Lion defence but some inaccurate play gave my opponent an opportunity. He found a brilliant bishop sacrifice which eventually led to my downfall.

John Paines had the White pieces on board 3. He says: I faced Patrick Bourne, who played the Pirc Defence. After a cagey opening it seemed likely that the game would hinge on whether Patrick could control the centre with his pawns, and I was able to exploit a rash move on his part to play a skewering combination which resulted in my winning a rook and several pawns for a bishop and knight. Completely overlooking the several forced mates at my disposal which the engine has since identified (including a mate in two at one point), I tried to simplify the position and stupidly allowed Patrick to fork my king and rook. After this he had a material advantage and although I played on for a while trying to swindle a draw he was able to get a pawn home and win.

Charlie Higenbottam had the Black pieces on board 4. He says: My opponent was Jason LeRoy and he started with e4 so I played a Sicilian. After nearly ten moves, he started a pawn storm and after he began it, a series of blunders and mistakes followed. On the computer analysis, both of us had six blunders in the game. The game consistently switched on who was the leading player until White ran out of time when Black had 22 seconds left.

Shaun Walsh had the White pieces on board 5. He says: Tony Golding played Black. I have played Tony many times and they're usually close games. We have both played the French as Black and White, so no surprise Tony played the Advance variation. But Tony didn't play Qb6 as expected, instead pushing his c pawn forward leading to a closed middle game. Tony was strong on the black squares which led to a deadly attack against my King, culminating in Mate.

Nick Woods had the Black pieces on board 6 vs Phil Brand. He says his opponent found an unstoppable checkmate attack against him and this led to his defeat.

Gregory Sumner