Alan Papier had the White on board 1 vs Ben Radford. He says: “I was White and my lead in development (I castled on move 4, he on move 15) allowed me to start a fight after which I was a pawn up. I exchanged pieces to simplify and in the final position my King was on f5, knight on f6 and pawn on e7.” Alan won his game.

Grant Daly had Black on board 2 vs Christopher Johnson. He says: “My game was a Closed Sicilian. It was all pretty even until a rash move 15 meant my position suffered an R.U.D., as they say in the rocket world.”

I had White on board 3 vs Liam Wheen. The game went: 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. e3 Bg4 4. b3 e5 5. dxe5 Bxf3 6. Qxf3 Nxe5 7. Qh5 Qf6 8. c3 O-O-O 9. Qh3+ Qe6 10. Qxe6+ fxe6 11. Be2 h5 12. Bb2 g5 13. f4 gxf4 14. exf4 Ng6 15. g3 h4 16. Rg1 Bc5 17. Rg2 h3 18. Rf2 Bxf2+ 19. Kxf2 Nf6 20. Nd2 Rhf8 21. Rc1 e5 22. f5 Nh5 23. Bg4 Nf6 24. Bxh3 Ne7 25. Ba3 Rf7 26. Bxe7 Rxe7 27. g4 Rh7 28. Kg3 Ne4+ 29. Nxe4 dxe4 30. Bf1 Rd2 31. h3 Rxa2 32. Bc4 c6 33. Re1 Rc2 34. Re3 b5 35. Be6+ Kd8 36. c4 b4 37. g5 Rc3 38. Kf2 Rc2+ 39. Re2 Rxh3 40. Rxc2 Rh2+ 41. Ke3 Rxc2 42. Kxe4 a5 43. g6 Rg2 44. Kxe5 a4 45. f6 Rxg6 46. Kf5 Rg1 47. bxa4 b3 48. c5 b2 49. Ba2 Ra1 50. Bb1 Rxb1 51. Kg6 Ke8 52. Kg7 Rg1+

It was a wild game where we both had chances. I blundered on move 17 and ended up trading my R for his B. On move 24 I should've played Ke3, undoing the pin and leaving his Ns double attacked. 36 c4 was a mistake, g5 was best, I should’ve focused on advancing my passed pawns. 40 Rxc2 put me up +3.6 but I failed to find 41 Kg1. 45 f6 was a miss, bxa4 would’ve put me back in front. Sadly, I ended up snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.”

John Paines had Black on board 4 vs Cash Thom. He says: “Cash beat me easily in the corresponding fixture last season and although I again lost to him, I was much happier with the way I played. Like my previous opponent he played the unusual 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Bf4, and this led to an interesting game with chances on both sides. Cash threw pawns forward on the K side which led me to castle on the opposite side, and then established a bishop on h2 which bore down on my d6 and c7 for most of the game. My attempts to neutralise his threats by forcing an exchange of Queens led to my losing a pawn and Cash establishing a passed pawn in the centre. Although I fought hard for a draw he was able to win in the end.”

Shaun Walsh had White on board 5 vs Aimee Lowry. He says: I tried a rare line against the Sicilian, the Smith-Morra Gambit but made a mistake on move 11 leading to a lost pawn. I was a pawn down for most of the game. In the end game Black made a small mistake by allowing a passed pawn to become isolated. Black was still winning but gave away the opposition, White quickly took advantage by taking the opposition and despite 10 more moves the game was clearly a draw.

Nick Woods had Black on board 6 vs John Paton. He says: My opponent played the Queen's Gambit and I responded with the Nimzo-indian. I exchanged his knight on c3 with my dark squared bishop, got my knight on e4 supported by my bishop on b7 controlling the long diagonal and also a pawn on f5 all supporting the knight. My opponent took a long time thinking at this point, over 25 mins, before he made a move. He got his knight out on f3 bishop on e2 and we both castled King-side. At this point I should have pushed my positional advantage with a rook and Queen on the h and g files attacking his King but I got distracted defending a backward pawn which my opponent was attacking with doubled rooks. In the end we both had a rook left but he had an extra two pawns and he was able to Queen first and win the game.”

Final result a 4½-1½ loss.