Alan Papier had the White pieces on board 1 vs Advay Misra. He says: “In the opening I had control of the centre as White but I was down a tempo. When I broke through with d5, the result was I had a bishop for his knight. In the middle game he had the initiative but once the Queens came off, the bishop dominated the board.” Alan emerged victorious.
Carolus Tang had Black on board 2 vs Anay Misra. He says: “I didn’t play that well in this game because I didn’t castle but apart from that I played alright with the opening equal. It was a French Rubinstein position and I thought although I have less space, I can still play the position. Around move 14, I blundered as I took my opponents bishop to try and fork the Queen and light squared bishop which annoyed me a bit but I just missed Nd6 which would then fork my King and rook. I thought that although I’m down a rook I would only be down 1 point because next move I could win a pawn. But later in the game since he had the rook advantage he just pushed onto my Kingside and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. I went for more activity but his pieces would just enter my position so in the end I resigned.”
The game went: 1. e4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. d4 Ngf6 6. Bd3 Be7 7. c3 b6 8. Qe2 Bb7 9. Bd2 c5 10. h4 cxd4 11. cxd4 Nd5 12. a3 Rc8 13. Bg5 Bxg5 14. Nd6+ Ke7 15. Nxc8+ Qxc8 16. Nxg5 Nf4 17. Qd2 Nxg2+ 18. Ke2 f6 19. Ne4 Qb8 20. Qb4+ Kd8 21. Rhg1 Nf4+ 22. Kd2 Ng6 23. Nd6 a5 24. Nxb7+ Qxb7 25. Qd6 Qf3 26. Raf1 Qh5 27. Qxe6 Nxh4 28. Be2 Nf3+ 29. Bxf3 Qxf3 30. Rxg7 Qf4+ 31. Kc2 Qc7+ 32. Kb1 Re8 33. Qd5 *
I had White on board 3 vs Will Cook. I played a variation on the Colle system and for the first 18 moves all was well in that the game was even according to the engine. However, on move 19 I played Ng5 which gifted a great move to my opponent in Nxd2, removing the defender of my N on g5. After QxN on d2 Will played Bf4 forking my Q and N and I wasn’t able to recover from my blunder. Chess.com gave me 88% accuracy and a rating of 2400 and Will 95% and 2500. I do wonder how it reaches such complimentary numbers since my ECF rating is 1450 and Will’s is 1636!
The game went: 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 Bf5 4. Bd3 Bg6 5. Bxg6 hxg6 6. Nbd2 Nbd7 7. O-O e6 8. h3 c5 9. c3 cxd4 10. exd4 Bd6 11. Re1 O-O 12. Ne5 Qc7 13. Ndf3 Ne4 14. Nxd7 Qxd7 15. Ng5 Nf6 16. Nf3 Qc7 17. Qe2 Rfe8 18. Bd2 Ne4 19. Ng5 Nxd2 20. Qxd2 Bf4 21. Nxe6 Rxe6 22. Qd3 Rae8 23. Kf1 Rxe1+ 24. Rxe1 Rxe1+ 25. Kxe1 Qe7+ 26. Qe2 Qxe2+ 27. Kxe2 f5 28. b4 b5 29. g3 Bc7 30. f4 Kf7 31. h4 Kg8 32. Kf3 Kh7 33. g4 Kh6 34. g5+ Kh5 35. Kg3 Bd6 36. a3 a6 37. Kf3 Kxh4 38. Ke3 Kg3 39. Kd3 Kxf4 *
Charlie Higenbottam had Black on board 4 vs Noah Taylor. He says: "Noah played e4 to start the game so I played the Sicilian Defence and he played the Moscow variation with Bb5+. What White plays usually is pawn c3 then d4 to control the centre and a move for black is e6 then d6 so the centre is split between us but I think I got the timing wrong as my position became locked for me but open for him so he had space to move his pieces. I had a backward pawn in the centre which became a problem and I blundered it. Eventually, he was the exchange up (rook to knight) in the endgame but he blundered his rook and it was his three pawns versus my knight. He was able to push them all at the same time which my knight and King couldn't handle so he promoted and checkmated me."
Nick Woods had the White pieces on board 5 vs Tarun Pamunuwa. I have no details but Tarun came out on top.
Vivaan Suresha had Black on board 6 vs Rafal Cala. He says: "The game started off with an equal position in the opening. However, Rafal managed to gain 2 pawns on the Queen side giving a slight advantage in the endgame. Eventually, we traded off Queens and a knight; at this point he was pushing my King down the board. Luckily he made a slight mistake allowing me to regain a pawn and protect all my pieces and threaten him not to move his King since I could take his. After a few more waiting moves, waiting for the other player to make a mistake but no one made a mistake, so I asked for a draw which was accepted."
The final score was 4½-1½ to Clifton Juniors 2, not a bad result, considering they out-rated us by an average of 200 points per player.
Gregory Sumner