The A-team has spent the season trailing the B-team, but thanks to a late surge had the opportunity to leap above them to snatch third place in their final match, if they won with a score of at least 4.5-1.5. Unfortunately, the final match was the A vs B-team match. Obviously in that situation there's the potential for some end of season draws between friends, but worse from the statistics front was that the A-team hasn't beaten the B-team since October 2017 (back when the A-team had two 200-strength players). Naturally, there were to be no short draws. To that end, Andrew Cooper pulled out on the day and was replaced by Aron Saunders who finishes his season with a fantastic 10 wins, 10 losses, and 0 draws. Exactly the sort of super substitute we needed.

Oscar and Steve went for some early central exchanges in quite an open position. They were also playing slowly trying to eke out the slightest edges. Nigel went for the solid-est of responses to Oli's standard setup. A knight sat menacingly on h5 ready to chop off the London bishop, but other than that, it was business as usual. My game took a circuitous route to a normal Sicilian, but I immediately blundered a-pawn with only the slightest of development advantages to justify it.

Aron played a bold line aiming to shatter Mike's queenside, but white's centre was imposing and difficult to work around. Dominique and Andrew exchanged pieces getting to a heavy piece endgame as quickly as they could. It was no surprise that Martin and Ian had a Maroczy Bind and Ian was working hard to destablise the queenside.

As the pieces were swapped off on board 2, it became clear that a drawn endgame was emerging, so Oli and Nigel split the point. Chirag came up with a fantastic plan to return the pawn and sacrifice the exchange in order to trap my king and get a strong attack. After some "unorthodox" defending on my part, time trouble got the better of black and white escaped with a repetition.

I seem to have missed the crunch moments on the extremity boards, but suddenly Oscar was playing with a queen against Stephen's rook and bishop, and Martin and Ian were playing as normal, but Martin was up a bishop. As Aron was taking over the queenside, Mike took advantage with a hack down the kingside. In terms of winning by the required score, things were not looking good. In terms of winning, things were also not looking good.

Despite looking like he would find a solid defence, Stephen was ground down by Oscar's queen and we briefly took the lead in the match. Mike brought equality back as the looming sacrifice never seemed to arrive and instead was an extra piece in the attack. Andrew had taken control of the d-file, but without a plan allowed a repetition, the claiming of which Geoff explained to the club after. I include it here, in case it helps anyone in future:

1. Write the move that would reach a position for the third time (this includes castling/en-passant rights and whose move it is).

2. Claim the draw, but do not make the move.

3. Stop the clock.

4. If the claim is in dispute, captains or an arbiter will check the validity of the claim.

5. If claim is correct, the game is drawn and the players must go to the bar. If it is not, the game continues with the written move played.

At 2.5-2.5, Ian had an uphill task to hold his game in the time pressure. Martin thought for a while and then played a sequence that won at least one pawn. Ian decided enough was enough and threw in the towel.

It may be a disappointing end for the A-team, but it's a triumph for the B-team. Well done to everyone involved and thank you to all the last-minute substitutes. We hope to see you all for the festival of chess over the coming months at The Cross Hands!