The Clifton D team comprises mainly (?all) promising juniors and this manifested itself in a number of ways, perhaps not surprising considering the determination of youth not to give up easily...both Aleksei and Alan were able to give checkmate a fair few moves later than Black might have resigned.

In Aleksei’s case it was after 59 moves during which the game had fluctuated into a minor piece ending where Aleksei had five pawns against Rayyan’s four but both sides had possibilities to Queen one of them. Aleksei had a key resource where he gave up a pawn but it had to be taken by Black’s King when the monarch blocked his own g and h pawns’ advance for a couple of moves while White Queened his a pawn. It was plain sailing from that point.

Alan’s game against Advay was much more straightforward as he gained a significant advantage by move 10. He was plus 6 on the engine by the time Black constructed a one move self-mate. It was fine revenge for a defeat the previous month.

Both Andrew and Elmira, with Black, had enterprising games. Both of them allowed a bishop to be captured at the cost of opening up a key file for attacking White’s King later on. Andrew may have been a bit rusty after a six year lay-off but he gave their top board, Noah, plenty to think about. White won a technical plus of B & N for R but now both the g and h files were open for Black to press with his rooks. He was able to keep attacking the White Queen and Noah decided to bail out with a draw.

Elmira had a definite if smallish plus with a better placed knight in a blocked centre and an open file on which her heavy pieces could bear down on Adam’s King. But she found noises off too distracting for her to concentrate on finding a winning line and also agreed a draw.

The overall 4-2 result was an important win against improving juniors rated from 1670 up to nearly 1900!