For the first time this season, the long drive to Bristol featured problematic traffic and as Oscar's lift, this meant we were both about 25 minutes late. Clocks started, Oscar sensibly decided to avoid thinking about opening theory by punting a London. I avoided theory by playing some nonsense I typically reserve for bullet chess (or losing BCT Game of the Season votes). After catching my breath, having ran from parking to the board, I had only a few moments to survey the scene just before the draws started.

Nigel and Peter were heading to a rook and-pawn endgame where white may have had a slight pull but both sides had an active rook. Andrew C was developing carefully and appeared to have a slight space and development advantage over John. Andrew M, filling in for Dominique, was facing Bob for the second time in three days but this time had white. It looked like it was going to be an all-in affair with opposite side castling and rook-file attacks. Ian was defending against Prakash's imposing centre by finding some nice holes in the position.

Now that I had my bearings, Nigel floated the first draw offer. Peter thought about it and before he had a chance to choose, Andrew C decided 13 moves was quite enough and submitted one of his own. John agreed. Not to be outdone, Prakash felt that 11 moves was ample and Ian, sensing victory from the other games even less developed than his own, chose to split the point and enjoy the spectacle. Paul also chucked a draw offer of his own, but Oscar, showing that he's new to the ways of Downend & Fishponds, opted to play on.

I was in a queenless middlegame, with a slight pull thanks to white's zeal in exchanging pieces. Andrew's attack appeared to be landing first, which is to say that it was the only attack on the board, but it looked like black would have plenty of defensive resources. Oscar had achieved what would be the dream London position (and I don't necessarily mean that it was a snooze) while Paul was running out of space.

I took a weak pawn but Roger refused to recapture it for too long fearing some unpleasant discoveries and since the rooks, knights, and bishops were well-placed, my king wandered up the board quite safely to stir up more trouble. After some more-pawns fell and some pieces were exchanged, Roger decided there were no tricks left to prevent the first pawn from promoting and resigned. Andrew set strong attacking or mating threats to slowly improve his position and although Bob made it a tough nut to crack, it was ultimately a dramatic royal fork that ended the game.

Match in the bag, Oscar's queen and bishop were doing more damage than Paul's rooks and knight. As the-pawns fell, black's king was the one that became most exposed and it wasn't long until the third and final decisive game was won by Downend.

The middle of the table is a bit of a close-run thing as this win has, temporarily, pushed us to third in the league (finally above our own B-team!) and should push any lingering fears of the relegation zone away. Maybe now we can turn our attention to the knockout match next week!