Alejandro Vilchez had White on board 1 vs Jon White. He says: “The game began with a Caro–Kann Defence, and both players followed a fairly balanced line. After early central exchanges, the pieces developed harmoniously, with neither side gaining a clear advantage. White applied some pressure along the c-file, while Black countered with queenside activity. A series of trades in the middle game, including the exchange of Queens on move 19, led to an endgame where both sides had active pieces but symmetrical chances. Black won a pawn on a3, but White immediately replied with a tactical fork (21 Nxd5!), regaining material and simplifying the position. The game transitioned into a minor-piece endgame with rooks and knights. Both sides tried to create imbalances: Black pushed on the Queenside while White centralized the King and coordinated well. Eventually, the rooks were exchanged, leaving a knight endgame with pawns on both wings. Despite some tension on the Queenside, the position remained fundamentally level. After further simplifications, especially the trades around moves 33-36, both players reached a position where neither side could make progress. The final knight and pawn structure was completely equal, leading to a logical draw.”
Lara White had Black on board 2 vs Ben Prundus. Ben slowly ground him down with an accuracy of over 90% compared to Lara’s which was in the 80s. Eventually, Lara succumbed and Ben emerged victorious. Lara says: “My third game and far less successful than the previous ones. I decided this time to open with the King's Indian defence. This was testing a new opening which I had very little experience playing but I thought it would be fun to play in a ranked match to try and broaden my opening repertoire. Although I was happy with the game I played, I very decisively lost. After a brilliancy in the open with 13.Bxf7 it was all downhill from there after that although I did try and set up some traps my opponent slowly ground me down into a quite beautiful checkmate with 40.Ng6#.
I had the White pieces on board 3 vs John Robinson. The game went 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 e6 3. e3 Nf6 4. Bd3 Be7 5. Nbd2 c5 6. c3 Nc6 7. O-O Bd6 8. Qe2 O-O 9. e4 dxe4 10. Nxe4 Nxe4 11. Qxe4 f5 12. Qe3 cxd4 13. Nxd4 Ne5 14. h3 f4 15. Qe4 Nxd3 16. Qxd3 e5 17. Qc4+ Kh8 18. Ne6 Bxe6 19. Qxe6 Rf6 20. Qb3 Qd7 21. Rd1 Raf8 22. f3 Rg6 23. c4 Qxh3 24. Rd2 Bc5+ 25. Kf1 Qh1+ 26. Ke2 Qxg2+ 27. Kd1 Qf1+ 28. Kc2 Be3 29. Qb4 Rgf6 30. Rd1 Qxf3 31. Rd6 Qe4+ 32. Kb3 Kg8 33. Bd2 Rxd6 34. Qxd6 Bxd2 35. Qxd2 f3 36. Qd5+ Qxd5 37. cxd5 Rd8 38. Kc4 b6 39. Re1 Rc8+ 40. Kb3 g6 41. Rxe5 f2. I played the Colle system and managed to get to the middle game without any dramas, just a few minor inaccuracies. We were about even until move 17 when I played Qc4+. I was setting up the knight fork Ne6. The engine says I should’ve instead played Nf3 on move 17. On move 20, I made a mistake with Qb3. I should instead have played Qd5, a move I did consider but rejected because I was worried about his B moving out of the way to reveal an attack on my unprotected Q. Qb3 was the beginning of my downfall. 22 f3 was a mistake it turns out. As was 23 c4; I played this with a view to getting my c-pawn to c5 and exploiting his pinned bishop but forgot that my g-pawn on g2 was pinned allowing his 23 … Qxh3. From here, I was doomed. I fought on for a while, playing 29 Qb4 hoping to back rank him but he saw it coming and responded 29 … Rgf6. I resigned after 41 … f2.”
Archie Fleck had Black on board 4 vs Rod Taylor. He says: “A hard fought game in a closed position. Even material but three additional pawns beat out a knight in a 54 move game with a tricky position to break through. Rod went on to win the game.”
Danny Wilkins had White on board 5 vs Anton Beketov. He says: “Playing board 5 against a tough opponent with about 170 points higher ranking. It was a good match, very even. The computer analysis had the advantage changing hands regularly. I made a mistake on move 37 which ultimately cost me the match. He had a much better end game. I resigned 4 moves before mate.
Nick Woods had Black on board 6 vs Alessandro Coppola. He says: “I was Black and the game started e4 e5 Nf3 Nf6, the Petroff opening for Black. However my opponent did not take the e5 pawn but played Nc3 so I played d6 going into the 3 knights game. This is an opening I know well having played it online. By the middle game I was fairly happy with a bit of a space advantage. By the end game with time short I had a rook and Queen on the same rank as my opponent's castled King. I started a mating attack bringing my bishop into the attack. After around 10 moves of defending my attack with time running out fast I blundered and hung my Queen; game over! I was mad with myself because I felt I was in the ascendancy, this was made worse when I ran the game through Stockfish. I had missed a chance to check his King on the same diagonal as his Queen and win the Queen. My only excuse was time running out. This is turning out to be a frustrating season for E and F. I only have one win and a draw so far but at least my last two games have gone down to the wire. I had 45 seconds whilst my opponent had under 2 minutes."
Final score 5½-½.