We were at full strength for this one (a rare occurrence), with Hugo stepping in for Toby for the rest of the season.
Grendel, by their own admission, were missing a couple of their higher rated players.
The match started a little late, with one Grendel player still to arrive.
When Radford Jr did arrive (a few minutes into the match), he and Graham swapped pleasantries and began. It was time to go to the bar.
When I returned I was amazed to see that one game had already finished.
In fact, Dominique and Calvin had stopped their game in order to re-start. They were playing the wrong side of the board. Fair enough, it had only taken them half a dozen moves to realise!
Anyway, back to the match. Things took a little while to warm up, but then all of a sudden the first game came to an end: Graham v Ben. It had been a peaceful affair, with minor pieces respectively exchanged, and heavy artillery posturing on the d-file. Draw agreed. Both teams were happy with this. Ben may have a lower rating than Graham, but has been thriving in division one.
Before there was time to record the result, Martin and Radford Sr shook hands. The B team takes the lead! The game had whittled down to a two rook, and multiple pawn ending. As soon as Martin managed to get his rooks to the 7th , the writing was on the wall. Well played Martin!
The next key moment was Oscar winning the exchange (move 16) after Alastair had misplaced his Queen on b6 (unlucky move number 13). Oscar then enjoyed a pseudo sacrifice: Qh6+. Eight moves later Alastair threw in the towel. D&F go two up, with the other three games still in the balance.
On board two, Oli had managed to win the bishop pair, but Mark had expanded nicely on the queenside, and then doubled up rooks on the open b-file. After Oli managed to nullify the threat, they eventually agreed a draw. Mark couldn't see a concrete way to break through, whilst for black there was a bubbling possibility of a kingside attack.
On board four, Hugo's game against Patrick was fairly level, with quiet manoeuvring on both sides. However, Hugo had built up a significant time advantage.
Back to Dominique's game. White (Calvin) had traded black's fianchettoed bishop, whilst black (Dominique) struck out on the queenside. As pieces fell from the board, the result was another two rook endgame. When one set of rooks was traded, a dead draw was agreed. The watching B's were very pleased with this result , Dominique had finally secured the win. 3.5-1.5.
Now all eyes went back to board three. It had now come down to a R + B (white) v R + N (black) endgame. Hugo missed an interim check which led to Patrick winning his h-pawn. Things were not looking good. However, by some neat regrouping of his pieces, and with Patrick down to a minute, Hugo won the pawn back. Patrick thrust his rook forward looking to gobble another pawn. Hugo didn't hesitate and pushed his (passed) g-pawn. Ultimately his king and rook guided it to a certain promotion. With seconds left, Patrick was forced to resign. A topsy-turvy game which may have gone either way. Well done to Hugo for holding his nerve.
A very satisfying 4.5-1.5 win with no-one losing a game. However, it was not straightforward in any way, and as usual (even with a couple of players missing) Grendel fought all the way.