Division 4 – Wednesday 15th April 2026

Board 1. Carolus Tang had Black against Nasir Amer. He says: “The game on Wednesday was quite interesting because I got in some trouble during the middle-game and was pressured quite a bit. However I believe he messed it up which gave me a chance to equalise. After all of that, it was drawing but he had a massive time advantage which would come in later. After some moves, I was gaining some progress but due to time, I started to panic. Then, I lost the game because of the endgame.” Nasir’s phone went off twice during their encounter but Carolus did not warn his opponent after the first occurrence. From hereon, I will brief teams of the need to issue a warning. Had Nasir been warned, the second occurrence would have led to his losing the game.

Board 2. Alejandro Vilchez had White against Gareth Cullen. His game was the first to finish and whilst I have no details, he did secure a win.

Board 3. Alan Papier had Black against Sean Hubble. He says: “I was Black in a Sicilian position and on move 13, he found a combination where he won a piece for a pawn! Ouch!! I went into aggressive mode, won back the exchange and then had a rook and 2 pawns for his 2 knights. But he found a fiendish fork where he was 2 pieces up in the endgame. I found a trick where I got the 2 pieces back and he agreed to a draw being a pawn up in the endgame.”

Board 4. Hector Hu had White against Yuri Warman. His dad reports: Hector as White opened the game with a quiet English setup. In the middlegame, he found a fork opportunity and then gained material advantage. Black’s exposed King faced a lot of pressure during the following moves and when White Queened his A pawn a win for Hector was secured.

Board 5. I had Black against Michael Chaffey. I played my usual Philidor system and encountered for the first time the bishop sacrifice 6 Bxf7+. The sacrifice was in vain and after 40 moves I was +4.7 ahead but had less than 5 minutes to convert my advantage. Under time pressure I ended up with a draw.

Board 6. Archie Fleck had White against Rod Taylor. He says: “Close one, went a pawn down in the endgame in a very sharp position and couldn’t defend the promotion.”

Final result 3-3