It was good to return to Horfield and see some familiar faces along with a couple of new ones.Some of Horfield's stronger players were missing and this soon became apparent as on Board 5 Aron exploited the premature development of Black's QB to launch a quick attack to crash through in the centre an claim an early win. On Board 6 White was unwise to allow his kingside pawns to be broken and then increased the stakes by castling queenside. White attempted active play on the kingside but Dominique's queenside play, together with a mighty King's Indian bishop on the long diagonal opened up the white king and forced a win in impressive style.
So 2-0 up, how about the other boards?
On board 4 Phil Nendick had played an unusual and sharp check in the Grunfeld. Apparently the correct reply was 8...c6 9 dc Nc6 10 Nf3 Bd7 when Black gets active play for the pawn. Aldrin went for the possibly more natural 8...Bd7 which led to great complications. 13 Rc1 looks a better winning try when13 ...ed 14 Qb7 Nc6 15 Ne2 Bb2 is one possible line of many, I could assess this as unclear but White looks safer. Instead 13 Rd1 gave Black a chance to force a perpetual after move 17 so he sank into deep thought.
On Board 3 Nigel and Peter had gone down a long theory line they had played before. Peter got his TN in first with 17 ...c6 but Nigel still got good play on the queenside and had a decision to make on move 29. Rbd1 is probably the most precise move but I chose 29 Kg1 as it gave me a better ending with no losing chances, which seemed the best choice with the team ahead in the match.
Board 2 was a heavy French exchange which seemed about equal, on Board 1 Steve had sacrificed a pawn for a promising looking attack in an Advance French.
Board 3 was next to finish, I wanted to play 36 Rb6 to advance the a pawn further but then got worried about 36... h4 combined with ..e4 when Black gets lots of play on the kingside. The line chosen allowed the Black knight to get across and liquidate to a draw, possibly the most accurate game of the night and our sixth draw in six games! Meanwhle Aldrin had taken the positive decision to play on. 17 ... Na6 was possible when 18 Qxa7 Qb7 or Qxf8 are all possible. My computer prefers Qxa7 Nb4 19 a4 which it says is good for White, but with human players anything could happen. Aldrin went for 17...Ba4 after which the white king escaped to the kingside (19... a6 was another possibility) and a sharp ending resulted in a win for White. The most exciting game of the night.
So we were 2.5-1.5 up. Steve had won his pawn back and a complicated ending was in progress. With both players down to little time a draw was agreed. The last to finish was Board 2 which had probably been about level all the way. Oli fought on to his last pawn but couldn't squeeze a win against an opponent who defended accurately so we won a close match 3.5-2.5.