This was the first visit to North Bristol's new venue, and very nice it is too, if a little tight for space in the playing room.

Alan Parsons vs Frazer McAllister

Frazer, playing black, got off to a great start with white's king getting harassed early in the game, with more fresh air around it than it would have enjoyed. Frazer continued to keep the pressure up most of the game and was on the brink of finishing white off, being an exchange and a pawn up. Unfortunately, one slip-up let white get in a killer blow, having spotted a mate in two.

0 - 1

Mike Stinchcombe vs Nigel Wilcox

Nigel had the better play overall, although was slightly lucky not to get punished for dodgy move 27. An apparently great knight forking queen and rook left the door open for a crushing Nxf6+, which would have almost certainly sealed victory for Mike. Thankfully, he either didn't see it, or was unconfident about whether it worked. His actual move gave Nigel a material advantage, and Nigel used his additional knight to mop up white's extra pawn's.

1 - 1

Nick Woods vs Magda Rucka

Unfortunately, I didn't see too much of this game, which seemed fairly even for a while. However, Magda must have found some nifty manoeuvres and was decisively up in material later.

1 - 2

Grant Daly vs David Rose

My game was a long-drawn-out closed game where I struggled to engineer any weaknesses in David's position. Fortunately for me, I was doing much better on time, and as we entered the last half an hour or so of the game, I just managed to get a rook and a couple of knights into close proximity of Black's king and exchange off a couple of minor pieces, grabbing a backward pawn, and leaving the king exposed enough to put further pressure on it. It wasn't looking good for black when, under time pressure, a blunder brought the game to a swift conclusion.

Final score. A 2- 2 draw.