Richard Tutin vs Jerry Liu
After the first 7 moves, the game had followed the Four Knights Game with black knights on c6, f6, white knights on c3 and f3, a white pawn on e4 and a black pawn on e5. Black had fianchettoed their kingside bishop and castled kingside. A diagonal for Black's light-squared bishop had been opened up by 4...d6. White had a bishop on d3 and had castled kingside. On move 6, White played b3 with the seeming intention of fianchettoing their queenside bishop, but surprisingly followed this with 7. Ba3.
White's position started to appear a tad vulnerable when they played the unwieldy 8.Qe2; a move that cramped their queenside knight and bishop and made their queen exposed to attack by Nd4. Black was sharp in exploiting White's weakness with 8.. Re8; moving their kingside rook out of line of attack from the white bishop on a3 and applying pressure on the white queen. Black followed this with the equally sharp and pressurising 9.. Nd4, which attacked the white queen and presented White with no elegant means of finding safety for their queen and tempering the imposing black knight that had ventured to the fifth rank. When White opted to capture the black knight with 10. NxNd4, Black's recapture by 10... exd4 won them advanced territory by placing their king's pawn in a position that exerted control over c3 and e3, prompting White's knight to make an awkward bid for safety with 11. Nb5. Black could have cemented their advantage by playing 11...c5 to support their pawn on d4, but unfortunately played 11..a6, allowing White to capture with 12. Nxd4 and regain a foothold in the game.
A game that had potential for interesting developments quickly swung massively in Black's favour when Black left their knight hanging on move 13 and their queen hanging on move 16. Black made no mistake in forcing victory from here in a game where they barely made an unsound move.
Robert Haydon vs Gregoire Mahaut
White opened with the London system variation of the Queen's Pawn Game, developing their dark-squared bishop on move 2 with Bf4 and opening up a diagonal for their light-squared bishop with 3. e3. Black played d5 on move 1, opting against the popular 1... Nf6, and developed both knights by move 3 with 2..Nc6 and 3...Nf6.
After the first 7 moves, the game was evenly-poised. White had a strong triangular pawn structure from b2 to d4 to f2 and had developed all 4 minor pieces with bishops on d3 and f4 and knights on d2 and f3, but still hadn't achieved king-safety. Black had fianchettoed their kingside bishop, castled kingside and their light-squared bishop on c8 commanded the diagonal from c8 to h3.
The first big test of Black's resolve was posed when White played the aggressive 8. e4. Black's failure to avert the subsequent 9. e5 was the catalyst for their capitulation as White gained a stranglehold on the game. When 9. e5 was played, White had a clear edge in terms of annexation of territory, as d6 and f6 became weak squares for Black and Black's knight on f6 was unhinged. Black made an awkward bid to find safety for their knight on f6 and sway momentum with 9... Nh5, a square at which their knight became trapped on move 11 when White played g4.
Black's last bastion of defence fell on move 21 when they accepted White's sacrifice of their light-squared bishop for Black's f and g-file pawns that were guarding the Black monarch, which was now heavily exposed. White victory was a formality from here. Downend F were 2-0 ahead and looking strong to achieve their first win of the season.
Jason Leroy vs Rowan Barua
The opening 10 moves of the game followed standard Sicilian play closely and had the game very evenly balanced. Black's c-file pawn had been traded for White's d-file pawn. Black had pawns on a6, b5, d6 and e6, a fianchettoed queenside bishop, knights on d7 and f6, but had not moved their kingside bishop or, of course, castled. White had a pawn on d4 supported by a rook on e1, knights on c3 and d4, a bishop on f3, a strong open diagonal for their bishop on c1 and had castled.
An unorthodox quirk to proceedings was injected by White's audacious play of 11. Nd5; an offer to sacrifice their knight to open up the e-file for their rook on e1 to put Black in check and place their e-file pawn in a pestiferous position on d5. Black accepted the sacrifice and had a theoretical edge in the game (1.0 ahead according to the Stockfish engine), but every next move they played was now on a knife-edge where the subtlest of inaccuracy in play could prove fatal. White's play was akin to famous opening gambits where players make early material sacrifices with the rationale that this will unleash aggressive lines of play that force their opponent to make near optimum moves to retain their edge and avert what often becomes an early capitulation.
On move 12, White played another aggressive move that was theoretically unsound, but perhaps very unsettling and pressurising for Black, moving their knight on d4 to c6. The best move for Black was to capture with BxNc6, but perhaps White's aggression had succeeded in psychologically unsettling and confusing Black. When Black played 13... Be7, White's knight on c6 captured Black's knight on e5, forcing Black to recapture with their c-file pawn, allowing White to fork Black's queen and bishop with 15. d6. Black's next move, made after long-contemplation; 15... Rd8, was a calamitous blunder that may have been pressure-induced. Black had miscalculated that if White captured their queen with 16. dxc7, the game would be level once they played 16.. RxQd1. This was a fatal blunder that allowed White to win a rook and place a heavily imposing pawn on c7. The game ended with Black resigning on move 20 and with the score at 2-1, Downend F still needed a result on board 3 to secure their first win of the season.
Samy Benkhoucha vs Joshua Tutin
White opened with the Italian game and Black played the Philidor Defence in the form of 1.. e5, 2..d6, 3..Be7 and 4...Nf6. 4.. Nf6 was a mistake, as White had played 4..d4, threatening capture of Black's pawn on e5. White didn't notice their opportunity to capture on move 5, choosing to develop their queenside knight to c3, but Black failed to protect their pawn on move 6, opting to castle instead, allowing White to go a pawn ahead with 6. dxe5, dxe5, 7. QxQd8, RxQd8, 8. Nxe5. With a lead in development of minor pieces, a pawn ahead and a passed pawn on the e-file, White had a strong edge in the game.
In a game that felt like a war of attrition, Black didn't make a lot of errors from here, but with solid play, White steadily increased their edge in the game as they proceeded almost unstoppably towards an imbalanced kings and pawns endgame. By move 36, White had a king plus four pawns remaining versus Black's king and two pawns and the game was effectively over. White had sealed Downend F's first victory of the season.