After a short break following the Christmas tournaments it was evident that members were raring to go again with the usual derby match upstairs (nicely spaced out) and over a dozen members enjoying casual games at the back of the bar. It was interesting to note that, with the exception of a couple of stalwarts, all of these faces were new to the club since lockdown had been relaxed.

The A v B match was one of four in round eight, which would have made an interesting re-start to the season, although University's match with Horfield was delayed as normal until the students return to the city after their vacation. I am not privy to why the Clifton-Clevedon match did not take place but Bath travelled to Grendel with only one Division One regular and it is very much to their credit that they fulfilled the fixture by drafting in B team players. All clubs occasionally have problems fielding their best teams but Bath have set an excellent example and demonstrated their respect for both their opponents and the League.

And so to our A v B encounter which also had a few issues. First, the junior stars, Aron and Toby, decided they preferred to revise for their mock exams rather than come out to play! I remember being in a similar position a certain number of years ago and I must admit I never missed an evening at the Horseshoe, partly because the atmosphere at the club at that time was just as welcoming as it is now. I suppose this simply indicates that I was not as studious as they are.

The teams were rearranged to manage without them and then, 24 hours before the match, Aldrin tested positive for Covid, rather throwing our plans into disarray. With no comparable substitute readily available, it was agreed that the best solution was to play over five boards. And a very fair match it was!

The first game to finish was Hugo (B) v Dominique and it was decisive. They both fianchettoed their Kings Bishops but Hugo's had more to bite on, making it tricky for Dominique to develop his Q-side pieces. He also suffered from a backward d pawn which was under threat from heavy pieces on the open file and, when he tried to relieve some of the pressure by offering his knight to be exchanged, he unfortunately found it trapped a move later.

Steve (W) and Oscar faced up for the "GM" confrontation. Apparently Steve was feeling boosted and sore (both literally) and played a fairly cautious opening system which may have bamboozled lesser opposition but was not really likely to set Oscar too many problems. Accordingly, hostilities ceased after move 17.

Nigel (B) v Oli was rather more combative but ended up the same way. Strategic jockeying for position revolved round whether or not Nigel could break out with a classic Pawn to Queen Four, if you'll pardon the lapse into descriptive notation. He finally did so on move 30 and there followed a grand swap off of two pawns each, a pair of bishops, a pair of rooks and, finally, the queens, at which point neither of them could see much point in carrying on any more. It was R + N + 4 pawns each and the engine pronounces it a dead draw.

Reinhold (W) v Graham seemed to be level for much of the game, indeed Graham had somewhat better piece play by move 25. They reached an ending where they both had a light squared bishop and an equal number of pawns on either side of the board. In the end the decisive piece was Reinhold's King which invaded the central dark squares while Graham's was less mobile behind his own K-side pawns. Suddenly Reinhold was winning one pawn, with a second one certain to follow, and a surprising turnaround had occurred in the space of a few moves.

Last to finish were Mark (W) v Martin. Mark had done well to emerge into an ending with more time (nearly 20 minutes) plus an extra QR pawn while they both had R + N and three K-side pawns. The a pawn was doomed once Martin took his King over to the Q-side but this gave Mark time to win the f pawn. No doubt our silicon friend may be able to demonstrate the best way forward from here. Martin made a few repetitive rook moves to recover from only having seconds remaining while Mark tried to find a way to make progress without submitting to numerous checks. It turned out he was unable to advance his potentially winning pawn without leaving it open to capture and the draw was finally agreed while most of the room was being cleared up. We had seen an interesting ending which will no doubt repay further study. It had been a tough game and a fair result in the end.

So, a hard fought match had gone the way of the A team, who are now level on points with University but having played a game more. It had been an excellent all round evening for the club and now we look forward to four matches in Division Two next week with all our teams lined up with full squads. Let's hope these matches are all able to go ahead with no problems.