Despite the disappointing start to our title defence campaign, we had one final match to guarantee ourselves third place for Christmas. We were away at Grendel in their new venue, the Drawbridge. Although it's still quite early in the season to be talking about relegation, Grendel are currently fighting against our B-team at the bottom of the league, so there was plenty of club spirit for us to make sure we got the points.
The room in which Grendel typically plays had been booked the next day for a boozy (based on the beermats strewn about the tables) AGM, but the riotous nature of the A-team apparently preceded us and we were positioned outside to leave the pub's careful planning untouched. Fortunately, this left us with both mood-lighting and the option of listening to the ups and (mostly) downs of Manchester United in Europe. Most of the players arrived on time, but Richard having not noticed the festive season approach was caught out by a busy town centre. In a true spirit of Christmas generosity, Dave offered to split the remaining time on their clock when he arrived.
When the games started it appeared that we had almost all chosen sharp lines, which didn't favour our current form. Henry had a symmetrical position and Chris Beaumont tried a quick queen and bishop battery to hollow out the kingside fianchetto which Henry avoided. Chris Russell employed a line against Alistair that he had successfully used twice before to lose quickly against Chris Beaumont, which naturally inspired the team to push hard. Roger played a gambit against Charlie who quickly returned the-pawn and went for an interesting middle game. I thought I was being clever with a new opening choice against the Kan which resulted in a Scheveningen in which I hadn't a clue. Jerry was playing slowly but accurately against an inspirational kingside attack that didn't look like it could really have any long-term bite.
When Richard arrived he quickly got himself into a strong position with a central bind. Chris deviated from his previous losses with a reckless move that earnt him a significant time advantage and presumably an equivalent positional disadvantage. Inspired by Jerry's opponent I ignored black's queenside expansion and launched my kingside pawns forward.
Having reached an exciting position, Chris and Alistair decided to split the points, though post-mortem analysis apparently did not favour Downend. From where I sat on the other side of the room it seemed Richard had shuffled some pieces on the first three of four ranks but the position had not changed a great deal, so when he stood up victorious I was pleasantly surprised. I've no idea how he did it, though. Charlie had shunned a queen trade for some pressure on white's uncastled king, though it looked like it was going to be hard work.
Henry and Chris Beaumont decided to split the point and concluded that Henry had again been rather lucky to survive some of the complications. My attack backfired unpleasantly after an ill-timed-pawn push left king found himself without any pawn cover and a number of pieces unproteced, but I still had a few tricks left. Jerry appeared to have stopped white's attack and be building one for himself on white's queenside king.
When Charlie converted to a king and-pawn endgame with an extra pawn but more crucially in this position, two connected passed-pawns, it meant that it was up to Captain Jerry to push us over the line, since I had sacrificed the exchange to simply stay afloat. Fortunately that looked very achievable. As black's heavy pieces started to build a mating net around my king, I went for a last hurrah to restore the material imbalance and my opponent offered a draw. Surprised, confused and relieved I quickly accepted. A few minutes later, with his opponent low on time and in no position to refuse, Jerry decided to offer a draw to end the match.
So we have third place secured for Christmas, albeit considerably further behind first and second than we have liked, but for now it'll do.
Just for fun:
- Bd5!? Qxh3+ 34. Kg1 {Should be good for black, but that's for the reader to solve.} Qg3+ {Black draw offer.}