Unfortunately James was unable to play so we were more than happy that Jerry was able to step in at exceptionally short notice. Even more so, when it transpired that Dave Osborne was making one of his rare appearances, meaning we were comfortably out-graded.

My game was first to finish. Having weakened Roger's pawns and eliminated all the heavy pieces I was able to get a passed h-pawn and the ending turned out to be untenable for him. By the time we came back from a spot of analysis I was somewhat surprised at the outcome on the next two games to finish.

I had thought Jerry was in some difficulty against Dave and, indeed, he said afterwards he had been lucky. But he found some key resources and in the end Dave forced a draw by repetition. Conversely I thought Andrew had at least an equal game, although short of time. Unfortunately this told in the end so the match was all square with three to play.

The good news was that we were doing well in all of them. First to finish was Dave who commented "That must be one of my best games in the King's Indian, content with playing the exchange down and computers agree with my play and once the-pawns started rolling my opponent had nowhere to go". If we ask him nicely, I think he may let us put this game up on the website! Top performance!

Mike as usual was playing John. This time, in a fairly level position, John took a-pawn which, if recaptured, would have led straight to a Philidor's Legacy. Mike coolly converted his advantage to ensure the match was won. Then Martin, having built up a great positional advantage against Alistair, won all the queenside pawns and then an exchange. It only remained to force the queens off to ensure another valuable scalp and a convincing victory against one of our main rivals.