It was a pleasure to welcome back many of our former players in the guise of Clifton B as they sought to continue their league title bid.

I (Nigel) reached a poor position from the opening, with a bishop severely hampered by its own pawns. The breakthrough was not at easy as it looked and I was able to escape into a rook ending a pawn down but it appeared not too difficult to hold the draw. Dave was also able to get the same result on Board 6; John equalised with the typical d5 thrust on the black side of a Scillian and had some chances of pursuing a kingside attack but nothing came of this. Dave won a pawn and could have tried for more by pushing his c pawn, but with his time running short he was happy to repeat moves.

The attention now switched to the top two boards. Steve was under pressure from Oli who had forced open the f file and doubled his rooks on it. Steve managed to simplify down to a queen ending in which Oli’s passed a pawn was a menace. There was a fleeting chance of a perpetual check with a hard to spot manoeuvre and Steve soon had to resign. Meanwhile Chris was playing a fine game against Reinhold. He sacrificed a piece early on to grab the initiative, in return he got two pawns and Reinhold’s king trapped in the centre and under fire from Chris’s active bishops. Reinhold fought on and Chris’s advantage varied in size but was always significant and he clinched the win.

We were 3-1 down with the middle boards to come. Mark had a promising looking position with his knight securely blockading Colin’s doubled and isolated d pawns. Mark pushed his queenside pawns but this came at the cost of allowing the doubled pawns to be liquidated and a draw resulted. Peter was left to complete the match. As is not uncommon he had sacrificed a pawn early on to get active play. This proved to be insufficient as Mike gradually unravelled, exchanging the queens and then a pair of rooks to reach a highly favourable ending. Further exchanges produced an pawn ending with 3v2 (Mike still had the extra pawn form the opening gambit) and he displayed exemplary technique to win the game and the match 4.5-1.5.

Well done to Clifton B, it will be a tight race to the title but they are in pole position.

Nigel Hosken