The C team welcomed Horfield B who not so long ago were serious division one players.
In reverse order of the boards this is how it went. Carolus was level against Joe after 15 moves with an unusual feature being Black’s rooks on e5 and e6. When Carolus doubled on the d file various tactics opened up concerning the Black Queen on d8 and by the time Joe resigned on move 26 he was two whole rooks down. Another impressive result for Carolus!
On board 5 Dave was level after 20 moves, well, maybe half a pawn down. But once all the minor pieces were swapped off, except Dave’s QB, which was locked out of the King-side, Judd was able to open up the position and soon had all his pieces bearing down on a rather forlorn and isolated monarch.
Board 4 saw El recover from a somewhat dodgy middle game to reach an ending with knight versus bishop and by move 35 she had total control of all the holes in the position, Nigel having his bishop and pawns all on the Black squares. The engine says that plenty of best moves were missed on both sides as the clock ran down. It was one of those seemingly simple positions where you really need hours, not seconds, as to how to proceed and, unfortunately, Nigel was able to infiltrate with his King to win some decisive pawns. Everyone agrees that El was unlucky to lose this one.
Alan had the pleasure of playing Mike L on board 3 and got into an awkward opening where he had pressure against his undeveloped Queen-side. This led to the loss of the exchange and a fairly remorseless grind against which there could be no recovery.
On board 2 I was doing OK for 18 moves against Brent, when I moved my bishop away from its optimum square which led to it being swapped off. But it was still level after 30 moves when I missed what the engine says was a much better defensive move. It all went pear-shaped after that. Curses.
And so to our other star of the night, James, who had to defend with Black against the redoubtable Mike H. After a tricky middle game he set up a pawn chain which reduced the scope of Mike’s bishop while his own knight had a useful outpost. With seconds ticking away there was still pressure to hold on and James resolutely achieved this so that, in the end, the position was a firmly blocked draw. A very well deserved result, indeed I think we might call that a scalp!
Final result 4½-1½ to Horfield B.
This meant we had had an inauspicious start against two of the stronger teams in division two but it will probably all get a whole lot better when the skipper returns from his globetrotting.
Ian Pickup