I was unable to play for the B team this week, so Dave Tipper took over the captaincy and led the team to a narrow but well-earned victory over a strong Horfield & Redland B side.
What follows is an amalgam of my own thoughts plus observations based on the photos that Dave posted on WhatsApp after he had banked a solid draw on board 5. He held a tough King’s Indian Defence as Black against Peter Marks to secure an early and vital half point.
By now Humphrey and Martin had considerable advantages, although in Martin’s case the extra pawns had to contend with opposite coloured bishops. Humphrey had two minor pieces and a pawn for a rook and capitalised on the imbalances in the position to outplay Brent Perrin. That's Humphrey's Lea and Perrins bottle in the foreground! This overwhelming advantage produced our first win of the night.
Horfield hit back on board 4 where Aleksei Zverev went down fighting against Nigel Pollett. By then Aldrin’s position on top board was unclear and he was under pressure for much of his game against Andy Hill, so the match result was still very much in the balance.
The decisive result came from Alexis Malibiran on board 6, who used a very healthy space advantage against Duncan Macarthur to press forward and claim the full point, leaving us narrowly ahead with Aldrin’s and Martin’s games to finish.
Martin could not lose with those two extra pawns against Mike Levene, but despite his advantage, the opposite-coloured bishops proved too resilient, and the game was drawn. Note that both players were doing Bruce Forsyth impersonations.
Aldrin fought on. At one point Dave commented “Not sure if Aldrin is worse here” to which Aldrin later replied “Yes I was. Plus 3 for White. Another lucky draw.” Don’t worry about that. They all count!
A gritty team effort all round, with thanks to Dave for leading the side and keeping things steady in my absence, not forgetting his top notch photography. The result leaves Downend & Fishponds B top of Division 2.
Result: Downend & Fishponds B 3½ – 2½ Horfield & Redland B
Peter Chaplin