Our away game against Thornbury was a thriller and after falling down 2-0 pretty early on at boards 4 and 5, it was up to the rest to catch up and see what could be salvaged from the match.
Carolus Tang was first to finish, playing on board 4 against Justin Yau in a London System. Standard opening play from both led to an equal opening exchange, but Carolus allowed the h file to open up after taking white's bishop on g3 and allowing hxg3. This threat remained ever present and Carolus lost two important central pawns as he was forced to protect against it. Justin then played some neat moves in the endgame, managing to win a rook to go with his two extra pawns. Despite some decent defence from Carolus, during which he won back an exchange, Justin's advantage was too much and once the final rooks were forced off on move 49, Carolus resigned with only a pawn left against Justin's knight and five pawns.
I was next, playing on board 5 against Richard Watkins. I played a good Queens pawn opening and managed to gain a decent positional advantage after the opening moves, but failed to capitalise on them and allowed Richard to equalise with natural moves throughout the middle game. We shuffled and traded pieces for a while until my crucial mistake on move 36 allowed Richard to park his rook on the 2nd rank and bring his (previously passive) bishop into the attack. My defences fell apart shortly after thanks to a clinical set of moves from Richard, and I resigned on move 44 when I lost a piece and probably any chance of stopping promotion in the process.
Thankfully, Ian Pickup stopped the rot with a clinical display on board 1 vs Michael Townsend. The game started with a Scandinavian Defence, but Mike's decision to castle queenside on move 8 proved fatal. Ian put together a bit of a masterclass, punishing the mistake immediately and creating threat after threat as all of his pieces joined in on the attack. By move 19 Ian was up a rook, two pawns and facing a practically undefended King, with his knight in particular causing all sorts of problems. With the queens coming off, Ian retained his huge material advantage and got his pawn to e7, forcing Mike to resign on move 37 after one of the rooks joined the attack and began a checkmate in 8 combination. A really great attacking game from Ian, one I'm sure he enjoyed immensely.
Joe Wing was playing on board 6 against Joaquin Lopez. I don't have much on this game but it was a close, unbalanced game which I'm sure swung both ways throughout. The endgame saw Joaquin up a bishop for the price of 2 connected passed pawns and all the rooks on the board. In our post-game chat Joe and I both thought it was advantage Joe at this point, but with time running low for both it wasn't clear how to convert it. Unfortunately, Joe played an illegal move when short on time. The game was paused for a few minutes as nobody knew how to add time to Joaquin's clock, but Joe admirably resigned as he recognised that his only legal move lost him a rook and with it the game anyway.
Down 1-3 with 2 to play, all eyes turned to Dave and Nigel on boards 2 and 3.
On board 2, Dave Williams played Lynda Smith in a far calmer affair. The game started with a closed Sicilian and the game remained largely balanced until the endgame, with both players having nothing more than a small advantage at times. The players entered a rook and pawn endgame and both managed it well, Nigel winning a pawn but Lynda retaining the equality. However, a mistake from Lynda came on move 51 when she put her King on the first rank. Dave's rook kept control of Lynda's pawn whilst simultaneously cutting the King out of the game and Dave started marching his pawns towards promotion immediately. With the game swinging in Dave's favour and promotion inevitable, Lynda resigned.
2-3 down, only board 3 left, position seemingly equal.
I'll skim through the opening, with Nigel Wilcox playing his usual Smith-Morra Sicilian and Chris Henning clearly well versed. Nigel was happy with his position out of the opening, seeing potential attacking and mating chances, but Chris's knight held it all together. The queens came off and Nigel declined a draw offer, feeling he still had a strong position and also aware of the match situation. Chris started running low on time and accuracy dropped as a result, firstly losing a pawn and then a bishop as he missed that the defensive knight was pinned. Chris made it awkward, briefly threatening to win the piece back, but Nigel used his time well to find the best moves and nullify the threat. With all Nigel's pieces defending each other and the b pawn sailing forwards, Chris had no choice but to resign as promotion was unstoppable, and Nigel heroically clinched a draw for team D.
All told, the match ended 3-3.
Dan Parcell