The D team beat Keynsham quite comprehensively, 4½-1½

Aleksei beat John Kilminster on board 1. He reports "My game was even almost up to the end. It began with a Symmetrical English opening and then transitioned into White's Maroczy Bind system. I gained some space and started applying pressure in the centre. I thought about taking some risk and blowing up the game but decided to go into a slow and positional game. Eventually I got a closed pawn structure, then I undermined it (to be honest not in the most precise way), and my opponent made a fatal error trying to stop my a-file pawn's run and ultimately resigned."

Alan lost to Bob Radford on board 2. He writes: "Bob sacrificed a pawn on move 3 to get more space and a strong pawn centre but, most importantly, it took me out of my opening repertoire. Cagey gridlocked tactics followed until he smashed through on my kingside."

Nigel explains why he was happy!: "Duncan opened with a Caro-kannada which I tried to counter with a gambit but he was having none of it and had an early attack on my kingside. I managed to repel this and built pressure in the centre of the board which resulted in me winning a rook as he tried to swap queens to break the pressure. At which point he resigned. That's the first time I've beaten Duncan in a full-length game, so quite pleased."

Dave (Williams) beat Jim Rowlands on board 4. He writes: "A Pirc Defence. All the action was on the kingside, Black (Dave) eventually controlling the g-file. Later he had queen and rook on the seventh. The white king escaped to the queenside. White played 36.Bh3 to save the Bishop but missed Qxb2 mate!"

Leon beat Chris Hayden on board 5. He says: "I played White and opened with the Réti. By move 20 Black was a pawn down on the queenside and had doubled pawns on the kingside so when exchanges were offered, I accepted in anticipation of a favourable endgame. With rooks and queens off the board a knight sacrifice ensured a White queen promotion on move 45. With a mate in one on the board at move 55, Black resigned."

I drew with Will Hanson on board 6. According to the engine I had a small advantage throughout the game, but after being unable to hang onto a passed pawn and not seeing a clear win in a king, knight and pawns endgame, I accepted the draw that he offered.