We welcomed Grendel to the Cross Hands and were pleased to find that their team contained some old friends I have known since the 1970s, so a tough but good natured match was in prospect.

The games soon took shape. On top board an early queen exchange gave Oscar some doubled b pawns which he thrust forward in a standard plan. A routine isolated queen's pawn position appeared on board 2, with Steve seeking a king side attack to compensate for the static weakness. On board 3 Peter had the black side of a Benoni type structure, with white having recaptured on d5 with the e pawn. Peter's position was solid, but he was struggling to find good squares for all his pieces; so often in these lines the trick is to exchange off one pair of pieces early on. Nigel (me) on board 4 had gone down a long theory line in the King's Indian in which white's play on the queenside is said to compensate for the loss of the dark squared bishop. Mark on board 5 had won a pawn with the aid of a neat intermediate check and Martin's position looked balanced.

First to finish was Steve's game. The attack had achieved little and his queenside pawns looked vulnerable. Jerry was happy to settle for a draw, but he claimed later that Stockfish had him standing very well. Still Steve takes some beating. My game had turned bad, despite unknowingly following a few more theory moves, as I had lost control of all the central black squares and my knights were hopping around without ever getting to the right squares. The good news was that Oscar had crashed through successfully on the queenside and won his game, whilst Peter had unraveled and exchanged off to a drawn ending and Martin had also drawn, so we were 2.5-1.5 up and Mark still had his extra pawn in the ending.

The match continued to be in the balance as Richard won a pawn in my game and simplified to a double rook ending in which he had good winning chances. I managed to swap off one set of rooks and to get my rook and king active. Richard offered a draw as his time was running short and progress was going to need some delicate play. I accepted gratefully. There was much action yet to come on board 5 as Mark's kingside pawns rolled forward slowly while Patrick set some sneaky traps with his active rook and knight. Mark found his way through the complications and his pawns cost Patrick his knight leaving Mark to wrap the game up with an extra bishop. Overall an interesting set of games and a win 4-2 keeps the league looking promising.. Off to the seaside for the next match!