Carolus had the white pieces on board 1. He says: “My game was very interesting as when I thought that I was winning, I wasn’t. We went to the Queen's Gambit where I had a small advantage. I opened up the kingside with my bishop but traded it for 3 pawns so we were materially equal but his kingside was open so I thought I was doing okay. We then traded queens and then I started to push the pawns so then I would have an advantage. I did but he defended really well and stopped it. However, he went down in time by a lot and had about 1 second left at one point. After this, he just had to keep the time up so he had to play moves quickly so as not to lose on time. Whilst he did this, he missed a mate so then I won. He played really well and if he didn’t have time pressure then he could have at least drawn.”

John had the black pieces on board 2. He says: “I had black against Charlie Papworth who is rated 1639. I employed the Sicilian Najdorf and Charlie played 6.Bc4 which I haven’t faced very often. I soon found my position quite constricted with a bishop stuck on e7 for a long period during the game, and Charlie eventually began to pick off pawns. The engine didn’t find any especially bad move that I played - I was just ground down slowly and beaten by a better player.”

I had the white pieces on board 3. I played my usual Colle system and went a pawn up early on further to a mistake by my opponent. We eventually got to an end game where the position was drawn. Unfortunately, I misunderstood a situation where he was going to have a king and a pawn vs my solitary king. I resigned, thinking I was beaten, but actually the situation was a draw. I shall do some work on my end-game technique.

Shaun had the black pieces on board 4. He says: “White started with e4 and black with e6, the start of the French, which continued with the Classical Modern. Black strayed away from the most known lines, this variation is quite sharp for white and an attack against Black's king pawns with white Bishop and Queen. But Black hung on. Eventually the game changed after White's Knight attacked which led to Black finding a tactical move forcing the Knight to move, an exchange of rooks and Black winning a pawn. The final position left Black with control of the black squares and White controlled the White squares but also with control of an open file and a lovely White Bishop on a long diagonal. Despite this Black had its Queen threatening to win another pawn. White attacked Black's Bishop and White grabbed the open file, threatening back rank mate, White took back control of the open file and the position was repeated 3 times leading to a draw.”

Nick had the white pieces on board 5. He says: “I opened with e4, my opponent played the Caro Kann and I responded with the Panov Botvinnik attack. We seemed to play half the game with him attacking my I.Q.P and me defending. The game was equal until both of us were under 5 mins on the clock. Both had a rook and Queen with the same number of pawns. With time running out I blundered and my rook got caught in a royal fork check with his queen and my rook on the same diagonal. With me a rook down he went on to win.”

Per played with the black pieces on board 6. The game began evenly, with an early exchange win for Black. However, this “win” came with a downside, as it allowed White to establish a formidable diagonal pawn structure. Although Black held a slight advantage, the position felt cramped, and Black spent considerable time pondering ways to create more space. In fact after Bh5, Black had a terrific opportunity to deal with the space problem but, unfortunately, he missed the move Nxe5 (now glaringly obvious in retrospect). A bit of shuffling then occurred on both sides, after which White took the initiative to launch an attack on the A-file with the Queen and Rook. Black defended this poorly, which quickly cost him the game.

So the final result was a 4½-1½ loss.