Board 1. John Paines had the black pieces. He says: “I was black against Kipp Freud who is rated 1788. He opened with the unusual 1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 d5 3 Bf4, which led to a nice open game of the type that I am comfortable with. I was able to exchange B for N which forced him to double his pawns on the c-file, and a few moves later gobble up one of the pawns at the cost of doubling a pair of my own. With everything soon off the board except for the rooks and pawns, I spent the rest of the game trying to break through Kipp’s position and capitalise on the pawn advantage, but he defended well and at a point where most of the pawns were locked up in the centre I accepted a draw. Kipp said afterwards that at one point I had a won game. My own engine analysis showed a steady increase towards an advantage of 2.64 by the end, but no immediate opportunity for a breakthrough, so I was happy with this result against a far stronger player.”
Board 2. Shaun Walsh had the white pieces. He says: “The opening was a Sicilian Najdorf. White played the quite sharp f4 but during the middle game lost a central pawn, which gave Black more control over the centre, this proved to give White problems, including Black having 2 Bishops with good attacking diagonals. Never less White probed and surprisingly got away with its Queen en prise, White also trapped an attacking rook leading to a Knight Rook exchange. But it wasn't enough, Black's Bishops were just too strong and Black's pieces much better placed than White’s, under pressure White blundered a Bishop, game over.”
Board 3. Charlie Higenbottam had the black pieces. He says: “I played the black pieces against Charlie Papworth rated 1639, he started with E4 and I followed it with C5. He then opened up the opening by playing the open Sicilian. After that, normal opening moves continued as we brought out pieces and he launched a pawn storm. I was able to pin his hanging knight to his open King due to a blunder so I was able to become a piece up, but not all my challenges were dealt with yet. He continued his pawn storm with several pins on pieces; however, after defending it enough, his attack had stopped and he lost an exchange of major pieces. At this point he resigned the game.”
Board 4. Danny Wilkins had the white pieces. He says: "I played board 4 for the first time, pitting me up against Simon Dunphy, a 1600 rated player. I believe that I gave him a solid game. Accuracy at 82.5%. According to the computer analysis I made an error on move #20 offering a trade of knights and a blunder on move #32 which caused my downfall. He was low on time so I carried on the game as long as possible but he ended up with two Queens on the board so I offered my resignation."
Board 5. Vivaan Suresha had the black pieces. He says: “I played the black pieces against Richard Barnes, rated about 1553. The game started off with c4, followed by e5, this opening is known as the English opening, an opening I was not so familiar with. Even though I was not familiar with the opening, I still managed to keep my position steady and equal until I miscalculated and blundered my knight, causing me to slowly be defeated.”
Board 6. Per Saunders had the white pieces. He says: “Sadly I cannot find the scoresheet at the time of writing, so I can only comment on my feelings about the game - which of course were not happy ones overall, since I lost! I believe I came out of the opening slightly worse and then missed some opportunities in the middle game to mix things up a bit. Finally I made an unforced error when short on time that made my King very unsafe. Lesson learnt… I hope!”
Final result 1½-4½.