Alan Papier had White on board 1 against Jon Gould. He says: “Jon played the Dutch; I had control of the centre plus he gave up his dark squared bishop for my knight. Then he started amassing his pieces on my kingside and my Queen was pinned and I lost a piece. All my pieces were passive and he had all the attacking chances but he offered me an exchange of rooks when his knight was being attacked and suddenly it was a drawn ending of opposite coloured bishops.
Steve Mullins had the black pieces on board 2. I have no details of his game although I did witness its rather spectacular conclusion when his opponent exploited a pinned pawn to deliver a knight fork to Steve’s King and Queen, leading to Steve’s resignation. Until that point, it had looked promising for him.
John Paines had White on board 3. He says: “Phillip Lawson played the Sicilian Dragon - after an opening in which Phillip was slightly sharper I missed the opportunity to pin his knight to his Queen and win it on move 16, and my game went downhill from there. Phillip was able to win a pawn on each side of the board with steady play and although I held out until move 62 hoping to swindle a draw, my opponent’s experience in the endgame made a win for him inevitable in the end.”
I had Black on board 4. I tried out the Philidor defence against Jim Rowlands. A positional game followed. My breakthrough was on move 16 when I played c4, forking his Q and B. I was delighted to eventually convert my advantage into a victory after trading many pieces. I focused on piece optimization to ensure each one was actively participating in the game and coordinating together.
Shaun Walsh had White on board 5. He says: “The opening was the Spanish and White played the less known Worrall attack with a Queen on e2 early in the opening. However White failed to open the centre when he had a chance and ended up in a closed, cramped position. The game was unbalanced with White’s 2 Knights and Black’s 2 Bishops, but the Bishops were in effect muted by the closed position. Black offered a draw which White accepted. Computer showed that the 2 sides were even.”
Nick Woods had Black pieces on board 6. He says: “My opponent opened with e4 and I played 2 Nf6 going into the Petroff defense, however my opponent moved away from that line with c3. We had a long attritional game with pieces coming off of equal value and ended up with the same number of pawns and a rook each. I had a close shave stopping a passed pawn but after that all the pawns left on the board blocked each other and we agreed a draw.”
Final score - 3½-2½ to Hanham A
Gregory Sumner