Grant Daly had White on board 1. He says: "QGD: Exchange variation. I got into a good position out of the opening, where Black had hanging pawns on c5 and d5 that I could start to attack or weaken. Then I got careless. I moved my bishop to force Black's rook to retreat to f8. Although it was the best move according to the engine, this left my bishop undefended and I should have dealt with that immediately. Instead, I concentrated on another tactic forgetting the bishop was hanging, and a couple of moves later I had two threats to deal with. I lost a knight for a pawn, and maybe more to the point, my position was busted, so defeat was quick in coming."

John Paines had Black on board 2. He says: "I played Chris Hillier who was rated several hundred points higher than me. He opened with the Catalan, which I wasn’t sure how to defend against. By the early middle game I found myself in an equal but very constricted position with Chris having seized the open d-file. In trying to free up my pieces I allowed him to capture a trapped bishop and, a piece up, he simply forced the exchange of the remaining pieces and ground me down until it was inevitable that he would get a pawn home."

Shaun Walsh had the White pieces on board 3. He says: "White opened with the sharp f4 opening of the Sicilian Najdorf and had a good attacking position a few moves later. Black played very accurately and slowly but surely turned the position around with a strong attack against White's open kingside, eventually leading to White's resignation."

Nick Woods had Black on board 4. He says: "My opponent opened with the English and I responded with the Agincourt opening. The game was fairly even until I had 15 mins on my clock and my opponent 25 mins. We ended up with a rook and a bishop each. My problem was he got a pawn one square away from being promoted. I had to use my bishop to cover the promotion square. This kept my bishop tied up and out of the game. Because of this with the extra piece in play I lost a couple of pawns and when he got into a position where we had to exchange rooks I called it a day because I could not stop his extra pawns from promoting."

Charlie Higenbottam had White on board 5. He says: "I started the game with e4, my opponent followed with d6, an opening I was unfamiliar with called the Pirc defence. I responded by putting both pawns in the centre (d4, e4). On move seven Black opened up the game with e5 and after an exchange of pawns we were left with one pawn in the centre each. The computer analysis gave me a small advantage of 0.9 which turned to -0.1 on move 14 and then -5.8 on move 15. I blundered my knight on c3 when Black's Queen unexpectedly checked me. This would have worked for me but I didn't see a check across the board. The game continued with no major changes in advantage until move 31 when I resigned.

Danny Wilkins had the Black pieces on board 6. He says: "I played against a much stronger opponent on board 6. Scotch opening. Lost material too early and couldn't recover from then on. My opponent did miss an opportunity to mate late in the game. Though I resigned a couple of moves later due to so much loss of material."

Final result 6-0 to Clifton K

Gregory Sumner