Having lost our previous match v Clifton we were relying on other teams to do us some favours in their matches against Bath, but we turned up in relaxed mood to play against a solid Horfield side.

I (Nigel ) was paired against Phil Nendick on Board 3. An unusual opening produced a nebulous position in which I was waiting for him to resolve the central tension before committing my king whilst Phil was keen to see which side I chose to castle before determining the central structure. We repeated moves so we were both saved from resolving the problem.

By then Mark on Board 5 had gained an lead in development and then spotted a neat tactic which won the exchange without releasing the pressure. This soon became a win for him.

With much to play for, I left for an early night; Dave Tipper, as usual, collected the game scores so I can relate events.

On Board 6 Dave had sacrificed two pawns in a sharp Two Knight’s Defence; this had given him much compensation and excellent practical chances. His approach paid dividends as White decide to play Rb1 instead of castling his king away from the danger. Dave maintained the pressure, won the material back and then more and completed a fine win.

On Board 4 Peter went for a Budapest Gambit which produced a murky position. He did not get the pawn back but had pressure against Mike’s centre. Mike decided to liquidate to a position where he had a queen against Peter’s two rooks, but Peter’s exposed king meant that there was always likely to be a perpetual check. This proved to be the case.

Board 2 was a completely different kettle of fish. The middlegame was missed out as Aron and Peter headed down well known theory to an ending after twenty moves which is balanced but with some chances for both sides. They played it out to the end but neither side seemed to get any advantage and a draw was reached after some fifty moves.

Board 1 was different again between two of the league’s most combative players. Oscar castled queenside as a prelude to charging forward with his kingside pawns at the cost of yielding the e file to Derek. 17 Nd5 was promising for him, instead he attacked Derek’s stranded knight on h5. Derek responded with a rook sacrifice on c3 which gave him a winning position by the time Oscar finally captured the hanging knight some eight moves later. No doubt both players were short of time as Oscar continued to lunge forward with his pawns to open up Derek’s king. There was a sequence for Derek to play Kf8, Rf1 Ne2, Re3 Kg8, Rf2 Qd1 and Qd5 to keep the king safe and get to a winning endgame, but this was hard to spot so settling for the perpetual check was sensible.

A overall match score 4-2 in our favour left us with some hopes. Let us hope other teams manage to fire successfully against Clifton and, especially, Bath.