In sub zero temperatures we arrived at Bristol University for a key top of the table match. We were missing Martin as it clashed with his christmas works do so Reinhold replaced Martin and Aron moved up to board 3 after an impressive run of results.

With the radiators on full blast the match got under way.

Aron's game was first to warm up as a pawn sacrifice led to the queens coming off and a knight fork on f7 won the exchange, the pieces quickly came off leaving Rook & Knight against Bishop & Knight with a pawn each and Aron aimed his sights on rounding up Dan's pawn, in the process a timely Rook check netted a Knight forcing resignation.

On the next board there was lots of queenside activity in Nigel's game as he seemed to be in trouble until Tom allowed his knight on c3 to be exchanged for a bishop on b7. Nigel found himself a piece up after forking on b2, but two and then a third pawn down meant he had to form a blockade with his knight to prevent the pawns from breaking through his ranks, an offer of a draw from Tom was duly accepted.

Meanwhile on board 5 Reinhold was having trouble against Ian. Faced with an onslaught of kingside pawns opening up his defences and a menacing knight on d4, the inevitable mating threats arrived and the match was levelled up by the University.

Focus switched to the top two boards. On board 1 Oscar and James were involved in a petroff which suddenly came to life, James had given up too much material in winning Oscar's Queen and was in danger of losing on the spot, however he was given a lifeline and managed to bail out for a perpetual.

On board 2 Steve was in trouble from early on with a displaced king and difficulties developing pieces, losing the exchange became a lifeline for Steve as the two pawn advantage created problems for Zachary, time pressure came into play as Zachary gave up material to wipe out the passed pawns and had to defend RR v RNB, a tense phase of the game saw his clock go down to 1 sec! The game ended when Zachary saw his opportunity to exchange off two minor pieces for a Rook, resulting in a drawn RP ending.

One game to go as board 6 was still in play, Kevin up against Peter was the exchange down but had a noticeable pawn advantage on the kingside with both players castling queenside. It looked a simple task of pushing the pawns so Kevin started with the h pawn push and got hit with a Rook sacrifice, Kevin accepted and it soon became clear that a swindle was taking place as Peter was now able to occupy the back rank and was threatening mate, with very little time left on the clock Kevin ran out of checks and was left with a choice of giving up his queen or resigning, he chose the latter and the match was won 3.5 - 2.5.