Board 1. Mark Thwaites had the black pieces. He struggled to develop his king side pieces against e4-d4-e5 in the Caro Khan. After a queen trade, material was even, but white won through thanks mainly to overwhelming minor piece action.
Board 2. John Paines says “I was white against the vastly experienced Andrew Borkowski who has a grade of 1761. Andrew replied to my 1 e4 with b6, a defence I’ve hardly ever faced, but I managed to get to an equal middle game. Andrew then launched a strong attack on my king down an open file but also blundered a piece for a pawn. At this point he offered a draw which I accepted as I could see that Andrew had a number of mating chances. Post-match analysis on the engine suggested that I could have negotiated these with best play so a part of me says that I chickened out of pressing for an eventual endgame win, but overall I was happy with the result against such a strong player.”
Board 3. Shaun Walsh had the black pieces against Tim Withers. The game opened with the French Exchange. White pinned the black knight to the King followed by another attack with a knight against the Black knight. Black went for a tactic with a Kingside attack to escape the pin but White calmly sidestepped the attack and had a better position. Eventually the pressure got to Black, who blundered a Bishop. Thereafter White dominated the game going on to win comfortably.
Board 4. Charlie Higenbottam had White. The game started equal with White playing the French Exchange variation until Black made a miscalculation after an attack on the king - losing a pawn. White later blundered his bishop with its only defending piece pinned, allowing Black to use this material advantage to put his pawn 1 square away from promotion. This is when White resigned.
Board 5. Per Saunders had the black pieces and achieved our only win of the evening. He says “Stockfish has informed me that I played against an “accelerated London” opening, and I ended up with two sets of double pawns, though I had some space to compensate - so it perhaps was not as bad as it felt. However, I soon lost control of the game and found myself under heavy attack! My only defence was counter-play, and I got quite lucky when I managed to advance a pawn to the other side just as the attack was becoming particularly scary.”
Board 6. Vivaan Suresha had the white pieces. He says “the game started with me and my opponent playing well, until in the middle game I played my bishop back to c1 not realising what would happen. The bishop would take my knight, I also couldn’t take back, because if I did I would lose my rook. After a few more moves, my opponent blundered his rook unknowingly. Since I was up by 2 points I decided to trade all of my pieces off. I was in a winning position, but I played too defensively and made a draw.”
Final score - a 4-2 loss.
Gregory Sumner