On 26th Feb the Downend D team played a crucial away match against fellow relegation battlers Bristol Cabot A. We gained an early lead with wins on boards 5 and 6, and with a win on board 1 to follow were guaranteed at least a draw. The middle boards played on much later into the night, but we ultimately came out 4-2 victors, earning ourselves a vital win in our quest for Division 3 survival.

First to finish was Carolus Tang, playing with the White pieces on board 5 against Richard Collis. Carolus played a great move as they entered the middle game, attacking down the queenside and earning a fantastic outpost for his knight on d6. With the pressure building Richard blundered on move 23, allowing Carolus to win his Queen for a Rook. Carolus' Queen joined the attack soon after and when Richard's two remaining pieces were forked a few moves later, Richard resigned. A very neat game from Carolus, spotting his opponents mistakes well and playing at 88% accuracy.

Up next was me, on board 6 this time with Black against Phil Burnett. I was outplayed in the opening and down a clear central pawn on move 18 as Phil did well to push my pieces backwards after a sloppy opening. On move 23 I played a Bxf3 sacrifice, seeing that if my opponent took, we'd likely end in an imbalanced endgame with my Rook and 5 pawns vs Phil's Knight, Bishop and 4 pawns. Not ideal, but a playable improvement compared to how the opening had gone. There was actually one line where Phil would come out up a piece, but neither of us saw it (thankfully!), and my prediction came to fruition. Unfortunately, on move 28, Phil blundered and moved his King away from the defence of his rook, allowing me to take his Knight, which couldn't be recaptured by the now pinned pawn. Up a piece and with my opponents King heavily exposed in the centre of the board, I pressed on and earnt a win by resignation.

Ian Pickup had White against Alastair Drummond on board 1. Ian played a great game, gaining a big edge within 10 moves and merely improving on it as the game progressed. After castling queenside, Ian started a kingside pawn storm, followed by a key central pawn break and found himself 2 pawns up within 20 moves. After developing his remaining pieces and manoeuvring them well, Ian managed to trade most of them off, leaving the game in a same-coloured bishop endgame with Ian's 4 pawns to Alastair's 1. An excellent game from Ian, very clean and accurate play at 94%, he never let his early advantage slip.

With a nice early lead, the pressure lifted somewhat as I knew we needed merely 1 draw from the remaining 3 boards to earn the match win, and the games looked competitive enough for me to sense hope that would be the case.

Alexis Malibiran had Black against Oleksii Novakov and told me afterwards that he felt his opponent's position was always stronger and that his pieces were constantly under attack. Having now seen most of the game, I don't think that was the case, with neither player having any advantage until move 24, and both playing book moves until as late as move 14. The move recording falters from here on, so Alexis must've made mistakes later on, but it doesn't appear to be as dominating a loss as he had first thought.

The penultimate game to finish was Nigel Wilcox with White against Tim Jones on board 3. I joined this one at the very end, with Nigel's 2 unopposed g and h pawns against Tim's Knight and unopposed b pawn. By this point it was a dead draw as both had to respect the other's threat, and with a draw agreed the victory was sealed! Having since seen the full game, the endgame was incredibly intricate, with precise piece and King placement needed to maintain the balance, and Tim missing a couple of difficult chances to earn a decisive advantage. The imbalance came from a tricky move from Nigel, thinking he was winning material, but Tim finding the only move to go up a piece for 2 pawns.

The night ended with Dave Williams and the Black pieces against Alastair Marston. The players found themselves in a relatively locked position and it was unclear what (if any) pawn break would be advantageous, and for whom. It seems Alastair may have missed an opportunity to seize the a file when things opened up, and another late on in the game when Dave gave up his bishop for what seemed a clear perpetual check. There was a brief moment available for Alastair to go in for the kill but, sensing potential danger around his King, Alastair retreated his Rook, leading to the perpetual check that Dave had foreseen.

Dan Parcell