Neil Hickman (154) ½ – James Alexander (141) ½
John Harbour (143) 1 – George Ward (136) 0
Qais Karimi (129) 1 – John McKeon (125) 0
Jan Laming (e120) 1 – Lau Gainpaulsingh (e90) 0
Mac MacKenzie (82) 1 – Default 0
The OU lost their board one, Peter Clarke, through sickness at the last
moment and were therefore a player short and considerably weakened.
I obtained a dominant position out of the opening. George then blundered
a knight and quickly resigned.
Jan was allowed to play Nb5-d6 in a Sicilian, and took full advantage of
the resultant pawn on d6.
Qais was a knight up early on, and though John fought stubbornly on the
result was never in doubt.
James vs Neil on board one was therefore the only hard-contested game,
with Neil slowly gaining the upper hand, then missing a couple of
chances before deciding to settle for the draw – see Alexander-Hickman
A great result for the D team, although it all felt a bit too easy on
the night.