The B team headed to Leighton Buzzard for their match. In football terms would be classed as a “six pointer” at the bottom of the table as both teams had lost all their matches so far.
Kick off was delayed because due to the lack of a full set of keys we were locked out of the venue. To add to the complications we were in a basement room rather than the usual room in the gods – which confused Qais totally. Fortunately, I managed to catch him and we had a full team!
Richard and Peter engaged in a lot of manoeuvring out of a very quiet Giocco Piano style opening. Richard had the space advantage, but Peter’s position had no real weaknesses. After queens came off the position was dead level and a draw was agreed.
Marc took an enterprising approach against Frank’s Reti opening and put pressure on the kingside and centre. Frank then managed to trap his black squared bishop in the centre of the board and had to give it up for two pawns. Marc had by far the better of the position and methodically simplified the position to leave a very easily won ending with the extra piece.
On board 5 Qais played an aggressive game against his opponent and delayed castling to push his kingside pawns. After castling queenside, Qais seemed to have all the play and his opponent fell very short of time. An attempt to try to exchange a queen for two rooks did not work which left Qais a whole rook up and he finished the game with a nice mate.
My game against Brian was a cagey affair. Out of the opening I had very cramped position and Brian had a little bit of pressure on the queenside, although I had no real weaknesses. The game burst into life after I advanced my d pawn and knights ending up flying all round the board – one of mine ending up on e6 creating potential mating threats on g7 and Brian’s on d3. However, neither of us could really make use of our knights as the rest of the position was blocked and a draw was agreed.
Paul spent much of his game against Adrian under pressure. His position out of the opening was not too bad, but Adrian had pressure against Paul’s king. Adrian then tried a rook sacrifice, thinking that ultimately it would lead to a devastating knight fork winning Paul’s queen. However, Paul was able to sidestep the threat and was left with a rook for three pawns. Paul managed then to force queens off and methodically pick off the white pawns to win the game.
A first win of the season gives the B Team a little breathing space at the bottom of the table and hope for the second half of the season
Alex Taylor, 1st February 2023