Well that is one way of curing the away day blues! Our first away win of the season turned out to be emphatic. This despite Staines A resorting to playing A-list celebrity names against us on boards 5 and 8 (ok – fair enough one of the celebs is actually deceased I suppose!). Although it looks pretty straightforward it was not quite as easy as the scoreline suggests and there was certainly extra entertainment on offer during and after the Board 2 clash.

On Board 1 Chris came up against some solid play by Tim. Chris ended up with quite a messed up pawn structure in the middle of the board and it seemed like he might be drifting into a difficult position. At the vital moment he picked up his rook, placed it emphatically on b1, eyeing Tim’s queenside and offered a draw. Tim agreed. Well done, Chris.

Board 2 was a classic Nick Pelling game. He trotted out an unconventional opening and soon Paul made an inaccuracy that cost not only a pawn but also, more importantly, control over the dark squares. Nick ratcheted up the pressure and Paul’s position got more and more passive until they reached this position:

Paul resigned here in the process of moving 29.Bh3-g2, which loses to 29…h3. Is this one of the worst bishops of all time? Certainly the bishop is not helped by the fact that White’s set-up would not be out of place on a draughts board!

After the game Nick was showing his scoresheet to Heiko when Paul came up to them, grabbed the scoresheet, screwed it up and threw it into the corner of the room. Our suggestion would be to make it into a paper plane next time as it will fly further. Hence this game will enter Surbiton legend as the “Origami Game of Doom”! Well played Nick!

Board 3 saw a rather more conventional game as Edgar got on top of Colum in a highly theoretical line. With King’s castled on opposite wings the speed of attack is everything and an inaccuracy by Colum allowed Edgar to seize the initiative and strip away the Black king’s defences. Well played Edgar!

My game on Board 4 was a somewhat lower quality affair. After making some inaccuracies in the opening I faced the prospect of a stinging attack on my king if I castled short or some murky complications if I castled long. Long it was and the game was balanced until I made an absolute howler which allowed Derek to win a piece for a couple of pawns. After that I went into total hack mode and got very lucky when Derek repaid the complement and allowed me to get the piece back. My resultant two pawn advantage became three in the time scramble and so I got a rather undeserved win.

Board 5 saw Ian forced on to the defensive by Michael after Michael’s pawn sacrifice that gave him some nice open lines to attack on the queenside. Ian hung on in there and eventually out calculated Michael such that he ended up with an unstoppable c-pawn in the ending. Well fought Ian!

On Board 6 Angus established and early advantage in the centre and soon found himself two pawns to the good. Angus made no mistake. Well played Angus!

Board 7 was actually the first to finish. While I was still trying to remember anything about my new opening Heiko had managed to conclude his game. Basically it was not long before Martin seemed obliged to shed material. When it got to the point when he was looking at greater than a rook deficit he called it a day. Well played Heiko!

Malcolm provided some weird entertainment on Board 8. Having established an overwhelming position early on he seemed determined to eschew the easy wins in favour of keeping us on the edge of our seats. Still with bishop and three vs knight and one it seemed he was heading to a comfortable victory until….he dropped his passed pawn for nothing! After that it may well have been a theoretical draw. In any case, draw it ended up being. Unlucky Malcolm.

Paul Shepherd 18 April 2011