Another example of how anyone can beat anyone else in this league. Having been properly stuffed 6-2 by Wimbledon A in the away fixture, when we were not able to field our strongest side, we achieved perfect symmetry with the opposite result at our place against a Wimbledon team shorn of their two top performers: Messrs Granat and Berry.

On Board 1 Mark played a nice positional game. After equalizing in the opening he gradually pressed on the queenside and Russell’s pieces became more and more passive as he desperately defended. This was a quickplay finish and Mark took his advantage into the ending. However it was very hard, given the limited time, to find the correct way to win and having missed at least one clear chance, Mark had to settle for a draw as Russell managed to regroup. Well played Mark, unlucky not to win.

Board 2 saw Chris gradually build up an advantage as he pressed on the kingside and in particular on the half-open f-file. Eventually Chris’s attack grew to decisive proportions. Well played Chris!

Board 3 saw much entertainment as Robin and Nick went into tactical melee mode. Nick had won a couple of pawns out of the opening but the complexities did not really ease even when the queens came off. Robin tried to run his king-side pawns down the board as he ended up a piece down. Nick kept his head and steered himself to a position with loads of material up having neutralized Robin’s threats. Well played Nick.

Stef had a very interesting game against Martin on Board 4 and always seemed to be the one pressing for the win. Martin’s knights buzzed from one side of the board to the other, trying to distract Stef as much as possible. On moves 20 and 21 Stef missed opportunities to simplify down to a favourable ending. During the time scramble Martin missed a chance to win a pawn. At the adjournment it appeared that the position was essentially balanced and so a draw was agreed without resumption. Well played Stef.

My game on Board 5 was a minor disaster for me. After getting move-ordered by Nick very early on I ended up in a very passive queen-less middle-game significantly behind in development and with plenty of weak squares to try to defend. I think it should have been possible to hold the position but I didn’t play accurately. Nick finished me off with a very neat combination that won a rook.

Apologies to Ian, Angus and Rob for not seeing enough of their games to give detailed accounts. However the speed in which they dispatched their opponents was impressive and they really cashed in when bowling at the Wimbledon “tail-enders”. Well played to all of you!

Paul Shepherd 18 April 2011