The B Team kicked off the second half of the season against the A Team, looking to avenge their heavy defeat early in the season.
Richard gamely volunteered to take on the Board 1 mantle, which left me playing Ravi on Board 2. Ravi opened with the Reti and I went wrong quite early on, leaving me with double c pawns and facing lots of indirect threats from Ravi’s bishop on g2. Ravi continued to try to build pressure in the centre, but was slightly too slow, allowing me to break with c5 forcing queens off and winning two pawns. The endgame was completely won and Ravi resigned.
Nick and Qais were battling it out on Board 5. Against a French Defence Qais tried to attack on the kingside and although he managed to get his queen well into the black position, the loss of the white squared bishop meant that once Nick had prised open the queenside he was able to invade with his queen and white squared bishop, forcing the white king into the open. This led inexorably to the gaining of material and imminent mate, so this brought the scores level.
Richard faced a Sicilian Defence against Steve and at the beginning the position was reasonably level. However, Steve was able to build pressure on the c file and also against Richard’s advanced pawn on d5. This pressure eventually gave rise to Steve winning a pawn and he then started rolling his pawns forward in the centre and put pressure on Richard’s king. Richard struggled to plug the holes in his position and eventually Steve was able to get an attack rolling against the king and was threatening to bring his rooks into the position to force victory.
Marc and James had an interesting game which seemed to fluctuate. Initially Marc seemed to have a slight edge in terms of space and building up pressure on the e file. However, as a counter balance, he had a restricted white-squared bishop and scattered pawns, which meant that James’s queen and knight always had targets. Ultimately, the decisive factor was Marc’s weak black squares which enabled James to win the exchange due to mating threats. Marc still had drawing chances, and may have missed a chance at the end to achieve this.
Paul and Toby’s game was a cagey affair for the first part of the game. Toby appeared to have a slight advantage, which increased considerably when he made an advance on the queenside. It all seemed to get very complicated (well to me anyway!) and Paul seemed to be just about holding off threats to his queen and pieces. Once the dust had settled, Toby was left with an extra pawn in a bishop and knight ending, and with two connected central passed pawns. Paul defended gallantly, but in the end Toby was able to reach a position where one of his pawns was queening.
Overall a 4-1 victory to the A Team, which does not really reflect how close some of the games actually were. The victory keeps them on course for the title and the defeat leaves the B Team looking over their shoulders at the bottom of the table.
Alex Taylor, 24th February 2023