The last match for University A before the Christmas holidays and, while a few of the regulars were unavailable, we were able to field another strong team. Dorian Schiefer stepped up to the first team for the first time and Andrew Porter came back for his second game having now played multiple games for each University team.
Alex Vaughan finished University chess for 2019 in quick fashion:
Dorian was next to finish with a Karpovian (his word) endgame building up against White’s backward d-pawn before crashing through. Daniel Savidge had another draw showing that the top boards in this division are no pushover. While still undefeated, hopefully Daniel will pick up some more wins in 2020, probably after reading my book on the Scandinavian over the Holidays.
My own game was next to finish after winning up a piece in a tactical 2. Bf4 Dutch opening. White got a couple of pawns for the piece and some activity that I felt I had to be careful, although computer analysis will tell you that Black is easier winning. Alex Belsley also won, converting a position a pawn albeit helped by his opponent making things slightly easier in time trouble.
The final game to finish was Andrew Porter’s game, his opponent thinking a piece sacrifice would force through a passed pawn but overlooked a knight check, that allowed the piece to catch the pawn. Another good win for Andrew continuing his excellent season and he can expect a good rating when they are published in January.
A good first half of the season, where the team is nicely positioned to win the league but more importantly get promotion back into the first division.
University A 5.5-0.5 South Bristol A
Daniel Savidge 0.5-0.5 Richard Garrett
Alex Belsley 1-0 Tony Harvey
Ian Gallagher 1-0 Iain Bourne
Alex Vaughan 1-0 Florin Ionescu
Dorian Schiefer 1-0 David Neagle
Andrew Porter 1-0 Gareth Cullan