After a long weekend at the BUCA championships, University A were heading into a key match for the outcome of the season, away against Cabot A. Fatigue was clearly not affecting peoples’ willing to play with us fielding one our strongest possible teams. Daniel Savidge and Ethan Luc were given a rest from their top board for the Bristol BUCA teams with the Bristol champion leading the side.
Despite this, it was me that had the easiest game with the two sweetest words in the English language, default. It was a shame not to play, although if it had to be anyone, then I was glad it was me as captain. After my performance when exhausted after the Bristol Congress, maybe this was a good thing.
After a 1-0 lead in the opening 30 minutes, it wasn’t long before other results started coming in. Daniel Varney once again won quickly as White in a strange French Defence where Black gave up the pressure on the d4 point. Dorian drew and Ethan won after his opponent’s all-out-attack on the kingside failed and the two extra minor pieces quickly swarmed the gaps behind enemy lines.
With the match already won, the top two boards continued to put the squeeze on their opponents. Alex Belsley had a dream position against a Classical Dutch where Black’s e pawn was isolated and a huge target on the semi-open file. It was sacrificed to open up some lines for Black’s pieces, but only helped White even more, who won an exchange and then the game.
Daniel Savidge gained a steady positional advantage, and, during time pressure, White’s inaccuracies eventually snowballed and led to him dropping a couple of pawns. Some solid play by Daniel liquidated to a simple queen endgame with no chances for White to steal a perpetual check and the extra passed pawns did their thing.
Cabot A 0.5-5.5 University A
Tim Jones 0-1 Alex Belsley
Vigyan Ratnoo 0-1 Daniel Savidge
DEFAULT 0-1 Ian Gallagher
Alastair Marston 0.5-0.5 Dorian Schiefer
Richard Collis 0-1 Daniel Varney
Stewart Newman 0-1 Ethan Luc