Our fourth match of the season was an away match against Bristol Grendel A on 4th November. Grendel’s venue is only a short walk from the Richmond Building so we didn’t have to faff with public transportation this time. Going into the match, I expected it to be a difficult one, since Grendel is a strong team, but I’ve been wrong before. I’ll cover the games in the approximate order that they finished.
Board 5
Argi had White on Board 5 after agreeing to play as a replacement only the day before, and his game had the fewest plies of any of our games so far this season. His game started with the Albin Countergambit (2… e5), a rare response to the Queen’s Gambit which I play myself, so I was already somewhat rooting for both players. The game continued in relatively standard fashion with Black trying to win back the e5 pawn with 6… Ngxe7 followed by 7… Ng6. Black succeeded in winning back the pawn with 11… Ncxe5, objectively equalising.
The above position looks relatively dangerous for White because of the pressure down the e-file, but Argi had it all under control, accurately playing 12. Rd1 to develop with tempo. Black awkwardly blocked the attack with 12… Bd7 and Argi found the only good plan: to trade knights with 13. Nxe5 Nxe5 and then to move the queen clear of any potential discovered attacks. Argi decided to keep the queen centralised with 14. Qd4, pressuring both the knight and the bishop, but he was down nearly 50 minutes on the clock. Despite his opponent’s gargantuan time advantage, the momentum immediately shifted in Argi’s favour after 14… Qe7 because of 15. f4, attacking the knight, an essential defender of the bishop.
This looks like it just wins a piece at first glance, but 15… Qh4+ objectively keeps the game in the balance. If White blocks the check with 16. g3, there’s 16… Nf3+, exploiting the fact that the bishop on e2 is pinned by the rook on e8, and the position that results after 17. Kf2 Nxd4 18. gxh4 is better for Black because of White’s horrible kingside pawn structure. Since both king moves also don’t maintain White’s threats, the best response for White is 16. Qf2, but Black is completely fine after 16… Qxf2 17. Kxf2 Ng4+, giving a check so that the bishop cannot be taken and defending the knight with the bishop. However, Black missed that 15… Qh4+ works and instead got the move order the wrong way round with 15… Nf3+ 16. gxf3 Qh4+. Argi simply blocked the check with 17. Qf2, allowing Black no compensation for the knight. The game then took another unexpected turn even further in Argi’s favour with Black’s next move 17… Bc6.
Yes, the above position is correct; Black made Argi’s conversion process a lot easier by hanging the queen in one move to 18. Qxh4. Of course Black resigned at this point, starting the match off with a sudden win for us and the first win in a B Team match by a player new to the league this season. Argi also won for the C Team 6 days prior to this match so he’s going to be gaining a lot of rating at the start of December, and it is well-deserved, given that he played at almost 97% accuracy in this game.
Board 2
Thomas had Black on Board 2 and his game started with the Exchange Variation of the Caro-Kann. Early in the game, he struck in the centre with 10… e5 and was left with the bishop pair and an isolated d-pawn after some trades on e5. White built up pressure on the isolated pawn and Thomas’ major pieces ended up a bit cramped so he sacrificed the pawn with 20… d4, opening up the position.
White responded with 21. Nxd4 and the light-squared bishops were then traded with 21… Bxb3 22. Nxb3, but the extra pawn still gave White somewhat of an edge. After 22… Qe6, White doubled the rooks on the d-file with 23. Rfd1 but Thomas simply traded off a pair of rooks with 23… Rxd2 24. Qxd2, which still left his pieces relatively passive. White inched forward and targeted his weak queenside pawns, so Thomas threatened to pick off all of White’s queenside pawns in return with 28… Qd5.
While it wasn’t played in the game, the best move in the above position is 29. Nxa6 because if Black also starts gobbling up pawns, White generates strong counterplay after 29… Qxa2 30. Nc7 Qxb2 31. Nd5 with the threat of 32. Nxf6 Kxf6 33. Qe5#. Therefore, Black has to play 33… Bd8, and there is another cool tactic after 32. Qd4+ Kg8, which is 33. Re7, sacrificing the rook because 33… Bxe7 loses immediately to 34. Nxe7#. Besides looking cool, what 33. Re7 actually achieves is it blocks the diagonal of the bishop so it no longer covers f6, threatening a flashy checkmate involving a queen sacrifice. This line is 34. Nf6+ Kh8 35. Nh5+ f6 36. Qxf6+ Rxf6 37. Re8+ Rf8 38. Rxf8#, so the only hope for Black comes in the form of 33… Qa1+ 34. Kh2 Qa4, offering a queen trade, but White is still a lot better objectively there, let alone practically speaking. The strength of White’s attack on the king here is of course extremely difficult to spot from a distance, so White instead retreated to shield the attacked a-pawn with 29. Nb3. The game continued and the players eventually traded down into a rook endgame where White was still up a pawn. The queenside pawns were traded until only a passed b-pawn remained after 42. cxb4, and the position was briefly objectively drawn as a result.
The only drawing move is 42… Re1, threatening to put the rook behind the passed pawn so that White cannot do that. If White then targets the kingside pawns with 43. Ra5, there’s the tactic 43… g4 44. hxg4 hxg4+ 45. Kxg4 Re4+, picking up the b-pawn, at which point Thomas would undoubtedly draw. Thomas spotted this tactical idea but missed the importance of immediately getting the rook behind the pawn, instead playing 42… f6, so 43. Ra2 g4+ 44. hxg4 hxg4+ 45. Kf4 just won another pawn for White and left the b-pawn unstoppable, so Thomas resigned after 45… Kg6. This endgame was rather tricky and Thomas’ opponent was very strong, so he did well to get close to drawing.
Board 1
I had White on Board 1 and I knew my opponent from Bristol Pub Chess so, with help from Tommy, who came to spectate the match, I came prepared with numerous dangerous tactical lines specifically selected to counter my opponent’s usual system against the Alapin Sicilian. I memorised one of the lines I deemed most likely up to move 34, at which point I trusted that I could convert, so, needless to say, I had decent winning chances if my opponent played what I expected. Initially, everything went as planned, but my opponent surprised both me and Tommy by intentionally playing the bad move 5… d3.
While I knew that this was a bad move, that meant I didn’t think to prepare against it, and the ideas of the position are sufficiently different from what I had prepared that I was pretty much entirely on my own already. My opponent had correctly assumed that I would be comfortably blitzing out preparation for a while if not for a major deviation, so this was rather ingenious, as, at the end of the day, I was 256 points lower rated. Nevertheless, I tried to develop quickly and actively in the hope that the game would get tactical, and, to an extent, it did after 12. Rxe5.
My opponent and I thought that 12… Nc4 was impossible in the above position because of 13. Qa4+ Bd7 14. Qxc4, but Black has 14… Rc8 and things start to get very complicated because the queen needs to keep the bishop on c1 defended, so this leads to the forcing sequence of moves 15. Qf4 Bd6 16. Nd2 f6 17. Qg4 Bxe5 18. Qxg7 Rf8, which leaves White down an exchange but with sufficient counterplay for the position to be objectively equal. In the game, 12… g6 was played, and Tommy found a cool way for Black to lose here that he told me about after, which is that 13. Bg5 not only doesn’t lose to the fork 13… f6, but this is actually completely winning for White because 14. Bxg6+ hxg6 15. Qxd8+ Kxd8 16. Bxf6+ Ke8 17. Bxh8 wins an exchange and 2 pawns. However, Black can just play 13… Be7 instead, and I played 13. Nc3 anyway. I continued tactically defending the c4 pawn and trying to create winning chances, but I eventually allowed my opponent to bail out with 22… Nxc4, removing the defender of the knight on b5.
This doesn’t just win a pawn because after 23. Rxc4 Bxb5, there’s 24. Rc5, attacking the bishop, and the e5 pawn is insufficiently defended. My opponent played 24… Bc6 and offered a draw because Black can force a dead drawn endgame with 25. Bxe5 Bxe5 26. Rxe5 Rfe8 27. Rxe8+ Rxe8 28. Qd2 Rxe1+ 29. Qxe1, so I reluctantly accepted. While I was definitely trying to win, simply being willing to play 5… d3 to avoid my preparation earned the draw.
Board 3
Samson had White on Board 5, a few days after mounting a crazy comeback and winning his game while subbing for the A Team, and his game started with the Mengarini Variation (2. a3) of the Sicilian. Black took space on the queenside early on and Samson’s pieces got a bit cramped as a result, so he opened up the position somewhat with 13. e5. However, this allowed Black to apply more pressure to the e5 pawn with 13… Nd7.
Black is better in the above position because of the space advantage and initiative against e5, and, while Samson was able to keep e5 sufficiently defended, Black continued expanding on the queenside. When the queenside expansion concluded, Samson’s queenside pawns were left relatively weak, but Black’s most active pieces soon got traded and the backward pawn on d6 became a notable weakness, so Samson looked to have survived the worst of it. Black’s position remained stable, however, with ideas to create a passed d-pawn down the road or to activate the rooks on the b-file to pressure the weak c2 pawn.
In the above position, Samson played 25. Nd4, which blockades the d-pawn at the cost of relinquishing some defence of the e5 pawn, but Black did not target the e5 pawn and instead inaccurately traded the bishop for the knight with 25… Bxd4 26. Rxd4. With no minor pieces remaining, after 26… Qc5, Samson reinforced the rook on d4 with 27. c3 and his position appeared to be holding itself together. Black infiltrated on the b-file but Samson accurately abandoned his queenside pawns and doubled the rooks on the d-file to pressure the backward d5 pawn. To make luft and win a tempo on the queen, Black played 30… h6, unaware that this would be Black’s final move of the game.
Unfortunately, Samson blundered with 31. Rxd5, which loses a rook to 31… Qxd5 because the White queen is hanging too, so he resigned. Despite Samson’s tendency to win games where he was losing at some point, it is difficult to stage a comeback down a rook. This was an unfortunate conclusion to the game because Samson had some drawing chances, but chess is brutal like this sometimes. With only half a point on the top 3 boards, we needed at least a win and a draw in the remaining two games to not lose the match, so things weren’t looking great but there was a chance.
Board 4
Jake had Black on Board 4 for his first game in the league and Tommy correctly guessed his opponent, so Jake expected 1. Nf3 followed by 2. d4. However, in the game, White started with 1. d4 and then played 2. Nf3, and the opening became the Colle System. This game featured a lot of manoeuvring early on as White attacked on the kingside and Jake retreated his pieces to defend accordingly. Despite White’s attack, however, Jake was objectively a bit better, but the correct sequence after 28. Rh3 is a bit unnatural.
In order to be better, Jake had to play 28… Ra7 to reinforce the g7 pawn, but he played 28… h6 in the game, giving White a significant advantage. Notably, 29. Rxh6 doesn’t work because of 29… Ng4, so White created the threat of Rxh6 with 29. Qg6. Jake accurately responded with 29… Ng4, and this initiated the forcing sequence of moves 30. Nxg4 fxg4 31. Rxh6 Rf6 32. Qe8+ Rf8 33. Qxe6+ Qxe6 34. Rxe6 Rxf4 35. Rxc6, which left Jake down 2 pawns but not without some drawing chances. Eventually, in an endgame where both players had a rook, a bishop, and some pawns, Jake won a pawn back and White’s advantage ceased to be winning. White soon regained a winning advantage, but the endgame was still tricky so White squandered the advantage a bit after Jake played 59… Kc6.
White played 60. h3, which makes sense because it undermines the defence of the rook, but this allowed Jake to target the d4 pawn with 60… Rd3. After the long sequence 61. Re6+ Kc7 62. hxg4 Bxd4 63. Bxd4 Rxd4 64. Rd6 Rxg4 65. Rxd5, White is up a passed pawn but Black’s king is perfectly placed and White’s is cut off, so this is a theoretical draw, but Jake had very little time at this point so the draw was far from guaranteed. The final critical position occurred after 69. Kh3, where Black needs to trade the g7 pawn for the c5 pawn.
The simplest drawing move is 69… Rd5, but that required Jake to calculate the line 70. Rxd5 Kxd5 71. Kh4 Kxc5 72. Kg5 Kd6 73. Kg6 Ke5 74. g4 Kf4 75. g5 Kg4, at which point White is forced to relinquish the king’s defence of the final pawn. However, the idea of getting the Black king behind the passed pawn so that the White king cannot take the g7 pawn is difficult to see with low time, so Jake played 69… Rb4 instead, which loses because the White king is able to advance towards the g7 pawn, shielded by White’s g-pawn. White converted accurately so Jake resigned after White’s 80th move, which means this game was over 20 moves longer than every other B Team game so far this season. Jake’s opponent was over 1800 ECF so, considering he put up a very good fight and was close to drawing, this was an excellent debut.
Board 6
Shubham had Black on Board 6 in an absolute rollercoaster of a game, and his game started with the Alburt Defence (2… Bf5) in the Chigorin Variation. White expanded on the kingside early and eventually won a pawn, but Shubham got the initiative in exchange, and he was already objectively close to winning after 17. Rh3, but the best plan is very difficult to find.
The best move is 17… g6, which is very unnatural, but the idea is to cover g6 and f5 to effectively trap the queen so that there is a devastating threat of 18… Nf7, and the only move to save the queen there is 19. Qh4, which loses to the fork 19… g5. If White prevents this idea with 18. Nd3, Black has the secondary idea of 18… Rh8. White can’t play 19. Rxh8 because of 19… Nxf3+, winning the queen, and White also can’t play 19. Rg3 because of both 19… Rh1+ and 19… Nxd3+ 20. cxd3 Qxg3+. Shubham understandably didn’t find this nonsense, however, and instead played 17… d4, which favourably opened up the position for him after 18. exd4 Qxd4. White defended well with 19. 0-0-0 Nc4 20. Nd3, and here Shubham miscalculated and played 20… Nxb2, which doesn’t work if White responds accurately.
If White plays 21. Nxb2, White can completely defend against 21… Ba3 with either 22. Kb1 or 22. Qf4, both of which stop Black’s threat of 22… Qb4. In the game, White played 21. Kxb2, which also works, because after 21… Qb6+, White can hide in the corner with 22. Ka1. However, this was not a smooth victory for White, as both players were low on time and chaos ensued after 26… Nd5.
White hung the bishop with 27. Rhh1, which Shubham missed at first, playing 27… b6, and this doesn’t really attack the queen because the pawn is pinned so White could have saved the bishop but hung it again with 28. Qxa6. This time, Shubham found 28… Nxf4, although White was still winning with 29. Rb5 or 29. Nc4. However, White instead hung the knight on e5 with 29. Rb3, losing a second consecutive piece after 29… Qxe5. Both players had about a minute left at this point, so the remainder of the game is lost to history, but I know what happened. Firstly, Shubham took inspiration from his opponent and hung a rook, but he somehow won it back and the game continued. At one point, White illegally moved a knight that was pinned to the king, so Shubham correctly stopped the clock and got an extra minute. Eventually, Shubham overwhelmed White’s defences, won another rook, and checkmated his opponent on the edge of the board, concluding probably the most eventful classical game I’ve ever seen. This game was thrilling to spectate because every time Tommy or I looked at the position, the evaluation had completely changed since the last time we looked, so we were comically walking back and forth to tell each other to look at the position.
Summary
All things considered, the match was much closer than I anticipated. We lost 2.5-3.5, only half a point from drawing the match. All 3 of the lost games had some hope of a draw near their ends, so not a single person got blown off the board, which is very good because Grendel’s top 4 players were over 1800 ECF, and there were no such players in our previous match. Coming so close to drawing a match we should have had no business drawing is a promising sign for sure, and it was a very fun match in general. The day after this match, Yate and Clevedon, the two teams that we are trying to beat in the league table to avoid relegation, played each other and Yate won, which bodes well for us because we believe Yate to be the weaker team generally. Speaking of Yate, our next match is a home match against Yate & Sodbury A on 21st November, and we need to win that one, so the next match report will be posted soon after that.