LDCC won the toss and were white on odds.

We faced our toughest opponents so far – GLCC who are the current Division 3 leaders having won all of their matches so far. Although we finished above them in Division 4 last season, they were fortunate to have several new strong players, all of whom have scary looking chessy names: Akhanov, Viljoen, Minkov, Vasiliev – you get the picture. As a result they were able to field a 161 graded player on board 7 and that very same player has played against Sergey on board 1 before! Anyway, enough about our opponents, let's get on with what happened in the match.........

On board 9 Richard fell victim to a combination losing his queen and so lost quickly – again shouldn't be too downhearted, his opponent has been on board 1 this season and his grade should be around 150–160. On board 10, Peter also found it tough going when he couldn't stop his opponent's kingside passed pawns marching on. On boards 4 and 6, some stability was restored with solid draws from Phil and Mike. On board 7 Barry was the unlucky player facing the former board 1 player who played quickly which didn't suit Barry's style of play. Barry took a risk castling queenside against the Scandinavian then did not keep his white squared bishop safe enough and lost soon afterwards.

On board 1 Sergey played well having the initiative with the white pieces and tried to punish his opponent's slight inaccuracy Nf6. But later the position was blocked and so a draw was agreed. On board 3, I was confused at first with the white pieces trying to remember what my first move usually was as it was a long time since I had the white peieces having had the black pieces so many times this season playing for LDCC and Surrey. Anyway, I took full advantage when I made most of the kingside space and sacrificed a bishop for 2 pawns and it was a very rare occasion that I managed to calculate well to an easily won ending winning his queen for rook where my opponent waited until the time control before resigning. On board 8 James was under pressure on the queenside but although he managed to get down to equal material in a king and pawns endgame, couldn't stop the passed pawn without allowing his opponent's king to invade on the kingside.

This leave 2 games adjourned: on board 2 Chris fell victim to a couple of tactics and was a pawn down but managed to fight back using his 2 rooks. The latest position was that he won a piece but his opponent's a–pawn looks strong and difficult to stop. On board 5 Neil played very well and patiently nursed an advantage with the white pieces and seems to have the edge at the adjourned position. Good luck to them both, although it's too late to save the match being 5.5 – 2.5 down, extra game points would be useful.