Our final match of the season was an away match against Yate & Sodbury A on 29th April. In order to finish the season out of relegation territory in 6th, we knew that we didn’t have to do anything unless Clevedon beat Horfield that same evening, in which case we would need to not lose the match. Therefore, there was no way to know before the match how important not losing it would be. Because this match was during the exam period, it proved impossible to get more than 4 players, which was far from ideal but we had to make do. It is thanks to Ulugbek, Samson, and Ismail that we were able to go ahead with the match despite it being during the exam period. It is also worth mentioning that Ismail and I had a lengthy exam earlier in the day and neither of us had time to go home between the exam and the match, so that is our excuse if you think we need one. I’ll cover the games in the order that they finished.
Boards 5 & 6
Default had White on Board 5 and Black on Board 6 and unfortunately lost both games before the match.
Board 3
Samson had White on Board 3 and his game started with the Advance Variation of the French. Black traded the queens on only move 8 in order to give Samson doubled isolated b-pawns. Black wasted no time and immediately tried to exploit Samson’s weak queenside with 10… Nb4.
The bishop on d3 is hanging but it is also tied down to defending against the fork 11… Nc2+, so it has to be awkwardly defended by the king. With 11. Ke2 Nxd3 12. Kxd3, Samson’s king managed to reach the 3rd rank in only 12 moves, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing in this case because it’s a queen-less middlegame. Before long, Samson succeeded in activating all of his pieces, and he in fact did so before his opponent.
While the queenside pawn structure remained dubious, it’s not obvious how Black should try to exploit this. The engine claims equality unless Black plays 15… Nc6 with the idea to attack the b3 pawn with 16… Na5. However, after 16. Ne1 Na5 17. Kc2, the only move where Black enjoys an edge is apparently the peculiar-looking 17… Bf1, so it’s clearly difficult for Black to squeeze anything out of this position. Black opted for the logical 15… Nf5 instead.
Black soon gave Samson doubled e-pawns as well, but, despite the fact that Black also has the bishop pair, the engine insists that White is better after 20… b6. However, the players agreed to a draw here, which is understandable from Samson’s perspective because his pawn structure is rather atrocious and it is not obvious that White is okay, let alone better. The best line for White is 21. b5 Bb7 22. Ra2, which threatens 23. Rca1. This would win the a-pawn, so Black ought to defend the pawn by pushing it. Playing 22… a6 is not advisable because 23. Na4 is very strong. While it looks like Black is defending with 23… Bd8, there is 24. bxa6 Bxa6 25. Nac5+ bxc5 26. Nc5+, winning the bishop on a6. This knight sacrifice idea also wins if 24… Rxa6 is played. Therefore, Black must try 22… a5, which allows White long-term pressure on the backward b6 pawn. Anyway, a draw is a draw.
Board 4
Ismail had Black on Board 4 and his score sheet unfortunately disappeared under mysterious circumstances so we do not have his game, but I know that White eventually won some material and checkmated him. Therefore, we had lost the match at this point, so we had to hope that that wouldn’t matter in the overall standings.
Board 2
Ulugbek had Black on Board 2 and his game started with the Advance Variation of the Caro-Kann. He got a better position out of the opening and soon won the d4 pawn for free.
After trading the queens on d1, Ulugbek played 13… a6 to prevent 14. Nb5 with the threat of the fork 15. Nc7+, but there is apparently only one idea that is winning for Black after 14. Rac1.
Ulugbek had to find 14… Nf5 with the idea to trap the bishop on g5 by following it up with 15… h6. White can try 15. Rd3 to prepare 16. Rh3 to pin the h-pawn to the rook on h8 and thus save the bishop because 17. Bh4 is then possible. However, after 15… h6 16. Rh3 Rg8 17. Bh4 g5 18. fxg5 Nxh4 19. Rxh4 Nxe5, Black will soon be up another pawn because it is impossible to sufficiently defend the g5 pawn. If instead White tries 15. Bd3 or 15. Bg4 to eliminate the knight on f5 that is necessary for trapping the bishop, after 15… h6 16. Bxf5 hxg5, the bishop on f5 and the pawn on f4 are both hanging, so Black wins at least another pawn by force. Therefore, Black should win relatively easily after 14… Nf5, but this is quite an unusual piece trap. Ulugbek instead opted for 14… h6 but his advantage gradually decreased until it ceased to exist after 19. Nb6.
The natural move 19… Rad8 isn’t great because of 20. Bxa6, since 20… bxa6 is met with 21. Rxc6 and White wins a pawn. Therefore, Ulugbek played 19… Ra7, but the rook on a7 is completely out of the game because it’s tricky to get the knight off b6, so White has a lot of compensation for the pawn. As a result, the players agreed to a draw a few moves later.
Board 1
I had White on Board 1 and my game also started with the Advance Variation of the Caro-Kann, which I started playing only a couple of weeks prior to the match. My opponent generously played into my favourite line, which is extremely potent so I quickly gained a considerable advantage. I, on the other hand, just had to make sure I was remembering my preparation correctly, which is a lot easier than having to come up with your own moves. After 16. a3, my opening knowledge ran out so I had to try to prove my advantage myself.
Black’s main target is the c5 pawn but it cannot be taken here because 16… Bxc5 is met with the fork 17. b4. My opponent tried 16… d4 but that loses the d-pawn to 17. b4. Despite my extra pawn, I struggled to find a winning plan because the bishops are of opposite colour, the queenside pawns are somewhat frozen, and Black’s queen would be very dangerous if it could get to the back rank.
I thought 25. Rd7 was flashy but it does less than I originally thought. Of course 25… Rxd7 is impossible because there’s 26. Qe8#, but Black can just play 25… Qc8 and ask the rook what the plan is. Without a way to keep the rooks on the board if my opponent wanted them off the board, I had to accept that we would reach an endgame with a queen, a bishop, and some pawns each.
As the game continued, I concluded that it was probably best to just acquiesce to a draw because my winning chances had plummeted and I was sufficiently exhausted that I could cleanly hang a piece if I pushed too hard. Therefore, in the above position, I played 30. Qd6+, which is essentially a draw offer because the opposite-coloured bishop endgame is a trivial draw, so, despite declining two draw offers in this game, I eventually agreed to a draw.
Summary
While it would have been funny if we had won the match despite defaulting two boards, we were nowhere close to achieving that, as we lost the match 1.5-4.5. Fortunately, not losing the match wasn’t necessary because Horfield beat Clevedon so we indeed finished 6th in Division 2. With that, the 2024-2025 season is over, so this is the final match report of the season. However, there will soon be one more report, a season overview, which include some of the highlights and some fun statistics.