Hello everyone, and welcome to the 2025/2026 season! I plan on writing a few reports throughout the year, and I thought there’d be no better place to start than the Uni A vs Uni B match. Before I get into that however, I will briefly recap the recent activities of the chess society.
Firstly, I wish to welcome Jake, Ulugbek, Harrison, and Shubham onto the committee. They have the roles of EDI officer, B team captain, social secretary, and well-being officer respectively. James and Łukasz have reprised their roles from last year as A & C team captains, whilst Hayden and Thomas have swapped roles with Hayden becoming president and Thomas moving to treasurer. I am also once again the general secretary.
Summary of the 2024/2025 season
Last year, our A team had a disappointing season and ended up getting relegated from division 1. We struggled with players very consistently, and needed substitutes in all but two games. I am very proud of the fight we gave though, and we managed to draw our penultimate against the eventual champions Bristol & Clifton B, despite them outrating us by on average over 340 points. Huge credit goes to James and Jake for winning games against opponents over 350 points higher rated!
Our B team enjoyed a solid season in division 2, finishing in 6th place. Many players made their debut for the society, with perhaps the most prolific being Dimitar. Not only did he score well for the B team, but he was one of our most reliable players when substituting up for the A team, which he is playing for this season. Highlights include wins over Grendel and Horfield, where we overturned rating deficits of over 100 points both times. I’d recommend reading Hayden’s report on the B team season here, and also his many other match reports on the B team throughout their successful season.
The C team once again had a very impressive season, topping division 5. We had many talks on whether it’d be beneficial moving the C team up into division 4, where they’d be required to submit a 6 board team every match, but we eventually decided it would be a better fit if they remained in division 5. Special thanks go to Łukasz for captaining the team very well, whilst also achieving an impressive score of 9.5/11 with a performance rating of 1875. I am certain that he will maintain his high level of chess and captaincy again throughout this season.
Now with all the preamble out the way, I can finally get into the match report. A few new players have been added into the A team this season, with Yutong, Diego, Ezra, Ata and Andrew making their debuts for the university. We have had an extraordinary 18 players sign up for the B team this season, with 11 of them new to the university. Due to the large number of new players, I unfortunately will not listing all of them, but it is very impressive the extent of the strength and depth the B team has this year.
Coming into this match, the B team have had two impressive draws against Clifton C and South Bristol A, and look to be performing more than well enough to avoid relegation. The A team on the other hand have only had one match so far, which was a very comfortable 5-1 win over Bath C. I decided to opt out of playing for the A team this time, as it means I get to have the thrilling experience of writing this report. A couple of the A team players were preparing for their opponents before the game, but Ulugbek rather sneakily changed the board order that he posted on the B team chat to escape the prying eyes of Hayden and I. This led to quite a surprise when we turned up, but nevertheless due to the rating differential, the expected result was still the same. Without further ado, let’s get into the games.
Board 4: Charles Munro (B) vs Dimitar Dinev (A)
Charlie opened the game with the Kings Indian attack, to which Dimitar responded with a fairly solid kingside fianchetto setup. However it wasn’t long before the game became imbalanced after Dimitar captured a knight with his g-pawn, instead of the safer, but not any more objectively sound e-pawn.
Charlie was enjoying a slight advantage early on as his pawn structure was more solid, and there were prospects of an attack on the kingside. Dimitar eventually captured the c-pawn, and the game remained balanced until Charlie became overly ambitious.
In the position above, Charlie went for the overzealous 14. e4??. The idea of this move is to open up the position and create attacking ideas on the kingside using the two bishops. Whilst that sounds promising at first, the issue is that after 14…fxe4, 15. Bxe4, Dimitar can calmly capture the d4 pawn with his queen and Charlie has to waste time moving his Queen to prevent a further trade. If Charlie were to instead have first played Rad1 before playing e4, then white would have had a slight edge with some considerable attacking chances. The game carried on with Charlie sacrificing more material for an attack, but Dimitar was playing sensibly and later prevented any idea of a perpetual check.
#1: In this position, we have our first puzzle of the report. There are many ways for black to win, but one move in particular is especially strong and satisfying. The solution to this puzzle and all others will be at the bottom of the report.
Dimitar played the second best move in the position, which was still enough to convince Charlie to resign. Given it was Charlie’s first game for the University, he played ambitiously with some exciting chess, so hopefully we will see more of his games later on in the season. Alas it was in general a somewhat smooth victory for Dimitar on the night, starting the score at 1-0 to Uni A
Board 1: Yutong Liu (A) vs Adrian Lorenzo Munoz (B)
Both Yutong and Adrian are new to the society this year, but have easily become two of the strongest players we have in the club. In his previous two games, Adrian won against back to back 1900s, whilst Yutong was making his debut for us this season. Yutong opened with the Queen’s gambit, to which Adrian played the ambitious Albin Counter-Gambit. The two of them followed along the main line, until we reached the following position.
Here Adrian misplayed and went 10…Qd6?. Whilst this is by no means a blunder, in an opening such as the Albin one has to be very precise due to the risk involved in playing something relatively less sound. The idea of long castling here is quite far-fetched due to white having much more development and that it would take black a considerable amount of time to achieve. Instead, black should have played O-O, and then after Nd2, should have gone a5 preventing white’s ideas of attacking the black bishop. The game continued with Adrian advancing his f-pawn, taking more space in the centre but also weaking his kingside structure.
#2: In this position we have our second puzzle of the report. Whilst this isn’t so much a flashy tactic, there is only one move in this position that gives white a winning advantage.
Yutong proceeded to play accurately in the early middle game and won a pawn with large positional compensation. Adrian’s king was stuck in the centre, and whilst he tried his best to generate some counterplay with a rook sacrifice, the lack of king safety was costly and Yutong picked up a couple more pawns whilst preventing any unpleasant checks from the black queen.
Yutong then proceeded to force a queen trade with 32. Qf4+, ending all hope of a draw from Adrian. White’s rook was perfectly placed to cut off the black king whilst escorting the pawn up the board, so a couple moves later Adrian resigned the game. It was an impressive first game for Yutong, and I imagine he will likely retain his place on board 1 for the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, the score became 2-0 to Uni A.
Board 5: James Guest (A) vs Mohit Mohan (B)
Aiming to continue his strong run of form at the end of last season, James started the game with 1. b3, an opening which he so far has had a 100% win rate in. Mohit, who won his only previous game for the B team, was told by Ulugbek before the game to expect b3 and so both players blitzed out their first 10 moves within a few minutes. Once all the pieces were developed, Mohit had to decide which way to castle.
Generally in these b3 setups, white likes to use the fianchettoed bishop to slowly develop a kingside attack. A sample line would be O-O, Nbd2 Qc7, Ne5 b5, where black will expand on the queenside to counteract white’s attack on the kingside, leading to an equal yet imbalanced position. Instead of this, Mohit played the ambitious 11…O-O-O, choosing instead to try to create an attack on James kingside. However, in similar fashion to what occurred in the first game, Mohit pushed his kingside pawn too hastily, and this lead to a nice tactical sequence by James giving him a strong advantage.
#3: In the following position, James played a nice combination and won a pawn with 16. Nxf7 Bxf7, 17. Bxf6 Bxf6, 18. Rxf6. However, there is another series of moves here which gives white a much larger advantage.
Both James and Mohit played well for the next several moves, but James maintained a large objective advantage due to being up a pawn. The players traded down into a queen, rook and five vs queen, rook and four endgame, where Mohit’s king was somewhat more vulnerable than James’.
In the above position, Mohit decided to resign the game with white to move, as Qc5+ comes with many threats. Black would have to drop at least the b-pawn to avoid losing further material, where upon James will be able to force additional trades. It was only the one mistake earlier on which cost Mohit the game and besides that, both players played very well. This result meant that the score became 3-0, guaranteeing at least a draw for Uni A.
Board 6: Nathan Ng (B) vs Hayden Griffiths (A)
Both Nathan and Hayden had moved up a team this year, with Nathan joining the B team and Hayden leaving his role as B team captain and getting promoted to the A team, and of course, also to the presidency. The game began with the Jaenisch Gambit in the Ruy Lopez, which Nathan decided to accept. Hayden is usually very well prepared, so accepting the gambit is certainly a brave choice given that black normally gets a slight objective edge out of the positions that arise. Hayden used his space advantage to push white’s pieces around, claiming a very large centre before Nathan gave an intimidating check with 9. Qh5+.
If black were to block with Qf7?? here, white would be able to play the tactic Nc7+!, forking the king and rook, and black’s queen is unable to capture it due to the pin by the opposing queen. Because of this idea, Hayden decided to play 9…Kd8!, where despite the looking visually very strange, it is actually perfectly safe. Impressively, it took Hayden three more moves after this position before he finally left book. He eventually won the pawn f5 whilst trading queens, which although lead to a position with equal material, black was hugely up in development. Nathan tried very well to develop his pieces under the pressure of the black position, but due to Hayden’s huge centre, the scope of all his pieces were very limited.
#4: Due to the highly positional nature of this game, I was unable to find a puzzle from the moves that occurred. However, in this line which Hayden calculated, black has sacrificed a pawn on e3 and plans to win two back after Bxg3. Does this work?
The game continued with Hayden trying his best to squeeze the position, whilst Nathan attempted to not succumb to the pressure. However, as time wore on, Nathan eventually blundered and allowed Hayden to seize a critical outpost with his knight.
Nathan was force to go 26. Kc2, but after 26…e3!, the position became hopeless to defend. The game followed with 27. dxe3 Nxf2+, 28. Kd2 Nxh1, 29. Rxh1 Bxb2, where Hayden is up a rook for a pawn. Nathan played on for a few more moves, but with the prospect of another piece about to fall, he decided to resign the game. It’s very tricky playing against someone so well prepared, and Nathan never fully managed to get a foothold into the game. Nevertheless, it was a clinical win by Hayden, and his victory secured the A team the match, with the score moving to 4-0. However, there was still a chance for the B team to retain some pride with two games still in play.
Board 2: Miles Howells (B) vs Diego Anton Cordova Lopez (A)
Similarly to Adrian, Miles had performed exceptionally well in his two previous matches for the B team, beating back to back 1800s. Diego is also very clearly an exceptionally talented player with a peak ECF grade over 2100, although he admitted he is somewhat out of practice. The game started with a side-line of the Alapin Sicilian, where white had decent control over the centre, but black was able to apply pressure from afar with their fianchettoed bishop.
However, in this position, Miles played the inaccurate 24.c4?, which lead to white losing a pawn after 22…bxc4, 23. Nxc4 Bxd4, 24. Nxa5 Qxa5. Diego took full advantage of this oversight and eventually got a dominant position whilst being two pawns up. However there was a dilemma for Diego when he had to decide what piece to recapture a rook with.
#5: Diego can capture the white rook on a2 here with either the queen or the rook. However, only one of them leads to a winning position for black.
Unfortunately for the A team, Diego chose the incorrect option and Miles very resourcefully generated a lot of counterplay around blacks king. Diego had to give back one of his pawns to prevent back rank issues, and after a couple more moves we reached the resulting position.
Here Miles decided to force a perpetual check with 38. Qf6+ Kh6, 39. Qh4+ Kg7. This was indeed the best decision, as white is still down a pawn, and black has a mate threat on g2. With a draw agreed after the repetition, Miles prevented the potential 6-0 white washing with a very well fought draw. Diego played a very good game, but it was the one incorrect decision which led to the two of them splitting the point, and leaving the current score at 4.5-0.5 to Uni A.
Board 3: Ezra Brass (A) vs Ulugbek Nozimov (B)
The final game of the match was between another strong new player Ezra, and our new B team captain Ulugbek. The start of the game was very unusual, as after only 6 moves each both players had spent over 30 minutes. The game began with the Two Knights Attack in the Caro-Kann, with Ezra going for an unusual side-line with 5. Ng3. Ulugbek advanced his h-pawn far up the board reducing the stability of white’s king side.
#5: In this position, Ezra missed an opportunity to capitalise on Ulugbek’s aggressive pawn pushes. There is only one move here which gives white a solid advantage, as all other options let black enjoy a more comfortable and objectively better position.
The game continued with Ulugbek steadily increasing his advantage and improving his central grip by developing his pieces actively, whilst preventing any white pawn advancements. However the whole dynamic of the game shifted after Ezra went for a very ambitious idea.
In the spirit of the Alien Gambit, Ezra went for the very speculative sacrifice 15. Nxf7?!. Ulugbek of course captured the knight with 15…Kxf7 but after 16. f5, Ezra was exerting a lot of pressure on the pinned pawn, and Ulugbek’s king was potentially very vulnerable. However, there is a reason why this sacrifice was speculative, as despite winning two pawns for the knight, white wasn’t especially close to having sufficient compensation. As Ulugbek’s pieces were very active, his king was able to hide on f8 safely and he was able to win an exchange a couple moves later following a knight fork. Ezra tried to create attacking chances on blacks king by giving up more material, and in doing so he was able to force an infiltration with his pieces.
Ulugbek accurately assessed the situation and here played 27…Rxh6!. If he had instead move his king to the e-file, Ezra would have had the nasty Bd5+!, winning blacks queen and getting back into the game. Despite giving back the exchange, Ulugbek remained up a piece and traded down material efficiently to remove Ezra’s attacking chances. Ulugbek managed to eventually swap off queens, and facing the prospect of playing an endgame an entire piece down, Ezra resigned the game. This gave the B team their sole victory in the match, and many congratulations must go to Ulugbek for performing such a large rating upset. After all 6 games finished, the final score was University A 4.5 – 1.5 University B.
Afterthoughts
Overall, this was a very enjoyable match to spectate, and both teams showed a lot of promise for the rest of the season. Due to some delays in getting the PGN’s and also my own workload, both the A team and the B team have played more fixtures, with the B team edging past Downend C for their first win of the season. The A team have had huge success so far winning all 5 of their matches. Most recently this was a 5.5-0.5 demolition of Bristol & Clifton C, where I rather annoyingly got the only draw of the match.
The A team are looking like they will achieve promotion rather comfortably, so it appears we will be absent from division 1 for only a single season. Given the tight nature of the standings with the teams between 2-7, anything could happen regarding the B team, but if they carry on performing as they are, then relegation surely should never become an issue.
I am not sure when the next match report shall come, but thank you all for reading, and hopefully the University chess teams will continue their success.
Solutions:
#1: The best move is Qxe5!! After white recaptures with Qxe5, there is Nf3+! forking the king and queen, and winning black a rook overall. In the game, Dimitar went for Nf3+ first, winning only an exchange, but the difference in material is large enough that both moves are completely winning.
#2: The winning move for white here is b4! If black retreats the bishop to a7, white can then play c5! and enjoy a hugely dominant position, with black’s dark squared bishop completely locked out the game. The game continued with 13. b4 axb4, 14. axb4 Rxa1, 15. Qxa1 Bxb4, 16. Bxd4, upon which white will end up winning at least the g7 pawn, regardless of what black plays.
#3: The winning combination for white is the beautiful Rxf6!! Bxf6, Nec4 dxc4, Bxf6 where white will capture the c-pawn using the knight with tempo, and can either cash in the exchange, or use their dominant bishop and active knight to exert maximal control.
#4: The line continues Bxg3, fxg3 Rxe3, Rhe1. If black captures the pawn with Rxg3??, white has the winning move Be5! winning an entire rook for free. Because of this, black has nothing better than to accept the equal material. Compared to the game, white has a significantly easier time developing their pieces, so Hayden opted not to go for this line.
#5: The correct option was Qxa2! The white queen gets access to a couple checks, but once the black king makes it to h6, black can use the threat of mate/winning material to force the trade of queens and enter a winning rook and pawn endgame. In the game, Diego played Rxa2 which lead to Miles’ queen accessing the d4 square, preventing the black king from getting to safety.
#6: The correct move is Ng5! This forces black to go e6 to prevent Bxf7+, where white will simply play Nxh3 enjoying a solid advantage up a pawn.