The captains of both teams were scheduled to play each other on board 4, with our second team leader Oskar eager to get a second win over his opponent. The game started with a typical Jobava London position, with Oskar trapping his opponent’s light-squared bishop as early as move 9, but our teammate decided that the potential Qg3+ from his opponent is not his cup of tea and exchanged the black bishop for one of his knights. Having already exchanged their dark-squared bishops, the players castled on opposite sides – Andrew castled kingside (K-side), while Oskar caslted queenside (Q-side), and prepared for a sharp game. The Melton Mowbray player was a little bit faster in his attack on the Q-side, but our second team captain played solidly and exchanged queens in order to ensure himself enough time for his pieces to spring to life. Oskar’s opponent found the rooks to be more of a hindrance than help and rushed to exchange them even at the cost of being a pawn down.

The second half of the season has been a great success not only for our second team, but moreover for young Leo who again managed to deliver a shocking defeat to more than 300 points higher rated opponent. Our young teammate engaged in the Caro-Kann defence, to which his opponent decided to reply with a somewhat passive Colle type system. Seeing the opportunity to equalise as Black, Leo continued the development of his pieces as a good player should do. The middlegame started with an attack from White on the Q-side, with a couple of knights and the light-squared bishops exchanged in the process. Leo decided to strike back in the centre with the characteristic c5 push which his opponent completely ignored and played a rather strange f3. Leo did not hesitate to take the f-pawn, revealing his opponent’s plan to do a rook lift, eyeing the h-file and the pawn in front of Black’s king. Our teammate decided to continue his attack in the centre in order to create some counterplay for himself and managed to open the central files.

The second game between those players this season did not disappoint again as Boris and his opponent engaged in a sharp battle straight from the opening. The Melton Mowbray player played his tactical King’s Indian defence, to which our teammate responded with opposite side castling and quick exchange of the dark-squared bishops. Boris’ opponent began an attack on the Q-side, while “The Toaster” took control of the centre and after a quick reshuffling of the knights, the white h-pawn started marching down the file to attack Black’s king. Eventually the h-file opened and the players decided to exchange their rooks on the same file and finish their development. Gradually Black started getting into the game until the Melton Mowbray player decided to go for a rather dubious knight sacrifice in an attempt to open the white Q-side and infiltrate with the queen for a swift checkmate. Boris seemed unflustered by the attack and ran away with the king on the back rank while keeping the pressure on the K-side before blundering his g-pawn.

Matt found himself top of the Top player of the season table prior to the game with an astonishing record this season of 9 wins and only 1 draw. The game started with a Philidor type setup which is the preferred weapon of “The Dark Destroyer” who decided to hop around with his knight to eventually exchange it for White’s highly inactive light-squared bishop. Our teammate further “fianchetto’d” his dark-squared bishop and both players castled K-side in preparation for a long solid game. The Melton Mowbray player tried to strike in the centre but Matt responded with a counterattack on the Q-side following a knight exchange. Up a pawn, “The Dark Destroyer” continued his attack on the Q-side only to make an apparent blunder of his light-squared bishop on move 18 but then he decided that the bishop pair is worth more than his queen and sacrificed the Black lady, taking the rook attacking her.