Oskar had the black pieces and was heavily out graded on board 4. The game started cagily, with a closed structure defined by 2. Nc3 and Nc6. Mike developed his pieces quickly and ‘allowed’ Oskar to capture his f2 pawn with check with his own threat of Qxg7, hitting the Rook if Oskar was to capture said pawn. Oskar did so (note that the threat of Qf1 mate was covered by a Bishop) and played the ‘simple’ Kf8 to defend the g7 pawn.

A huge attack followed from Mike, using some well-placed piece positions which culminated in material loss for Oskar and despite Oskar’s best attempts to hang on, El Capitan soon resigned meaning a 1-0 lead for MH.

Boris was presented with a massive task on board 3, facing Romily Ilersic – an experienced campaigner with a FIDE rating of 1900 or so.

‘The Toaster’ stuck to what he knew with the white pieces – a handy tip for club players – the London system. Looking at the game intermittently, it was quite obvious that Boris was by no means losing at any point during the middle game with pieces being traded off and minor threats being created by both players. I even thought that Boris might be winning at one point but such is the quality of these 1900 players, they dash your hopes very quickly. Unfortunately, ‘The Toaster’ missed a tactic and Romily won an exchange. As good players do, Romily traded down (whilst not giving the Toaster not much option but to do so) and an endgame ensued which was lost for Boris. Romily did the right thing and conceded the exchange back when it was smart to do so and Boris resigned.

Massive credit should go to Boris for putting up a major fight – his opponent knew he had to work hard for it. Boris was actually happy after losing a game, which says a lot about him and how he played. This was 2-0 to MH.

John Robinson played Dave Clarke on board 2 and I have a real feeling that John relished the opportunity to play such a player. There was a 160 point swing in the FIDE numbers but John gave Dave a really good game.

With the black pieces, John played a King’s Indian type setup that he favours and the game during the middle game looked very equal. John offered a draw, which was declined due to the grade handicap situation that MH were in. I think that in a league game, Dave would have accepted the draw offer as it looked equal.

The game carried on and John’s Achilles heel was his light squared Bishop that got itself stuck behind his c pawn with his Rook on the a-file defending it. John repeated a few moves whilst his opponent tried to manufacture a win. The next time I saw the game, Dav’s King and Rook had infiltrated to John’s 8th rank in the rapid play finish and after a combination of trades, John’s Bishop was trapped and he resigned. 3-0 to MH.

Julian had requested the white pieces on board 1 and this was the closest match in terms of grade, albeit there was still a difference in our favour of over 100 FIDE points. It was good for Julian and John to play in games like this – they deserve to do so.

‘Mr Engine’ employed the London again and was an epitome of focus during the game. The game looked very even until Ian seemingly sacrificed an exchange out of the blue that he must have felt offered him some play during the game. ‘Mr Engine’ worked hard to gain control of the open e file with his Rooks and activity for his pieces whilst trying to repel any activity for his opponents minor pieces.

Exchanges took place, leaving a cemented Knight on a defensive square that Julian removed by giving the exchange back. It was then down to who had the best endgame idea during a rapid play finish. Ian’s plan was to set about the clustered 4 pawns on the b, c and d files and Julian set about Queening a pawn by employing a pin and overworking his opponents Rook that was powerless to stop one of two pawns Queening. The actual end came about by Ian making an illegal move when Julian’s pawn Queened with check and Ian captured Julian’s Rook. As El Presidente went to add two minutes to Mr Engine’s time, Ian said don’t worry and resigned.