Rounds 3 and 4 promised to be difficult matches, with both
opposition sides being, like us, in the top half of the division after two
rounds. However, we welcomed Galina back to the team, which gave Paul Kendall
the opportunity to play board 8 both days.
Pandora's Box were very
solid all the way down to board 7, and we knew this would be a tough match,
with the only "banker" games being board 5 for them and board 8 for us. These
two games duly went as expected, although both were interesting tactical
affairs. The top four boards were all fairly stodgy draws, some taking longer
than others, but Galina had a very bad French, and Adrian's opponent won a
pawn and opened up the position for his two bishops and queen against
Adrian's sorry-looking king. So a 3-5 loss, so we went for a Chinese and
hoped for better things the following day.
Slough Sharks 2 had defaulted
two boards the previous day, but still won, so despite outgrading them on
most boards, it still seemed a difficult task. However, we welcomed Florin to
the team in place of Mac, who outplayed his opponent in excellent style.
Adrian's king proved more vulnerable than his opponent's, but Paul got a very
nice position and duly converted it. Graham and Galina both drew, Galina more
comfortably than Graham, and when Charles won we had four points, with Laszlo
a pawn up and myself a pawn down but with fantastic dark square control. My
game eventually ended up with bishops of opposite colour, when my opponent
conceded the draw and the match, and Laszlo went on to win his ending. So a
successful weekend overall - I would have been happy with 50% before the
weekend, and so it proved.