Wednesday 24th November

Mursal slayed a Dragon despite being effectively a Rook down with his King on b1 holding hands with his Rook on a1. Azmiddin's King decided to have an early look round and soon ended up on e6. This was followed by the loss of a pawn. It's still a bit of a mystery how this turned into a full point. Kev's opponent played a Queen sacrifice for no compensation. Peter's adventurous Knight sac resulted in a fascinating material imbalance of QvR+2B. Extensive post mortem analysis suggested the position was a win, or a loss, or possibly a draw. Peter pushed his passed pawn (an alliteratively approved advance) before his counterpart could co-ordinate. The passed pawn was swapped off for a rook and now there was Qv2B and a pawn on the seventh. Peter declined a draw offer and instead of repeating (there's a lesson for us all here folks) his opponent allowed a K+B fork. Game Over. After about 20 moves it had seemed Dave's was the only clearly winning game but he took his eye off the ball and his opponent played well to secure the draw. Ian's game was textbook castling on opposite sides followed by a heavy piece mate race. A gallant Knight on g6 fended off a Queen and two Rooks while Ian calmly left his own Queen en prise in order to play Ra8! and mate on the b-file was forced. Excellent entertainment. 5½-½.  A great match for us.