Bournemouth E v Wimborne D

Up against Bournemouth tonight with higher grades on all boards, you might assume we’d have an advantage. In my opinion, it’s all down to how an individual plays on the night that determines the result.
Board 4 was first to finish, I had a few looks at the games and was thinking it looked very equal, having gone down to rooks and a minor piece each. Andre looked to be lining something up but unfortunately it was a rook blunder and he conceded the game immediately after.
John opened with the Queens Gambit and I was watching a very theory based Queen’s side game, with John looking to undermine the pawn structure. There seemed to be an exchange of minor pieces and then the game had finished with John winning our first game of the match.
Board 1, saw an early exchange of queens and seemed to be a very tight game, that looked to be a draw but Rob managed to see a way through and claim a second win for Bournemouth.
Board 2, was myself and Tony. Epic and exhausting is the only way to describe it, in equal measure. I think I lost my way with my king side attack, my rook joining would have made all the difference but I missed it. Then Tony struck back, a pawn dangerously close to queening. Tony offered me a draw and to be fair, he was winning and I normally would have taken it. However, 2 -1 down, I decided to carry on. I got lucky and found myself a minor piece up, somehow I closed the game out.
Thanks to Bournemouth for hosting us, will see you again at some point in the New Year.

Playing Wimborne was always going to be a challenge, thanks to Simon for summing up boards 1,3 and 4, as I was under to much pressure on board 2 to really see what was going on elsewhere!!! Simon described our match as "Epic and exhausting" computer analysis described it as "Wild — A chaotic game where both players had many chances to win." Over 3 hours of hard fought chess, according to the engine the first 20 moves were even, White achieved a small advantage on move 22, lost it all by move 24, got it back again (+5.7) by move 36, blundered on move 59, and missed a Knight fork on move 68. Fair to say had Simon, as he said, had activated his Rook earlier it would indeed have made all the difference. But well played for closing the game out very well.
Thank you to Wimborne for a great night of chess played in great sprit by all.