Club Championship Second Round

1 Derek (1)       0-1  Hendrik(1)  Sicilian

2 Stewart(1)      1-0  Colin P(1)  Petroff

3 Bryan (1)       0-1  John (1)   

4 Stephen(0)      1/2  Blair(1)    English

5 Damien(1)       0-1  Davy(1)     Alekhine's

6 Jim W.(0)       0-1  Tamas(0)    Slav

7 Fergus(0)       0-1  Luke(0)     Pirc

8 Colin McF(0)    0-1  Giuseppe(0) Sicilian

Hendrik won (Derek sacrificed?) material right at the start of the game. 

There was insufficient compensation for the this and Hendrik gradually

took control of the game for an easy win.

Colin played passively and got a cramped position. An attempt to free

the position with d5 allowed white to get a knight strongly placed on e5.

A cheapo won a pawn for white and he managed to convert the endgame helped

by some time-trouble inaccuracies from black.

Bryan v John will be played on the 26th May and the postponed Davy v Stephen will be played on Monday 23rd.

Stephen didn't seem to get much out of the opening when it looked like Blair was

happy to swap off pieces.  Indeed, towards the start of the endgame phase, it seemed

as if Black might have the better of it. So, Stephen swapped bishop for knight to

go into a pawn endgame that was drawn.

Damien seemed to get a strong position out of the opening with a queen-side

space advantage and the two bishops raking down on the kingside. Davy scrambled

his knights onto g6f6 and then managed to swap off the major pieces. This looked

equal but black managed to win a pawn in a knight endgame.  This was difficult

for white but once the knights were exchanged the position became an easy

pawn endgame for black.

Fergus swapped off his bishop for knight on f6. This didn't look right. When he made an

"attacking" move f4 it just seemed to weaken his position.  Luke found a Qb6+ which won

white's b-pawn and left white struggling to find safe squares for his knight.  After

Fergus made a couple of tactical blunders Black won easily.

Unfortunately, I didn't see the finish of the other games. Anyone else able to supply some detail?

Jim ended up a bit behind in development, which encouraged Tamas to open up the

centre. This looked good for black.

Giuseppe worked up a strong attack against a weakened king side.