In an extravagantly violent round, all played games were decided; most were miniatures!

Peter Miitel versus Jamie Brotheridge was the longest game of the evening. Peter set up a Colle-like structure, which Jamie faced with a Queen’s Indian setup. Peter’s subtle positional style gained him the exchange early in the middle-game and he seemed on track for a fine win, when he found his queen had been trapped. Trading her majesty for a rook left him effectively a piece down and Peter resigned after a tactical melee left him with no chance.

Kevin Perrin played Mitchel Bailey and after 1.e4 the game was predictably a Caro-Kann defence. Mitchel an expert on this defence, surprisingly made a mistake early and lost a pawn. He resigned on 19 moves when about to lose a piece as well.

Patrick Cook played Tim Commons, the giant killer of the previous round. Tim spent the afternoon preparing for Laren’s opening and got exactly the position he wanted. It was to no avail, however, as Patrick launched into a tactical assault that Tim was unable to cope with and he resigned after 19 moves.

Scott Stewart took on Joel Beggs and played his favorite Bird’s opening (1.f4). Scott, in his typical Tal-like fashion, offered a speculative exchange sacrifice for piece activity and a possible kingside attack. However, Joel responded with a sortie of his own that left Scott with a ruined position and he resigned after just 15 moves.

James Eldridge played Michael Schreenan and once again wheeled out the antiquated, but still potent, bishop’s opening (1.e4 e5 2.Bc4). James had little difficulty overcoming Michael’s resistance and won comfortably in 23 moves.

John Abson versus John Frangakis, and Robert Bailey versus Darren Young were postponed, so John found time to play his round 13 game versus Scott Stewart. In keeping with the spirit of the night, the game was short and violent. After a peculiar Petroff/Giuco Piano mutation, John overlooked the loss of a piece on move 8 and resigned after 16 moves when facing further material loss.

The round 8 game, Michael Schreenan versus Scott Stewart was also played during the week. Once again, Scott defended with his strange version of the Pirc (1.e4 d6 2.d4 f5?!). Michael handled it well until “a rush of blood” saw him sacrifice his queen for a piece. The tactics were imaginative, but were never going to succeed, and Scott registered a comfortable win.