Joel Beggs faced James Eldridge who, surprisingly, defended with the Scandinavian, usually the sole province of Kevin Perrin. A tough difficult positional struggle resulted, with Joel eventually gaining an apparent decisive edge. Wanting to finish James off in style, Joel sacrificed his Queen for an illusory mate, throwing away the win, and was left cursing his lack of vision.

Tim Commons took on Rob Bailey with a Reti, which quickly transposed to the English Opening. Tim sacrificed a pawn early on for a hint of an attack, which soon matured into a real attack after he sacrificed the exchange as well! Rob dug in, defending well in an exciting game, and eventually beat off Tim’s assault, when his material advantage proved sufficient for the point.

John Abson met Patrick Cook who defended once again with the feisty Alekhine, but John played safe and preferred a Pirc. Not expecting much resistance from John, Patrick soon found himself in some discomfit after getting a bit greedy in the middlegame. John’s excellent play emboldened him enough to offer a draw when he though he had a perpetual check. He missed a simple bishop retreat that held Black’s position together, however, and Patrick quickly wrapped up the game from there.

Peter Miitel played Rob Loveband and was startled to find himself facing a Polish Defence against 1. d4. White gained some Queenside space and a passed pawn, but admitted afterwards that he didn’t know what to do against Rob’s unusual defence, prompting him to accept Rob’s draw offer.

In the key game of the night, Kevin Perrin faced Scott Stewart’s Dutch Leningrad. In a difficult and sharp opening phase, Black snared a pawn and held onto it throughout a tough and lengthy encounter. The pawn proved enough in the end for Scott to maintain his slender lead in the tournament.

Jamie Brotheridge played his brother Jason and had no trouble in disposing of Jason’s Sicilian defence.

Darren Young versus Michael Schreenan was postponed.