All, these are our results for Round 7:
Our games are available for scrutiny here.
Start with the most important matches. In Ox4, Graham had an amazing start, taking a whole rook off the Ginger GM by move 10. I suspect it’s new-fangled theory, but still. The Ginger GM produced a brilliant game thereafter, it has to be said. Ian gave us hope with his endgame win but sadly Killian ran out of time at the crucial moment. Oh well.
In Ox3, Guildford’s board 2 set his heart on Dimitrios’s b2 pawn. Having failed to bag it with … Qb6, he went the other way with … Qf6 and this was not a success. Neil came up with a brilliant pawn-then-exchange sacrifice. Chris F moved to 6.5/7 with an impressive board 1 win. Kenneth wrapped up a whitewash, his technique attracting admiring comments from the kibs. Oxford 3 win Pool B and have a semi-final to look forward to in two weeks’ time. Skip has a problem: to choose four from these chaps plus Tashika. A nice problem to have, mind you.
There was a queen trap in Ox1 as well, rather a strange one as Nakul’s rooks lawnmowered the White queen. Ross produced another entertaining game and won a bishop endgame. David made it 3-1 and Ox1 finish in 4th place.
Ox2 saw wins from Oscar & Sean, the former turning down a draw in the middlegame. Edgar wangled a late late draw in a R+P endgame.
Ox5 finished their season with a defeat, but are by no means disgraced in their first full season. Alex ends up on 5/7, our fourth-best scorer behind Chris F, Oscar 6/7 and Ian 5/6. We are overall +73 =28 -39 for the season, or in terms of matches +21 =4 -10. (Does that divide by seven? Ah, yes it does.)