Onliners, we recorded these results tonight:
Our games are available for persual/analysis here. Skip commentary* with some general impressions for each team from seeing Round 1 team line-ups:
Ox1: as skip surmised, Hackney Heffalumps & Charlton Cobras A are the teams to beat, and they met in Round 1 – a title decider, so early? Tomasz’s game never got going, quickly exchanging into a drawn rook endgame. Tashika’s game almost went awry but she bailed out into a drawn opposite-bishop endgame. Jan competently held a R+P endgame a pawn down. Sadly Edgar’s king perished in the late middlegame.
Ox2: It looks likely Ox2 can expect mid-table, but Barnet Knights A can be far stronger than their R1 line-up suggests. An exchange sac didn’t work for Chris’s opponent. The dreaded double-rooks on the seventh polished things off. Neil & Grahamgrabbed draws to open Ox2’s account with a honourable 1 match point.
Ox3: Our Pool looks difficult from R1 pairings: skip reckons it will be a good season if we avoid relegation. Shambavi’sopponent ran out of ideas at move 23, shuffling his rook between c2 and c1. I liked her extra space on the queenside but making progress was tricky. By move 40 complete and utter Black world domination had been achieved, but there was still no way to break through due to the lack of open files. Drawn. Alex grabbed a mildly warm pawn on c2 and regretted it (skip is a “grabber” but this one felt wayyy too warm for him!).
* (remember he hates watching games with the engine on, so his impressions of your games may be well off the mark …)