We came very close to another famous victory despite being outgraded on every board. Mike continued his talent for winning by default and by the time his opponent turned up at 8:15 he was long gone. At this stage we were doing well without anyone in trouble and Brian's position looking very strong. After tormenting his opponent's king with bishops, rooks and queen, Brian finished with a mating combination. Mike Gladstone and Simon agreed draws.

Meanwhile Alex was having rather a tough time after Jack gave up a piece for 3 pawns, leaving his king rather bare. Jack left his scoresheet behind so you can see the game below. This left us needing 1.5 points from boards 2-4. Jim played a delayed Benko Gambit but Steve never looked in any danger and later returned the pawn for a level position. I played to the end of a line of the King's Gambit in BCO which was assessed vaguely as white having compensation for the pawn. Unfortunately I didn't find a decent way of developing my bits and got rather wiped out. Martin had an edge all through his game although it never reached critical mass. In the adjourned position he was still at least equal but there wasn't enough left in it to have any realistic chance of overturning a 196 grade so he agreed a draw this evening (Thursday). Well done lads - we gave them a bit of a scare. (PN)

(25) J.Rudd,Bath - A.Easton,Horfield&Redland [C05] 08.03.2005

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Ndf3 Qb6 8.a3 cxd4 9.cxd4 Na5 10.b4 Nc4 11.Bd3 a5 12.Qa4 Be7 13.Nh3 Qc7 14.b5 f5 15.0-0 Ndb6 16.Qd1 a4 17.Qe1 Bd7 18.Qg3 g6 19.Nhg5 h6 20.Nxe6 Bxe6 21.Qxg6+ Bf7 22.Qxf5 Qc8 23.Qxc8+ Rxc8 24.f5 Na5 25.f6 Nb3 26.Rb1 Nxc1 27.Rfxc1 Rxc1+ 28.Rxc1 Bxa3 29.Rc7 0-0 30.Bf5 Nc4 31.e6 Nd6 32.Ne5? [ 32.exf7+ Kh8 33.Nh4+-] 32...Bh5? [ 32...Nxf5 33.Nxf7 h5 34.e7 Kxf7=/+] 33.Rg7+ Kh8 34.Rh7+ Kg8 35.f7+ Nxf7 36.exf7+ Bxf7 [ 36...Rxf7 37.Nxf7 Bxf7 38.Rxh6] 37.Rxf7 Rxf7 38.Be6 1-0 (Clock times - white 25 minutes, black 89 minutes)

(Analysis courtesy of Fritz 6 - You can play through the game by copying (select moves & Ctrl C)and then using Paste Game in Fritz)

KO Round 2: Horfield claimed a walk-over against Nailsea.

Second division Hanham dumped us out of the cup last season in round 1. This year we faced another second division side, Keynsham. It looked like it should be easy, especially as Keynsham were missing their top board, Tyson Mordue. The average grades of each team confirmed this would be a stroll in the park: Horfield's 147 against Keynsham's 118.

But things started badly with Mike Gladstone blundering away a couple of pawns. Then Martin Davies lost - somehow, I didn't see it. Mike Levene leveled the match and I put us one up, only to see Phil resign next to me almost straight away. When Mike Gladstone finally conceded we were losing 3-2.

Steve had a lovely attack going and eventually mated with a pawn to make it 3-3. David Reed was the exchange up but could not find a way through and took the draw. In fact, a win for David would have made no difference because it was all down to Alex's board where we needed a half point to take the match on tie break.

Alex is an exchange up and the two players agreed to adjudicate, with both sides claiming a win. However I can't see we can possibly lose it, so we'll go through to the next round but with nothing to brag about. Well done Keynsham! Good job Tyson wasn't there. (JR)

Postscript: the reason Tyson was missing was he had decided to play for Downend in the KO (perfectly legal - just doesn't happen that often). It turned out to be a poor decision. Bath beat Downend by a street (5½-½ +2c) and Tyson lost on board one to Jack Rudd.