David changed his d4 Veresov for a Queens Gambit last Friday trying to stop Joseph from winning his 4th game in a row. Joseph responded with a Slav, d5, c6, e6 set-up and was able to mount serious pressure on David’s king side which nonetheless held – even such that David managed to sneak into black territory with his knight and win a rook when Joseph did not pay attention enough. After that David spend too much time trying to convert the winning position into a point and in a high time pressure situation even lost the game in a neat checkmate orchestrated by Joseph’s queen and knight.

 

 

James tricked Ray into losing his queen early in the game and the two pieces Ray got back was never enough to prevent James from playing the game out as a technical win.

Henry played solidly against Hannah’s French and came maybe with a slight plus out of the opening. In what still seemed an even game it came to a shock to Hannah to find herself having overseen a sudden check mate by Henry.

Melvin had to face Michel’s French and when he gave away a piece on the way to the middle game this was the second game that could be played out technically without problems for Michel.

Miguel Angel and Toby played a dynamic game against each other  and although Miguel Angel won some material early in the game Toby managed to put his black rooks on the 2nd rank as he invaded white’s queen side. Yet, an inaccuracy by Toby let to too much material loss and a win for Miguel Angel.

Next week it is up to Koji to try to stop Joseph …