| 1. | b | Gary Quillan | 0-1 | Stephen Berry |
| 2. | w | Charlie Kennaugh | 1-0 | Richard Thomas |
| 3. | b | Glen Charleshouse | ½-½ | Richard McMichael |
| 4. | w | Dave Tebb | ½-½ | Conor O'Shaughnessy |
| 5. | b | Alan Smith | ½-½ | Colin Mackenzie |
| 6. | w | Ben Hague | 0-1 | Julian Ward |
| 7. | b | Dale James | 1-0 | Robin Pearce |
| 8. | w | Claire Summerscale | 1-0 | Alexandra Kelly |
| 4½-3½ |
Round 4 Games
League Table after Round 4
We clearly had to put the disappointment of the previous day behind us and do the business against a team who, like ourselves, were not entirely at full strength. Things began to look up at a fairly early stage. Claire snaffled a decisive material advantage early on and though her opponent insisted on seeing Claire's technique, the result was never in doubt. Dale's opponent, Robin Pearce, decided that the best way to take him on was a quick tactical rumble in the opening. This turned out not to be particularly wise, Dale acquiring a two minor pieces for a rook, which soon proved decisive. Although I arrived about 25 minutes late (have the Brummies never heard of the Britannia Hotel?), mine was one of those pleasant games that from a fairly early stage almost played itself, simple natural moves proving to be very strong. For once, I didn't make any major tactical blunders, so 1-0 to your humble chronicler.
With both Glen and Alan making solid draws with black it only required another half-point to clinch the match. However, Dave Tebb's unimpressive opening play against Conor O'Shaughnessy can probably only be explained by the traumas of the previous night when he managed to find himself naked in the double-bed of a near namesake at midnight. (Mind you, the trauma must have been far greater for Mr Tebbs with the sight that greeted him as he opened his hotel door at the midnight hour. I believe he is still undergoing intensive therapy and counselling.) Conor O'Shaughnessy had arrived at the board almost an hour late and seemed to treat it all as a casual five-minute game, bashing out his favourite Polugaevsky Variation in the Bg5-Najdorf. Not having had a database for preparation at his disposal, Dave soon experienced problems (apparently O'Shaughnessy had come up with a useful-looking TN) and after a further hour or so had fallen behind his opponent on the clock and achieved a very dodgy position where his opponent's 4 v 2 king-side pawn advantage looked to be potentially decisive. However, Dave made the most of his one asset, an advanced passed d-pawn, and O'Shaughnessy, still in blitz mode, allowed Dave to get it to the 7th and was actually rather lucky that after his tactical oversight he was able to bail out into a drawn endgame. However, that half-point was enough to win us the match. Gary had arrived 55 minutes late for his encounter with Stephen Berry, but he seemed to have got a good game on the black side of an Advanced French. Berry had given a pawn up for (what appeared to me) insufficient compensation, but he did have a safer king and that is what told in Gary's inevitable time trouble. Ben Hague had the white side of a typical c3-Sicilian, a slight advantage in space and piece activity counterbalanced by black's slightly better pawn structure. It must have been the latter that proved decisive in the end, so we scraped home by 4½-3½.
A win by the smallest possible margin, but a win nevertheless and that's the important thing after the banana skin of the day before. We are joint second as the League Table shows and we know that if we win our remaining games and particularly if we beat our main rivals, then not only promotion but the 2nd Division Championship itself should be well within our grasp. We had considerable problems assembling our squad for this weekend and have every reason to believe that our squads for the remaining weekends will be significantly stronger.