News & Match Reports
Bristol & Clifton E 5-1 North Bristol A
14th October 2025, Division 4
The A-Team made the trip down to Hotwells to take on what turned out to be a mixture of Bristol and Clifton's E and J2 teams. We'll take it as a compliment they decided to put out such a strong team against us!
James B returned to form in a sharp game against Anay, surviving the early loss of a pawn to win a bishop and queen that had ventured too deeply into white's camp in exchange for a rook and pawn. Black's a-pawn heroically sprinted for promotion but was scythed down on a2 by white's knight. White's queen was too strong for the remaining bishop and rook, which were struggling develop fully and couldn't protect the exposed king.
It wasn't our night on the rest of the boards, with several promising positions coming to nothing due to the subtleties of move order selection. Patrick and James built up imposing pawn centres but slightly mistimed when to push forwards, and Tony ended up on the wrong end of a tactical sequences that cost him a piece.
We remain joint top of the league (though Bristol & Clifton E have a match in hand) and we can only hope this defeat was a blip in what is shaping up to be a promising push for a return to Div 3.
North Bristol C 2-2 South Bristol E
14th October 2025, Division 7
Another good-natured clash between North and South ended all-square. Dave S and Alex's good form continued and they were able to get wins against Vicky and Yuri. James M and David B were unable to get us over the line against Oliver and Jane, and the match ended 2-2. The C-Team's return to competitive action continues to go well and we are holding our own in what is shaping up to be a tightly-contested Div 7.
North Bristol B 2-2 Portishead C
07th October 2025, Division 6
A busy October for the club began with an entertaining 2-2 draw for the B-Team with Portishead C. Alex backed up the promise he's been showing in friendly games with a victory over SJ. Mike and Phil were unable to get results over Matt and Frank, leaving the club trailing 1-2 and depending on Dave to convert a promising-looking position against Fisker to tie the match. Dave survived a scare when his knight advanced deep into white's camp to triple-fork the queen and both rooks, but left itself open to being pinned against the black queen in a very vulnerable position. Once he'd won the exchange Dave never looked like putting a foot wrong and the match ended all-square. Especially well done to Alex for securing a win on his competitive debut for the club!
CM Oliver Stubbs 19.5-0.5 North Bristol Chess Club
30th Sept 2024, Simul
FIDE Candidate Master (CM) and 2025's Bristol & District League Champion Oliver Stubbs took on North Bristol Chess Club in a much-anticipated simultaneous exhibition match. Whilst the score didn't go entirely in our favour, we like to think that a few of our 20 challengers (14 juniors and 6 adults) ran him closer than the scoreline suggests.
Prakul did fantastically well to secure a draw - watch out for that rising star!
Shout outs also go to Mike and Harry, who were the last player left standing and last junior left standing respectively.
Most importantly, great fun was had by all and our 20 challengers gained some great experience. We'd like to thank Oli for his time playing us and certainly hope to welcome him back for a rematch sometime!
We've already had a lot of fun analysing some of the critical positions from the games in Puzzle Corner.
Matthew's crazy position where almost everything was hanging at the same time made everyone's brains hurt, but in a good way. Matthew adopted an adventurous approach, playing an offbeat hypermodern opening and blasting the centre open to complicate the game as much as possible. After finding several critical moves he found himself an exchange up, but at the price of an active enemy queen. Matthew missed the 19...Nxd5!! sac that would've maintained equality and possibly earned a draw by perpetual check if white had been in a peaceful mood. The white queen seized the opportunity to infiltrate to the back rank and forced black to give up too much material to hold the position beyond move 40.
James M played a good solid game against the London, going a pawn up with 22...Qxg4+, but learning a valuable lesson that some pawns are poisoned and should be left well alone rather than being captured. White's major pieces swung over and launched an unstoppable attack down the semi-open g-file.
Hopefully more game details to follow - watch this space.
North Bristol A 4-2 South Bristol C
30th Sept 2025, Division 4
We welcomed South Bristol C to LSSC a couple of months earlier than planned due to venue unavailability on 25th November. The match didn't get off to a good start. James B was badly out of sorts and slipped up in the opening against Nasir. A bad position quickly got worse, and Nasir secured a quick kill with some calm, accurate play. James said: "Played my worst ever league game, but things worked out for the best as I got to be a proud Dad watching my kids play very well against CM Stubbs in the simul, which I'd have missed if my game hadn't ended so fast. It's a funny old life sometimes!"
James C quickly levelled against Vicky, with the other four games lasting considerably longer. Patrick got back to winning ways against Ed, using his queen to force an attack home through the centre. Will had crafted a great position, but some tricky counter-attacking play by John saw the scores pegged back to 2-2. Gareth made it 3-2 despite some heroic defending from Rod, who fended off a ferocious-looking attack for move-after-move before finally succumbing. Jason then won in style against Alessandro to seal the win: "I was glad my opponent opened with the four knights as my son plays it against me all the time. I copied my opponent for a while to save time on the clock then broke the symmetry when he developed his bishop to e3 to prevent damage to my pawn structure. With the score at 2-2 and Gareth in a promising position, my opponent weakened his e-pawn's defences. Confident we'd at least get a draw, I felt able to commit to the attack and won the e-pawn a few moves later. I was then able to advance in the centre, winning more material with a pawn fork and creating space for a forced mate against his vulnerable king. One of my cleanest individual wins and I'm delighted the club won also." The A-Team's unbeaten run in Div 4 continues!
Bristol Cabot B 3-1 North Bristol B
24th Sept 2025, Division 6
Our B-Team kicked off the season with a trip south of the river to Bedminster to take on Bristol Cabot B, with most of the side enduring a pretty rubbish 75 bus journey in heavy traffic. Patrick and James scored solid draws on boards 1 & 3, with our Dave B being unable to get anything out of Cabot's Dave B on board 4. Tony kindly summarises his game for us.
"Playing a French against the Queen's Pawn opening, a variation of which I hadn't played against before (Bb2), the opening was fairly even and I ended up with a reasonable middle game position (comp +1.5) but had spent an hour on the clock against 15 minutes! Inevitably I blundered a minor piece after playing what I thought was a good line but failed to see the obvious reply (something I keep doing, must be lack of concentration in the later stages) and then spent 30 moves or so on increment trying to hold off an opposite-coloured bishop endgame a minor piece and two pawns down. Another loss and a very disappointing game."
We live to fight another day. Shout out to Dave B for making his competitive debut for the club!
North Bristol C 2-2 Horfield & Redland F
23rd Sept 2025, Division 7
The C-Team's second game of the season featured a completely changed lineup, with Dave, Phil, Matthew and Harry coming into the side. An early slip saw Matthew lose material to Martin, who kept things steady to convert the win. Harry equalised, winning a sharp game against Siobhan, but Horfield & Redland re-took the lead when Thomas saw off Phil with a vicious fork. Scott used all his experience to hold the draw with Dave on Board 1 to secure the points for Horfield & Redland. Special mention to Harry for scoring his first competitive win for the club. Very well done!
Harambee B 2-2 North Bristol C
18th Sept 2025, Division 7
North Bristol C made a welcome return to competitive action for the first time in years. The combined ravages of the covid lockdowns and enforced venue changes are finally beginning to heal, and it's great to see player numbers picking up again. That said, finding the numbers to fill two teams in a single week was tough, and we sadly had to default Board 4 and start the match 1-0 down. As always, Harambee made us very welcome and a blisteringly exciting chess match ensued. Keen to press home their club's 1-0 advantage, Simba and Ezekiel came flying out of the traps against Ben and Owen on Boards 2 and 3, both launching powerful attacks. Ben and Owen were each able to fight their opponents off, defending accurately and then converting the winning positions that resulted. Devon and James M's game was an equally competitive but quieter affair, with Devon finally edging a minor piece endgame to draw the match. Especially well done to Ben and Owen for securing victories on their competitive debuts for the club!
North Bristol A 3-3 Bath D
16th Sept 2025, Division 4
A tense, hard-fought clash with Bath D ended in a 3-3 draw. Jason and Tony were overpowered by Lydia and Andreas, but good wins from Patrick and James C kept us in it. Patrick and Gareth drew their games with Dmitriy and Bihui, with Gareth finding a drawing resource in a pawn endgame that could have come straight out of an endgame studies textbook. Especially well done to James C for his victory on his competitive debut for the club! We remain unbeaten in Div 4.
North Bristol A 4-2 Downend & Fishponds E
09th Sept 2025, Division 4
The league season began by welcoming Downend & Fishponds E to Little Stoke. We'd had a week to lick our wounds after our fiercely contested cup tie and were eager for revenge. This time, it was North Bristol who took a 2-0 lead, with Tony and Phil grabbing good wins against Shaun and Nicholas. Downend fought back to 2-2 with Charles getting the better of Jason in a time scramble and Alan winning an intense positional struggle against James B. Will landed an early attack against Greg, and patiently consolidated his advantage into a win, before Patrick made it 4-2 after a sharp struggle with John ended in a won king and pawn endgame. Our first win over a Downend & Fishponds team in quite some time merited a couple of celebratory team drinks afterwards. Let's hope we can maintain our good start.
North Bristol 2.5-3.5 Downend & Fishponds Knights
02nd Sept 2025, Minor Knockout (MKO)
The start of the 2025-26 season once again saw us drawn against a Downend & Fishponds team in the MKO. This time we were at home to the Knights. We knew we'd be facing a strong side, but went into the game in full fighting mood, embracing the magic of the cup.
The Knights raced into a 0-2 lead with Mike succumbing to Carolus (fondly remembered from his Pete's Potentials days!) and Gareth then losing a fierce endgame battle with Alan. Patrick and James H drew a tight, cagey game before James B took advantage of a slip from Ian and converted the win despite fierce resistance. Dave won a tactical battle with Joe to pull it back to 2.5-2.5, but Will was unable to hold a draw against Martin, which would have seen us go through on board count. We exited the MKO on the tightest of margins, but gave a good account of ourselves and will return next season.
