Following on from my previous post, I shall now turn my attention to e2e4.org.uk’s second win, against Gloucestershire Gambits. The score in the end was a reasonably comfortable 4-2, but the match still went down to the last game, my encounter against Peter Martin.
The match started well, as John Garnett scored a quick win as Black against Philip Meade. However, both Philip Bonafont and David Flynn got into trouble against Nigel Hoskin and Geoff Taylor respectively, and went down in flames. David Coates ended up in a difficult position against Daniel Lambourne, but his opponent unwisely allowed David’s queen into his position, and then fell victim to a tactical blow, which proved decisive. John Denton scored another win, this time against John Waterfield, which left me with the task of at least drawing against Peter Martin.
My opponent’s opening play was a little suspect, and allowed me to build up a dominating position, but no breakthrough was apparent. Then he attempted to take advantage of some hesitant play on my part with a bold pawn break, but I struck back with a strong positional pawn sacrifice. Although my opponent defended stoutly, he was unable to hold out in the long term. The game is given below with some fairly detailed notes; I am pretty sure that my sacrifice gives me compensation for the pawn, although whether I necessarily have more is not so clear to me.