Five Gambiteers played in the Derbyshire Congress at Trent College, Long Eaton, this weekend. The playing conditions were excellent in a spacious well lit room.

In the Open section Mike Barnes, after drawing with ex Oxclose member Julian Cast in round 1, was only a point behind eventual winner GM Mark Hebden after 3 rounds, but could only pick up a further 1/2 point against two very decent opponents on Sunday. Florian Biermann also played, winning both games as white but losing all 3 as black.

Drag Sudar came 1st in the Major section with 4 1/2 points after winning 3 games he should have lost. In round two he was let off by WB’s Frank Richmond when two pawns down. In round 4 he was the beneficiary of a not uncommon occurrence, someone playing their 2nd intended move in a sequence first. His opponent intended R x N followed by Q x R if Drag had recaptured but, after picking up the knight, he then picked up his queen, allowing R x Q.

However, the escape of the tournament came in round 3 against club and team mate Onos Kofi-Ofuafor. After going a pawn up, Drag messed about and allowed Onos to develop a good position before self trapping his bishop. With nothing to lose, except the game of course, Drag launched a speculative attack, sacrificing a knight and dropping a rook, and was totally lost before Onos, with several winning options (including a mate in 9 according to Stockfish; how did he miss that?) inexplicably allowed a mate in 2.

Onos recovered from this outrageous injustice with two solid draws on Sunday, one versus Central’s Mark Radford, to end up on 3 points.

David Dunne won the Minor with 4 1/2 points. Having won in round 1 he slipped up in round 2, only drawing when having R + 3 v R + 1. This only spurred him on though as he stormed through his next three games to finish a full point clear of second place.

Both names have been added to our ‘Roll of Honour’ on the Club Info page.