There was a massive twist in the division 1 title race yesterday when our weakened 1st team defeated a stronger University 1 team 3 – 2, severely denting their chances of winning the title for the first time since the 2008-09 season. Although Uni were without their captain Ewan Fewell they were able to bring in a player almost as strong as him, Tarshan Kuhendiran, and fielded their 4th strongest team of the season.

We were also without an important member of our team, Mike N-E, who was forced to withdraw only hours before the match, so we began the match at a disadvantage, with a clear difference in rating on the top two boards.

First to finish was Drag. After misplaying the opening (what’s new there?) he took advantage of a mistake by Ana Williams to win a pawn. Ana decided to go for a mating attack on the king side, and gave up a knight on the queen side to build up the attack. Drag’s defence was just about good enough and then, after winning a 2nd piece, he smashed through Ana’s position to win in 24 moves.

On board 1 Mike B was playing Simon Schweizer who had won all his 6 previous games in the league and last month won the Nottingham Rapidplay. Mike played well to gain a superior position but, with only 5 minutes left compared to Simon’s 30, settled for a draw.

Felipe had one of those games to forget. He dropped his e2 pawn fairly early on and later lost more material, losing eventually to Piers Hinds.

Next to finish was John S. His position looked weird with his king on f7 guarding his e6 pawn (after the game it turned out that the position was actually book). Sammy Benzaira, a pawn up, looked comfortable but allowed a nice combination by John that equalised the position.

The final game went all the way and would have sent the two commentators on a certain new Monday night programme into meltdown. Both players played over 20 moves with less than a minute left on their clocks, often getting down to single figures. Florian, determined to win, tried to force the pace while Tarshan looked to hang on for a draw. Eventually Tarshan made an error allowing Florian to win material, the game and the match. Florian found some excellent moves under severe time pressure.

Before the match Uni 1 were favourites to win the title. They needed just a point after failing to beat WB 1 last week, but now it’s in Mansfield 1’s hands. They must win their final two matches, v WB 1 next week and against our 1st team in April, to catch Uni 1 on match points and beat them on game points. If they achieve this it will be the first time a team wins the league on game points since 1995-96 when Gambit 1 (which included John Swain & Brian Hayward) won by just 4 extra game points ahead of Fiveways 1 (which included Mike Barnes, Peter Mercs, Richard Edwards & Julian Cast).

Our 4th team all but secured their place in division 3 with an excellent 3 – 1 win at Newark 2. John H and Ronnie won while Graham and Tom drew. They are now 6 points ahead of 7th placed WN 2 who have just 3 matches left, including one v Gambit 4.

Our 5th team were unable to copy our 4th, going down 3 – 1 at home to Uni 2. Only John T won, with defeats for Paul, Charlie and Andy. They are 5 points ahead of WN 2 so are almost safe.