2025 got off to a dramatic start as Gambit 1 faced Gambit 2 while Gambit 4 played Gambit 5.

Draw expert John S played draw expert Steve and the game ended in a draw. Mike B and Nikolai were in a fairly equal game until Mike won a pawn. Florian took advantage of Drag yet again messing up his move order in the opening by applying pressure, following up with a lovely rook sacrifice that completely smashed up Drag’s position.

The other two boards were going Gambit 2’s way and the match could/should have been a draw.

Onos defended Mike N-E’s attack and was winning but, short of time, he allowed Mike to draw. On board 5 Gambit 2’s Keith was winning against Felipe but, with less than a minute left on his clock, he missed an opportunity to win a piece, going for a mate instead. Felipe played a few checks and somehow managed to escape the mating threat and later Keith lost on time.

In the other match Gambit 4’s Marshall achieved a nice draw against Andy. Ronnie was a winning exchange up against Charlie who escaped with a draw. Marian played well against previously unbeaten Paul and deservedly won the game. Graham began to struggle once he had less than 5 minutes on his clock and John T, who had less than half that time left, played very calmly to win the game, so the match was a 2 – 2 draw.

The Wrong Clock.

The Laws of Chess say nothing about the placement of the clock. In tournaments arbiters place them facing the same way. In league matches the same usually happens. What happened in the Gambit 4 v Gambit 5 match shows why clocks should never be placed side by side.

Marian was black on board 1. He was mistakenly under the impression, as many players are (several articles on the web also incorrectly make this claim), that the clock should be on black’s right. Before his game began he moved the clock to his right which placed it next to board 2’s clock. No surprise then when Marian pressed the wrong clock. It was Graham’s move on board 2 but his opponent John T did not notice his clock was now running, and it dropped below 3 minutes.

The Laws of Chess are very clear. Except for the arbiter, anyone watching a game is a spectator and must not intervene in any way at all, for any reason.

Drag, still annoyed at how badly he had played, informed the players what had happened and pressed John’s clock. This was wrong. Drag is a level 1 arbiter and knows better. He should not have interfered even if John’s clock had run out, unfair as that would have been. He only did so because it was a match between two Gambit teams but that is no excuse. Maybe in this case two wrongs did make a right but…