Without any fanfare, we had a casual meeting or gathering of the chess minds. Now mind you, there was no tournament, but there was a couple of chess games played and baked salmon was served after. And the winner was… my wife Sharon for her hosting and excellent cooking. Due to various circumstances, one of the founding members (sic) couldn’t make it. Another one, (Danie) arrived early and helped my wife secure digital Elton John tickets and load them on her cellphone. We have another winner!
Then I played him a casual game. Unfortunately, in his strategical execution involving castling long, he overlooked a positional sacrifice that left him with a shattered pawn structure in front of his King. A few moves later I harvested material, yielding a trio of connected passed pawns. He resisted valiantly, but the King found himself all alone. Dazed and confused, he walked into a mating net and capitulated. Citing personal business, he had to leave early.
Matt, the final member to arrive, missed his brother by only a few minutes. We sat down and got right to it. I believe I distracted him with some unrelated chatter, and he blundered a piece on his 2nd move. So, we agreed to move on. In the second game I returned the favor and Matt corralled my stallion in the open field. A fine horse indeed and was sorely missed. My King may be growing old, but stubbornness has always been his trait, so he dispatched his Queen while the royal guard set up a defensive position. Blow for blow the game continued… one good move followed another until the next blunder, which was made by Matt, gave me the initiative with actual mate threats. He had superior forces but couldn’t advance. I my valiant Queen kept checking until we both agreed to a truce. I really liked this game. There was no scoresheet, but Matt, who as Black, snapped this photo: