Tynemouth Trojans began our knockout cup campaign with a 4-0 victory at Forest Hall. 

Darren Laws unleashed a series of blows from his usual Colle System to win quickly, and Antonio Moneva-Jordan, despite arriving half an hour late (after several trips to the mega-bowl), soon added the second point.  Paul Dargan had his game sewn up out of the opening, but, looking for the big finish, nearly went astray.  Fortunately, his opponent missed the tactic that would have salvaged a draw.  I handled the opening badly against Martin Seeber,  generated some pressure later, but the game went to the wire; I wasn’t winning until Martin made a slip on his 44th move in time trouble.

Our next round sees us up against Jesmond Reprobates, newly promoted from the second division and with some very capable chess players.