Olivier (italics are mine):
We quickly gained the first points with Marc and Jean-Pierre and we had two good positions with our young guns Guillaume and Arnaud but their attacks were stopped and they missed out on the points (NDLR: Dieppe wash-up showed how myself and Kevin dealt with the fast-playing tactic-totin' youngsters).
It was all to redo and fortunately Adrien and Jean-Charles drew slightly inferior positions.
Ouf (untranslatable outtake of breath), we regained the advantage with Richard who had to defend against an opponent keen to sac material (!). His attack was not sufficient. The games left were those of Yvain and Olivier which were not obvious how to play, Alain had an extra pawn in a better position and Gaetan had a positional advantage in a complex game and Cyril who was standing in for Yann had a crushing position and he won. Bravo.
Things were going well, we still needed a point and after more than 3 hours of playing, Gaetan blundered and Alain accepted a draw from his opponent. The score at this point: 4:3 in our favour.
At this moment in the match, Yvain and Olivier, suffering from fatigue, both had positions which were not easy to manage. We had some doubts, Yvain swapped queens and some pieces and reached an endgame with rook and opposite coloured bishop. My feelings were that the game was heading towards a draw.
So there I was on my own with an opponent who had managed a draw yesterday against Grandmaster Wirig. I could not afford to lose. I offered the exchange of queens and rook f4, a move I had not anticipated and I took several minutes and I ascertained it was not the correct move and I took advantage in a tactical position, the exchange up, a rook at first and zeitnot (each?) with 2 minutes less for my opponent and I knew he was fallen.
Victory fell on us and cheers to our English friends who accepted battle until the very end.
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