The magnificent run by Essex in the Southern Counties' Championships came to an end when they met an enormously strong Middlesex team whose Captain seems to have woken up to the fact that his side was in grave danger of failing to qualify for the National stages of the County Championships. Essex still lead the table with five wins from six matches, but now need to win their last two matches to be assured of the SCCU title.

In the early stages, the match was going well for the Essex players. John Moore won inside the hour against Rose, whose queen ventured to an irrelevant part of the board while John attacked elsewhere. Jeff Goldberg held a youthful but highly talented opponent to a draw: Aleksander Trifunovic has the same name as a Yugoslav Grandmaster, who just happens to be his uncle. Paul Williamson lost for the first time in this season's campaign, but Russell White won a piece and then succeeded in extricating himself from his difficulties. At the three hour mark Essex were still in the lead.

A rapid succession of wins for Middlesex players effectively decided the match. Ivor Smith lost his queen for a rook and a bishop, and David Sands rooks were skewered by a bishop. Jon Manley was attacking strongly, but overstepped the time limit. David Millward won a pawn but at the expense of his development, and his attempt to free the postition went awry. David Sherman attacked on the king-side but his opponent's queen-side initiative proved the stronger.

Ivan Myall lost his 100% record when he gave up too many pawns. John Nellist was under presure from the start. Although Neil Carr reached a materially level ending, his two knights were not sufficient against two bishops and he lost a pawn. Michael Roberts found that septuagenarian IMs can still play very good chess. John Hodgson's Sicilian failed to equalise, but Larry Marden played well to draw against the French Winawer.

From an Essex point of view, the highlight of the day was Jonathan Rogers' victory against Jonathan Levitt, his first against a Grandmaster. Michael Twyble expressed the opinion recently that "Rogers is without doubt the best player in the County, and even Karl Bowden would agree with that. He's playing fantastic chess." So it was in this game in which the Essex top board won white's rook at h1 while giving back two pieces to stem a strong central attack. After the queens were exchanged, black had two rooks and 6 pawns to white's rook, bishop, knight and 4. The extra pawns won the day, and Grandmaster Levitt, who was leading last year's British Championship until the last round, resigned when three of Jonathan's pawns reached the seventh rank.