In the Bury & Rochdale League, at Oldham their second team proved a little too strong for Bury. Everything was possible after a draw by Steven Press, but defeats for Lee Baron and Roger Nuttall followed to give Oldham a winning margin. In the remaining game, Jeremy Peach's opponent played 1.g4 as his opening move. Former Soviet President Gorbachev also chose this unothodox move as Anatoly Karpov's first move in an exhibition match against Susan Polgar, apparently to Karpov's consternation! Karpov won, but Jeremy, playing Black, had better luck exploiting the open White kingside position to record a win.

Oldham 2.5 v Bury 1.5 D Atherton 1, L Baron 0 ; N Jerzynik 0.5, S Press 0.5 ; P Czyrski 0, J Peach 1 ; F Vernon 1, IR Nutall 0.

END