MW 7/14, Thursday 15th January 2026
| Staines A | Ealing B | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (b) | Derek, McGovern | 1768 | 0-1 | Alejandro Lopez-Martinez | 1920 |
| 2 (w) | David Bean | 1709 | 0-1 | Xavier Cowan | 1923 |
| 3 (b) | Ye Kyaw | 1866 | 0-1 | Simon Healeas | 1845 |
| 4 (w) | Alex McTavish | 1699 | 0-1 | Mark Winterbotham | 1823 |
| 5 (b) | Colin Aniecko | 1664 | 0-1 | Raj Jhooti | 1778 |
| 6 (w) | Liam O’Sullivan | 1639 | 1-0 | David Websdale | 1488 |
| 1-5 |
2026 began with yet another win away from home to make it an 80% away record. Who’s impressed?
Mark: “A game where not much happened during the opening and middlegame, and then the rook and pawn ending got quite tasty. My opponent had a passed pawn on the 6th rank which looked dangerous, but he got overambitious and his king got trapped on the a file by my rook on the b file, and I could push my king side pawns to victory.”
David: “Black on board six, I faced an Alapin Sicilian opening (2.c3) and lost control of the centre. Entering the middle game, I felt I was on the defensive, although Stockfish thought otherwise. But I did not find the right moves to consolidate my small advantage. In an attempt to force the retreat of white’s threatening pieces I badly weakened my pawn structure and paid the price, being mated at move 20. I could have done better.”
Simon: “As White, the opening was a Closed Catalan (1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4 g3 c6). With an intrusive knight on d6, I won the exchange after 16 moves. A little later, my opponent gave up his knight for three pawns but this led to a lost position which I quickly converted.”
With Raj and Alejandro also winningly convincingly, it was a professional job from the Ealing Boys. My own game added to the wins, but I got away with poor opening play and a precarious king safety situation. We’re at the halfway stage now and it seems likely that we will survive Division 2 and best our points finish from last season.