Ealing B’s slow start to the season continued with a disappointing draw against Uxbridge B.

We stared OK when Neil delivered a win in his debut for the team. In his own words: “My opponent’s FIDE ratings were a lot higher than his ECF rating with his FIDE rapid rating 1903 (higher than my 1773). He fell into an opening trap I would have expected him to know and I got into a clearly winning position I managed to throw away again but he blundered in time trouble so I ended up winning anyway.”

Sadly, my own nightmare run continued. Having carelessly dropped a key pawn early in the piece,I found a nice combination which allowed me to regain the pawn with a small advantage. However, I failed to find the best continuation and after a pitiful sequence of inept moves I managed to throw away the full point.

On first inspection of Matthews’s game it appeared that he had everything under control but a few minutes later I returned from the bar to find him facing an inescapable mating attack. This left us 2-1 down.

On top board, Devina faced a seasoned campaigner in Peter Lord. The game came down to a K+P endgame in which Devina showed she knew her basic endgames to draw against K+ rook P.

So, the match hinged on the outcome of Tony’s game. Tony won the exchange but entered the endgame under intense time pressure as usual. R+Ps vs N+Ps endgames are not all that straightforward and Tony had to be constantly on guard against N forks. He is to be much commended for the accuracy of his play in this phase which ultimately led to him exchanging the R for the N to create an unstoppable passed pawn.

Tony’s win allowed us to escape with a draw in the match.