On Monday, 19 October we welcomed Hackney One to the Actonians for our first home match of the season. Hackney started as clear match favourites, as they out-rated us on all boards. A difficult night beckoned.
Reflecting on his game, Andrew writes: “As Black in a French Winawer, I won a pawn out of the opening and then chose to keep the queens on to try and increase my advantage. However, after missing a few opportunities, my pieces ended up pinned down to holding onto my extra pawn and his queen infiltrated my position. I was relieved when he chose to take a perpetual.”
With the black pieces, Jack observes: “Playing an unusual quasi-Dutch defence with a fianchettoed light-squared bishop, I riskily provoked White to expand in the centre and tried to exploit the resulting pawn tension to build a kingside attack. However, a few minor imprecisions dissipated that attack, and the subsequent endgame was only White’s to win – especially when gifted an extra exchange. Last-ditch tricks were not enough to save Black from two rooks fatally infiltrating the seventh rank.”
I too went down. Facing the Dutch Stonewall, the position remained level up until move 26. But then I misjudged the position: rather than keeping it closed, I opened it up with a weak pawn move (f3). My opponent played well and went on to checkmate me with a direct kingside attack.
In sharp contrast, Duncan’s game was the highlight of our evening. The verve and vigour he displayed in fighting for the initiative being an example to us all. As Black, he was up against the Advanced French and, early in the game, managed to activate his minor pieces. Pressure on the queenside translated into his gaining of a passed a and b-pawn, leading eventually to his opponent’s resignation. Well-played Duncan!
Unfortunately it was not Jonathan’s night. In his own words: “My Bird’s Opening led to pressure down the kingside for me, and pressure down the queenside for my opponent. His pressure proved more consequential. As I went a pawn down, I hoped my pawns on g5 and f6 would compensate by tying down his king and g7-bishop. But he manoeuvred well and went on to win further material.”
The last game to finish was Devina’s. She states: ”As White, I played the Exchange Grunfeld which gave me a better position from the opening. However, my opponent’s knight infiltrated my position. I sacrificed the exchange in the hope of getting compensation with my active bishop pair but my opponent exploited his queenside pawn majority to convert the subsequent endgame.”
As with the previous week’s match, we lost by the same 4.5 -1.5 scoreline. We hope to do better in the run-up to Christmas.
| Ealing One | Rating | Result | Hackney One | Rating |
| FM Andrew Harley | 2145 | 0.5-0.5 | FM Robert Eames | 2172 |
| Jonathan White | 2002 | 0-1 | FM Richard Britton | 2077 |
| Duncan Grassie | 1942 | 1-0 | Charlie Giles | 2050 |
| Simon Healeas | 1864 | 0-1 | Francis Chin | 2050 |
| Jack Sheard | 1861 | 0-1 | Marceli Ciesielski | 1983 |
| Devina Bedi | 1831 | 0-1 | Ben Cullen | 1928 |
| 1.5-4.5 |