MW 12/14, Wednesday 8th April 2026
| Surbiton B | Ealing B | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (b) | Neil Davies | 1881 | 0-1 | Tony Wells | 1963 |
| 2 (w) | Graham Alcock | 1829 | 1-0 | Simon Healeas | 1860 |
| 3 (b) | Andrew Boughen | 1819 | 0-1 | Mark Winterbotham | 1827 |
| 4 (w) | David Cole | 1749 | 0-1 | Hristo Colov | 1745 |
| 5 (b) | Malcolm Groom | 1663 | 0.5-0.5 | Tony Braine | 1736 |
| 6 (w) | Dominic Tang | 1645 | 1-0 | Jan Corpus | 1699 |
| 2.5-3.5 |
And we’re back! We certainly have travelled well this season.
Simon: “What seemed like a level middlegame went rapidly downhill when I lashed out with the freeing f5. Suddenly my opponent’s pieces sprung to life and he maintained a series of threats which eventually led to my king being overwhelmed.”
Hristo pulled one back after winning impressively in an opposite colour bishop endgame, using great endgame technique to find the winning idea after slipping up earlier. He comments: “I had a pretty equal game until the 18th move, when he made a blunder (which wasn’t very obvious). On my 24th move, I returned the favour, though! 🙁 Instead of Nd5 and winning the piece, which was my original plan, I moved it to d5 (I forgot he moved b4, and I thought it was the same), and he just exchanged it for his bishop. As a result, instead to be with piece more, I ended up with a pretty drawish position (I had a pawn more though). After a few moves, it became a total draw – I still had a pawn more, but with the obstacle colors bishops and no other pieces on the board. He was very down on time (at the end, he had less than 30/20 seconds, and I had almost 30 minutes), and I was really annoyed with myself, so I continued to play, and eventually I found a winning plan out of the blue. To be honest, I feel a bit guilty and sorry for the guy. Not because he lost, but the way he lost. I should’ve won with a piece more, instead of winning the opposite coloured bishop’s position, although it felt nice at the end.”
Tony: “I was white in a pirc and gained a strong initiative with black fighting to hold on. Eventually black cracked but then I messed up. I saw he was blundering a pawn and exposing his king and instantly grabbed it. A minute’s thought and I’d have seen I could have taken an 8 point lead: game over. Instead, one pawn up with a lot of material still on the board my theoretically won but quite tricky endgame descended into a very disappointing draw.”
With a winning contribution from both Mark and Tony W, Jan’s loss was made immaterial and we clinched the points. It was especially satisfying knowing that this exact fixture caused me a world of pain last season to organise and play in (another 5.5-0.5 walloping!)