MW 3/12, Monday 26th October 2026
| Ealing B | Ealing A | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (b) | Simon Healeas | 1862 | 0-1 | Martin Smith | 2123 |
| 2 (w) | Mark Winterbotham | 1818 | 0-1 | John Quinn | 2057 |
| 3 (b) | Nimish Shah | 1714 | 0-1 | Colum Jezierski | 1967 |
| 4 (w) | Tony Braine | 1703 | 0-1 | Jack Sheard | 1840 |
| 5 (b) | Clive Lawrence | 1581 | 0-1 | Devina Bedi | 1826 |
| 6 (w) | Leslie Pringle | 1538 | 1-0 | Martin Loat | 1526 |
| 1-5 |
An expected result in the return fixture against Goliath. David didn’t stand a chance, but Leslie did as Martin sportingly played for our objective (every game point counts!). All the drama was on their board and both players provided their POV’s.
Leslie: “Martin and I fought over a closed position with a slow fuse (opening moves Pirc or Modern with unusual moves by both): I had early pressure down the kingside but Martin managed to push in the centre with at one point a convincing position (+2) but I managed to find ‘only’ moves to reach a dynamic but equal position. I moved too quickly at 33 seconds per move and Martin at 2 minutes 24 seconds per move. The one moment that Martin moved faster was a blunder that allowed me a fluke and a win.”
Martin: “As white he had me under pressure: I then managed to get an edge, but when I blundered, he took his chance.”
Clive: “Another tragic and frustrating game, she played a tricky but unsound exchange sacrifice against my Dutch. By move 20 I was clearly better, on move 26 she blundered and I was over +6 advantage. On move 33 I missed a forced win only to blunder my Queen on move 40 under time pressure. My problem I am too slow in finding the right moves against a good Blitz player like Devina; I seem to lose winning positions…” As evidenced in our club annual Blitz competition, you don’t want to play Devina in a time pressure scenario (or any chess scenario for that matter considering her form this year!)
Tony: “I was out of my book knowledge after black’s 1..b6. Apparently however I was still in theory for half a dozen more moves until I recklessly sacrificed a knight for g and h pawn and the initiative against black’s cramped and underdeveloped position. It probably wouldn’t have been enough compensation even if I’d played accurately. I didn’t- black did. Quite a complicated interesting game which black finished off for the win well.”
Simon: “Unfortunately I did not come close to repeating XC’s recent success against Martin Smith. He played the unusual – at least unusual to me – Centre Game. We started 1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3. Qxd4 Nc6 4. Qe3 Nf6 5.Nc3 Bb4. As Black, I felt comfortable with this but later went downhill when he virtually forced me to exchange a bishop for two pawns. The resulting attack against his queenside castled king fell short and he ran out a comfortable winner.”
Elsewhere, Mark got ‘Quinned’ again. Don’t worry, we don’t have to play these guys every week! Coming up next, a trip on the M4 to Berkshire Maidenhead in November…