MW 3/14, Monday 10th November 2025
| Ealing B | Wimbledon B | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (b) | Jack Sheard | 1871 | 0-1 | CM Anthony Hughes | 1924 |
| 2 (w) | Matthew Georgiou | 1811 | 0.5-0.5 | Sean Ingle | 1882 |
| 3 (b) | Harry Symeonidis | 1823 | 0-1 | Gordon Rennie | 1833 |
| 4 (w) | Tony Braine | 1715 | 0-1 | John Polanyk | 1773 |
| 5 (b) | Alastair Johnstone | 1602 | 0-1 | Georgi Velikov | 1697 |
| 6 (w) | Aleksei Gorbonosov | 1400 | 0.5-0.5 | Omar Selim | 1512 |
| 1-5 |
This night was a particularly busy one in the Ealing Chess Club calendar: virtually the entire player base was in action as five Ealing teams across the leagues battled at home and in Maidenhead. I couldn’t be present for this one due to the A team needing some extra numbers, so the indefatigable Alastair Johnstone took up the captaincy reins on what would turn out to be a bruising evening.
Making a surprise return to league chess was Harry. He reports: “I haven’t got much to say about my first rated game since March 2023. Obviously out of shape, I tried to defend with the French Tarrasch main line where my opponent blundered in the opening. Unfortunately, neither did I take the advantage nor played aggressively and was eventually outplayed. The resulting endgame was R + 6P v B + 4P where I offered my handshake.”
Aleksei: “Happy to report that I delivered the first non-negative result from my side! It wasn’t the most valiant chess from my side, especially considering I was playing white, but I was determined to get something out of the game and fell back to playing solid chess. I played the London System, quite actively exchanging pieces with some nice pawn shuffling on the board. After 20 moves and exchanging pretty much all minor pieces and Queens, I decided to land into a locked position with no progression for both sides and pretty much forced the draw.”
Tony: “My game was effectively decided on move 5. Playing white in a Sicilian, I carelessly allowed a central pawn exchange which handed black a strong initiative. It wasn’t theoretically lost but black had all the fun. I defended pretty soundly but had to keep finding the one right response. After twenty moves I cracked and speculatively attempted a pawn sacrifice to relieve the pressure. In doing so I missed the move that would have restored equality and instead actually badly worsened my position. Black continued to play very soundly as he had from the start and soon won.”
Alastair: “I was on the black side of a Fischer-style Najdorf in which white played an early a4. I responded with e6 when I should have played e5. As a result, white was able to blow up the centre with f4, e5 etc. Nothing too much to worry about and with multiple exchanges initiated by white, a draw looked likely. Unfortunately, my isolated d5 pawn proved more vulnerable than white’s isolated e5 pawn. With accurate play, I should have been able to draw but I chose a poor plan which left a back rank weakness that decided the game.”
Matthew: “My game was a French Winawer (I was white) and after the usual respective queen deployments to g4 and a5 the position became rather blocked when he played c4. We ended up castling on opposite sides and I had reasonable play against his kingside, managing to get a knight lodged on f6. He had offered a draw earlier on in the match which I declined, but on move 25 or so, with no obvious way through I offered him a draw which he accepted. My engine told me afterwards that I had a winning advantage, which was a bit disappointing, but I was pleased to see that it would have required a lot of risky and not at all obvious moves to convert the advantage into anything I could have worked with.”
With Jack losing as well, it wasn’t a great evening: not much better in Maidenhead for the A team either!