MW 6/14, Monday 15th December 2025
| Ealing B | Surbiton B | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (b) | Simon Healeas | 1831 | 0.5-0.5 | Neil Davies | 1902 |
| 2 (w) | Mark Winterbotham | 1832 | 0-1 | CM Nick Faulks | 1891 |
| 3 (b) | Devina Bedi | 1744 | 0.5-0.5 | Graham Alcock | 1831 |
| 4 (w) | Tony Braine | 1703 | 0-1 | Andrew Boughen | 1822 |
| 5 (b) | Jan Corpus | 1673 | 1-0 | Paul McCauley | 1511 |
| 6 (w) | Martin Loat | 1540 | 0-1 | Dominic Tang | 1016 |
| 2-4 |
As we looked to close out the year on the crest of a wave, Super Simon took up the captaincy honours as I couldn’t make it. He reports on his own game here: “As Black, I lost a pawn in the opening but got some piece activity as compensation. This eventually led to me winning back the pawn on move 29. With material balanced (queen, bishop, and 5 pawns each) and no obvious winning plan for either of us, I offered a draw which he accepted.”
Tony: “I was white in a caro kann, both players emerging out of the opening with a solid position. Black pushed his queenside pawns. I ignored this and challenged his fianchettoed dark side bishop with queen and bishop, reckoning my kingside attack the more dangerous. This judgement would have been correct if I’d followed through effectively. Move 23 was key. I had to sacrifice my knight for two pawns. I saw the sacrifice but underestimated how positionally overwhelming it would be for me, around 3 points worth. So I wimped out and swapped queens into a theoretically drawn endgame. Black played this better. I blundered under time pressure and he finished proficiently.”
Devina’s father Ankit reports on a battling performance: “The game was complicated, however the opponent forcefully exchanged queens. From thereon, Devina managed to hold a rook endgame where she was 2 pawns down.”
It wasn’t to be a happy end to the year with a 4-2 loss, but there’s much more chess to look forward to in 2026.