Monday 10th February 2025, MW 8/14
| EALING B | Richmond & Twickenham C | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (b) | Xavier Cowan | 1876 | 1-0 | Alex Shard | 1790 |
| 2 (w) | Simon Healeas | 1826 | 1-0 | Viorel Scobioala | 1720 |
| 3 (b) | Tony Braine | 1697 | 0-1 | Peter Kasprowicz | 1606 |
| 4 (w) | Martin Loat | 1592 | 0-1 | George Milligan | 1578 |
| 5 (b) | Leslie Pringle | 1588 | 0.5-0.5 | Tom Brand | 1575 |
| 6 (w) | Daniel Lester | 1562 | 1-0 | Mike Robinson-Chui | 1517 |
| 3.5-2.5 |
Our first real relegation six-pointer of the season was upon us. Opponents Richmond & Twickenham C ran us very close for the Division 3 title last year, but this season they have struggled with only a solitary point so far. It was our job to show them no mercy and ensure we keep our heads well clear of the drop zone, and so we squeaked our way to the evenings target.
Leslie returned to the team with a draw- a rocksteady game where he appeared slightly better, but with things still very much in the balance a draw was perhaps wise.
Simon: “As White, my opponent played the Semi-Slav Defence against 1.d4. Following a tactical oversight, I managed to win the exchange on move 17. It then took me until move 51 before breaking through with e6 and finally exploiting the material and spatial advantage.” Having the exchange advantage for so long can be a frustrating one since the opposition will try to keep the position as closed as possible and protect all their pawns, yet Simon found a clever pawn break to crack the nut.
Tony: “I played black in the Dutch, attacking aggressively with an early g5 towards white’s fianchettoed king. After 24 moves the position was still even but I was 25 minutes down on the clock. It was complicated and I rushed it a bit, feeling the time. White played accurately and my position deteriorated but not necessarily yet losing. Down to under five minutes I blundered, game over. I need lessons from Xavier on winning on increments!”. Perhaps, only on the condition that you give us all a talk on your infamous Scandinavian Defence!
Speaking of winning on increments, I managed to do just that against Alex Shard who gave me two tough games last season. In both I established good positions, but could only draw one and went on to lose the other as he punished my inept attempts at searching for a concrete advantage. This time round, I had to be sharper and I was, albeit definitely not without error as you’ll see in the endgame below.
White has just played the strong 40. Rh5-g5, trying to swap off the rook on his terms, realising that black can force the rook trade with mating threats at any point. It is also asking the question of me to win this R + P vs N + 2xP endgame on increments vs the oppositions 30 minutes. I played 40… Rfg6, thinking that trapping the king against the edge was the best course of action. Limiting the kings mobility is good, but not the priority in this position. Black should be instead looking to target white’s pawns as soon as possible before they force a trade with my last pawn. Analysis of this endgame is actually very complex- it’s not massively clear to me even in the post-mortem how black should proceed. I thought my approach was logical at the time but white has chances to draw in my line if they activate their knight immediately (eg. 42. Ne5!). The game continued with 40… Rfg6 41. Rxg6 Rxg6 42. a4 Kf8 43. Kh5 Rg1 44. Na5 Ke7 45. b4 Rb1 46. Kg5 Kd7 47. Nb7 Kc6 48. Nc5 Rxb4 49. Nxa6 Rxa4 0-1. Fortunately I was able to counter the pawn trade idea with a sneaky knight trap to seal the game.
Martin had a tough match and lost after a long battle. At one stage he was doing positionally well after getting his bishop in on d6, but sadly it deteriorated somewhere down the line and material was lost.
Daniel Lester was the last man standing, and he therefore held the responsibility of the team result. And a fantastic job he did under all the weight of the clock and match score. Hard work had been done earlier to wriggle out of trouble and go material up, culminating in a R + 2xP (connected) vs Rook endgame. Daniel shuffled king and rook around for a scarily long time, but in the end all credit goes to him for finding the winning method and converting.
A nip and tuck victory has now got us into a very solid position in the table- the reverse fixture awaits us next week so let’s hope we can add to that.