Ealing B exacted fulsome revenge for our loss in the away leg of this match up with a comfortable home win.

It was not all plain sailing though as the juniors, as usual, make a mockery of their ratings with both Tony and Simon in grave danger at a late stage of their respective matches.

Clive got the ball rolling with a fairly rapid despatch of Hatch End’s board five. In Clive’s own words: “My young opponent played very well in the opening, above his grading, gaining some advantage but he let his advantage slip in a complex position, then under some pressure blundered and lost.”

Matthew doubled the lead, punishing his opponent for his premature queen sortie with a comprehensive attacking win.

I blundered horribly in the corresponding fixture last year against the same opponent and so was glad to gain revenge here. The game was fairly even until Black unwisely grabbed my a-pawn, self-immolating his bishop in a manner reminiscent of a famous Fischer move in game 1 of the Reykjavik match with Spassky. The game was never really in doubt after that although I was made to play on until a move from delivering mate.

As mentioned earlier, Tony and Simon’s game were less than straightforward. As Tony explains: “Playing black, I knew the opening better than my young opponent and gained a pawn but made little further headway. Luckily he was then too ready to swap down material against a higher graded opponent, which gave me a probably won endgame. However, I became complacent, he counter attacked well and now he was pushing for a win. I then swindled him out of a knight for two pawns and again pushed for victory. He defended well, I couldn’t break through and a draw was reached. An unsatisfying, rating dropping draw. It’s wearing work against these underrated talented kids!”

I was able to witness the denouement of Simon’s game in which he managed to turn an objectively lost endgame position under extreme time pressure, into a remarkable win. As Simon reports: “As Black, I played the Petroff and enjoyed a comfortable if somewhat dull middlegame. With three minutes left on my clock, a level position at the board, the match already won, my opponent offered a draw which I declined. Shortly afterwards, his passed pawn claimed my knight, leaving me with a wrecked position. But no sooner had this happened, when my opponent’s knight became trapped. The resulting king and pawn endgame was (I think) objectively drawn but Caissa was on my  side and I managed to win. A lucky let off!”