On 30 October we travelled to Harrow to play their second team in a Middlesex fixture. Ealing enjoyed a rating advantage which was evidenced as the evening unfolded.
First to finish was Alastair who reminded us all of how dangerous he is with the initiative. He writes: “My opponent did not have one of his better nights at the board. Surjit likes to play with uncompromising aggression and has given me in past encounters a torrid time, as White, with his trademark Grand Prix Attack. So it was not altogether surprising to see him elect for the Latvian Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5) as Black but after 3.Nc3 his 3…f4 was a very poor choice and within a few moves he was in dire straits. The finish was tragicomic: 11. Nd5 Qg7 12.Nxc7+ Kd8 13.Ne6+ winning the queen. A real train crash of a game, as Surjit admitted.”
Next to finish was Jan who kindly stepped in at short notice. As Black in an Alapin Sicilian (1.e4 c5 2.c3), Jan lost a piece and then was subject to strong kingside pressure but defended well. Eventually he turned the game around and with his advanced king combining with rooks on the seventh, managed to deliver checkmate. Very good fighting chess by Jan on his debut for the team.
From what I saw of his game, Andrew had a smooth win on top board. He notes: “My opponent played the Caro-Kann but was out of his book very early. He played an over-cautious …h6 and didn’t get castled quickly enough, which allowed my queen to pick up pawns on b7 and d5. He then sacrificed the exchange for some play and to stop my attack. There were some back rank tricks I had to watch, but I returned one pawn, and once I found time to play h2-h3, it was all over. Another piece dropped and he resigned.”
In my own game, I misunderstood the early middlegame position, prematurely playing e5 when a later d5 would have been the correct pawn push. After that, a series of sub-optimal moves led to my resignation and the team’s only defeat of the evening.
On board two, Alejandro calmly exploited an extra pawn. Reflecting on his game he states: “I played Black in an unusual line of the Petroff (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4) which involved a pawn sacrifice from my opponent. I blundered very early when both of us revealed our lack of opening knowledge. In the end, things stabilised and after a few trades I was simply a pawn up in an easily winning endgame.”
Last to finish was Tony. In his own words: “As Black after twelve moves I achieved a slight initiative and, significantly given the short time control, was twenty minutes up on the clock. My perennial over-optimism led me to a make a precipitous g5 push towards his king. I carelessly miscalculated this and White could have won at least a pawn and taken control. Thankfully he chose to swap queens instead, happy to relieve the tension I’d built up in the opening. I quickly won a pawn out of this exchange leaving R + 6p against R + 5p. Fortunately I played the endgame patiently and fairly accurately. It was harder for White, now under time pressure, and eventually I converted my advantage.” This capped a successful week for Tony who, impressively, won three league games in four days.
Overall this was a good team performance which helped in establishing us as a serious contender for promotion to the first division.
| Harrow Two | Rating | Result | Ealing One | Rating |
| Arthur Cann | 1866 | 0-1 | FM Andrew Harley | 2154 |
| John Clenshaw | 1605 | 0-1 | Alejandro Lopez-Martinez | 1860 |
| Jack Dorricott | 1643 | 1-0 | Simon Healeas | 1810 |
| Evangelos Maltezos | 1579 | 0-1 | Tony Braine | 1688 |
| Surjit Dhemrait | 1566 | 0-1 | Alastair Johnstone | 1597 |
| Alexander Horwood | 1527 | 0-1 | Jan Corpus | Unrated |
| 1–5 |