MW 4/14, Tuesday 18th November 2025
| Richmond B | Ealing B | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (b) | Alastair Armstrong | 1983 | 0-1 | Xavier Cowan | 1900 |
| 2 (w) | Maks Gajowniczek | 1912 | 0-1 | Alejandro Lopez-Martinez | 1887 |
| 3 (b) | Sampson Low | 1866 | 0.5-0.5 | Simon Healeas | 1833 |
| 4 (w) | Jonathan Eckert | 1755 | 0-1 | Matthew Georgiou | 1813 |
| 5 (b) | Matthew Stewart | 1664 | 1-0 | Hristo Colov | 1779 |
| 6 (w) | Simon Illsley | 1672 | 1-0 | Aleksei Gorbonosov | 1403 |
| 2.5-3.5 |
To counteract our disappointing home defeat against Wimbledon B, we rebounding with a superb win in Teddington. It was all the more sweeter considering our efforts here last year were rewarded with a 5.5-0.5 walloping,
Having played two and lost two against my own opponent, I was eager to pull one back. The opening favoured me slightly as I opened the g-file against the Pirc setup to get a kingside attack moving. It grew very quickly into a visible advantage, however it seems to prove an impossible task for me to reach a good position without consuming 99% of the allotted time on my clock. In the time scramble on my side, my experienced opponent calmly formulated a complex counterattack that blew open the game entirely. With each other’s kings on the ropes, it became a race to checkmate. In the position below, there is unbelievably an equalising measure for black, but due to the human nature of the position neither of us were interested in a draw or swapping material into a complex unbalanced endgame. Fortunately, there was to be no killer sequence for black and I got my checkmate in a move before his. (23. a3 Ned3+ 24. Kb1 Bxb2 25. f6 Bxf6 26. Bxf6 Qb3+ 27. Qb2 Nxb2 28. Rh8#)
Alejandro played a superb hand to get us our 2nd victory of the night. Follow the game below:
Matthew made it 3-0 shortly after. He comments: “It turns out my 10…f5 wasn’t the best but after he missed taking the Knight, things looked pretty good for me. I can’t quite remember the final few moves, but as you saw, he resigned in the end, which I was relieved about because there was a lot more chess to play to win and I only had a minute or so left on the clock.”
Whilst we fell short in the other 2 matches, it mattered not thanks to Simon forcing a draw, clinching the evening’s victory for the team. Simon Says: “As White, I chose a rather bland line against the Kings Indian which led to a level position. The middlegame remained obstinately within the drawing zone with the subsequent endgame concluding with a 3-fold repetition.”
2/3 on the road. Hounslow A next…