Tuesday 18th February 2025, MW 9/14
| Richmond & Twickenham C | Ealing B | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (b) | Victor Bluett | 1697 | 0-1 | Xavier Cowan | 1870 |
| 2 (w) | Peter Kasprowicz | 1606 | 1-0 | Simon Healeas | 1826 |
| 3 (b) | Michael Robinson-Chui | 1517 | 1-0 | Anthony Braine | 1697 |
| 4 (w) | Andreas Maroulis | 1462 | 0-1 | Daniel Jennings | 1607 |
| 5 (b) | Michael Larby | 1411 | 0-1 | Guiseppe Joe Ramundo | 1497 |
| 6 (w) | Harry Mithun | 1373 | 1-0 | Aleksei Garifov | 1312P |
| 3-3 |
The aim of our second relegation six-pointer of the season would be to follow up our win over the same opponents last week and achieve a double. We didn’t quite make that, instead salvaging a draw from what was an off night for us.
Simon: “As Black, I played the opening badly, losing a pawn. Although rallying somewhat in the middlegame, I allowed a one-move double attack by the white queen. Facing either a back rank mate or the loss of a rook, I promptly resigned. Definitely a game to forget.”
We then went 2-0 down with a slip-up from Aleksei who experienced what we all do at some stage in our chess careers- play a perfectly good game and cruise toward a victory, only to sink it all with a blunder!
Daniel Jennings then got us on the scoreboard with a nicely executed attack. He is in the process of changing his opening repertoire as black against 1.e4, switching from the Scandinavian to the Caro-Kann, and so was happy to get a chance to play it here. His opponent gift-wrapped him piece with a strange blunder, but there was still work to do as white mustered a last stand attack on black’s king. Daniel successful neutralised it with a series of forced trades and then some more material after to seal the deal.
Tony then, similarly to Simon, had a rare off day and lost too much material to continue. With the score now at 3-1, it was now a rescue mission to prevent a rival gaining ground on us.
Joe pulled a crucial point back our way with a win in impressive fashion. He exploited his opponents light-square weakness around the king (combination of playing both f6 and h6, not recommended for anybody playing for a kingside castle) and never lost control after.
It all hinged on my game where I had been trying to stretch my spatial advantage and C-file control on the white side of an Open Grünfeld. My opponent was however holding things together and deserved credit for this after playing his way through the opening with a migraine. Sadly for him, his good efforts were ended when he missed an innocuous mate in one threat- fairly drawish piece trading lines were otherwise available.
The rescue mission was therefore complete and our season remains stable and on course for success.