On 24 June King Head 1 played at the Actonians for the second time in a week. Once again they fielded a strong side with all players rated 2000+. For their part, Ealing was hoping to avenge their earlier defeat. In my absence Andrew kindly agreed to step in as captain.
Seven days earlier Martin had drawn with David Okike but on this occasion it was not be and our board one lost. Jason also lost and admitted, quite frankly, that he had been outplayed.
Nor was it John’s night. He writes: “My game started 1d4 Nf6 2 c4 b6. I tried to make up something to take him out of his book but unfortunately chose a line which was an old well-known one. We transposed into Keres – Taimanov from the 22nd USSR Championship in 1955 which Keres won in 29 moves with a nice attack. We followed this up to move 18 when I varied. My opponent only really started to think after my 12th move and I was always a long way down on the clock. I made a couple of poor moves giving him the advantage in a queen and rook middlegame with my king exposed. With less than 5 mins vs his 25 mins I failed to find any of the 3 chances I had to escape into a potentially drawable rook ending and resigned when mate was inevitable.”
Commenting on his game, Andrew notes: “My opponent played 2.Qe2 against the French and I too easily let him build up a classic Kings Indian Attack. I got a little counterplay on the long diagonal with a queen on a8 and bishop on c6, but he strongly sacrificed the exchange with Rxc6. I managed to hold on and the game ended in a repetition with 3 minutes each on the clock, but according to Fritz, he still had a decisive advantage at the end.”
Reviewing his performance, Alan states: “As in the previous week’s match I was paired against Rick McMichael, but this time I was White. He played his usual Stonewall Dutch and I didn’t get an opening advantage. I played somewhat cautiously and after many exchanges we reached a queen ending on move 27. He infiltrated my position with his queen, harassing my exposed king and potentially picking off pawns. However, I did something similar with my own queen and I acquired a strong passed pawn. He had nothing better than to take a perpetual check.”
Tony’s good form for the team continued. He comments: “I was Black against the Ruy Lopez and played 3… Nge7. It’s not the best move, but seemed to catch my opponent off guard. A few moves later I had a small advantage that persisted until the late middlegame. In what seemed to be a trivial choice, my opponent recaptured his g-pawn with his king rather than another pawn. But this allowed me to sac a knight for two pawns, forcing the win of his bishop, and then the game.” This result gives Tony a highly impressive rating performance of 2331 across his five games for the team this season.
Although we suffered a 4-2 home defeat, in terms of final league position the result was irrelevant. Regardless of the match score, relegation is inevitable. Hopefully it will be a short stay in the second division before we bounce back to the top flight.
| Ealing | Rating | Result | Kings Head 1 | Rating | |
| Martin Smith | 2138 | 0-1 | CM David Okike | 2251 | |
| Alan Perkins | 2160 | 0.5-0.5 | FM Rick McMichael | 2204 | |
| FM Andrew Harley | 2148 | 0.5-0.5 | Andrew Gilfillan | 2131 | |
| John Quinn | 2132 | 0-1 | Nigel Fleming | 2067 | |
| Tony Wells | 2047 | 1-0 | Conor O’Shaughnessy | 2064 | |
| Jason Obihara | 1749 | 0-1 | Colin Mackenzie | 2024 | |
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