John on top board was up against an IM. As white he blundered a pawn away on move 10. He then gave up a second one to take the black queen offside and take advantage of his lead in development. Black defended carefully and accurately returning one of the pawns to extinguished white’s active play. Running short of time white made a couple of further inaccuracies and black broke through in the centre with decisive material gain.
Chris got a win in a tough game. His opponent opened 1 e4 and I replied with 1… g6. He adopted with an aggressive setup (d4, Nc3, Be3, Qd2, 0-0-0), while protecting his king (a3, Kb1, Nge2, Nc1). With his slightly cautious approach, I played non-committal moves to encourage him to attack in a complicated position. It was a risky strategy, leaving my king in the centre, and my opponent missed a good chance amidst complications. I exchanged a pawn 25… dxe5 to open the position to counter-play against his king. My opponent recaptured with his knight which was pinned between queens on c7 and g3. Playing f6 I picked up the knight, while my opponent looked to promote a pawn down the h or g file. My attack on his king, without the knight to defend, enabled me to stop his threats and exchange to an ending with 2 rooks each, but where my extra bishop dominated the board from e4, protected by a cluster of pawns. With my queenside rook able to clear up his queenside pawns, my opponent resigned on move 36.
Mark got a draw as white. He came out a little better from the opening in a closed Sicilian, then drifted into a worse position, and his opponent had some chances for a significant advantage at various points, but with 5 minutes to go and down to each having a rook, two bishops and pawns, and with the position at the end completely level, we agreed a draw. As the last game to finish I could have carried on and hoped for a mistake from my opponent, but having been under the cosh for what seemed like a lot of moves I offered and be accepted.
Jason played his familiar French, but miscalculated and lost against their late Covid-replacement.
| Ealing A | Gd. | Result | West London | Gd. |
| John Quinn (W) | 2193 | 0-1 | Tom Rendle | 2412 |
| Chris Greenshields (B) | 2035 | 1-0 | Andrew Hayler | 1974 |
| Mark Winterbotham (W) | 1894 | ½-½ | Colum Jezierski | 1941 |
| Jason Obihara (B) | 1757 | 0-1 | Stuart Winter | 1411 |