29th November 2021

For the third match in a row, Ealing A were edged out after a tight contest, with the final outcome unclear until time was called. Once again facing a considerable grading deficit, the closeness of the match was a tribute to the fighting qualities the Ealing team exhibited.

First blood went to Richmond on top board, with time trouble playing a large part in determining the outcome of the game. Having played a couple of 4NCL matches over the preceding weekend with 1hr 40 for 40 moves and 30 second increments, John had some difficulty adjusting to the rapid time controls of the TVL. Facing a c3 Sicilian, the game was level until black made a mistake on move 16 which granted White some pressure in the centre. Further inaccuracies under time pressure led to the loss of an exchange, which was in turn followed by a blunder that lost a piece.

Simon once again showed his solidity in defence emerging with a most creditworthy draw on board two. IN his own words: “Against the Catalan, my opponent played a Queens Indian with 3…b5 rather than the usual b6 thereby preventing the immediate and standard c4. Nevertheless the game developed with White gaining some pressure on the queenside and dominating the a-file with doubled rooks. However, the main battleground lay on the opposite wing where Black launched an attack against my king by advancing pawns supported by major pieces. Fortunately White’s defence held and, shortly after the time control, my opponent accepted the fact there was no way through by agreeing to a draw.”

Mark comments on his own game: “As black I played an insipid opening, got the worst of it without his opponent having to do very much, though was never completely out of the game. It became a bishop and pawns vs knight and pawns ending. White should have won by marching his a-pawn forward but got distracted by my passed h-pawn. It ended with bishop and a pawn vs. knight. It was drawn but it was good of him to offer it and not shuffle his pieces around with me having 30 seconds for all my moves and him having 30 minutes.”

Meanwhile, Hristo put Ealing back into the mix with a fine win on board five, gaining the exchange at an early stage and confidently converting the full point.

The match was effectively decided when I failed to hold for a draw on bottom board. In my own game, I played some rather dubious lines against my opponent’s Accelerated Dragon set-up but exchanged down to a pure king and pawn endgame which should have been a draw. If I had kept one of the rooks on I arguably would even have stood a little better but, after a less than obvious blunder in playing 34.a3 rather than 31.c3, I found myself in zugzwang with no way of preventing Black from queening first. With a rook on the board, the draw would still have been possible.

Jason played the white side of the Bird’s opening and had built up a strong early initiative, with battery of queen and rook on the h file. Jason feels he would have had a very strong position if he had exchanged off his opponent’s knight from its strong station in the middle of the board, but he chose to keep his dark squared bishop for later on. Eventually the exchange did take place but in the resulting endgame, although Jason was a pawn up, the position was drawn.

Ealing A	Gd.	Result	Richmond A	Gd.
John Quinn	2193	0-1	Gavin Wall	2284
Simon Healeas	1863	½-½	Mike Healey	2267
Mark Winterbotham	1885	½-½	Bertie Barlow	2006
Jason Obihara	1765	½-½	Ian McLeod	1908
Hristo Colov	1758	1-0	Raghu Kamath	1885
Alastair Johnstone	1640	0-1	Maks Gajownicek	1750
		2½-3½