Monday 27th January 2025, MW 7/14
| EALING B | Kingston B | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (b) | Xavier Cowan | 1887 | 0-1 | Peter Andrews | 2051 |
| 2 (w) | Hristo Colov | 1870 | 0-1 | John Bussman | 1857 |
| 3 (b) | Jack Sheard | 1849 | 1-0 | Jon Eckert | 1763 |
| 4 (w) | Matthew Georgiou | 1820 | 1-0 | Alicia Mason | 1750 |
| 5 (b) | Sagnik Chatterjee | 1815 | 0-1 | Zubair Froogh | 1898P |
| 6 (w) | Aleksei Garifov | U | 0-1 | Homayoon Froogh | U |
| 2-4 |
We welcomed league leaders Kingston B to our humble abode hoping to end their run of four straight wins. Alas we fell short but our season is still on course for success.
Aleksei was first to finish after a tough start to the match brought on consequences too damaging to turn around.
Hristo Colov also lost after doing some hard yards in the endgame to grind back some positional equality after going a pawn down earlier. It was a shame to see his hard work go unrewarded as a stray move lost a rook and the game immediately.
Jack continued his fine form with a win with black over Jon Eckert, who Tony Braine had drawn with earlier in the season. He gives his favourite position from the game showcasing the power of his bishops. Here are his thoughts- “My game ended up in an unusual pawn structure, where Black had doubled f-pawns and White doubled c-pawns. White’s doubled c-pawns proved a long-term weakness, and while White was tied down, Black infiltrated on the e-file, and ended up with RBB +P v RR. The two bishops dominated – although White had doubled rooks on the open file, they were almost in zugzwang. I quite like the diagrammed position – White resigned 2 moves later. ”
Sagnik, who perhaps had the most intriguing game of the evening, had the wind in his sails after emerging from a tactical melee with an advantage, but unfortunately he “lost patience” and tried to speed up the win which came at his detriment. A close affair and one he just lost out in the end.
Peter Andrews then completed a convincing double over me to give Kingston the match. I hid in my Pirc/Kings Indian setup against his English but he tempted me to break open the position and caught me out with the follow ups. Andrews had clearly looked deeper into the central pawn breaks than I had, and so he moulded it into a line favouring him- more active pieces and a much more spacious position. In an effort to throw him off balance with counterplay, I was exploited and ruthlessly punished.
Matthew, last to finish, made the scoreline respectable with a solid endgame win impervious to the time pressure. Keeping his cool, he navigated well from his strong middlegame position to a winning knight vs bishop endgame to take some of the gloss off Kingston’s evening.
February gives us a double header against relegation rivals Richmond & Twickenham C. Positive results there will go a long way in determining our position come the end of the season.