Ealing B moved to the top of he Div.2 table with this comprehensive win against Harrow B.

Fair play to Harrow however, facing a huge rating difference although they capitulated early on the bottom three boards they put up some brave resistance on the top two.

Alex made short work of the opposition captain on board five. Likewise, Aga proved too strong on three trapping the enemy queen to prompt resignation. and Jason was on the front foot from the start with W,R, N+B attacking his opponent’s king. After a combination netting a rook Black lowered colours.

The other two games were less straightforward. According to Simon: “As White, I got the slightest of opening edges but a well-timed exchange sacrifice gave Black practical chances in an unbalanced position. We quickly went into a levelish endgame but a momentary lapse of concentration by my opponent allowed me to win a piece and secure, rather luckily, the full point.”

Xavier once again took his game to the very end of the time control. As he reports: “I had the black pieces against the birds opening. This was my 3rd time playing him this season, one loss and one win prior. John’s a very solid player, and even though I obtained a favourable central pawn structure I struggled in the middle game to make use of this. We traded off all the heavy pieces and so it was down to my bishop pair vs. his bishop and knight to create winning chances. Under time pressure (as always) I finally managed to get my king in behind his pawns after forcing a trade off of all the minor pieces. From here I was able to calculate the correct moves to force his king away from defending his pawns and subsequently earn his resignation.”

All in all, an excellent win that takes us to the top of the Div.2 table but the remaining matches are likely to present sterner challenges, so much work remains to be done.