Ealing C had two matches (TVCL), away and home against the sister team Ealing B. Ealing C lost both matches but most of the games were closely fought even though the rating gaps were large between the opponents.
Match on 9th of October, 2023
Ealing C lost to Ealing B with the score 0.5-5.5
| Board | Ealing B (Home) | Rating | Score | Ealing C (Away) | Score |
| 1 (B) | Xavier Cowan | 1957 | 1-0 | Tony Braine | 1638 |
| 2 (W) | Daniil Donskikh | 1894 | 1-0 | Alastair Johnstone | 1611 |
| 3 (B) | Mark Winterbotham | 1856 | 1-0 | Trevor Bates | 1541 |
| 4 (W) | Jason Obihara | 1754 | 1-0 | Paul Johnson | 1418 |
| 5 (B) | Alex Lushpa | 1661 | 1-0 | David Websdale | 1436 |
| 6 (W) | Daniel Lester | 1554 | 0.5-0.5 | Ravi Gupta | 1309 |
Comments
We played against a strong team. Team Ealing C players were paired against opponents with ratings about 200 points above theirs. Alastair unfortunately lost a piece (knight) somewhere in the middle game. The junior, Ravi did quite well to hold his opponent to a draw. But in general all of the team players appeared to have equal positions for the majority of their games and the outcome in some games could have been different.
David:
I played with the Tarrasch variation against Alex’ French defence. The
Queens were exchanged already at move 8 and the game looked likely to be positional rather than tactical. It was one of my positional moves, Nf3-e1, that led to my downfall. This trapped my Rook at f1 between the castled King and the Knight, then Alex’ tactics kicked in to win this Rook
and my resignation.
Trevor:
Trevor Bates, playing White on board 3, opened with the Torre attack but misplayed the move order and gave his opponent an initiative. A mistake on move 20 lost a pawn and for the next thirty moves he fought hard to save the game. In a complicated Rook and Pawn vs Rook and two Pawns ending he resigned at the point the remaining Rooks were forced to exchange.
Match on 16th of October, 2023
Ealing C lost to Ealing B with the score 1.5-4.5
| Board | Ealing C (Home) | Rating | Score | Ealing B (Away) | Score |
| 1 (B) | Tony Braine | 1638 | 0-1 | Daniil Donskikh | 1894 |
| 2 (W) | Alastair Johnstone | 1611 | 0-1 | Jason Obihara | 1754 |
| 3 (B) | Subas Subbaraj | 1517 | 0.5-0.5 | Teymour Harandi | 1661 |
| 4 (W) | Trevor Bates | 1541 | 0.5-0.5 | Alex Lushpa | 1661 |
| 5 (B) | Paul Johnson | 1418 | 0-1 | Daniel Lester | 1554 |
| 6 (W) | David Websdale | 1436 | 0.5-0.5 | Kamran Harandi | 1512 |
Comments
We were up against stronger opponents but the gap for ratings for each of the boards was smaller (with the exception of board 1) compared to last week’s (9th of October) match.
Tony and Paul in their games appeared to be struggling against passed pawns from their opponents, eventually losing their games. Alastair as White appeared to have an attack going against his opponent’s queen side (king on long castle?) whereas his opponent broke through on Alastair’s king side (king on short castle?). It appeared with the opponent’s queen and rook attacking on the white’s rank where the white king was positioned Alastair resigned.
David:
Last night’s game began as the previous match v Ealing B. I played the
Tarrasch in reply to my opponent’s French Defence. The opening passed uneventfully, but a complicated middle game resulted in multiple exchanges and an endgame with my Bishop and four pawns to my opponents Knight and four pawns. My King was better placed, but I was short of time. Here I made what was, I think, my only blunder. I offered a draw, that was accepted. Subsequent analysis showed that I was six points up !!!.
Trevor:
Trevor Bates, playing White on board 4, transposed the opening into the London System. Both sides made several inaccurate moves in this opening. By move 20 White had a bishop and knight against Black’s two bishops and both players had six pawns. There was one open file and two half open files. Additionally, White had doubled pawns on the g-file and Black had an isolated QP, Although Black had some initiative he was unable to break through and a draw was agreed after a further twenty moves.
Subas:
Subas played Black against White’s Scotch Game (C45), almost the Gulam Kassim Variation. According to the Lichess engine White had a slight advantage for most of the game. But Black managed to defend adequately with an end game equality. A draw was agreed. See final position below: