Mark Winterbotham reports on a successful trip to our near neighours, Greenford.
Friday night downstairs at the Greenford British Legion is never the most glamorous fixture, and we were still scrabbling around for a team on the day. Thanks to (Greenford resident) Subas for stepping in at the last minute, and for bringing home a half point against a much higher graded (+250 points) opponent. Simon lost vs Anthony Fulton playing a Chigorin defence that didn’t quite come off. He was probably being kind to his team captain for the county match the following day. Jason won vs David White, playing his favoured French defence as black; his opponent looked to be doing okay, but leaving his queen en prise was a mistake. I drifted into a poor position, lost one pawn, then another, almost lost a piece but had a lucky (though unsound, but didn’t look it in the short time we had available) resource to get out of it, and then managed somehow to win an ending of bishop and 4 pawns (me) vs bishop and 6 pawns (2 of them connected passed pawns) when my opponent tried too hard for a win in the last five minutes.
So after 4 games this season, it’s a win, a loss and two draws. The season, like most of our matches, could go in any direction.
| Greenford A | Rating | Result | Ealing A | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anthony Fulton | 2049 | 1-0 | Simon Healeas | 1867 |
| Leon Fincham | 1893 | 0-1 | Mark Winterbotham | 1883 |
| David White | 1864 | 0-1 | Jason Obihara | 1769 |
| JJ Padam | 1736 | ½-½ | Subas Subbaraj | 1487 |
| 1½-2½ |