I delayed writing this report to wait for the overall League results to come in. We finish in the middle of the table with 4 wins, 2 draws and 6 losses. Hatch End A top the list and will be promoted to division one, while Ealing C face relegation to division three.

Martin, black on board one played a Pirc defence and secured open lines on the King side, from where he attacked his opponent’s King, trapped in the corner. Doubled Rooks, Queen, Bishop and Knight provided several possibilities to secure a winning advantage. Martin chose the best and his opponent resigned.

Alex, white on board two played the Smith-Morra gambit to black’s Sicilian. His opponent accepted the gambit and found herself hopelessly backward in development. At one stage Alex had Queen, Bishop and Knight in the centre of the board while Black had no pieces beyond their second rank. The pressure was too much for Black who soon resigned.

It was not easy for me to judge who had the advantage in Alastair’s game. He initiated an exchange that left him at a small material disadvantage, but with better mobility for his pieces. A draw was agreed. [Addendum from Alastair: I would have secured an easy advantage if I had only played the thematic d5 advance on move 15. Instead, I needlessly sacrificed the exchange when, if I had looked a little deeper into the position, I could have easily retained material parity with a better position. At the end I was extremely lucky he agreed to my offer of a draw as I think my knight would have dropped a few moves later!]

David, on bottom board, played a Giuoco Piano. A Bishop sacrifice on f7 at move 8 led to a mate by Queen and Knight on move 15.

Thanks to everyone that has played for Ealing B. Thank you for responding in good time to invitations to play and no games were defaulted.

Alastair(10), Simon(7), David(7) and Harry(6) played in at least half our matches, Simon and Harry with an 80% success rate.

Harrow B	Rating	Result	Ealing B	Rating
John Clenshaw	1691	0-1	Martin Loat	1630
Mary Deans	1667	0-1	Alex Lushpa	1619
David Stott	1461	½-½	Alastair Johnstone	1610
Phil Humphry	1412	0-1	David Websdale	1451
		½-3½