League: TVCL, Season 2021-2022
Played : 3rd March, 2022
This is a return match played at Harrow Chess Club’s venue on a day when we had tube strike. However we managed to get a full team to play against Harrow B. We lost with the score of 2.0 to the opponent’s 4.0. The match could have easily gone the other way (see David Websdale’s comment ). David Websdale was leading our team. David Websdale and Pete Meltzer secured wins in their games.
| Board | Colour | Harrow B | Results | Ealing B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | White | Mary Deans | 1-0 | Martin Loat |
| 2 | Black | Surjit Dhemrait | 1-0 | David English |
| 3 | White | David Stott | 0-1 | Pete Meltzer |
| 4 | Black | Phil Humphry | 0-1 | David Websdale |
| 5 | White | David Wray | 1-0 | Neville Rowden |
| 6 | Black | David Walker | 1-0 | Michael Smith |
Comments and Games:
David Websdale
Last night we visited Harrow to play their B team in the Thames Valley League. The final result was 4-2 in Harrow’s favour, but it could easily have gone the other way, with both David E and Neville losing in the endgame from what had earlier been winning positions.
I did not see most of the games, so details are sketchy.
On board one, Martin’s King was trapped in the corner by Queen and Knight with no way in to bring his forces to the defence.
David E was clearly in the lead, when a mistake in the endgame prompted his resignation.
New member, Pete Meltzer, playing on board three managed his clock very well for someone with no experience of “slow” chess. Generally Queen v two Rooks favours the Rooks, but Pete won with his Queen.
David W emerged with a strong position from the opening. Two Bishops and doubled Rooks attacking the uncastled King forced his opponent’s resignation.
Neville, on board five, was able to push a pawn to the 7th rank, winning the exchange from this position. But in an endgame featuring 2R+B v R+N+B Neville’s opponent managed to attack simultaneously both Rooks. Neville’s position was clearly a losing one but his opponent’s clock was down to 10 seconds, when Neville played an illegal move and his opponent clawed back 2 minutes as a penalty. Mate was then inevitable.
Michael blundered early in the opening. Although the game continued almost to full time, Michael was unable to recover and eventually conceded.
Many thanks to David E for ferrying most of the team to Harrow, through the very busy west London traffic.
Neville Rowden
I somehow made a mess writing out my moves so I can’t submit my pgn file. I can only add that my advanced pawn on the 7th rank had pinned down my opponent’s Rooks and Queen. He couldn’t move any of them without risking my well-protected pawn from being promoted. An exchange of one of his Rooks for my Pawn and a Bishop was his only option to open up the game. Even so, I was still in a dominant position. My big mistake was clock-watching rather than concentrating on my game. (My opponent was under extreme time pressure.)
It was a tense end-game and it was not helped when the hall’s lights were switched off (twice) while I was concentrating on my moves. I kicked myself when I made my illegal move. My only excuse was that I moved hastily as I didn’t want to give my opponent the luxury of time to think about his possible next moves. I was even more angry when it was the spectators who told my opponent that I had made an illegal move (with 9 seconds on his clock). As we know, this is not allowed but I decided not to challenge it. He was possibly a couple of moves away from mate. Would my opponent have mated me in 9 seconds? We will never know.
Michael Smith
I made my opening moves too quickly and carelessly and lost a knight at the start. I struggled on for a couple of hours but had to resign when I lost even more material.