In our away match against Hatch End B last Tuesday evening, we were on paper stronger than Hatch End B, as their players on Boards 3 and 4 were ungraded. However they both proved quite strong players and unfortunately we lost the match by 3 – 1.
On board 1 Trevor played as white against Hatch End’s captain Rob Parsons, who is graded higher than Trevor. White played the solid Torre Attack. When the game became blocked Trevor attempted to open the position by offering the exchange of queens but overlooked a backward knight move which deflected the queen, won a pawn, broke open his pawn structure, which in turn led to the loss of a second pawn and he resigned shortly afterwards.
Alex, playing black on board 2, wrote “The game started with 1.Nf3. I won the e4 pawn on the 9th move thanks to the tactics and I had a good advantage. My plan was to exchange as many pieces as possible and to enter an endgame with an extra pawn. However, my opponent managed to double my pawns on the c file and later regained a pawn back. The game was drawn in a symmetrical position with 3 pawns and rooks for both sides without any real possibilities. Computer analysis confirmed that it was a drawn position.”
On board 3 Geoff played as white. His opponent, although officially ungraded, was thought by Hatch End’s captain to have a grade of around 1500. Geoff said “Playing the white pieces I intended to make my usual move 1 d4 but for some inexplicable reason picked up the e pawn and found myself playing against the Philidor defence, a position of which I have absolutely no knowledge at all. Nonetheless I managed to achieve an equal, if not sterile position, going into the middle game. In order to enliven proceedings I sacrificed a piece for two pawns, and managed to conjure up a promising attack, but my opponent always seemed to find the one and only defensive move. We eventually proceeded to a mutual time scramble where unfortunately I placed my rook en pris and felt obliged to resign.”
David, as black on board 4, played against the Giuoco Piano opening. Although ungraded his female opponent seemed an experienced chess player. She soon opened up the f file to press an attack with queen and rooks and the white squared bishop on f7. Black was able to defuse the attack and exchange pieces to come down to a rook and pawn endgame. White had an advanced passed pawn supported by the king on the b file and black created a passed pawn on the g file. Black had to sacrifice his rook to enable him to queen first just before white, and was then able to perpetually check white’s king to force a draw.
The final score of 3 – 1 reflected wins by Hatch End B on boards 1 and 3 and draws on boards 2 and 4. Our next scheduled matches start in the New Year and at the moment we have had one draw and three losses from the matches played to date.
David Housego, Hillingdon C team captain.