On Monday, 17 June we welcomed Kings Head 1 to Ealing Chess Club. Officially this was an away match for us but because of an availability issue surrounding our opponent’s venue, we played the match at Actonians. Kings Head fielded a strong side, out-rating us on each board. It is a testament to their strength that they travelled with two substitutes, both rated over 2000.
We got off to an awful start. In a worse position, I lost a piece after 14 moves and immediately resigned. Fortunately on the neighbouring board Mark was playing well. He writes: “I played White, faced a Sicilian, played QxP on move 4 (after d6 on move 2 by Black), and then White exchanged his king’s bishop for Black’s queen’s knight. Black played a relatively early e5 to kick the queen away which fixed the nature of the position. Neither side was able to get any significant advantage at any point. After quite a few exchanges I offered a draw in a position where White had a knight and rooks against Black’s bishop and rooks; the computer had it slightly better for White.”
Reflecting on his game, Alan comments: “I was Black against Rick McMichael who has been playing for Ealing in the Thames Valley League. The game started 1.b3 d5 2.Bb2 Bg4, the same as our game in 2009. Probably I didn’t quite equalise and after his 17.g4! I came under pressure. He could target my kingside with a rook on the open g-file in combination with his b2 bishop. Also I had a vulnerable pawn on f5. However, he didn’t find the best moves and in a turnaround it was me using the g-file to attack. Contemplating my 27th move I felt I might be winning and my engine confirms this. Unfortunately I blundered, failing to have a good reply to his Qc3, creating a Q + B battery on the long diagonal. Immediately upon moving I realised what I should have played and my engine agrees. After my blunder I lost quickly. The engine points out that I could still have kept equality, but it was difficult to find this in my demoralised state.”
On board four, Jonathan notes: “My Petroff gave me a level position for 27 moves of a 30-move game. We reached a queen, bishop and pawn ending where it would have been enough for me to move to-and-fro with the bishop. Instead I moved my queen off a critical diagonal and my position collapsed on the spot. The kind of careless error I shall eradicate in 2024-5.”
Reviewing his game, Andrew says: “I was White in a c3 Sicilian. Got a good IQP position but played an inaccurate h2-h4 pawn sacrifice and didn’t get the tempo gains or h-file play I hoped for. A pawn down in a B v N ending I should have lost but managed to activate my king, swap the minor pieces, and reach a drawn king and pawn ending.”
On board one, Martin was also White in a c3 Sicilian. He states: “I initially built a central advantage with Black’s pieces being very passive. As I tried to open lines, I made a tactical mistake allowing Black to exchange my strong light-squared bishop and contest the centre. From there on I was slightly worse, but was able to simplify down to a drawn rook ending.”
Finally, we lost against stronger side but do have the opportunity to avenge this defeat on 24 June in our final match of the season.
| Kings Head 1 | Rating | Result | Ealing | Rating |
| CM David Okike | 2251 | 0.5-0.5 | Martin Smith | 2138 |
| FM Rick McMichael | 2204 | 1-0 | Alan Perkins | 2160 |
| CM Feliks Kwiatkowski | 2203 | 0.5-0.5 | FM Andrew Harley | 2149 |
| Nigel Fleming | 2067 | 1-0 | Jonathan White | 1987 |
| Conor O’Shaughnessy | 2064 | 0.5-0.5 | Mark Winterbotham | 1877 |
| Steven Coles | 2051 | 1-0 | Simon Healeas | 1843 |
| 4.5 -1.5 |