Monday 18th November 2024, MW 2/14
| Kingston B | Ealing B | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (b) | Peter Andrews | 2039 | 1-0 | Xavier Cowan | 1904 |
| 2 (w) | Alan Scrimgour | 1975 | 1-0 | Mark Winterbotham | 1883 |
| 3 (b) | John Bussman | 1846 | 1-0 | Jason Obihara | 1737 |
| 4 (w) | Jon Eckert | 1776 | 0.5-0.5 | Anthony Braine | 1677 |
| 5 (b) | Alicia Mason | 1758P | 1-0 | Martin Loat | 1610 |
| 6 (w) | Jameel Jameel | 1672P | 0-1 | Daniel Jennings | 1553P |
| 4-2 |
The rather charming Willoughby Arms pub was our venue for a tough assignment- our opponents were 2 from 2 with a very strong talent pool. Nonetheless, we battled on all boards and can take some confidence from this going forward into another 2 tough away matches.
First to finish was Mark. He states: “My opponent played an interesting few moves in the opening (an early Rg1 and g4) and I didn’t find an energetic enough response. My queenside play was too slow, and moving pieces that side also left the kingside short of defensive cover- this was duly swiftly punished.” Always a little harsh on himself I feel- it was certainly in the balance until he misjudged a bishop sac on g6 that shattered the kingside.
Daniel brought home our sole victory of the evening with great style, as he wriggled out of an iron grip to transform into an agent of chaos.
Martin had a tough evening- seemingly his development had been hampered as an opposition pawn had trespassed onto f3. The invasion left him a very passive position, and so the knight endgame that followed was a tough one to play in- he unfortunately soon went under.
Tony: “My opponent played a very aggressive line against the Scandinavian, pushing f3, g4 and h4 early. I weathered the storm fairly comfortably and emerged a pawn up into a rook and 6/5 pawns endgame. I played this poorly, missing two winning opportunities and a draw was agreed”. Tony continued in his great vein of form, now being unbeaten in 6. The rook endgame looked tricky to win with the extra pawn being an isolated one.
My evening had been straightforward so far- I had just a 20 minute walk to the venue from my university campus. Now for the chess. It was one for the audience as, during my typical time-scramble, I thrashed out reckless moves in an attempt to fluster my opponent who had dominated for most of the evening. It may have put him on edge, but that’s all I managed in the end. My experienced opponent kept a cool head and played failsafe moves to put out the fires and win convincingly. So very far from straightforward.
Jason was last to finish, and all seemed to be under control as both he and his opponent had neutralised each other’s respective f/h-file battery attacks. There didn’t seem to be any immediate danger, but an unfortunate clock malfunction proved a distraction, halting any endgame momentum he might’ve been trying to build up. Upon resumption, Jason sadly blundered to a fork and lost. Results have not been going his way lately, but his performances have been very good so it’s only a matter of time before the results return.