Monday 11th January 2025, MW 6/14

	Maidenhead B			Ealing B
1 (b)	Majid Mashayekh	1880	0.5-0.5	Hristo Colov	1870
2 (w)	William Castaneda	1802	0-1	Xavier Cowan	1887
3 (b)	John Snead	1735	0.5-0.5	Simon Healeas	1839
4 (w)	Nigel Dennis	1729	0-1	Tony Braine	1705
5 (b)	Simon Foster	1712	1-0	Daniel Jennings	1617
6 (w)	Mavrick Yu	1386P	0.5-0.5	Aleksei Garifov	U
			2.5-3.5

Our first match of 2025 was a trek to joint league leaders Maidenhead B, a journey that many of us are familiar with. There wasn’t much hope riding into this fixture, having lost all 3 of our away matches so far by fairly comfortable margins. However, this night would end up going very much against the form book. I was handed a boost when a default for Ealing A’s Middlesex League opponents freed up Hristo to transfer over to this/my team. An additional boost was then the reveal of the opposition teamsheet showing several of their top order out of action, or rather filling in for their A team who were also playing that night next to us. We were still slightly outrated, but we managed to overcome that margin and achieve our first win on the road.

Hristo finished first with a solid draw with the white pieces on board 1. There was very little between both players in the game despite Hristo doing most of the defending. Black had created inroads for his queen but was seemingly not able to find any chinks in the armour, so a draw was agreed.

Next to finish was Ealing debutant Aleksei, who had very kindly stepped up at short notice to complete the team. He played resolutely on the black side of a french-style defence against the Nimzowitsch-Larsen Attack, gaining a positional advantage. Nonetheless, tactical complications thwarted his progress and he could only hold on for a draw (see below). Still an impressive result and crucial to our nights overall success.

A draw was agreed here probably because Mavrick thought the fall of the e-pawn would remove any winning chances, but white’s superior king position actually keeps winning chances alive (although very difficult).

Simon says: “As White, a quiet queen’s pawn opening (1.d4 c5 2.e3) developed along standard lines with both sides getting good squares for their respective pieces. As the game progressed I gained a positional advantage, culminating in the winning of a pawn. Unfortunately, due to clock pressure, I was unable to search for a possible path to victory and the game petered out to a draw.” If you can’t win it, don’t lose it- the old adage that Simon adhered to here.

Daniel encountered some difficulties in his game when his opponent stifled his kingside attack and then slowly hoovered up material to grind out a win.

Tony then brought home another key victory for Ealing, cancelling out Daniel’s loss to level the scores. I reckon Tony should host a course on the black side of the Scandinavian- I’m constantly impressed by how he builds his game from this opening platform on such a consistent basis.

The fate of our team then lay with me with the scores locked at 2.5 each. I had held a minimal positional advantage for most of the game, and then moving into increment territory I managed to completely lock up my opponents bishop in a one-square jail on a1 (see position below).

This was a key development in the game, and the path to victory became clearer- use my kingside pawns to draw the enemy king away from the defence of his hapless bishop, and then grind out a 2v1 minor piece endgame. At some point Kf2 was played and so I raced over to win the immobilised bishop with Bc1-b2-xa1. Thankfully, and contrary to recent form, I converted from there to nick us the win! Nervy but a perfect way to end the evening and make worth a long trip in wintery conditions.

Next up for us are the other joint league leaders Kingston B, who are yet to lose a match this season. Let’s hope the Actonian Fortress can put them off their stride…