Ealing C visited the venue of Richmond C on the 7th of May. Just before the match we were 1/2 a match point ahead of Richmond D and so in the league standing we were 2nd from the bottom. With the final match with Richmond C, a win, loss or draw we will still be in the same position. Ours was also the last match for our division in the league. We lost the match with the score of 2.5 – 3.5 . The last board’s loss was due to no show since one of the members of the team fell ill.
| Board | Richmond C | Rating | Score | Ealing C | Rating |
| 1 (B) | Jack Thompson | 1864 | 1-0 | Subas Subbaraj | 1513 |
| 2 (W) | Victor Bluette | 1735 | 0-1 | Matthew Georgiou | 1741 |
| 3 (B) | Peter Kasprowicz | 1591 | 0.5-0.5 | Tony Braine | 1656 |
| 4 (W) | George Milligan | 1575 | 1-0 | Oscar Brown | 1489 |
| 5 (B) | Michael Robinson-Chui | 1493 | 0-1 | Trevor Bates | 1519 |
| 6 (W) | Walkover | 1462 | 1-0 | Default Loss | 1437 |
Matthew and Trevor won their games, Tony drew his, and Oscar and Subas lost their respective games. It appeared most of the games went down to the wire.
Subas’s game, playing White: Opening was the modern variation of Sicilian Defence.
Subas playing white made a blunder at move 25, with 2 minutes remaining (as opposed to my opponent’s 5 minutes). Engine analysis showed Subas was mostly in positive territory and in some places in the games with clear lead but failed to capitalise on it. In move 24 Black made a blunder serious enough for Subas to move almost 3 points ahead (2.7)! However Subas overlooked the blunder made by his opponent and made his own far more serious than that of the opponent’s. Subas game went rapidly downhill incurring heavy loss of pieces and he had to concede the game.
Below diagram show Black’s move at 24, when Black moved his pawn from g6 to g5. White correct response for move 25 should have been Bxg5, opening up the g file exposing Black’s king. If Black responds with Bxg5 then White’s rook moves to e5 threatening the queen and winning the bishop.
Below diagram shows move 25 when White responded with pawn moving from b2 to b3. Black responded by capturing b3 pawn with his a4 pawn. With the threat of losing his rook with Rxa1 White moved his queen to b2. This was followed by 25….Rxa1, 26. Qxa1 Qxd3. Soon White’s c4 and c3 pawns will fall.