This was Ealing C away match against Richmond C, in fact a return match against it. We lost to our opponent this time with a score of 2.5 to 3.5.
Well done to Alastair and Gabriele for their wins and Martin Loat for his draw. I was able to watch the end game Martin Loat played. With multiple pawn pieces to Black’s lone king there was a thrilling race by Martin to beat the clock to achieve a mating attack with eventual pawn promotion to queen. Unfortunately his flag fell before that; however with a lone king there was no possibility of a win by Black and so the game was declared a draw!
| Board | Colour | Richmond C | Results | Ealing C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Black | Victor Bluett | 0.5-0.5 | Martin Loat |
| 2 | White | Andreas Maroulis | 0-1 | Alastair Johnstone |
| 3 | Black | Josh Wolrich | 1-0 | Trevor Bates |
| 4 | White | Peter Kasprowicz | 1-0 | Subas Subbaraj |
| 5 | Black | Mike Robinson-Chui | 1-0 | David Websdale |
| 6 | White | Ron Bilkhu | 0-1 | Gabriele Palmer |
Alastair’s comments
I played a relatively error free game for a change, establishing an early positional advantage then, after 17.Ne1 almost total control. A pleasant game to play – as Black!
David’s comments
My e4 opening as White was met by a Najdorf Sicilian. I played an unfashionable line with Bg5 and f4 but gained a small advantage. Entering the middle game I initiated a chain of exchanges that I expected to favour my position. What happened was that my opponent did not follow the move order that I had anticipated and left a knight “en prise”. But I was playing the exchange sequence too quickly and missed it! Furthermore the post-exchange position definitely favoured Black. My game went steadily downhill from this point, losing the exchange and pawns, my game was soon hopeless and I resigned.
Subas’s comments
I played black with the opening, Queen’s Gambit Decline: Exchange Variation. We played with errors in equal measures but the final position was a dead draw. However I was down by about 5 minutes difference from my opponent’s time and even though it was Fischer 10 second increment I could not make moves fast enough and so lost on time. Looking at the final position all I needed to do was just move the king on g and f square repeatedly to build the time I needed to keep going and playing for a draw.