After a hiatus of almost a month of match play and after two postponed match dates we finally had one on the 25th of May. This was the final match for Ealing C for the current season, 2022-2023. Staines A fielded a strong team and all our opponents were higher rated. However Jason Obihara and Andrew Glass did well to secure their wins, and Neville did well to secure his draw. We lost as a team with the score of 2.5 – 3.5.

Board	Colour	Staines A	Results	Ealing C
1	Black	Jack Sheard	0-1	Jason Obihara
2	White	Derek McGovern	1-0	Alastair Johnstone
3	Black	Ye Kyaw	1-0	Subas Subbaraj
4	White	Colin Aniecko	0 – 1	Andrew Glass
5	Black	Stephen Payne	0.5-0.5	Neville Rowden
6	White	David Bean	1-0	Jason Neish

Jason Obihara played the Bird opening.
I initiated a forced 3 move exchange, which resulted in me gaining rook for bishop. Was able to convert to win when my opponent thought he could queen a pawn on the 6th rank. Had it covered, opponent lost another piece here, and the game was over.

Alastair’s comments:
I played the Grunfeld for the first time in ages and had the better of the early exchanges, winning a pawn through a small combination. Unfortunately, I think the shock of going behind motivated my opponent to find his best game and over the next few moves, he played some positionally astute moves while I played less than optimally. Nonetheless, I still had a relatively straightforward route to equality but persuaded myself that I could win a rook and pawn in exchange for a bishop. Sadly, my calculation was flawed and, as a result of this blunder, the game became irretrievable.

Neville played White on Board 5 and opened with a Queen’s Pawn Opening. White held its slight dominance in the opening phase and was then able to pin Black back offering him very little movement. In fact, White remained totally dominant in the middle game until the inevitable blunder which resulted in White losing a critical Pawn. Despite the loss, White decided to go for broke and put pressure on Black’s King even though Black had two passed pawns on the a- and b-files. Eventually, White decided that Black’s Pawns were too dangerous and had to retreat to counter the threat. White’s blunder at Move 41 was dumb as it would have resulted in Black losing his Queen. (Lichess actually suggested that the Pawn could have eventually been promoted to a Knight).
I don’t think it makes any difference but it would have been cool to promote a Pawn to a Knight as I have never done this before.) The game ended in a draw by repetition which again was a mistake on White’s part. Black had 3 minutes on his clock and White had 58 minutes. If White had more sense, he could have avoided the repetition and possibly forced a win. Although maybe not as Black could also dragged the game out to a boring nothingness as we were playing Fischer increment.

Neville’s game with the opening “Queen’s Pawn Game: London System” (click on a move to display interactive chess board):

Subas as White played in the opening “Sicilian Defense: Modern Variations” and lost the game on time . The first break for White came in move 25 when Black accepted a knight exchange which allowed White to end up with a passed pawn on d5:

After a some blunders on both sides White came out worse in move 29 when White played Bishop to b1 in an attempt to kick out Black’s rook from c2 (there is a winning variation for White with its bishop moved to e3 and a subsequent rook sacrifice for a pawn on h6):

Black missed a trick after the White bishop’s threat when its rook can take the pawn on f2. If White Queen retakes rook, Black’s bishop can deliver a check and the Black’s queen can take the White’s queen. However Black played its bishop to e2 and White played its Queen to e4. This resulted in a even game. White tried to get its passed pawn promoted but Black has adequate defense to prevent it,