League: TVCL, Season 2021-2022
Played : 11th October, 2021
Ealing B had a mixed result in the match losing to Harrow B with the following score : 2 – 4
Geoff and Jerry did well to draw the match with their opponents.
David English, as an unrated player, did quite well to give us our first winning game in the tournament
| Board | Colour | Ealing B | Results | Harrow B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Black | Subas Subbaraj | 0-1 | John Clenshaw |
| 2 | White | Jerry Scott | 1/2 – 1/2 | Alan Marshall |
| 3 | Black | Michael Stern | 0-1 | David Stott |
| 4 | White | Geoff Richards | 1/2 – 1/2 | Phil Humphry |
| 5 | Black | Leo Shtutin | 0-1 | David Wray |
| 6 | White | David English | 1-0 | David Walker |
Comments from some of the team members after the match :
Jerry Scott
Jerry Scott played White with his preferred standard Queen’s Pawn opening. This followed the expected lines until Black played Bb4 on move 11. White responded with a rather passive 12. Na2…driving the Black Bishop back to its original square on e7. The subsequent computer analysis showed that Black’s 11. …Bb4 move was actually quite weak and that White was, developmentally, actually a whole pawn at this point and could have played a more attacking game, for example playing the other Knight on f3 to e5. However, given this was only the second competition game in over 20 months, and having lost the previous match (admittedly against an opponent who was at one point previously graded at 160!), White suspected he was again up against an opponent who was graded somewhat higher, and so he decided to be very cautious. The rest of the game was a fairly swift series of exchanges with White only marginally ahead in positional terms, but which ended up in what looked to be a fairly drawish position. Rather than playing on to try to grind out an unlikely win, with the ever-present risk of more likely making a blunder and losing, White offered a draw and was happy when Black accepted
Subas Subbaraj
Subas playing Black had a longer, interesting and challenging game compared to the previous week’s game. Black played the Sicilian Defence in the opening . It is the closed variation (fell into accidentally rather than by design). Both players were making some inaccurate moves until we reached almost a closed position where both players did not seem to have clear breakthrough. Subas played too defensively and White had the slight edge. Subas felt he could try to break through the closed position by playing d5 in move 24. This was his undoing and White seized the opportunity to push home his attack. White certainly did have the advantage from that point onwards . Black could not sustain an effective defence, forcing him to spend more time thinking than his opponent and finally lost on time.
These are some of the games played in this match (analysed by chess engines and annotated)
Subas’s game : Black lost on time; Sicilian Defense: Closed (ECO B24)
Click on a move to see a pop up interactive chess board
Michael’s game: Black resigned; Sicilian Defense: Löwenthal Variation (ECO B32)
Click on a move to see a pop up interactive chess board
David’s game: White won; Sicilian Defence (ECO B50)
Click on a move to see a pop up interactive chess board
Jerry’s Game: White drawn; Queen’s Gambit Declined (ECO D50)
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