We’ve lost our two most recent matches in the Hillingdon Division.

We played a strong Uxbridge Juniors A team in an away match on 12 May and lost 3 – 1. I haven’t got a record of the games, but Andrew Glass played an 1800 opponent on Board 1 and held him to a draw. I also held my opponent to a draw on Board 3; he was a new ungraded player, but proved surprisingly adept in the rook end game, when I was the exchange up (a bishop for two pawns) and we agreed the draw after a repetition of rook moves. Ibrahim Akuk and Giancarlo Ciracci both lost as black against more experienced opponents.

On Monday evening we faced the Harrow D team, who’ve won Division 3. They fielded a strong team again and we lost 3.5 – 0.5;

I played white on Board 1 and managed to secure a draw against an 1820 opponent. The opening was a Ruy Lopez and the game was fairly even through the opening and middle game, until my opponent miscalculated when attacking my castled king and lost a bishop for a pawn. Although a piece up with queens still on the board it was difficult to capitalise on my advantage. We exchanged queens, but then we both promoted passed pawns to queens, and agreed the draw when black had a perpetual check with his queen.

On board 2 Kayden played black. His Rook was forked by his opponent’s Knight early in the game. Kayden fought back and managed to exchange his Knight with his opponent’s Rook. But following a few other exchanges, Kayden had fewer pawns, and therefore had to resign when it was clear that his opponent was going to be able to Queen a pawn.

Subas playing white on Board 3 wrote “The opening was a Russian Game: Three Knights Game, starting with the Petrov Defence.  Subas had a clear advantage in the middle and end game (arrived at with a series of blunders on both sides). Towards the end game Subas had 20 minutes advantage over the opponent. In an effort to chaperone one of the pawns for pawn promotion Subas decided that with large advantage in terms of pawn pieces, position and time he will spend a bit more time in thinking about the moves. This ultimately led to his downfall where suddenly he was level with his opponent with regards to time. With both opponents battling to beat the time it became a drawn position and Subas got flagged with only 1 second between him and his opponent. Perhaps Subas should have taken the offer of a draw earlier. But with clearly a win position earlier in the end game Subas declined it. Chess can be a cruel sport!”

Paul on Board 4 was playing black against an English Opening. He was not really familiar with it but was doing ok until he blundered away a bishop and was always on the back foot after that. His opponent played very solidly and, although he created some counterplay, his king was too exposed and he had to resign after 40 moves.

The results leave us still third in the Division behind Harrow D and Uxbridge Juniors A. Our final match is against Harrow C, whom we beat away earlier in the season and hopefully we’ll draw or win to finish third.

David Housego, Hillingdon C team captain.