In our away match against Uxbridge Juniors B on Friday evening we had a good win by 3 – 1.

On board 1 Subas played black in the Giuoco Pianissimo opening, his first game ever without any inaccuracy, mistake or blunder (according to Stockfish engine evaluation). Even though his opponent just committed two inaccuracies giving Black a slender lead, it wasn’t sufficient to lead to a win. With two rooks each and equal pawns on both sides the game was a dead draw.

David W playing white on board 2 wrote “My Italian opening was met by the Hungarian Defence (1.e4,e5;2.Nf3,Nf6;3.Bc4,Be7…) which is considered very passive and playing for a draw. But I did not play positively and soon, following a BxN exchange by Black on f3, I had doubled f pawns and an exposed King. From this point I thought I was losing and played defensively. The game finished with a three-fold repetition of the position. I have to consider that I was lucky as I would surely have lost on time against my young opponent who was playing at Blitz speed. The surprise for me was the post match analysis where Stockfish had me two pawns up throughout most of the game.”

On board 3 Gabriele played black against a Reti opening (Nf3) followed by fianchettoing the kingside bishop by white. Black countered with his strong central pawns and castled kingside but white kept his king in the centre, where it soon came under attack. Black established both rooks on the ‘c’ file and with his queen in the centre was able to launch a mating attack. White resigned with material down and mate soon to follow.

David H played white on board 4 against a Sicilian defence. After both players castled kingside, black weakened white’s pawns on the queenside and created a passed pawn on the ‘a’ file, which he started to push. Black moved his queen onto the ‘a’ file to support the passed pawn, but then fatally moved his rook off the back rank, allowing white to check the black king with his rook and then deliver mate with his queen.

David Housego, Hillingdon C team captain.