Hillingdon KO Result
: Created:13 Feb 2018 , by Alastair JohnstoneDavid Websdale writes:
After our last League match debacle where we went down 3-0 to Hatch End B, giving them their first win of the season, Ealing B raised their game last night at Greenford to score 2.5-2.5 against their A team. Everyone in our team was playing an opponent with a much higher grade - they averaged over 160, so a very fine performance.
|
Bd. |
GREENFORD A |
Gd. |
Result |
EALING B |
Gd |
|
1 |
Fulton, Anthony R |
189 |
+ |
Healeas, Simon |
154 |
|
2 |
Crichton, Martin |
174 |
+ |
Khalil, Amr |
144 |
|
3 |
Fincham, Leon HJ |
167 |
= |
Grewal, Harvey |
136 |
|
4 |
Price, Michael C |
144 |
- |
Obihara, Jason |
129 |
|
5 |
Hawran, Peter E |
133 |
- |
Pringle, Leslie |
124 |
Leslie, black on board five, played a Pirc defence, met by the Austrian attack. He won a pawn in a big exchange sequence, at the same time wrecking white's pawn formation. Further exchanges resulted in another pawn won and with R+3P v R+5P and Leslie's a+b pawns poised for an advance to promotion, his opponent resigned.
Simon, on top board, played a Benoni. Early in the game his backward d pawn was pressurised, nevertheless Simon succeeded in securing an advanced passed pawn. But his opponent went one better with two linked passed pawns. Simon was forced to lose a piece for a pawn and his position with Knight+pawn down looked grim. Simon held on hoping for an oversight, but players graded 190 rarely do oversights and the game was lost.
Harvey on board three, chose a King-side Bishop fianchetto to defend against a Reti opening. Play advanced uneventfully with the middlegame simplifying to B+N+7P v 2B+7P. Unfortunately the distribution of pawns did not favour Harvey's two bishops and he chose to trade down to N+4P v B+4P but could not find a path to win - neither could his opponent and a draw was agreed.
Amr's e4 opening was met by a Caro Kann and he advanced the pawn to e5. Playing much more quickly than usual Amr was soon two pawns down, with no apparent (to me) advantage. Although he regained one pawn, Black's g+h pawns with Knight in support advanced on Amr's vulnerable King. The position was indefensible and Amr conceded.
Jason played his current favourite Bird opening. An early advance of the a pawn, worrying the black Queen, won a couple of tempi that allowed Jason to position his pieces for attack before his opponent could do so. A Rook on the g file, Knight on e5 and Queen-side Bishop fianchettoed sighted black's castle King. Black defended very well at this point a succeeded in generating counter pressure with pawns advanced to e4, d4. Following exchanges Jason emerged a pawn to the good, and after forcing Rooks off the board his Knight picked up the black pawns with the ease of a vacuum cleaner and the game was won.
One characteristic of this match was the speed that moves were played. Several of our squad have had more problems with clock than with their opponent this season - the mandatory quick-play finish in this knockout match accelerated the move rate.
Finally, to finish with the bad news, although the score was even, we lose the match on tie-break rules. A win on board one trumps a win on board five. So we follow the fate of Ealing A and move into the losers' section of the knockout competition.