Muswell Hill 3 - Ealing 5
: Created:09 Jan 2009 , byAn excellent team performance by Ealing saw us triumph at Muswell Hill on a dank, cold North-East London night.
We always knew that our visit to Muswell Hill would be a testing fixture and indeed the two teams stand one and two in division one of the Middlesex league, well above traditional contenders for the title, King's Head, Hackney and Athenaeum. Early days of course and these three currently sleeping giants have plenty of matches to exert a mighty influence on the destination of the championship.
Veljko Stanisic gave us a terrific start with a tremendous win with the Black pieces. It is about time somebody recognised his contributions to opening theory by giving his name to some of his unusual defences. The Stanisic Defence has a fine ring to it and the owner has a good record with its concepts.
John Quinn added a draw but the game was anything but dull with king's castled on opposite sides and Sainbayar Tserendorj also drew although he gave his captain heart palpitations after refusing his opponent's reasonable draw offer. Mongolian chess is different from its western counterparts.
Alan Perkins shouldered the responsibilty of board one in fine style. Against Alan's King's Indian Defence, his opponent accepted a pawn sacrifice that others have declined and Alan built up a fine position with an excellent knight on d4. The eventual victory was inspirational for the team.
Adrian Ociepka scored a valuable draw but we lost a tough struggle on board three, so with the bottom two boards to finish, the position was Ealing 3.5 - Muswell Hill 2.5. All to play for!
My board was topsy-turvey affair although a twentieth move blunder by me meant it was more "turvey" than "topsy". A better king position eventually decided an endgame in my favour.
Board eight had a quite extraordinary end to it. Mike Lamb and his opponent bashed out umpteen moves in a quickplay finish but it looked all over for Mike when they came down to a position where his foe had queen, rook against Mike's almost lone king. With Mike's digital clock showing one second left, his opponent with two minutes time allowed a stalemate. A miracle draw for us.
So Ealing proceed to six points out of seven matches and confirm our championship lead. OK, possibly we are the Hull City of the Middlesex league but we are enjoying our day in the sun and just maybe, we might be there at the end of the season competing for the title. Let's give a go!