Staines B 0 Ealing B 6
: Created:10 Feb 2009 , by Alastair JohnstoneEaling B continues its promotion push with another solid away win.
| Thames Valley League, Div.3 | Monday 9th Feb 2009 | |||
Board | Colour | STAINES B | Score | EALING B |
1 | B | Paul Seymour | 0-1 | Syrym Shalabayev |
2 | W | Patrick OiMara | 0-1 | Nick Collacott |
3 | B | Richard Dulley | 0-1 | Michael-John Turp |
4 | W | Alfredo Ramos | 0-1 | John Harvey |
5 | B | Stephen Welch | 0-1 | Salim Shalabayev |
6 | W | Julian Dodimead | 0-1 | Alastair Johnstone |
0-6 | ||||
Ealing's winter tour continued with a sortie to the westerly outpost of Staines on a dreich and dismal night. After the snows of last week, it was rains of monsoon-like proportions tonight. Undeterred, the team produced a magnificent performance to continue the push for promotion.
Going into the match, we saw Staines as one of our principal rivals for promotion, but, shorn of some of the higher graded players who had helped them to reap some impressive early season wins, Staines were comprehensively outgunned on the night.
Courtesy of an early win, I was once again able to see a good bit of the action on the other boards. I had already seen that Salim Shalabayev, alongside me, had netted a winning two-pawn advantage out of a Scandinavian Opening, which he duly converted.
Wih typical energy, brother Syrym gained the advantage of a piece for two pawns and the open lines that so suit his play. After accurately rebutting some desperate counterplay from his opponent, the advantage moved from useful to decisive.
Once again, John Harvey delivered the goods with the Black pieces. In an unusual variation of the Sicilian, involving e4, d4, c4 and probably the kitchen sink, John showed admirable strategic acumen: calmly closing the centre, using the central pawn phalanx as a shield, thus saving himself the 'bother' of castling and calmly organising a decisive invasion of the enemy position from the flanks. A pawn dropped and the rest, as they say, was history.
Michael Turp has been a great new acquisition for Ealing Chess Club If not quite a January transfer window signee, his arrival has certainly added some strength-in-depth to the second team squad. When I first saw the position, Michael had what appeared to my unsophisticated eye to be a somewhat tenuous rook encroaching on the seventh rank of his opponent's position. But, all was under control and Michael unveiled an impressively strong continuation to cement his advantage.
On the final board, Nick Collacott's game came down to a tense quickplay finish, with both players' clocks fast running out. Nick showed the greater sang froid however to parry all the threats and complete a very satisfactory night for Ealing B. Remarkably, our third 6-0 triumph from three away fixtures.