Maidenhead A 3.5 - Ealing A 4.5
: Created:07 Apr 2009 , byEaling returned to winning ways with this close victory at Maidenhead in the first division of the Thames Valley league.
An extra chapter should be added to Andreas Adorjan's book, Black is OK after last night's match because seven of the eight games ended in Black victories. In a sense Mike Lamb's draw on board seven with White was the crucial result.
James Pack who was making his first team debut in the Thames Valley league played some sparkling chess and finished in excellent style to set us on our way. John Quinn and I utilised the Sicilian Defence to record victories. In his case the Paulsen did the job and in mine, the Najdorf was the weapon of choice.
With one game to finish, it was level pegging with three and a half points for each side but Adrian Ociepka is a gritty performer and after suffering a spatial disadvantage for the most of the struggle broke out with ..f5 to launch a counterattack. Both players became short of time but Adrian excels in these situations and after creating a distant passed pawn, he sacrificed a piece and with skilful manoeuvring by his king, prevented his opponent's knight from stopping the pawn queening.
We lost three games but the Ealing performers can not be blamed because our captain won the toss and they were given the almost impossible task of defending with the White pieces.