Kingston A 3.5 - Ealing A 3.5
: Created:29 Sep 2009 , byWith board eight adjourned, the teams are currently all square following Ealing's visit to Kingston last night in our opening match of the Thames Valley league season.
I don't very often praise the websites of opposition clubs when they report on matches because frankly if such reports exist at all, they are too frequently very perfunctory but I must give full credit to Kingston Chess Club for their excellent effort on their new site.
There will be disappointment in the Ealing ranks that our grading advantage was not turned into full points but as Tarrasch nicely put it, "It is not enough to be a good player, you have to play good moves". After a relatively early draw on board five, Rick McMichael at the top of our order, showed his class as he built up a strong centre. Behind on the clock and under pressure from Rick's advancing pawns, his opponent blundered and Ealing went one up.
That new favourite with the grandmasters, the Slav Defence appeared on board three and despite Alan Perkins' earnest endeavours he could not break through so a draw resulted and it was the same outcome on two when John Quinn with the Black pieces agreed a draw with much respected and long-term adversary of Ealing, D Rowson.
Adrian Ociepka is very enterprising but when he refused an offer of a draw in the opening, his attempt at complications condemned him to a difficult defence but Adrian is resilient and he fought back to share the point. Simon Randall's middle game was messy and Simon is honest enough to admit that his foe missed an excellent move that would have put him in trouble. Although a pawn down, the worst seemed to have passed for Simon when he conceived the idea of a king march up the f file. Tragedy! His opponent pounced with an unexpected rook move and Simon had to resign. The gruesome details can be found on the Kingston site.
All square with the bottom two boards to finish. Martin Smith and his opponent castled on opposite sides and as usual in such positions it was a battle as to whose mating attack would arrive first. Inevitably there were clock problems and even when the players agreed a draw it could be argued that there was play left.
Board eight is adjourned and doubtless both sides will be working hard on the position. With the increasing sophistication of chess computers, I'm on the verge of changing my mind on the quick/slow play debate. Maybe a cruel finish on the night is better than an artificial conclusion weeks later?