Surbiton B 3.5 Ealing B 2.5
: Created:26 Nov 2009 , by Alastair JohnstoneThe Great Escape. With the unfinished game looking won for Ealing, our travels to Surbiton look likely top be rewarded with a draw.
| Thames Valley League Division 2 | 25th November 2009 | ||||
Bd | Surbiton B | Result | Maidenhead B | ||
1 | 164 | Durrant, Paul EO | 0-1 | Wells, Tony D | 182 |
2 | 165 | Cassens, Heiko | 0.5-0.5 | Sanchez, Miguel | 164 |
3 | 156 | Harrison, Rob | 0-1 | Collacott, Nick P | 154 |
4 | 153 | Browne, G Robin W | 1-0 | Harvey, John T | 157 |
5 | 148 | Groom, Malcolm DJ | 1-0 | Healeas, Simon | 151 |
6 | 137 | Moss, Stephen | Adj. | Gibbons, C Dale | 148 |
7 | 129 | Morant, David J | 1-0 | Johnstone, Alastair G | 133 |
3.5-2.5 | |||||
With minutes of the match remaining, we looked dead and buried: trailing 3.5-0.5 and under intense pressure on Board 2. But Ealing do not roll over and die and with a spirited fight back, when time was called, it seemed likely that we would escape with a draw and our second half point of the season.
With seven-board teams in this division, the toss potentially gives one side a significant advantage and sadly I once more called wrongly. As it transpired, however, two of our heroes played the Black pieces.
First to finish was Miguel who, perhaps mindful of last week's roasting at the hands of Maidenhead, agreed an early draw.
John Harvey was a victim of logistics, losing 40 minutes on his clock after a heroic 3-bus journey from Wealdstone! The time penalty took its toll as John missed a winning manouevre in the middlegame and became the night's first victim. The score worsened when Simon Healeas also fell, although, I sadly saw little of the game.
Matters became worse when, on bottom board, I suffered another of my all too frequent aberrations. Having just won the advantage of a piece for two pawns, I almost immediately made an elementary oversight which led to a hopelessly lost endgame.
It was great to see Nick Collacott back on board for the first time this season. Another of Ealing's diaspora, Nick is currently working in Denmark but was happily available for this match. His game reached a tense double-edged position with both players desperately short of time. Happily, one of Nick's great assets is coolness under pressure and it was his opponent who flinched first, blundering away his queen when on the verge of wrapping up the point. The fightback was on! And it continued apace when Tony Wells wove a pretty mating trap on top board.
This left Dale Gibbons game to decide the match. Dale had won the exchange for a pawn early in the game and nurtured his advantage through to the endgame. When time was called, both players provisionally voted for adjudication. Post-match analysis suggests that Dale has every reason to be optimistic of the outcome.