Ealing 1.5 Wimbledon 3.5
: Created:15 Jan 2010 , by Alastair JohnstoneIn the latest of the slugfests between Ealing and Wimbledon, the TVL second team ended the night down on points, but not necessarily out for the count.
| Thames Valley League Division 2 | 14th January 2010 | ||||
Bd | Gd | Ealing B | Wimbledon B | Gd | |
1 | 175 | Greenshields, Chris | p | Gregory, Philip J | 177 |
2 | 167 | Turp, Michael-John | 0-1 | Archer, Paul R | 169 |
3 | Grozdanic, Nevenko | p | Tello, Yasser | 167 | |
4 | Stevic, Malinko | 0-1 | Hughes, Anthony | 146 | |
5 | 157 | Harvey, John T | 0.5-0.5 | Barasi, Paul DL | 162 |
6 | 148 | Gibbons, C Dale | 0-1 | Carpenter, Stephen CD | 151 |
7 | 133 | Johnstone, Alastair G | 1-0 | Evbuomwan, Lamidi W | 140 |
1.5.-3.5 | |||||
The ever-decreasing number of clubs playing league chess these days means you find yourself confronting the same opponents ever more frequently. So it was with something more than a little sense of deja vu that we played host to Wimbledon last night.
There is rarely any ground readily conceded in confrontations between our two clubs (the Old Firm of the Thames Valley League?) and so it proved on another closely-contested night.
The evening started well for the hosts when I was able to exploit a slight discoordination in my opponents pieces and deliver what in this season has been a rare win. Sadly, Ealing 's lead was soon overturned when both Michael and Malinko reported their losses.
On the remaining boards, however, grounds for optimism seemed reasonable. The critical game proved to be Dale's battle with the opposition captain. In a QP finish, Dale seemed on the brink of delivering the coup de grace by queening his advanced pawn with a seemingly decisive material plus. But, seeking more, Dale unfortunately deferred the pawn pushg insearch of even more. At this point I was called away from the action by one of several 'diplomatic missions' of the evening to clarify the time controls for our debutant on Board 3. When I returned to the action on Board 7, I was horrified to see that Dale, with only precious seconds left on his clock now stood worse. A short while later, his flag dropped and with John Harvey agreeing a draw on Board 6 it was suddenly 1.5-3.5 to Wimbledon with Ealing needing to win both remaining games to salvage anything from the contest.
When time was called (at 10:20 after the second of the 'diplomatic missions'), Nevenko Grozdanic adjourned with what looked like a solid two-pawn advantage after accurately defending against his opponent's Marshall Attack. The match probably hangs on the outcome of Board 1. In a minor piece ending with level material, in all honesty it looked drawish to your correspondent, but maybe Chris's bishop was stronger than the knight, maybe his pawns slightly more robust. Maybe. We shall see.
Next up? You guessed it - Wimbledon. Groundhog Day or what!