Ealing II 5.5 King's Head III 2.5
: Created:24 Feb 2010 , by Alastair JohnstoneEaling II picked up a vital win from last Thursday's home match against King's Head's third string.
| Middlesex League Division 2 | 18th February 2010 | ||||
Bd. | Gd. | Ealing 2 | King's Head 3 | Gd. | |
1 | 182 | Wells, Tony D | 1-0 | Crouch, Timothy J | 126 |
2 | 175 | Greenshields, Chris | 1-0 | Jackson, Brian R | 136 |
3 | U/G | Grozdanic, Nevenko | 0-1 | Morton, Alistair T | 133 |
4 | U/G | Stevic, Malinko | 0-1 | Fraser, Alasdair A | 131 |
5 | 151 | Healeas, Simon | 1-0 | Mora, J | U/G |
6 | 147 | Winterbotham, Mark | 0.5-0.5 | Huba, Mark | 112 |
7 | 148 | Gibbons, C Dale | 1-0 | Grieve, M | 120 |
8 | 136 | Jhooti, Rajinder | 1-0 | Sidney, Paul | 116 |
5.5-2.5 | |||||
Chris Greenshields writes: Last Thursday Ealing 2 entertained King's Head 3 at the Harvester in a "must-win" match for Ealing. The match got off to a good start with a win for Dale. After winning a pawn playing the King's Gambit, Dale subsequently lost his advantage, but his opponent went astray in the ending to lose. I then won quickly with black when my opponent failed to get his king castled early, and following a quick smashing up of the centre, he was unable to defend without losing material.
Raj won on board 3 when he exploited a pin to win the exchange. His opponent assessed the damage as terminla and promptly resigned, although there still seemed a good bit of play left in the position.
Simon then won, when after getting nowhere with his favourite London System, his opponent faltered in the ending and then dropped a rook to a bishop skewer. 4-0 to Ealing.
Nevenko, playing the Ruy Lopez, allowed his kingside to be weakened in the opening. A complex middlegame developed with both sides attacking and at a key moment, Nevenko fell to a clever rook sacrifice, which he could have avoided with best play. Unlucky not to win, but a great move by his opponent which ultimately exposed the kingside weakness from the opening.
Mark then drew on board 6 to secure the win for Ealing. He seemed to have an edge in the ending but nobly put the team first or couldn't be bothered - you decide.
On 4, Milinko found himself in a very drawish game, but instead of taking the opportunity to gain a small positional edge, he went for more, and came unstuck. His opponent finished the game well and won.
Finally Tony ground down his opponent in an ending, his opponent having little time as he was filling in on the half hour for a team mate who failed to show up. Credit to Tony's opponent for playing well under difficult circumstances.