Result of President's Simultaneous
: Created:15 Sep 2010 , byThe club members gave John Quinn, our illustrious president a tough time last week at his simultaneous display but John came through strongly to achieve a highly creditable result.
Thirteen opponents eventually lined up to face John at the Harvester. It would be nice to say that they were all punctual but Ealing members have a reputation to keep up! (External readers should note that this a joke!). In dribs and drabs players joined in which John accepted with great equanimity.
Sam Sarna gave John a great tussle mounting a vicious attack on John's king which had castled on the queenside. Almost certainly Sam should have won but when the assault momentarily slowed, John rearranged his pieces and exploited Sam's own uncastled king. A terrific game nevertheless.
Alastair Johnstone solidly defended against John's unusual 3.b3 facing a Sicilian Defence. When Alastair began an offense his position looked very promising but an inaccuracy saw his knight in a deadly pin. However it was the turn of John to slip and a little later the players shook hands on a draw.
Two boards did not go well for John. A quite incredible position appeared in his game versus John Harvey where both players distained from castling. Good strategy by JH because wild games often work out in favour of the player with more time. Jason Obihara chose the reliable French Defence against John and eventually Jason won a piece. Jason skilfully side-stepped John's attempts to complicate.
Seven more players followed Sam's road to defeat as John tightened the screws but enormous credit goes to Raj Jhooti and our oldest member, 83 year old Leszek Sarama for holding out for draws.
So eight wins, three draws and two losses was John's score at the end of the evening and he confessed to me in the car going home that it had been a hard evening. John really deserved his loud round of applause at the close of play.