Hackney 4 Ealing 4
: Created:24 Jan 2008 , by13th November 2007. An excellent result at a venue where traditionally we have been thrashed!
A great display of fighting chess saw Ealing's first team draw with Hackney in division one of the Middlesex league last night. Our winning heroes were John Harvey, Martin Smith and Syrym Shalabayev but all eight of our players gave a good account of themselves and in the context of last season's eight-nil crushing in Stoke Newington it almost felt like a victory.
With many of the usual first team unavailable, our side came together at the very last moment with Miguel Sanchez coming in on the day of the match, John and Syrym volunteering for duty on Monday night, and Simon Healeas agreeing to play on Sunday. I can have no complaints about my late substitutes because they delivered two and a half of our four points.
Miguel got us away to a good start with a solid draw on board six and I also drew on three. A loss on seven was levelled up by a grand win by John Harvey. John played the previous night at Hammersmith so his appearance was above and beyond the call of duty but back to back victories by him must have been satisfying.
Adrian Ociepka made his debut on board one but eventually had to give best to experienced Bob Eames and one of Mike Lamb's queenside pawns got the full treatment from Mike Tasker and when it dropped, one of the Hackney player's pawns steamed through the gap in Christian Ronaldo style.
Martin Smith doubled his rooks to put pressure down the open queen's bishop file (i.e. c file) and after what looked to my eyes a mistaken attempt by his opponent to break open the b file, Martin forced a winning passed pawn.
As so often in these matches a quick play finish with both players short of time decided the final outcome. Syrym Shalabayev's position went awry in the final minute of his clock time and he had to enter a king and pawn ending a pawn down. Showing great aplomb he completely outplayed his opponent to win two pawns and before the horrified Hackney spectators, achieved the check mate with queen and king with his flag hanging by a thread.
I like the new Hackney venue, quiet, spacious and well-lit but if you travel there in mid-winter an overcoat might be wise because the radiators were stone-cold and looked pre-world war. Still these Hackney guys know how to play the game because they gave us a warm welcome and there was plenty of beer being ferried up from the bar below.