Ealing Chess Club

Last 5 Results

Team	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result
EAJ2	12 Mar	Richmond 'C'	(A)	W: 5.5-0.5
MDX2	10 Mar	Muswell Hill '2'	(A)	L: 2.5-5.5
EAJ1	09 Mar	Kingston 'A'	(A)	W: 4.5-3.5
TVL1	09 Mar	Richmond 'A'	(H)	L: 2.0-6.0
TVL2	09 Mar	Richmond 'D'	(H)	W: 3.5-2.5

Next 5 fixtures

Team

Date

Time

Opponent

Venue

Starting a board short it was always going to be tough and so it proved.

Losing the toss didn't improve matters, condemning us to four blacks on the remaining boards.

We were soon two down when John's opening plan went wrong, while my own game on bottom board reached a peaceful conclusion at an early stage.

Finishing early at least meant I had a good opportunity to witness events on the other boards. A cursory look showed we were a pawn down in three out of five, level in Gary's game, while Syrym was once more brewing typical tactical complications.

Simon's deficit soon proved fatal, while Tserenbat couldn't quite hold out in a N+1 vs. B+2 ending although he came close. Dale resourcefully turned his own game around, getting both his bishops onto the seventh rank and, with the support of his knight, delivering a mating attack.

Meanwhile, Syrym's game was the grandstand attraction with a cluster of players able to witness the elegant denouement. I was most impressed by Syrym's calm and precise play. Although he gave me palpitations using up ten of his remaining fifteen minutes before making the critical move, he knew what he was doing and was simply double checking his calculations before making the commital sacrifice of rook for bishop, then delivering mate with his remaining rook and queen. I was able to see the attack developing some ten moves earlier and it was fascinating to see how Syrym built control of key files and squares while just keeping enough in reserve to fend off his opponent's counterplay. Play of the highest quality.

This left Gary to endure the quickplay finish. With his flag hanging, he commendably found the right moves to stamp out his opponent's tactical threats and, after some ten moves were blitzed out in a completely drawn position, I was relieved to see a draw agreed.