Greenwood 3 - Ealing B 2
: Created:11 Nov 2008 , byA narrow loss for us in the Hillingdon league but as our captain makes clear in his report, we very much enjoy a visit to our neighbours.
Captain Pierre Davis writes:
Well it was a night of high drama at Eastcote Community Centre last night for our first match of the season.
First to finish was Gerry Blick. In an admirable display of 'never giving up', Gerry played on after losing his queen for a knight. Incredibly, it paid off. Winning some loose pawns, then advancing two connected passed pawns, and taking advantage of his opponent's unco-ordinated pieces, our board 4 managed a full point despite the large material deficit. 1-0 to Ealing B.
Next Jerry Ball, who won 2 pawns early on, played solidly and simplified down to an easily won ending. 2-0 to Ealing B, so far so good. Then Dominic, who had won a pawn or two, lost control of the centre and fell foul to some tactics. 2-1 to Ealing B, so a point from either Geoff or I would suffice for a win. Unfortunately Geoff, who had lost a pawn and then won it back, also lost to a tactic, and the score was level.
It was going down to the wire and I had about a minute on my clock to my opponent's 20 or so and we were still 4 moves away from the time control, in quite a complicated position. I played some forcing moves, hoping to make the time control, but on my 30th move, with seconds to spare, gifted my opponent a mate-in-1, with which I was duly dispatched. Oh dear, 3-2 to Greenwood.
They played well and deserved the win. As an aside, in my limited experience, Greenwood are the politest group of gentlemen ever to form a chess club. They are always a pleasure to play, and magnanimous in victory and defeat.
Our next match is at home against Pinner B, 4th December. Team selection out soon.
If you blunder in your games you're in good company, here's some footage of Kasparov making a mistake: