Match Result
| Season | 19/20 |
| Date | Mon 14 Oct 2019 |
| Competition: | Hillingdon League Division 2 |
| Fixture | Ealing 'B' v Ealing 'C' |
| Result | W: 4.5-0.5 |
Scorecard
| Board | Grade | Ealing 'B' | Ealing 'C' | Grade | |
| 1 | Simon Healeas | Obihara, Jason | 154 | ||
| 2 | Harry Symeonidis | Braine, Anthony | 125 | ||
| 3 | Christopher Yapp | Paglialunga, Carlo | 125 | ||
| 4 | Sami Goussous | Lushpa, Alex | 112 | ||
| 5 | Trevor Bates | Richards, Geoff | 83 | ||
| Total |
Captains Comment
In the Hillingdon League, clubs with more than one team in a division are required to play their matches first. Ealing B played Ealing C last Monday and came out winners by 4.5-0.5. It needs to be said that the C team played much better than the score suggests and that the B team had any luck that was going on the night.
The match on board three finished early. Carlo played against Christopher's French defence using an unorthodox line. The black Bishop on g4 was chased back by pawns h3, then g4, weakening white's castled King. When Carlo played Ne5, this lost a pawn and eventually allowed Christopher's Queen and Rook to threaten the white King. In a difficult position to defend Carlo lost his Queen, pinned to the King, and resigned.
All other game positions appeared to me about even after two hours play, though on three boards the clock times differed significantly. One of these was board two where Tony defended Harry's d4 opening using the Dutch defence and accepting doubled f-pawns already at move three. This was compounded by Harry's Queen check at h5, forcing g6 and a backward f-pawn.
The game continued with Harry's pieces having more room and advanced pawns on b,c,d files, but the decisive advantage was the wide gap in the time available to complete 42 moves. Tony's flag fell at move 37. On board five, Trevor defended Geoff's d4 using the Modern defence. At around half-time Trevor appeared to have the initiative with doubled Rooks on an opened c-file. Endgames are Trevor's strength and he exchanged pieces down to N+7P each, but with no clear way for either side to gain an advantage a draw was agreed.
Simon played Jason on top board. Jason opened with a Bird, Simon defended with Nf6 and fianchettoed Queen-side Bishop. The game progressed evenly and I could see no advantage either way after about 20 moves. With only five minutes left to complete eight moves before the time control Simon won the a-pawn but Jason's Queen and Rook had penetrated the black camp. Then Jason saw an opportunity to restore the material balance by capturing Simon's e-pawn. But he miscalculated and lost a knight in the process. Simon rapidly found a series of threatening moves that resulted in check mate.
Sami played Alex on board four, electing to play the e5 advance line in the French. After about 15 moves the position was blocked and Alex attempted a break with f5. Sami took the pawn, thus opening up the position and giving scope for a more tactical game. But Sami was getting into time trouble, with 18 moves to make in 7 minutes. He found safe moves, but with only 30 seconds to make nine moves it looked all over. However, Alex, distracted by an earlier incident with Sami's operation of the clock, overlooked his own time and his flag fell.