In the 4th round of the City of London Rapidplay League, the Sharks survived several unexpected losses against a resilient Albany team, eventually coming out winners in their toughest match so far.
| Albany | Albany | Hendon | Hendon | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cutmore, David A | 170 | 0 - 1 | Eden, Tomer | 173 | ||
| 2 | Cohen, Ronnie | 137 | 1 - 0 | Ellis, Daniel | 148 | ||
| 3 | DEFAULT | - | 0 - 1 | Bennett, Michael K | - | ||
| 4 | Sonnis, Steve | 105s | 1 - 0 | Limonov, Petr | - | ||
| 2 - 2 | |||||||
| Albany | Albany | Hendon | Hendon | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cutmore, David A | 170 | 0 - 1 | Eden, Tomer | 173 | ||
| 2 | Cohen, Ronnie | 137 | 1 - 0 | Bennett, Michael K | - | ||
| 3 | DEFAULT | - | 0 - 1 | Ellis, Daniel | 148 | ||
| 4 | Sonnis, Steve | 105s | ½ - ½ | Limonov, Petr | - | ||
| 1½ - 2½ | |||||||
Due to the rule regarding defaults that are not notified beforehand, Albany have 1 extra point deducted from their total, so the final score is: Albany 2½ – Hendon 4½
Report by Adam Raoof
True to form, Dan’s game against Ronnie Cohen was a wild and crazy affair that will not be appearing in any anthology soon. His Knight sac on f6 was ambitious to say the least, but his opponent steadily wandered into a lost position, with only white’s vulnerable king as compensation. Then Dan hung a rook!
Mike’s opponent had heard about his fearsome reputation and didn’t bother to show despite being spotted at Chess & Bridge earlier that day. To be democratic, Dan (needing kebab-related refreshment) volunteered to step down for the second game and give Mike a chance to employ his favourite Modern Defence. The second game against Ronnie Cohen was going at a cracking pace; then a positional exchange sac (MKB’s first ever) destroyed almost all of white’s chances. Almost. Just when black was a move away from concluding a fine win, white found the amazing 35. Rh7+!! Forcing mate in three moves.
In the first game, Petr ‘The Russian’ had a winning position before exchanging off his beautifully active rooks. He still had a winning endgame when he lost on time. Petr’s shrewd opponent worked out that if he made the position as complex as possible, his opponent would run into time trouble, and game two was an aggressive, though unsound, attempt to take apart Petr’s solid French Defence. With thirty seconds on the clock Petr grabbed the offered draw and secured the match for The Sharks.
Tomer ‘Red Bull’ Eden’s smooth technical performance made the rest of our games looked chaotic. He quietly took David Cutmore apart, taking space and then material clinically and calmly to score two valuable points.