In a closely-fought match against a determined Battersea, our Hendon Sharks rapidplay team eventually came out 5-3 winners, in the 3rd round of the City of London Rapidplay League.
| Battersea | Battersea | Hendon | Hendon | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Edwards, Richard G | 135 | 0 - 1 | Raoof, Adam N | 172 | ||
| 2 | Todorow, Emil | 132 | ½ - ½ | Ellis, Daniel | 148 | ||
| 3 | Gill, Martin | 120s | 0 - 1 | Bennett, Michael K | - | ||
| 4 | Recalde, Andres | 94s | 1 - 0 | Limonov, Petr | - | ||
| 1½ - 2½ | |||||||
| Battersea | Battersea | Hendon | Hendon | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Edwards, Richard G | 135 | ½ - ½ | Raoof, Adam N | 172 | ||
| 2 | Todorow, Emil | 132 | 0 - 1 | Ellis, Daniel | 148 | ||
| 3 | Gill, Martin | 120s | 0 - 1 | Bennett, Michael K | - | ||
| 4 | Recalde, Andres | 94s | 1 - 0 | Limonov, Petr | - | ||
| 1½ - 2½ | |||||||
Report by Daniel Ellis
The Sharks scored another victory last night in the 2nd tie of the new London Rapidplay event held at Golden Lane Community Centre.
Boards 3 and 4 evened themselves out with 2 wins and 2 losses, and on the top boards, Raoof and Ellis each scored a win and a draw to give the Sharks the match by a score of 5-3.
Michael Bennett, known to many now as ‘the DHT’ or ‘Dark Horse Tactician’ earned two excellent wins on 3rd board. His second game, another Grand Prix Attack, instructively shows how White can exploit inaccuracies in Black’s play. Black’s castled position – despite the pawns in front of the king not having moved at all – was totally busted by a Kasparov like sacrifice (actually just a standard tactic but cheers Dan! – ed) to open lines and allow the white army to break through while Black’s pieces sat idly watching from the other side of the board.
So the Sharks move on to their next match with their confidence bruised having suffered some slight setbacks, but still intact and with 2 wins out of 2!