In an exciting match which could quite easily have gone the other way, our 1st team eventually came out 5½-2½ victors against last season’s champions Ealing.
| Ealing A | Ealing A | Hendon 1 | Hendon 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quinn, John M | 200 | ½ - ½ | D'Costa, Lorin AR | 229 | ||
| 2 | Perkins, Alan H | 194 | 0 - 1 | Summerscale, Aaron P | 220 | ||
| 3 | Stanisic, Velko | 188 | ½ - ½ | Mures, Cristian | 199 | ||
| 4 | Ociepka, Adrian | 183 | 0 - 1 | Senior, Gary | 199 | ||
| 5 | Ebbett, David | 184 | ½ - ½ | Raoof, Adam N | 185 | ||
| 6 | Wells, Tony D | 182 | 1 - 0 | Ellis, Daniel | 179 | ||
| 7 | Tserendorj, Sainbayar | 174 | 0 - 1 | du Buf, Paul | - | ||
| 8 | Zusin, George | 134 | 0 - 1 | Bennett, Michael K | 170 | ||
| 2½ - 5½ | |||||||
Match Report by Mike Bennett and Adam Raoof
Hendon managed to field the strongest team in the history of the club (correction – since the club moved to Golders Green!) - and yet it was still the tightest match of the season! In the end the scoreline of 5.5-2.5 flattered.
The evening started dramatically with a mix-up on the SatNav, and a scene reminiscent of the start of Four Weddings and a Funeral. Fortunately we discovered that Boston Road W7 is only a few minutes away from Boston Manor Road W7, when hurtling along at top speed in a small car crammed with chess-players holding on for dear life…
Lorin, playing once again on top board, was unwell all afternoon and had actually fainted, but still turned out to play. He drifted into a really dodgy position with a few casual moves, and then he very nearly lost on time – having to play maybe 8 moves in 10 seconds in the most complicated position where he was defending his besieged King.
Aaron Summerscale scored a good solid win on board 2 against an opponent who has been playing the King’s Indian his whole life. Cristian drew quickly against an opponent who can safely be described as rock solid. Gary won a very nice game on board 4 in the Dracula variation, once again proving he can play the most complex openings and subtlest of endings.
I (Adam) stood worse for a long time against their Captain and had a draw offer rightly refused, but then I think my opponent missed a clear opportunity to capitalise on all his space, exchanging off several pieces and giving me room to breathe after which I equalized. When he offered me a draw the match was still in the balance, but I was glad to have escaped! Dan took on a hundred years of theory and lost on board 6 in the Fried Liver Attack.
Now for the lucky bits:
Mike’s opponent’s mobile went off on move 11. We apologised to Ealing, but claimed, and they said they didn’t mind (and he did have quite a serious advantage already). But the most important thing from our point of view was that it had been announced before play that the mobiles should be turned off, and also it was a very loud ring!
Paul du Buf on Board 7 was two pawns down, but when he got into a queen ending we thought he had chances to complicate in mutual time trouble. Then it looked quite easy to draw, with a perpetual check looming or the win of a pawn. Somehow his opponent then made an illegal move with his queen (c4 to f2) to block a check along the 2nd rank. As it was touch move (pointed out by Lorin) he had to lose his queen instead (by playing c4 to e2), plus the 2 extra minutes would mean Paul had time to win! So his opponent sportingly resigned without playing on.