Our 1st team regained its form to score a fine away win over old rivals Hackney 1, eventually coming out 6-2 winners.
| Hackney 1 | Hackney 1 | Hendon 1 | Hendon 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eames, Robert S | 201 | 0 - 1 | D'Costa, Lorin AR | 229 | ||
| 2 | Reid, John | 202 | ½ - ½ | Mures, Cristian | 199 | ||
| 3 | Tasker, Michael W | 186 | 1 - 0 | Senior, Gary | 199 | ||
| 4 | Tennyson, John | 165 | 0 - 1 | Eden, Tomer | 195 | ||
| 5 | Emyr, Jones | - | 0 - 1 | Raoof, Adam N | 185 | ||
| 6 | Alexander, Peter | 149 | ½ - ½ | Ellis, Daniel | 179 | ||
| 7 | Valigurskyy, Ivan | - | 0 - 1 | du Buf, Paul | - | ||
| 8 | Tracey, Shaun M | 136 | 0 - 1 | Sanders, Isaac B | 159 | ||
| 2 - 6 | |||||||
MINI-REPORT by Adam Raoof
This was probably the coldest venue we have ever been to! In some ways that made everyone a lot sharper than they were in our last match – maybe that’s the secret? Or perhaps the secret was that Mike Bennett nobly acted both as chauffeur, as non-playing captain and drinks (hot and cold) provider all evening? Quite fortunate really, as there was barely room to leave our boards during the games.
Paul set the tone for the evening with a quick win. His game was relentless wood-chopping, and once again he was the first to finish. I managed to play a French quite well for a change, and it really did make a difference! (Adam has 3½/4 this season for the club, so he’s being modest! – Ed) Tomer recovered from recent setbacks with a speedy dispatch. I had promised to kick him under the table if he spent 40 minutes on one move again, but this proved unnecessary.
Cristian prodded away at his opponent’s position for a while before finally admitting that it was a draw. Dan really did have an advantage in his position when he turned down a draw offer, but perhaps unwisely allowed the queenside pawns to get exchanged, after which he had trouble establishing his superiority on the kingside.
Then Cristian provided us with move by move commentary on the conclusion of Isaac’s game – a close rook and pawn struggle that went on for the whole evening and looked at times as if both players were winning! Isaac won creatively, a good sign for his next chess trip to Cappelle-la-Grande for the Open – you can watch his progress at www.cappelle-chess.fr/fr2
Last but not least our board one, Lorin, arrived late and never quite caught up on the clock. He had the worst kind of position to play in time trouble and yet somehow made it look easy – perhaps that is why he is an IM! Ultimately the tactics resolved themselves in his favour and, a queen and pieces up, even a minute would have been sufficient to finish the game.