In a match of twists and turns which went right down to the wire, our 1st team rode their luck to overcome a very strong Kings Head 1 team. The final score was 4½-3½ after extra time.
| Hendon 1 | Hendon 1 | Kings Head 1 | Kings Head 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | D'Costa, Lorin AR | 229 | 1 - 0 | McMichael, Richard J | 213 | ||
| 2 | Summerscale, Aaron P | 220 | 1 - 0 | Wittmann, Jochen | 202 | ||
| 3 | Buchicchio, Giampaolo | 2284F | 1 - 0 | Black, Richard | 197 | ||
| 4 | Mures, Cristian | 199 | 0 - 1 | Spivack, Simon SY | 197 | ||
| 5 | Senior, Gary | 199 | 0 - 1 | Ward, Julian T | 193 | ||
| 6 | Eden, Tomer | 195 | ½ - ½ | Okike, David C | 192 | ||
| 7 | Raoof, Adam N | 185 | ½ - ½ | Mackenzie, Colin | 188 | ||
| 8 | Ellis, Daniel | 179 | ½ - ½ | Coles, Steven F | 184 | ||
| 4½ - 3½ | |||||||
Match Report by Adam and Mike
In order of finishing:
Adam played very solidly with Black in his usual Dutch setup and drew, after his opponent drifted into time trouble. 0.5-0.5 (that means Adam is now the only unbeaten player so far this season, with 5.5/7)
Aaron lost a whole rook in time trouble, but then his opponent got overconfident and played too fast, giving a rook back to play for mate, but there was no mate. So Aaron won. 1.5-0.5
Gary got caught in a scary line against his favourite defence the Dutch and lost a piece, then was a rook down. Hopeless ending rook v 3 pawns. 1.5-1.5
Dan looked worse after only 10 moves or so, but somehow steered the position into a draw. His opponent accepted because at that time KH looked better on a few boards. 2-2
Lorin was in time trouble down to just a few minutes left for most of the game. After the 15 mins set back, he was again down to a few minutes left after 2 moves. Amazing. But he stayed in control throughout, and won comfortably in the end. 3-2
Tomer was short of time but won 2 pieces for a rook, and then drew comfortably. 3.5-2.5
Cristian turned down a draw and played for a win a couple of moves too far, and so lost 3.5-3.5. Aargh!
Giampaolo won characteristically smoothly – he always had something in hand, even with black, and ground it out while we all watched. The whole match depended on this one game. No pressure there then! 4.5-3.5!
We were very struck by the competitive but friendly spirit in which this tie was played. Everyone thought it was one of the most exciting matches they’d had the privilege to watch and take part in – not perfect chess, by any means, but a very even match that either team could have won. Thank you King’s Head – see you again soon at Starcross Street!