Jaguars beat Harrow in return match

Wednesday 5 December, 2018

Acting captain Andrew Medworth reports:

“I’m delighted to report that this evening, Hendon 3 defeated Harrow 1 by 4.5-3.5.

Harrow won the toss and chose to play White on odds. I offered the increment time control, and this offer was accepted on all boards except 6 and 7, where the Harrow players opted for the quickplay finish.

At the midpoint of the match I was quite worried, as we racked up relatively early losses on boards 5 and 6. However my own game in the “battle of the captains” on Board 8 was at a very tense and critical stage, and I did not feel I could afford to take a full circuit of the room. I could see that Oren had a good position beside me, and Jason indicated he had won, so from what I could tell, the match was in the balance.

In the second half, I had no idea what was happening on the other boards, as I had to focus solely on my own game. I had a structural advantage, but my opponent had attacking chances against my king. I managed to defend and force the queens off, entering a rook ending with a very active rook and a much better pawn structure, but very little time left on the clock. I don’t yet know whether I was actually winning or not, but practically speaking I had a big advantage, and eventually I won a pawn and managed to swap the rooks to get a winning king and pawn ending. My clock went as low as just a few seconds at one stage, but thanks to the increments, I was thankfully able to convert and get the full point.

Having finished, I looked up to discover that my game was the last to finish and that the rest of the match had been tied, so my win had settled the match in our favour! I’m rather glad I didn’t know how critical my result was while I was still playing – but now it’s obviously an extremely satisfying result, particularly given that our other recent results against Harrow have been disappointing.

Overall, the match was closer than might have been expected given that we outgraded Harrow on all boards, but the important thing is we won in the end.

Many thanks to the team for playing! Special thanks to Julian and Gideon for helping me set up and put things away.”