Jaguars win at Hammersmith!

Wednesday 12 February, 2020

Captain Andrew Medworth reports:

I’m delighted to report that last night, Hendon 3 defeated Hammersmith 2 by the narrowest possible scoreline of 4½-3½, reversing the result from our home match against them last month.

Hendon 3 has had a poor run of results recently, with four defeats in a row, putting us at serious risk of relegation to Division 3, so this win was badly needed.

We put out a strong team, out-grading our opponents on every board, so I was optimistic we could reverse the trend here. However, the evening did not start well, with defeats on the bottom two boards, and I started to get a sinking feeling. Happily, though, wins on boards 1, 5 and 6 put us back on track.

As usual, my game on Board 4 went right to the end of the night. I was way behind on the clock (no surprise there), but my opponent made a very strange decision to offer a queen trade, allowing me to reach a king-and-pawn ending which I felt should be winning. However, I was nervous, because I’ve often mishandled such situations in the past, and K+P endings can be very tricky. However, thankfully I judged the position correctly; my opponent used up virtually all his time, but could not find salvation, and I went on to win.

The only game left in progress by then was Mehdi’s on Board 2, but this was a clear draw: Mehdi was a knight ahead, but his opponent’s king was much nearer the only remaining pair of pawns, making the draw inevitable. With this, the victory was clinched.

Given the strength of our side, we were unfortunate not to win by a greater margin, but the important thing is we got over the line!

Many thanks to the team for playing!