In the penultimate tenth round of season 3 of the London Online Chess League, the Hendon Hurricanes defeated a strong Hackney Thirsty side! The Spitfires lost a very close match to the Charlton Chess Nuts, while the Harriers were outclassed by the MetroGnomes.
Once again, our lineups were depleted by the school holidays, with many of our regular players unavailable, so my thanks to everyone who was able to play this week!
| Hackney Thirsty | Hackney Thirsty | Hendon Hurricanes | Hendon Hurricanes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FM Bob Eames | 2268 | 0 - 1 | Sacha Brozel | 2260 | ||
| 2 | Dominic Mackle | 2193 | 0 - 1 | CM Rob Willmoth | 2200 | ||
| 3 | Francis Chin | 2088 | ½ - ½ | David Amior | 1900 | ||
| 4 | Salim Kriman | 1998 | ½ - ½ | Morris Jones | 1758 | ||
| 1 - 3 | |||||||
In the Queens Division, the Hurricanes faced a strong Hackney Thirsty side led by FIDE Master Bob Eames. However, Sacha and Rob won on the top two boards where our grades roughly matched our opponents, and David and Morris avoiding defeat against higher-graded opposition on the bottom two.
On Board 1, Sacha came out of the opening with a great position, as his opponent’s king was stuck in the middle and his pawns looked over-extended. Sacha came up with a great knight sacrifice to crash through, ending up in a rook ending with two extra pawns, which he converted. A very smooth victory over a very strong opponent!
On Board 2, Rob was somewhat fortunate, as his opponent over-stepped the time limit in a position where he seemed to be better.
On Board 3, David was also quite fortunate, as his opponent missed a host of winning chances, including this cute little one:
On Board 4, Morris came under a strong attack after taking an exchange, but his opponent was very low on time, and took a repetition in a position where he was much better.
A significant element of good fortune here, then; there was nothing lucky about Sacha’s win on Board 1, but we could easily have dropped at least a half-point on all the other boards. Nonetheless, congratulations to the team!
The round 10 games in the Queens Division are currently available here.
| Charlton Chess Nuts | Charlton Chess Nuts | Hendon Spitfires | Hendon Spitfires | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Laurence Ball | 2058 | 0 - 1 | Amirabbas Mehrafarin | 1734 | ||
| 2 | Dan Mayer | 1938 | 1 - 0 | James Baxter | 1700 | ||
| 3 | John Lewin | 1855 | 1 - 0 | Gul Kapur | 1533 | ||
| 4 | David Rogers | 1600 | ½ - ½ | Julie Oh | 1485 | ||
| 2½ - 1½ | |||||||
In the Rooks Division, the Spitfires faced the Charlton Chess Nuts. On paper we seemed to be significantly outgraded on all boards, but these grades can’t be taken too seriously given how out-of-date they now are. In the end this was a very close match.
On Board 1, Amirabbas won a nice game when his opponent dropped material, leaving him with a rook and three pawns for a bishop and knight. After a further error by White, this was translated into a rook and pawn for just a knight, which Amirabbas smoothly converted.
This win was cancelled out when Gul came under a strong kingside attack on Board 3. His opponent’s play was far from perfect, but unfortunately Gul wasn’t able to find the only move to defend from a mate threat:
On Board 4, Julie did really well to draw against her higher-rated opponent, after an exciting game which featured on the online commentary (time index 1:29). Julie played very enterprisingly, and was substantially better in the final position, with two bishops against a rook and pawn. However, Julie was very low on time, and decided not to risk pushing for the win. A really good effort!
This left the match level, with everything coming down to James Baxter’s game on Board 2. This was a real roller-coaster: the game went into a major piece ending, with James’s opponent having an extra pawn, but a significantly more exposed king. The Charlton player made the first mistake, and was very low on time, but James played too fast in his opponent’s time trouble and blundered. A good lesson not to be too influenced by your opponent’s clock situation and just focus on playing strong moves!
A narrow defeat, but a great effort by the Spitfires.
The round 10 games in the Rooks Division are currently available here.
| Hendon Harriers | Hendon Harriers | MetroGnomes | MetroGnomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | David Lewis | 1465 | 0 - 1 | Ian Mason | 1773 | ||
| 2 | Tony Artman | 1400 | 0 - 1 | Ronan Kelly | 1660 | ||
| 3 | Stanley Jacobs | 1390 | ½ - ½ | Levente Lencses | 1525 | ||
| 4 | Dev Ranka | 1270 | 0 - 1 | Nicholas Nardecchia | 1465 | ||
| ½ - 3½ | |||||||
In the Bishops Division, the Harriers were significantly outgraded against the MetroGnomes, from Metropolitan Chess Club, and here there was sadly to be no victory against the odds.
On Board 1, David Lewis lost a pawn, but more importantly, his pieces were completely tied up, and in the end there was nothing he could do as his opponent pushed his pawns through the middle.
On Boards 2 and 4, Tony and Dev both dropped material in the opening, and there was no recovering from that, as their opponents converted the advantage.
On Board 3, Stanley made sure we avoided a whitewash by holding his opponent to a draw. He was better out of the opening, as his opponent dropped a pawn, but the Metropolitan player was able to win it back, and the players agreed a draw in a rook ending with no open files.
A valiant effort from the Harriers, but they were outclassed by the stronger side in the end.
The round 10 games in the Bishops Division are currently available here.
Many thanks to everyone who played this week! The final round of season 3 is next week.
You can find a list of all stories about this season of the London Online Chess League here.