The Tigers played their first home match of the season on Thursday, against Muswell Hill 2. I’m pleased to report that the team ran out 3½–2½ winners in an exciting contest!
At the same time, Barnet Knights faced a strong Harrow Juniors team and were defeated 4–2.
Having played five away matches in a row to start their season, Hendon 2 had had a tough run, though had broken a three-match losing streak the previous week. This week was the sixth match of the season and the first at home.
I was hopeful because the Tigers had defeated the same opposition 5–1 away at the start of the season. That was admittedly a bit of a freak result, but we were stronger overall than we were that night.
The match started reasonably well, with Anthony Kent drawing on the board next to me, and I beat a relatively low-rated opponent on bottom board. Jonathan Rubeck also won on top board to put us within touching distance of the match, but both Mark and JC had bad positions on the middle boards.
Mark went on to lose, but the match was decided in our favour when David Amior beat Samuel Tombs on Board 2 (somewhat ironic since the two of them shared first place in our Club Championship last season!).
This made the result of JC’s game irrelevant, which was good, because JC had a bad position, material down, and was only playing on because his opponent was very low on time and playing on increments. The time scramble was chaotic, with mutual missed chances, but JC’s opponent did eventually go on to win.
| Hendon 2 | Hendon 2 | Muswell Hill 2 | Muswell Hill 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rubeck, Jonathan | 1904 | 1 - 0 | Dilek, Alper | 1869 | ||
| 2 | Amior, David | 1886 | 1 - 0 | Tombs, Samuel | 1838 | ||
| 3 | Sartenaer, Jean-Claude | 1831 | 0 - 1 | Rutter, M David | 1852 | ||
| 4 | Hutchinson, Mark | 1815 | 0 - 1 | Parker, Keith | 1791 | ||
| 5 | Kent, Anthony | 1801 | ½ - ½ | Cohen, Zak | 1679 | ||
| 6 | Medworth, Andrew | 1777 | 1 - 0 | Yavuz, Olgun | 1385 | ||
| 3½ - 2½ | |||||||
Meanwhile, Barnet Knights were playing their first fixture of 2023. They were facing a strong junior team from Harrow, led by Bodhana Sivanandan, who has made waves recently and is considered one of England’s most promising girls.
The team fought valiantly, with Max and Callum scoring creditable wins, but ultimately went down 4–2.
| Hendon Barnet Knights | Hendon Barnet Knights | Harrow Juniors | Harrow Juniors | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hung, Jake | 1841 | 0 - 1 | Sivanandan, Bodhana | 1958 | ||
| 2 | Thatte, Nandinee | 1616 | 0 - 1 | Ivan, Austin | 1782 | ||
| 3 | Michener, Max | 1437 | 1 - 0 | Parikh, Naavya | 1731 | ||
| 4 | Lee, Xander | 1284 | 0 - 1 | Jayakumar, Bharath | 1688 | ||
| 5 | Dalah, Jacob | 1242 | 0 - 1 | Evans, Daniel | 1665 | ||
| 6 | Hill, Callum | 1046 | 1 - 0 | Evans, Joseph | 1195 | ||
| 2 - 4 | |||||||
Many thanks to everyone who played!