Our London League season ended with another disappointing result: a draw against Battersea 1, our rival for the new second place trophy. Our opponents were pretty strong down to board 7, but their lower rated players on boards 8-10 scored 50%.
Congratulations to Mike, Caspar, Liam and Martin on their victories and thanks to all who played, both in this match and throughout the season.
| Battersea 1 | Richmond | ||
| 1 | Midhun Unnikrishnan 211 | ½:½ | Iain Gourlay 225 |
| 2 | Chris Beckett 202 | 1:0 | Gavin Wall 223 |
| 3 | Alistair Hill 201 | 0:1 | Mike Healey 212 |
| 4 | Jonathan Pein 194 | 0:1 | Caspar Bates 200 |
| 5 | Shreyas Royal 186 | 0:1 | Liam Varnam 189 |
| 6 | Tommaso Penna 185 | 1:0 | Julien Shepley 174 |
| 7 | Kazi Rahman 176 | 1:0 | Jonathan Somekh 174 |
| 8 | Emil Todorow 152 | 1:0 | John Burke 181 |
| 9 | Derek Harvey 133 | 0:1 | Martin Benjamin 176 |
| 10 | Chris Rebbeck 91 | ½:½ | John Bass 168 |
| 5:5 |
You can read Battersea’s report on this match here.
Battersea are one of London’s oldest clubs in continuous existence, but, in another sense one of London’s newest clubs. Along with their rivals (and our TVL rivals) from north of the Thames, Hammersmith, they’re demonstrating what a good 21st century chess club should be like.
You need a good venue. You have to organise lots of things beyond the usual league matches. You need lots of members prepared to share the load.
Chess clubs like Battersea will survive and thrive. Those who don’t will wither and die. We wish them every success in the future and congratulate them on their drawn match against us and on their results during the season.
On paper we have one more match left, but as that’s away to Drunken Knights 2 it will presumably be a win by default. Drunken Knights 1 have played 4 matches and Drunken Knights 2 have so far played 7 matches, including an away match against Cavendish after losing their venue. According to the league rules their 1st team matches will be annulled but their 2nd team matches included when the final league table is compiled.
Battersea have three matches still to play, against Hackney, Cavendish and King’s Head. If they score 2½ or 3, they will finish second. If they score 2/3, they will finish level with us on match points, so game points will decide 2nd place. If they score less than 2/3 we’ll finish second.