Maks has provided reports of our Thames Valley League A team’s two most recent matches.
Match Report: Kingston A v Richmond A
| Board | Home player | Result | Away player | Rating difference (Δ) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| one | David Henry Maycock s2358A |  | 0-1 | IM Gavin Wall s2281A |  | +77 |
| two | Walk Over | | 1-0 | Dee Fault | | – |
| three | Vladimir Li s2194K | | 1-0 | Maks Gajowniczek s1821K | | +373 |
| four | William J Taylor s2039A | | 1-0 | Jon M Eckert s1854A | | +185 |
| five | David J Rowson s2054K | | 1-0 | Raghu Kamath s1833K | | +221 |
| six | Alan Scrimgour s2013A | | 1-0 | Adrian DP Waldock s1705K | | +308 |
| Mean rating | Home team: 2131.6 | Away team: 1898.8 | Δ = 232.8 | |||
| match result: 5 — 1 | ||||||
Unfortunately, I did not have any time to look around at the games during this match. I was a little wedged in next to the side of the stage and also 10 minutes down on the clock most of the game against a strong opponent. I could get a glimpse of the board next to me which was Jon’s game on board 4. He was playing the white side of the very sharp Frankenstein-Dracula variation of the Vienna game.
Instead of remarking in detail of losses on our side, I refer to Kingston’s report if you are interested.
On board 1, Gavin was playing black using the delayed Steinitz defense of the Ruy Lopez. He got a very double-edged position and went on to win.
Board 2 was an unfortunate default due to unforeseen circumstances.
On Board 3, was a rather tame Be2-Scilician against me playing as black. An unforced error of playing f6 led to quite a bad position and eventual loss.
Board 4 in the sharp variation of the Vienna: Jon lost a piece due to an oversight.
Board 5, I have no information on. A loss for Raghu
Board 6, Adrian was playing against a Benoni, but without c4 and an early Nc3. His opponent got ..b5 in and it got a bit tricky. Adrian went on to lose.
Many thanks to all those who played, and congratulations to Gavin for his win and for saving us from a whitewash.
Match report: Richmond A v Surbiton A. Definitely quite a few interesting and well-played games here:
| Richmond & Twickenham A vs Surbiton A | ||||||
| Date: 14-03-2023, Division: 1, Trophy: | ||||||
| Board | Home player | Result | Away player | Rating difference (Δ) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| one | IM Gavin Wall s2281A | | 1-0 | David Scott s2092K | | +189 |
| two | Michael W Healey s2205A | | 1-0 | Angus S James s2000A | | +205 |
| three | Maxim W Dunn s2006A | | 1-0 | Nick W Faulks s1958A | | +48 |
| four | Andrew Hebron s1958K | | 1-0 | Paul D Dupré s1993A | | -35 |
| five | Chris B Baker s1950K | | 1-0 | Graham P Alcock s1767A | | +183 |
| six | Walk Over | | 1-0 | Dee Fault | | – |
| Mean rating | Home team: 2080 | Away team: 1962 | Δ = 118 | |||
| match result: 6 — 0 | ||||||
A flawless result from our team the Tuesday before last. This would be the first 6-0 of the season out of all matches from any team in the Division 1, excluding a controversial match between Surbiton A and Hammersmith where Surbiton claimed a 6-0 win after Hammersmith did not raise a team.
I provide here excerpts from the games for you to follow.
Board 1: I didn’t have much information about this game, apart from Gavin won a piece fairly early on. Rather predictably Gavin’s position was completely winning from this point onwards although his opponent carried on playing on until checkmate.
Board 2: (Italian game: Two Knights Defence) 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3 Be7 5. Bb3 h6 6. h3 d6 7.c3 g5!?
On move 12 Mike finds an interesting maneuver. ..12 Nh7, followed by f5 and Nf6. This forces white to give up his center and after a few more moves the position looks like:
Mike now has a large advantage with complete control of the center and his opponent’s pieces looking awfully passive. He finds a plan of centralizing and gaining space with h5. Soon he transfers his advantage to a Queenside attack against his opponent’s king and goes on to win.
Board 3 (Scilian defence) 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.g3 Qc7
Maxim on board 3 ventures a closed Sicilian setup against an e6 Sicilian. He gets a few opportunities to get an advantage, but the game evolves into a pleasant but equal-looking IQP situation for white. The game suddenly goes wrong for black when on move 20 he forgets his d5-knight is required to protect the f4 square.
His opponent plays Nf6?? where Maxim of course replies with Bf4. The game was pretty much decided at this point with Maxim an exchange up.
Board 4 (KID: against Botvinnik-setup): 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.e4 d6 6.Nge2 e5
Andrew’s opponent finds a bit of a bad move here and plays b4. This allows the immediate f4 exploiting the weakened c3-knight and its initiative for black.
Unfortunately, the opening of the kingside doesn’t go entirely smoothly for Andrew, and his opponent had just played a justified exchange sacrifice RxB on f4. He misses the only follow-up to get an advantage though with the quiet-looking Bb2 and plays Ne2 instead. This allows the miracle defense of Rg4 to equalize. Although not played perfectly by Andrew choosing a dodgy move here and there, his opponent was inaccurate and Andrew gets the advantage of his extra material.
A few moves on from the previous position his opponent also plays a bit of a mistake in Qh5, and Andrew finds the excellent reply Qg5 forcing the queens off.
In the ensuing endgame an exchange up, Andrew finds a way to outplay his opponent. Definitely the most exciting game of the night with both kings lacking pawn cover for much of the game.
Board 5 (Scandinavian Defence) 1.e4 d5 2.exd Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd6
By move 13 Chris obtains a significant positional advantage with Nf4 winning the bishop pair.
A few moves later Chris had obtained another advantage in the form of a backward pawn. His opponent couldn’t hold on and soon loses a pawn and then a second pawn before resigning. A rather well-played position crush by Chris.
Overall on boards 1,2 and 5, it showed to quite an extent over the board that we outclassed our opponents which is not surprising with the large rating plus.
Boards 3 and 4 were closer but wins none the less. The closer rating making these wins more significant. Overall I think this makes Andrew man of the match with his win with black, although well done to everyone.
Our luck with winning the coin toss also helped as we had 3 out of the 5 white games.
If we can continue putting out such a strong team, with the aid of all our remaining home matches giving us the ‘home advantage’ we should do very well.