Our final TVA match of the season found us facing a very strong team from Hammersmith who outgraded us on every board (150 points or more on boards 3-6) we managed to score a remarkable win.
- Gavin Wall (2281) ½:½ Marco Gallana (2375)
- Mike Healey (2205) 1:0 Ali Hill (2230)
- Andrew Hebron (1958) 0:1 Carsten Pedersen (2214)
- Julien Shepley (1943) ½:½ Gaston Franco (2096)
- Maks Gajowniczek (1821) ½:½ Bajrush Kelmendi (2088)
- Sampson Low (1828) 1:0 Christof Brixel (2050)
Maks reports on the two wins:
“Mike won with an enterprising knight sacrifice against a French Defence, eventually getting 3 pawns and a rook in exchange for a knight and bishop. Nice technique was shown at the end pinning his opponent’s queen with a rook. On board 6, Sampson outgrinded his opponent playing against an IQP position that came from playing the Alapin Sicilian. His opponent had a good defensive try by finally transposing into a queen and pawn ending and at points it was a little bit of a comedy of errors due to it being a blitz finish, but eventually Sampson’s opponent slipped up into a lost K+P ending.”
Great wins from Mike and Sampson, then, our Secretary overturning a 222 point defecit, and excellent draws as well from Gavin, Julien and Maks.
This win guarantees second place behind Kingston in the league. Thanks to all who played during the season, and especially to Maks for captaining the team.
Meanwhile, our TVE team were outrated by their opponents from Surbiton D, with only Barry managing to avoid defeat.
- Alexey Markov (1698) ½:½ Barry Sutton (1620)
- Oleksiy Podolyan (1642) 1:0 Dan Donohoe (1489)
- Phil Goodings (1489) 1:0 Julian Bedale (1128)
- David Morant (1469) 1:0 Ken Broadley (1038)
This was our last match of the season in Division X, a friendly, low-stakes division with no promotion or relegation. We managed to win two of our six matches. Thanks to all for playing, and to Ken for captaining the team.