On a bitterly cold November night (Wednesday 27th) West London hosted Harrow A. Harrow A generally are strong in depth and their only other match so far this season was a 5-0 whitewash for them. They were missing their board 4 (Nevil Chan) who dropped out at short notice so were a bit weaker than usual on boards 4 and 5, but otherwise their higher boards were pretty much full strength.
My game finished first. My opponent played a Grand Prix Sicilian with Bc4, an opening I play as White. He missed a thematic trick quite early on and ended up with a bishop being trapped. After that it was just a matter of swapping off pieces gradually until I could win some pawns with my extra piece. 1-0 to West London.
Antanas was also Black in a Grand Prix Sicilian but with white playing Bb5 instead of Bc4. Antanas gained space in the centre and ended up with a nasty pin and a rook on the seventh rank as well as being a pawn up. Another pawn fell and that was that. 2-0 at that stage.
Elmira was White and gained space, with a passed pawn advancing to d6 with all the heavy pieces still on the board. She manoeuvred a knight from a3 to b5 to c7. The adventurous knight ended up on e8 after the d6 pawn came off, with Black’s king looking very exposed to White’s queen, rook and knight combination. The tactic Rxf8 removing the defending bishop was a lovely combination, allowing the queen to win the rook back and be a piece up. 3-0 at this stage and the match was safe.
Andreea faced a Rossolimo Sicilian as Black against the 9 year old prodigy Bhodana Sivanandan. Andreea had pressure on f2 and dangerous-looking pwns on c4 and d4, looking better for Black. However at a key moment, Andreea made an oversight and allowed a fork dropping a rook and although some more moves were played that was pretty much it. 3-1.
Colum had a complex game with opposite side castling. Queens eventually came off with level material but Colum had a significant time advantage. Colum kept up the pressure in the endgame with knight, rook and several pawns, and had a nine minute time advantage against just the 10 second increment for his opponent. His opponent defended accurately for a long time but at a key moment Colum managed a fork, winning the exchange and that was that. 4-1 was the final result.
The match scoresheet is:| West London | Colour | Grading | Result | Harrow-A | Grading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andreea Navrotescu | Black | 2374 | 0-1 | Bodhana Sivanandan | 2190 |
| Elmira Mirzoeva | White | 2291 | 1-0 | Stephen Coles | 2087 |
| Antanas Zapolskis | Black | 2279 | 1-0 | Jagdeep Dhemrat | 1944 |
| Colum Jezierski | White | 1983 | 1-0 | Clive Heidrich | 1766 |
| Andy Hayler | Black | 1928 | 1-0 | Sivanandan Velayutha | 1498 |
| Average grade | 2171 | 1897 | |||
| Score | 4-1 |
Board 5: S.Velayutha (1498) vs A.Hayler (1928)