West London was home to Kings Head in the Middlesex League tonight, Wednesday 18th December. My game finished first, a fairly wild affair with opposite side castling and attacks against both kings. My attack came home first in the end. Colum’s game finished next, and went less well, dropping a piece in an already difficult position. The top four boards were all quite hard-fought affairs and went down to the wire.
Antanas was better in an endgame and duly won. Elmira had a dangerous passed d pawn in a queen, bishop and pawns endgame, and eventually a lethal pin decided the game in her favour. I didn’t see much of Andreeas’s game but she had a strong-looking attack that prevailed. Harry Grieve as Black in a Grand Prix Sicilian ended up in a complex position and was down to just the 15-second increment. In the end, he found a clever tactic and that was that. So the scoreline looked impressive but the games were actually close-fought. The match card is below.
| West London | Colour | Grading | Result | Kings Head | Grading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harry Grieve | Black | 2510 | 1-0 | Nigel Fleming | 2072 |
| Andreea Navrotescu | White | 2375 | 1-0 | Conor I'Shaughnessy | 2038 |
| Elmira Mirzoeva | Black | 2300 | 1-0 | Colin Mackenzie | 2031 |
| Antanas Zapolskis | White | 2252 | 1-0 | Michael Inzani | 1987 |
| Colum Jezierski | Black | 1981 | 0-1 | Peter Anderson | 1837 |
| Andy Hayler | White | 1928 | 1-0 | Alex Bourke | 1827 |
| Mean grade | 2167 | 1965 | |||
| Score | 5-1 |
Board 6: A.Hayler (1928) vs A.Bourke (1827)