Match Result

West London vs Hendon-2

West London hosted Hendon tonight in the Middlesex League at Chiswick Town Hall. The match may be historic in a small way, as our top three boards were all women. This is something I have never come across in club chess (outside of all female tournaments) and I doubt that it has happened before in London chess history. Hendon were missing a couple of their usual top two players (Ethan Sanitt 2135 and Lion Lebedev 2101) but still put out a very respectable team. I was reserve tonight and so had a chance to watch the games unfold.

Chris Fegan was white and faced an accelerated Dragon Sicilian. He managed to play an awkward Bc5 with Black not castled and his opponent played … Kf7 to castle by hand. Chris responded with an immediate g4 breaking open the kingside. He sacrificed a bishop for three pawns and then a further tactic came with Rxe5 and his opponent could not recapture without Qxc6+ causing chaos and winning the rook on a8. When the dust settled Chris had three extra pawns and his opponent’s king was on e8 with all the major pieces still on the board. His game finished first. 1-0 at this point.

Andreea was black and played an unusual old Benoni style structure against 1. d4. White managed to get an awkward f pawn on f5 and then f6. The Black rook went from b8 to b4 to d4 and was very active, and White also played a rook lift and followed with a Rxh7 sacrifice. It looked scary but Andreea was untroubled and emerged a clear rook up with a huge time advantage to boot. 2-0 at this stage.

John Burke was white in a Queens gambit declined. He carried out a Nh4 manoeuvre and marched his g pawn up the board to g5, with both bishops and queen pointing at the Black kingside. The pawns rolled up the board to h4 and f4 and there were assorted sacrifices and pawn breaks in the air. He was also half an hour up on the clock and eventually black was trying to defend a difficult position on the 15 second increment against 27 minutes. It was never going to end well. 3-0 at this point.

Elmira was Black in a Caro Kann advance. The position became quite unbalanced with a loose kingside for both players. Elmira sacrificed a pawn for open lines against the opponent’s opposing king and the position became very sharp. Elmira offered an e5 pawn that was wisely declined, but then advanced it to e3 to open up the White king. A lovely intermezzo ... Qd4+ gained a key tempo and the White king was very exposed. A piece was won and mate on the board followed. 4-0.

Lan Yao was white against a rare line of the Modern defence where Black played a rapid f5 on move 4. White had strong central pawns and Black had a lot of pieces on the kingside, with a tense position resulting. With three minutes left to each player things were still tense. Finally, a lovely tactic with a Bd4 “sacrifice” attacking the queen but the bishop could not be taken due to a mating net. 5-0 at this stage.

Colum was Black and played a Sicilian, with White responding with 2. Nc3 … and 3. f4 …, the Grand Prix. Colum has plenty of experience in that line as we have played endless blitz games together in that variation. He played thematically and neutralised White’s kingside chances while playing … c5, freeing up his normally bad bishop in this line. Colum continued to play in the centre and looked to be on top when an error towards the time control cost him a piece and the game.

The final scoresheet follows.