On Thursday 29th January, West London played the strong Wanstead team in the Central London League. The last match ended in a 5-0 whitewash to Wanstead, so this was always going to be tough. Wanstead outgraded us on every board, and the bottom three boards went according to rating.
I had a quite complicated game against my opponent, missing a beautiful winning idea at one point, but ending in a draw (see the game below).
Charlie had an excellent game, winning a key pawn and entering an endgame where he could pick up at least one additional pawn. His opponent tried to push pawns forward but although it looked a little scary at one moment, Charlie coolly converted after his opponent had to give up a rook to stop a rampaging pawn on the seventh rank.
| Wanstead-1 | Colour | Grading | Result | West London | Grading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Hodgson | White | 2026 | ½-½ | Andy Hayler | 1920 |
| Ian Hunnable | Black | 1903 | 0-1 | Charles Sturt | 1738 |
| Matthias Lataille | White | 1838 | 1-0 | Gursharanjit Gill | 1557 |
| Peter Nickals | Black | 1770 | 1-0 | Alexander Smythe | Unrated |
| Krishna Raikundalia | White | 1625 | 1-0 | Sam Dayan | 1331 |
| Mean grade | 1832 | 1738 | |||
| Score | 3½-1½ |
Board 1: J.Hodgson (2026) vs A.Hayler (1920)