In a match against one of London’s strongest clubs, our rapidplay team rode its luck to come out winners 6-2. As a result we remain at the top of the City of London Rapidplay League, with 5 wins out of 5 matches.
| Hendon | Hendon | Kings Head 1 | Kings Head 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eden, Tomer | 173 | 0 - 1 | Kwiatkowski, Feliks J | 205 | ||
| 2 | Ellis, Daniel | 148 | 1 - 0 | Ghumman, S | - | ||
| 3 | Bennett, Michael K | - | 1 - 0 | Balatoni, Richard A | 111s | ||
| 4 | Pepe, Salvatore | 118 | 1 - 0 | Fraser, Alasdair A | 111s | ||
| 3 - 1 | |||||||
| Hendon | Hendon | Kings Head 1 | Kings Head 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eden, Tomer | 173 | 1 - 0 | Kwiatkowski, Feliks J | 205 | ||
| 2 | Ellis, Daniel | 148 | 0 - 1 | Ghumman, S | - | ||
| 3 | Bennett, Michael K | - | 1 - 0 | Balatoni, Richard A | 111s | ||
| 4 | Pepe, Salvatore | 118 | 1 - 0 | Fraser, Alasdair A | 111s | ||
| 3 - 1 | |||||||
Report by Daniel Ellis
The Sharks continued their unbeaten run against Kings Head 1 last Wednesday evening.
In the first mini-match, board 3’s result came in first: Mike Bennett’s opponent had turned up 15 minutes late and then lost on time early in the middlegame, when both players had used 15 minutes each for their moves.
Meanwhile, Daniel Ellis put in a very solid performance on board 2, winning a pawn and then smoothly converting his advantage.
Later, new team member Salvatore Pepe on board 4 kept a cool head to win his game, skillfully avoiding a tricky mate with a queen sac on h1 along the way.
Tomer Eden was the last to finish – running short of time in a drawn minor piece ending, he accidentally allowed his opponent to liquidate into a won pawn ending.
So the solid performance in the first mini-match gave us a 3-1 lead. The Sharks then only needed one win and one draw out of the next four to seal the match.
Board 2 was the first to finish but ‘streetfighter’ Ellis blundered in a winning position again to gift his opponent the win despite horrendous time difficulties. ‘Roman god’ Pepe was the next to finish – two queens down in the final position, he was not to be denied and won the game on time.
On board 3 the ‘DHT’ had been struggling to find a constructive plan in the later middlegame. Despite having white and decent occupation of the centre, Bennett could not find a productive way to increase the pressure and drifted into a frantic time scramble. He kept his cool, delivering mate on g7 with his queen. His opponent, having conveniently knocked over a knight on f6 due to time trouble tried to take the queen with his own on b2 but his flag fell almost instantaneously afterwards.
On Board 1, Eden was again at the centre of controversy after his opponent claimed a draw with less then two minutes on the clock. Having been the victim of Eden’s opening preparation, Black was trying to hang on in an ending the exchange down with two pawns left each on the kingside. Eden pressed and eventually convinced the arbiter that he was trying to ‘win by normal means’ after some diplomatic intervention by Raoof. So the Sharks benefited from having an International Fide Arbiter as team captain despite the ‘drawmaster’ giving up his top board spot for Eden.
So 3-1 in the second round gave the Sharks a well deserved win by 6 games to 2. With the British Championships looming in the near future, the Sharks are looking for any members wanting to play on top board!