Spitfires win in round six
By Hendon LOCL captain Andrew Medworth
Wednesday 7 April, 2021
As we passed the half-way point in season 2 of the London Online Chess League, the Hendon Spitfires returned to winning ways against Wimbledon B. The Hurricanes and Harriers, meanwhile, were defeated by strong opposition.
| East Ham Regals | East Ham Regals | Hendon Hurricanes | Hendon Hurricanes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tom Villiers | 2253 | 1 - 0 | Sacha Brozel | 2260 | ||
| 2 | Frankie Badacsonyi | 2100 | 1 - 0 | Rob Willmoth | 2200 | ||
| 3 | Jude Samarasinghe | 2065 | ½ - ½ | Kennan Kesterson | 1983 | ||
| 4 | Julian Morrison | 2013 | 1 - 0 | Andrew Medworth | 1788 | ||
| 3½ - ½ | |||||||
In this round, I was forced to abandon my comfortable vantage point “above the fray” and make my first captain’s appearance of the LOCL season! Of course, this significantly weakened the side, but on paper we had par grades on the other boards, so I had some hopes we might still do OK.
However, I lost my game, having allowed my opponent to open the centre in a way which left my pieces in an awful tangle, and looked around to find Sacha and Rob losing too.
Sacha had been under attack with a damaged king position earlier in the game, but appeared to have survived, even gaining an extra pawn. However, his exposed king still required him to play accurately, which he didn’t manage to do, and his opponent mustered an attack on f7 which won material. Once queens were exchanged in the blitz finish, any remaining hope was gone.
Rob hadn’t come out of the opening well, but seemed to have kept his disadvantage within manageable bounds. The game hinged on a dangerous exchange sacrifice by Rob’s opponent – former Hendon junior Frankie Badacsonyi – which blew open the centre and gave the East Ham player a dangerous advanced e-pawn. There was an exchange of inaccuracies, but at the end of it, Rob dropped a piece to a queen fork and never recovered.
Kennan ground out a creditable draw on Board 3 to prevent the whitewash, but overall this was a match to forget for the Hurricanes.
The Queens Division games from round 6 are currently available here.
| Hendon Spitfires | Hendon Spitfires | Wimbledon B | Wimbledon B | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | David Amior | 1900 | ½ - ½ | Georgi Velikov | 1747 | ||
| 2 | Alex Funk | 1878 | 1 - 0 | Mike Williams | 1788 | ||
| 3 | Eugenia Karas | 1803 | ½ - ½ | Andrew Blackburn | 1645 | ||
| 4 | Anton Drel | 1510 | ½ - ½ | Martin Lake | 1465 | ||
| 2½ - 1½ | |||||||
The Spitfires were looking to recover from last week’s slightly disappointing draw, and avenge the Harriers’ 4-0 defeat earlier in the season, against Wimbledon B.
I didn’t see in what order the games finished. David had a great position for most of his game, having one or two extra pawns for the majority of it, but didn’t quite manage to convert the ending.
Alex played a distinctly dubious but very tricky variation of the Benoni, but escaped without punishment, and he managed to get a very good minor piece ending which he converted nicely, in what turned out to be the only decisive game of the match!
Eugenia had some difficult chances in the opening phase, but in the end her opponent managed to get a rather good IQP position, and Eugenia was rather fortunate the Wimbledon player decided to take a repetition rather than try to press.
Anton was very lucky to survive the opening, when his opponent missed an opportunity to win a piece on move 5! Anton had a good position later, but the game ended in a repetition, where both players missed a tactic that would have allowed Anton’s opponent to win the pawn on e4 – my engine’s evaluation flips comically between +2 and -1 as the pieces move back and forth, but the important thing was the end result – a draw!
Congratulations to the Spitfires, who remain unbeaten in season 2!
Here are a couple of instructive game segments from the match.
| Amior,D1612 | ½–½ | Velikov,G1747 | |||||||||||||||||
 | London Online Chess League Season 2 - Bishops2021 |  | |||||||||||||||||
| Hendon Harriers | Hendon Harriers | East Ham Beagles | East Ham Beagles | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nick Murphy | 1750 | 1 - 0 | David Edney | 1833 | ||
| 2 | Gul Kapur | 1533 | 0 - 1 | Laith Hayali | 1765 | ||
| 3 | Stanley Jacobs | 1390 | 0 - 1 | Stephen Berkley | 1683 | ||
| 4 | Tony Artman | 1400 | 0 - 1 | Maksim Khromov | 1450 | ||
| 1 - 3 | |||||||
Further down the Bishops Division, the Harriers faced the East Ham Beagles, who aren’t as strong as the Eagles, but still a very decent side. Again, I didn’t see the order the games finished, so I’ll do a board-by-board rundown.
Nick won in 23 moves, when his opponent allowed him a huge centre out of the opening, and then castled into a strong kingside attack: Nick duly blew him away in fine sacrificial style!
That was the end of the good news for the Harriers, though, as Gul and Stanley both left their kings in the middle and succumbed to brutal attacks in their turn.
In the least violent game of the match, Tony had a golden chance to win a piece in the early middlegame, but didn’t see it, and ended up in a rook ending a pawn down, which he wasn’t able to hold.
Many thanks to all who played!
You can currently find all round 6 games in the Bishops Division here.
You can find a list of all stories about season 2 of the London Online Chess League here.