The Middlesex League is now underway, with two weeks of matches having taken place either side of our October blitz!
The League season kicked off on 29th September with Hendon 3 against Hendon Barnet Knights, which the junior team won by a large margin, Hendon 3 only gaining a single draw on top board.
| Hendon 3 | Hendon 3 | Hendon Barnet Knights | Hendon Barnet Knights | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amior, David | 1884 | ½ - ½ | Borces, Randolf | 2019 | ||
| 2 | Pepe, Salvatore | 1700 | 0 - 1 | Bakacsi, Zsolt | 1778 | ||
| 3 | Ainscow, Faye | 1621 | 0 - 1 | Thatte, Nandinee | 1600 | ||
| 4 | Christidis, Athanasios | 1533 | 0 - 1 | Pang, Ethan | 1583 | ||
| 5 | Engelaityte, Evelina | 1421 | 0 - 1 | Michener, Max | 1469 | ||
| 6 | Dharan, Arjun Aditya | 1366 | 0 - 1 | Stus, Orest | 1281 | ||
| ½ - 5½ | |||||||
It has to be said, though, that the match wasn’t as comfortable for the Knights as the scoreline made it look, with several games quite closely contested until the final stages.
The following week, our monthly FIDE Blitz took place, with a decent turnout of 28 players. Congratulations to Zafar Iqbal who won the tournament with a perfect score! Congratulations also to David Amior, who won the prize for top Hendon player with 4½/6 in third place.
Full standings:
Full results available here.
Finally, to bring you completely up to date, on Thursday we had our first double match night of the season, with Hendon 1 facing traditional arch-rivals Hackney, and Hendon Barnet Knights hosting Kings Head 3.
We had to reshuffle the Hendon 1 lineup at the last minute when one player dropped out. Thanks to Barnet Knights for lending us Randolf Borces who slotted in for us on Board 3! The match was fairly close on paper, but Hackey seemed to have the edge, outgrading us on five out of six boards.
However, Jonathan won on Board 6 where we were the ratings favourite, and talented junior Nishchal Thatte pulled off a win on Board 2 as well. With Eugenia scoring a half point on Board 4 and Rob somehow drawing a terrible-looking rook ending on top board, we managed to tie an exciting match!
| Hendon 1 | Hendon 1 | Hackney | Hackney | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Willmoth, Robert F | 2219 | ½ - ½ | Bates, Richard A | 2423 | ||
| 2 | Thatte, Nishchal | 2105 | 1 - 0 | Eames, Robert S | 2181 | ||
| 3 | Borces, Randolf | 2016 | 0 - 1 | Serbanescu, Diana | 2112 | ||
| 4 | Karas, Eugenia | 1854 | ½ - ½ | Robinson, Adam | 1929 | ||
| 5 | Amior, David | 1895 | 0 - 1 | Ciesielski, Marceli | 1904 | ||
| 6 | Rubeck, Jonathan | 1880 | 1 - 0 | Jones, Zebedee | 1628 | ||
| 3 - 3 | |||||||
Meanwhile, I stepped in on Board 2 for Barnet Knights to make up the numbers. I played an awful game, losing with White in 27 moves, but thankfully the rest of the team was in better shape, and picked up enough points to win 4–2.
| Hendon Barnet Knights | Hendon Barnet Knights | Kings Head 3 | Kings Head 3 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bakacsi, Zsolt | 1778 | 1 - 0 | Tomkin, Neil D | 1732 | ||
| 2 | Medworth, Andrew | 1805 | 0 - 1 | Balatoni, Richard A | 1685 | ||
| 3 | Veselow, Zoe | 1719 | 1 - 0 | Grant-Ross, Peter | 1694 | ||
| 4 | Thatte, Nandinee | 1621 | 0 - 1 | Parfett, Gerald F | 1626 | ||
| 5 | Pang, Ethan | 1583 | 1 - 0 | Bonn, Doug M | 1574 | ||
| 6 | Stus, Orest | 1576 | 1 - 0 | Morton, Alistair T | 1562 | ||
| 4 - 2 | |||||||
Many thanks to all who played! We look forward to the rest of the League season: there are plenty more matches to come, with 13 to go before Christmas!