On Thursday, Hendon 1 and Hendon Barnet Knights visited the MindSports Centre in Hammersmith. Hendon 1 was heavily out-rated, and lost 3½–2½ despite heroic struggle, but our junior team won by the same scoreline.
Both teams were captained by yours truly, with both regular captains Eric Eedle and Rob Willmoth otherwise engaged.
With four of the opposing players rated higher than our Board 1, and all six rated higher than our Board 2, the Division 1 encounter looked like an uphill battle from the start.
Gary Senior scored an excellent win against a master-level opponent on top board, and David Amior, Jonathan Rubeck and Vasileios Kollias all scored excellent draws. However, unfortunately David Ben-Nathan and I were both unable to overcome the gulf in ratings, and so we made the long journey home with nothing to show for our efforts, though the final scoreline was significantly better than what the ratings would have predicted.
| Hammersmith 1 | Hammersmith 1 | Hendon 1 | Hendon 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stewart, Ashley | 2203 | 0 - 1 | Senior, Gary | 2078 | ||
| 2 | Bonn, Thomas B | 2245 | ½ - ½ | Amior, David | 1957 | ||
| 3 | Teslya, Sergiy | 2168 | ½ - ½ | Rubeck, Jonathan | 1881 | ||
| 4 | Pedersen, Carsten | 2094 | 1 - 0 | Ben-Nathan, David | 1792 | ||
| 5 | Ganguly, Aryaman | 1992 | ½ - ½ | Kollias, Vasileios | 1762 | ||
| 6 | Townsend, Tom | 2003 | 1 - 0 | Medworth, Andrew | 1720 | ||
| 3½ - 2½ | |||||||
Hendon 1 is on a poor run of results, having picked up just ½/6 match points since beating Division 1 back markers Harrow 1 at the end of January. We are still in the top half of the table at the time of writing, but with the teams below having played significantly fewer matches, we are not yet out of relegation danger. Our final match, away against Kings Head on 8th May, could be crucial.
For Hendon Barnet Knights, the news was better: we had 1800+ players on the top four boards (who would have been great to have in the Hendon 1 team, but at this relatively late stage of the season we are running short of players who are eligible for our fifth team). They were able to score 3/4, meaning we just needed a half point to clinch the match, which Ben Samuels provided on Board 6.
| Hammersmith 3 | Hammersmith 3 | Hendon Barnet Knights Juniors | Hendon Barnet Knights Juniors | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kennelly, Paul | 1816 | 1 - 0 | Hulstrom, Tony | 1877 | ||
| 2 | Kwabiah, C Kenneth | 1561 | 0 - 1 | Omarov, Murat | |||
| 3 | Djololian, Olivier | 1596 | 0 - 1 | Napolitano, Domenico | 1821 | ||
| 4 | Duverney, Raphael | 1972 | 0 - 1 | Bakacsi, Zsolt | 1817 | ||
| 5 | Rajesh, Yuvanesh | 1424 | 1 - 0 | Ben-Eshak, Djad | 1468 | ||
| 6 | Gaillard-Bourde, Gregoire | 1388 | ½ - ½ | Samuels, Benjamin | 1289 | ||
| 2½ - 3½ | |||||||
Many thanks to everyone who played!