Hendon Barnet Knights Juniors were defeated 3½–2½ by Kings Head 3 at home last Thursday in the Middlesex League.
Our team scored +1 on the top three boards, with Michael Paulins scoring a good win on board 3 and the top two boards drawn. Austin Tan made a very creditable draw on board 6; however, Kings Head’s higher-rated players did the business on boards 4 and 5 to secure the win.
| Hendon Barnet Knights Juniors | Hendon Barnet Knights Juniors | Kings Head 3 | Kings Head 3 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nilim, Armaan | 1812 | ½ - ½ | Chantrell, Paul | 1760 | ||
| 2 | Hazell, Peter | 1728 | ½ - ½ | Osborne, WK (Bill) | 1706 | ||
| 3 | Paulins, Michael | 1560 | 1 - 0 | Tomkin, Neil D | 1671 | ||
| 4 | Ben-Eshak, Djad | 1312 | 0 - 1 | Ainscow, Faye | 1541 | ||
| 5 | Morin, Julian | 1178 | 0 - 1 | Bonn, Doug M | 1526 | ||
| 6 | Tan, Austin Synhern | 997 | ½ - ½ | Grant-Ross, Peter | 1521 | ||
| 2½ - 3½ | |||||||
On the same evening, Hendon 3 played their first match of the season. The visitors were West London.
While I was very glad to see West London return to the Middlesex League after a two-year hiatus, I was rather less glad to see them bring a team with two WGMs and an IM on their top three boards!
This was more of a mis-match than a match, with our opponents’ board 6 rated higher than our board 1. We were out-rated by over 400 points on average, and almost 600 points on the top three boards.
Since West London’s previous match featured GMs Shreyas Royal and Eldar Gasanov, I suppose we should feel fortunate their team was not even stronger than it was! It is clear their captain Andy Hayler has been doing some serious recruiting work over the summer.
Our opponents are to be congratulated on persuading so many strong players to play for them. However, at the risk of sounding ungracious: given that they have fielded two sides substantially stronger than any yet to play in Division 1 so far this season, serious questions have to be asked as to why this team was placed in Division 2, when they clearly don’t belong there.
I am curious why these titled players would consider it worth their time to turn up to Division 2 league matches to face opposition rated 500 points or more below them. It will be interesting to see if they continue to turn out for West London all season.
| Hendon 3 | Hendon 3 | West London 1 | West London 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ramasamy, Thirukumaran | 1753 | 0 - 1 | Navrotescu, Andreea-Cristiana (WGM) | 2387 | ||
| 2 | Medworth, Andrew | 1740 | 0 - 1 | Mirzoeva, Elmira (WGM) | 2289 | ||
| 3 | Pepe, Salvatore | 1694 | 0 - 1 | Zapolskis, Antanas (IM) | 2270 | ||
| 4 | Pride, Stephen | 1644 | 0 - 1 | Jezierski, Colum | 1973 | ||
| 5 | Alshehabi, Shehab | 1630 | 0 - 1 | Hayler, Andrew | 1965 | ||
| 6 | Tailor, Sundip | 1565 | 0 - 1 | Campbell, Russell | 1779 | ||
| 0 - 6 | |||||||
My particular sympathies go to Sundip Tailor, for whom this was his first match as captain – things can only get better from here!
Many thanks to everyone who played this week. Plenty more matches to come!