The 2024–25 Middlesex League season is well and truly underway, with five matches having been played already!
We have a significantly larger number of matches this season, around 50% more than last year. That’s because we decided to run an extra team (for a total of five) and because several other clubs chose to do the same. So there should be no shortage of match play for any members who want it!
All fixtures are now available in our event calendar.
I’m also pleased to announce we have several new team captains for this season:
The season began on 19th September with a hard-fought tie between our two Division 3 teams, Hendon 4 and Hendon Barnet Knights:
| Hendon 4 | Hendon 4 | Hendon Barnet Knights Juniors | Hendon Barnet Knights Juniors | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogal, Christopher | 1726 | 0 - 1 | McLean, Rory | 1723 | ||
| 2 | Garcia, Tom | 1656 | 0 - 1 | Hazell, Peter | 1711 | ||
| 3 | Alshehabi, Shehab | 1647 | 0 - 1 | Paulins, Michael | 1516 | ||
| 4 | Clarke, Antoine | 1448 | 1 - 0 | Ben-Eshak, Djad | 1321 | ||
| 5 | Lewis, David | 1391 | 1 - 0 | Khnkoyan, Areg | ~1072 | ||
| 6 | Kapur, Gul | 1382 | 1 - 0 | Khnkoyan, Robert | ~851 | ||
| 3 - 3 | |||||||
The return match between the two opponents took place the following week, and finished with the same scores:
| Hendon Barnet Knights Juniors | Hendon Barnet Knights Juniors | Hendon 4 | Hendon 4 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLean, Rory | 1723 | 1 - 0 | Ben-Nathan, David | 1733 | ||
| 2 | Tailor, Sundip | 1528 | ½ - ½ | Rogal, Christopher | 1726 | ||
| 3 | Sriram, Gautam | 1520 | ½ - ½ | Alshehabi, Shehab | 1647 | ||
| 4 | Paulins, Michael | 1516 | 1 - 0 | Kollias, Vasileios | ~1600 | ||
| 5 | Ben-Eshak, Djad | 1321 | 0 - 1 | Ramasamy, Thirukumaran | ~1600 | ||
| 6 | Tan, Austin Synhern | 1001 | 0 - 1 | Gordon, Marcus | 1299 | ||
| 3 - 3 | |||||||
It’s not surprising to see juniors doing so well against higher-rated opposition, but it’s encouraging to see that the tradition of strong junior players coming up through the Club is being kept well and truly alive!
On the same evening as this return match, Hendon 2 were kicking off their season with a comprehensive demolition of newly-promoted Willesden & Brent:
| Hendon 2 | Hendon 2 | Willesden & Brent 1 | Willesden & Brent 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sanitt, Ethan | 2085 | 1 - 0 | Fulton, Anthony R | 2022 | ||
| 2 | Lebedev, Lion | 2038 | 1 - 0 | Solomon, D Ajoy | 1912 | ||
| 3 | Amior, David | 1931 | 1 - 0 | Cowan, Xavier | 1870 | ||
| 4 | Rubeck, Jonathan | 1913 | 1 - 0 | Jones, Keith S | 1733 | ||
| 5 | Nilim, Armaan | 1815 | ½ - ½ | Liebesny, Simon | 1721 | ||
| 6 | Pepe, Salvatore | 1746 | ½ - ½ | Beachley, Evan | 1662 | ||
| 5 - 1 | |||||||
To bring you up-to-date: last Thursday (3rd October), our first away fixtures took place. The venue was the MindSports Centre, near Ravenscourt Park; this is normally the home of Hammersmith Chess Club, but this season Kings Head are also playing their home fixtures there, and these two matches were against their second and third teams.
The venue was very full, with the two Middlesex League matches alongside a couple of London League matches involving Hammersmith teams!
It was quite a challenge raising teams for this match, as many of our members were celebrating Rosh Hashanah (we have such a packed fixture calendar this season that avoiding holidays in all cultural and religious traditions is more or less impossible). Also, Hammersmith is one of the venues further from us, which significantly reduces the number of players willing to play.
We managed to get away with just one last-minute default, but the lack of players showed in the results, with both teams significantly out-rated and going down to defeat, albeit scoring some decent individual results in the process:
| Kings Head 2 | Kings Head 2 | Hendon 2 | Hendon 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Davey, Mark | 2099 | 1 - 0 | Funk, Alexander | 1821 | ||
| 2 | Randall, Simon | 2030 | 1 - 0 | Nilim, Armaan | 1812 | ||
| 3 | Mackenzie, Colin | 2023 | ½ - ½ | Medworth, Andrew | 1740 | ||
| 4 | Inzani, MPL | 1958 | 1 - 0 | Alshehabi, Shehab | 1630 | ||
| 5 | Anderson, Peter F | 1845 | ½ - ½ | Moosdeen Mui, Daniel | 1600 | ||
| 6 | Bourke, Alex | 1821 | ½ - ½ | Pride, Stephen | 1631 | ||
| 4½ - 1½ | |||||||
| Kings Head 3 | Kings Head 3 | Hendon 4 | Hendon 4 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tomkin, Neil D | 1671 | 0 - 1 | Ramasamy, Thirukumaran | 1754 | ||
| 2 | Balatoni, Richard A | 1629 | ½ - ½ | Tailor, Sundip | 1567 | ||
| 3 | Bonn, Doug M | 1526 | 1 - 0 | Clarke, Antoine | 1455 | ||
| 4 | Grant-Ross, Peter | 1521 | 1 - 0 | Lewis, David | 1376 | ||
| 5 | McGann, John M | 1250 | 0 - 1 | Kapur, Gul | 1373 | ||
| 6 | WALKOVER | 1 - 0 | DEFAULT | ||||
| 3½ - 2½ | |||||||
We have a lot of away matches at the MindSports Centre this year, as Kings Head have three teams and Hammersmith have four! Thankfully our next away date there (7th November) does not clash with any holidays as far as I know; this should hopefully help, as should the fact that all these matches will be on Thursdays, matching our own home club nights.
However, I would like to remind all members that we cannot run teams unless we are able to fulfil the away fixtures, so any efforts to make yourselves available for these matches are greatly appreciated.
I’d like to thank everyone who played in all these matches, especially the away ones.
Here’s hoping for a great season of league chess!