With the Middlesex League season approaching its “business end”, Hendon 1 and Hendon 2 were both in action on Thursday, in different venues.
Hendon 1 secured their Division 1 status with an excellent 3–3 tie away against Kings Head; Hendon 2 lost to runaway Division 2 winners West London at home.
There were some excellent individual results on the top boards, with Armaan Nilim holding his GM opponent to a draw, and Gary Senior also drawing with a FM!
This was Hendon 1’s final match of the season. Going into this fixture, relegation looked unlikely but not mathematically impossible, so we were really hoping to come away with some kind of result to avoid having to rely on favourable outcomes elsewhere.
The team was out-rated on all boards by an average of 117 points, so the task looked intimidating, but the team rose to the occasion! All the top four boards were drawn, and David Ben-Nathan won with Black on Board 6, the only board where the ratings were almost balanced.
| Kings Head 1 | Kings Head 1 | Hendon 1 | Hendon 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McMichael, Richard J (FM) | 2226 | ½ - ½ | Senior, Gary | 2077 | ||
| 2 | Gilfillan, Andrew | 2110 | ½ - ½ | Macneil, Elliott | 1982 | ||
| 3 | Spivack, Simon SY | 2100 | ½ - ½ | Amior, David | 1960 | ||
| 4 | O'Shaughnessy, Conor | 1994 | ½ - ½ | Rubeck, Jonathan | 1896 | ||
| 5 | Inzani, MPL | 2013 | 1 - 0 | Sartenaer, Jean-Claude | 1836 | ||
| 6 | Bourke, Alex | 1798 | 0 - 1 | Ben-Nathan, David | 1789 | ||
| 3 - 3 | |||||||
With this result, Hendon 1’s Division 1 status is now secure for next season, as we finish on 6/14 match points, and Ealing (on 4½/13) and Harrow (on 1½/12) can no longer catch us. Congratulations to captain Eric Eedle and the players!
Next season will be a greater challenge, as one of the relegated teams will be replaced by West London, who are likely to surge straight to the top of the Division.
Speaking of West London, Hendon 2 faced them at home on the same day in their final home match.
With the Division 2 title long secured (13 wins out of 13, with their nearest rivals way behind on 5½!), our opponents didn’t have quite as strong a line-up as in some previous matches. They still brought an intimidating side, with a Ukrainian GM on Board 1; WGM Lan Yao, who played Board 1 for the England women’s team at the 2024 Olympiad in Budapest, could only make Board 2 for West London this time!
When I first looked at the two sides, I had faint hopes we might somehow nick something, as we out-rated our opponents on Boards 5 and 6, and the rating difference was not astronomical on Boards 3 and 4. If we could win the bottom two and somehow nick a point elsewhere, perhaps we could pull off a famous upset and spoil our opponents’ 100% record?
Unfortunately this was not to be. We took the lead after I managed to win a chaotic game on bottom board, but our opponents won on the middle four.
However, on top board, young Armaan Nilim rose superbly to the challenge against his GM opponent (rated over 600 points higher), achieving a winning position out of the opening. With a slower time limit, I believe Armaan would have gone on to score the full point, but the complexities of navigating the opening stages left Armaan very short of time, and he understandably offered his opponent a draw, which was gratefully accepted!
Congratulations to Armaan on this fantastic result, which I’m sure will give him great confidence as he heads off to Belgium this weekend for the Flanders England Youth Team Rapid!
| Hendon 2 | Hendon 2 | West London 1 | West London 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nilim, Armaan | 1900 | ½ - ½ | Kovchan, Alexander (GM) | 2532 | ||
| 2 | Alster, Robert | 1897 | 0 - 1 | Yao, Lan (WGM) | 2300 | ||
| 3 | Harris, Sean | 1858 | 0 - 1 | Jezierski, Colum | 1929 | ||
| 4 | Kollias, Vasileios | 1761 | 0 - 1 | Hayler, Andrew | 1938 | ||
| 5 | Pride, Stephen | 1738 | 0 - 1 | Thorp, Toby | 1571 | ||
| 6 | Medworth, Andrew | 1718 | 1 - 0 | Winter, Stuart JM | 1446 | ||
| 1½ - 4½ | |||||||
Many thanks to everyone who played this week!
Next Thursday is our final home match night of the season, with Hendon 4 hosting Kings Head 3.