Our last club night of 2025 took place on Thursday, with Hendon 2 and 4 both in Middlesex League action against their counterparts from Hammersmith.
I’m pleased to report that we won both matches, to finish the year in style!
In the Division 2 clash, Hendon 2 comfortably out-rated Hammersmith 2 on all boards, so I had high hopes of victory.
I had to step into the match relatively late on due to a withdrawal from the team; since my game ran quite long, I wasn’t able to observe most of the games in progress.
While I did eventually win my game, when I looked at the match situation, the result seemed very much in the balance, as Hammersmith had achieved creditable draws on Boards 1 and 5, and even won on Board 2.
Thankfully, Elliott pulled off a win on Board 3, meaning we couldn’t actually lose the match, but Avinash had a difficult position on Board 4, a pawn down in an ending with queen and bishop against his opponent’s queen and knight. I was worried the position might actually be lost against best play.
Fortunately, the Hammersmith player was unable to convert the advantage, and eventually a draw was agreed, meaning we narrowly won the match 3½–2½. Phew!
| Hendon 2 | Hendon 2 | Hammersmith 2 | Hammersmith 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amior, David | 1999 | ½ - ½ | Hodgson, Jeremy K | 1913 | ||
| 2 | Rubeck, Jonathan | 1994 | 0 - 1 | Flavell, Archie | 1859 | ||
| 3 | Macneil, Elliott CM | 1993 | 1 - 0 | Croasdale, Mark | 1762 | ||
| 4 | Reddy, Avinash | 1906 | ½ - ½ | Williams, Joseph | 1634 | ||
| 5 | Alster, Robert | 1852 | ½ - ½ | Toma, Florin | 1649 | ||
| 6 | Medworth, Andrew | 1724 | 1 - 0 | Kwabiah, C Kenneth | 1569 | ||
| 3½ - 2½ | |||||||
In the Division 3 match, Hendon 4 also enjoyed a comfortable rating advantage over Hammersmith 4, despite a late withdrawal (many thanks to Abe for stepping in at the last minute!).
Wins for Salvatore, Ilya, Rohan and debutant Yann Janssen secured a 4–2 victory.
| Hendon 4 | Hendon 4 | Hammersmith 4 | Hammersmith 4 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pepe, Salvatore | 1674 | 1 - 0 | Fookes, Nicholas | 1522 | ||
| 2 | Vorozhtsov, Ilya | 1637 | 1 - 0 | Aserkoff, Daniel | 1514 | ||
| 3 | Epstein-Lightman, Yishai | 1625 | 0 - 1 | Eastham, Luna | 1455 | ||
| 4 | Barbier-Ramaiah, Rohan Theo | 1553 | 1 - 0 | Zacek, Frantisek | 1253 | ||
| 5 | Abraham, Abe | 1239 | 0 - 1 | Mulholland, Jenny | 1172 | ||
| 6 | Janssen, Yann | 1577 | 1 - 0 | Scheurer, Eric | 1267 | ||
| 4 - 2 | |||||||
We could hardly have asked for a better end to 2025 than a pair of match victories! It was great to see several social games taking place alongside.
Many thanks to everyone who played!
Hendon Chess Club would like to wish all its members and friends, and their families, a very happy and peaceful holiday season. See you in 2026!