Yesterday, Hendon 2 scored a convincing 5–1 win at home against Ealing 1, while Hendon 4 scored a creditable draw away at Kings Head 3.
Hendon 2 fielded a strong home team this week, though I still expected a close match as our opponents were also strong on paper.
David Amior won significant material quite early in the game and soon won. Armaan also had a big time advantage and a strong attack, which he duly converted. When Eric won his game too, we were 3–0 up and just needed another half point to clinch victory.
This happened shortly afterwards as Avinash drew and Elliott won. Ethan was a pawn down in a rook ending but his pieces were perfectly configured, and he played out a textbook Philidor draw to ensure we won the match without losing a game.
| Hendon 2 | Hendon 2 | Ealing 1 | Ealing 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sanitt, Ethan | 2169 | ½ - ½ | Harley, Andrew D | 2154 | ||
| 2 | Eedle, Eric F | 2013 | 1 - 0 | Quinn, John M | 2062 | ||
| 3 | Macneil, Elliott CM | 1997 | 1 - 0 | Lopez-Martinez, Alejandro | 1860 | ||
| 4 | Amior, David | 1984 | 1 - 0 | Acosta, Natan | |||
| 5 | Reddy, Avinash | 1941 | ½ - ½ | Winterbotham, Mark | 1821 | ||
| 6 | Nilim, Armaan | 1888 | 1 - 0 | Healeas, Simon | 1810 | ||
| 5 - 1 | |||||||
Meanwhile, Hendon 4 were playing away at the MindSports Centre in Hammersmith against a team from Kings Head. Wins for Tom and Aviraj were unfortunately cancelled out by two wins for Kings Head on the lower boards. The remaining two boards were drawn, so the match finished in a tie.
| Kings Head 3 | Kings Head 3 | Hendon 4 | Hendon 4 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Balatoni, Richard A | 1591 | ½ - ½ | Alster, Robert | 1873 | ||
| 2 | Meligonis, George | 1563 | 0 - 1 | Garcia, Tom | 1628 | ||
| 3 | Ainscow, Faye | 1540 | 0 - 1 | Bhaduri, Aviraj | 1824 | ||
| 4 | Grant-Ross, Peter | 1537 | 1 - 0 | Kapur, Gul | 1458 | ||
| 5 | Bonn, Doug M | 1496 | ½ - ½ | Artman, Tony | 1294 | ||
| 6 | Tierney, John | 1241 | 1 - 0 | Abraham, Abe | 1310 | ||
| 3 - 3 | |||||||
Many thanks to everyone who played, and to Gul for standing in as Hendon 4 captain!