Yesterday saw two Middlesex League matches at the Cumberland Club. Hendon 2 lost 3½–2½ to Muswell Hill 1 in Division 1, while Hendon 4 won their internal Division 3 match 4–2 against Hendon 6.
The Muswell Hill team had a couple of Hendon players from days of yore in Oscar Pollack and Sacha Brozel; it was a pleasure to see them back at the Club, even playing for the opposition!
The match looked like an uphill battle on paper, with our team heavily out-rated, especially on Boards 1, 3 and 4. However, Rob, Sanne and David all scored decent draws with the Black pieces, and while Aviraj eventually lost to his strong opponent on Board 4, Armaan scored an excellent win on Board 6, leaving the match level with just one game to play.
On Board 3, Eric faced the same opponent as in Hendon 1’s home match against the same team last month (despite my attempts to field a clearly weaker team). Last time Eric managed to win, but unfortunately he was unable to repeat the feat on this occasion, as his opponent played very well in time trouble to take advantage of Eric’s weakened king.
So in the end, all our Black games were drawn, and all our White games were decisive, but unfortunately not in our favour!
| Hendon 2 | Hendon 2 | Muswell Hill 1 | Muswell Hill 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Willmoth, Robert F | 2160 | ½ - ½ | Badacsonyi, Stanley | 2491 | ||
| 2 | Eedle, Eric F | 2157 | 0 - 1 | Wilks, Simon | 2217 | ||
| 3 | De Boer, Sanne | 1986 | ½ - ½ | Pollack, Oscar | 2210 | ||
| 4 | Bhaduri, Aviraj | 1961 | 0 - 1 | Brozel, Sacha | 2225 | ||
| 5 | Amior, David | 1959 | ½ - ½ | Ethelontis, Alexandros N | 2064 | ||
| 6 | Nilim, Armaan | 1956 | 1 - 0 | Burnton, Joshua | 2037 | ||
| 2½ - 3½ | |||||||
Meanwhile, in the all-Hendon match in Division 3, all games were decisive. Hendon 4’s top three boards Nick, Salvatore and Lara all won, and Arun picked up the final point they needed to clinch the match. Marcus won his Board 4 game for Hendon 6, and the last game to finish was the all-junior clash on Board 6, which was eventually won by Arvin.
| Hendon 6 | Hendon 6 | Hendon 4 | Hendon 4 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogal, Chris S | 1707 | 0 - 1 | Murphy, Nick | 1729 | ||
| 2 | Bansal, Rineesh | 1605 | 0 - 1 | Pepe, Salvatore | 1669 | ||
| 3 | Jacobs, Stanley G | 1453 | 0 - 1 | de Boer, Lara | 1556 | ||
| 4 | Gordon, Marcus | 1373 | 1 - 0 | Bansal, Ronak | 1398 | ||
| 5 | Hulstrom, Tony | 1343 | 0 - 1 | Mahtani, Arun | 1371 | ||
| 6 | Gharehbaghi, Arvin | 1 - 0 | Grygorenko, Philip | 1269 | |||
| 2 - 4 | |||||||
Many thanks to everyone who played this week!