Midhun Unnikrishnan, Battersea’s first team captain, has carved his name into chess history after being crowned Club Champion for 2022.
The former Imperial College pupil, now a Vice President at Goldman Sachs, clinched the title after defeating former champ Chris Beckett 1.5-0.5.
Midhun’s win ends the extended reign of long-standing member Paul Stokes who has held onto the 137-year-old trophy since 2019 after the last two tournaments were abandoned due to covid.
Here are the games, with annotations from Midhun:
With the win, Midhun, who knocked out Blair Connell in the semi, took his ECF rating to 2260.
Midhun said: “I’d like to thank Aldo in particular, who kept plying the very strong Blair with bottles of Beck’s during the many difficult positions I was in. I’m pretty sure I was lost at multiple points in the game.”
Midhun pointed to one moment in his semi when Blair missed a probable winning position. Can you find the move that gives him the edge?
Beaten finalist Chris paid tribute to his opponent, saying Midhun’s win was “well deserved”.
“Game 1 was a cagey affair, with my attempt to mix things with 1. b4 leading to a quiet middlegame that spluttered briefly into life before turning into a drawn endgame,” Chris said.
“The engine assessment barely changed throughout but Game 2 was much more of a slugfest. Mindful of getting slowly ground down by Midhun’s patient English opening, I decided to start a promising-looking attack by aiming pieces toward his castled king.
“It looked reasonably scary for White but Midhun continued to play sensible chess and – seemingly unruffled by a subsequent piece sacrifice – slowly snuffed out my initiative. He then resisted some late swindle attempts to calmly collect the full point and the Battersea crown.
“A well-deserved win by Midhun and many congrats to the new champion – he’ll take some beating.
“P.S. Apparently the title also comes with a 10-year commitment to be first-team captain,” he joked.
Six players were invited to take part in the Club Championship, out of a total membership in 2022 of 123.
Tom Butterworth, last year’s winner of the Barrow Tournament, went out early along with Luca Buanne. In the semis, Midhun beat Blair and Chris beat Aldo Camilleri.
Midhun’s name has now been added to our illustrious list of Club Champions dating back to 1885.
Midhun, a graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, has previously won the club’s annual Blitz Tournament and was the 4-Seasons Rapid champion in 2020.
This report has been provided in association with officialbookmakers.com.
