Battersea are riding high across the London Chess League divisions after four teams pulled off key season-defining victories this week, two of which were real coupon-busters.
First up, Battersea 2 had two adjourned games to complete in their match against Greater London on Tuesday – neither of which were looking winnable.
Captain Tim Wells and Joe Skielnik were both up against higher-rated opposition yet somehow Joe managed to get the point needed to beat the central Londoners.
Check out the results & tables here
Tim’s account of the match, which he describes as “hotly-contested and somewhat contentious”, is rather entertaining and you can read the edited version below.
It keeps the second team’s perfect five wins out of five record going this season as they chase promotion to division 2.
Battersea MI Vs Greater London
Meanwhile, in the same room Chris Rebbeck‘s division 6 title-chasing Battersea MI team battered Greater London’s Minor team 3.5-0.5 to also stay unbeaten.
That wasn’t wholly unexpected given the rating difference between the two sides and the fact Greater London were – and remain – bottom of the division.
However, there was more to come.
Battersea 3 Vs Morley College
Over in Battersea, Bill Drennan marked his first game in charge
of the Battersea 3 team since taking over from Arnold Hunt with an 8-0 drubbing of Morley College, albeit helped by three defaults.
Bill and Arnold’s team are now poised for a title-challenge standing fourth in division 4 with matches in hand over all the teams above them.
Then came the big match with a Game of the Season contender.
Battersea 1 Vs Streatham & Brixton
On Wednesday, Battersea 1 were up against local rivals Streatham & Brixton and right up to the 11th hour captain Midhun Unnikrishnan was facing a bit of a crisis.
Battersea members will have seen the panicked emails saying we only had five players available for a 10-a-side match. Perhaps people feared playing the first team – well they shouldn’t, as we shall see…
But the five needed were eventually found, thanks to several brave souls stepping forward, and the match was on.
Battersea, who included debutant Carla Inzerelli and Minor team skip Chris, were still heavily out-graded by an average 161 to 185 – and that was despite the last-minute coaxing of FM Adam Taylor to play.
Yet how it played out was nothing short of incredible.
Wins from Bao Nghia Dong, Midhun, Tim Spanton, Joe again along with battling draws from Adam on board 1 and Emil Todorow over a player graded 25 points above him eventually secured the win.
Wow, just wow!
But it was a draw that was, frankly, completely against the odds for Chris Rebbeck that set the tone of the night.
Chris didn’t just hold Streatham & Brixton’s 171-rated Kostyantyn Titorenko, he matched him blow-for blow.
Could this be the performance of the season? It is certainly up there. We’ll post up the game later.
It leaves the first team third in division 1 with four wins out of four and games in hand. Watch out Wood Green…
Battersea 2 Vs Greater London
Tim Wells’ match report: I’m very happy to report that the hotly-contested and somewhat contentious match v Greater London has gone to us after the two adjourned games were resumed.
My own game on board 8 was lost at the adjournment; I managed to botch a completely even endgame several moves before, and try as I might, it was not to be saved.
Joe, on the other hand, snatched a win from the jaws of a (nearly) dead draw, after having been on the back foot earlier in the game. The odd thing was that his opponent, three or four moves into the resumption, refused to make another move for about forty minutes; he was obviously waiting to see the result of my game on the next board to decide whether he should play for a win or a draw.
He went out for a smoke, went for a coffee, but still didn’t make what was really his only decent move. I realized what was happening, and played on much longer than I should have in a lost position, winding Joe’s opponent’s clock down.
When I finally resigned, and Joe’s game resumed, his opponent found himself a Pawn down in a Rook+Pawn endgame, still drawable, but he then and Joe bagged the full point. What a match.
Battersea 2’s next match is on Monday, February 25 at Athenaeum, clocks starting at 6.45pm.
