Battersea’s first and third teams secured a draw and win respectively on Tuesday night in a London Chess League double-header against Hammersmith.
Midhun Unnikrishnan‘s hastily-arranged first team were heavily-outgraded in their division 1 match despite fielding two IMs drafted in out of semi-retirement at the last-minute.
IM Ed Dearing scored a point on top board and IM Karl Mah drew against Hammersmith’s Christof Brixel. Neither Ed nor Karl had played a competitive game for some time.
On boards 9 and 10, Battersea fielded Minor teamers Tom Butterworth (104 ECF) and Chris Rebbeck (94), who together were conceded an astonishing total of 161 rating points to their opponents.
Chris fought hard but succumbed. However, Tom held for a very impressive draw against James Stevenson (194).
There were wins also for Ali Hill and Kazi Rahman while Viktor Stoyanov and Midhun drew as the match finished 5-5.
Meanwhile, in the division 4 clash Alan Palmer‘s Battersea 3 stayed unbeaten and top of the table with a 5-3 dispatch of Hammersmith 3.
Here’s Alan Battersea 3 match report:
Despite playing without our top five boards from our previous match (!) and one or two nail-biting moments, we won through and achieved our fifth victory out of five.
Gary Smith, playing I think in his first match for the club, held a steady draw despite being well behind on time at one point.
My opponent played very fast and swapped everything off for what should have been a dead cert draw, but then kindly blundered. Bill Drennan‘s game went to the wire with him queening a pawn at one end of the board while struggling to avoid mate at the other, finally settling for a draw by repetition.
Tim Valentine despatched his opponent efficiently while Steve Barry agreed to a draw from a plus position and left early (but having checked the overall state of play with me first).
Meanwhile, Arnold Hunt managed our third victory, but David Blackwell suffered at the hands of a junior – a fate we older players all understand.
I am now handing over to my co-captain, Bill, who will try to see us through to promotion.
Our strongest opponents who we have yet to play will be DHSS 1, who have also won all their games.
Next match: This will be on Tuesday 4 February 2020 away against Lewisham.
