BATTERSEA 1^ST TEAM

London League – Division 2

Who turned the heat up?

.

Recalling the icy conditions of a Golden Lane winter in years past, I took the precaution of wearing a thermal T-shirt only to find the heating on full, which as it turned out was a reasonable metaphor for some of the games that followed: close, edgy affairs all set to build pressure and explode later on. Only they didn’t. In the end, only Paul’s game ended up boiling-over with a nice win against a higher-rated opponent in a transposed closed Sicilian, whilst Alan’s Dutch, Joe’s (as white) Queen’s Indian, Tim’s (as white) Sicilian Dragon, and Andy’s (in an opening I couldn’t identify), all somehow returned to equilibrium after earlier tactical complications.

Ray deployed his patented line against the Scandinavian which led to a nagging pressure on the queenside white squares which in the end erupted into a tactical hit. Emil also faced a Scandinavian (the opening that is, not a blond man with a Nordic accent) but play quickly liquidated down to a drawn middlegame. Dan appeared to have approximate equality in a queen and rook middlegame, albeit with a more exposed king, but suddenly it was all over before I saw what happened –an oversight perhaps? Andres admitted to frustration with his opponent’s opening –the anodyne d4, Nf3, Bg2- and despite being a pawn up was compelled by the rapidplay finish to adopt a high-risk strategy, which sadly backfired. My opponent was obliged to give up a piece early on to avoid mate and it now falls to me to convert the bishop vs passed pawn ending into a win for us to take the match.

Since we were outgraded by an average of 162 vs 157, this was a pretty good result, especially as we were without Tony and Robin, and it likely takes us to 3 wins from 4 matches.

Thanks to everyone for playing.

Richard Edwards

13^th November 2009