Tom Townsend‘s Hammersmith 1 in the Central London League has added some reinforcements this month (new members Sergiy and Berk) and returned to Pimlico since last December – one match took place in January, but it was against our own second team and therefore played at the MSC.
Hoping to keep our promotion chances alive, the tasks were to beat local club Pimlico, and to at least draw against the intimidating leaders Streatham, who have not lost a match yet and consistently field players in the 2100-2350 range. Gastón was acting captain on both matches, and shares his thoughts on the games.
Hammersmith 1 vs Pimlico 3 (Thursday 06 Feb 2025)
This was an interesting match, with Pimlico 3 bringing some lower rated players than usual. On paper we had a big advantage, but when the clocks start ticking it’s rarely so easy! The venue was quite crowded, which made it hard to check on how the other games were going.
I could see Cian going for a line in the French defense of which I know little theory so I couldn’t evaluate the position easily. This was in fact the first game to end so I suppose Black was okay!
Board 2 also saw a French, with Sergiy taking the initiative as White and giving up an exchange in order to keep his opponent’s king in the centre, while securing a strong outpost for his bishop. The game looked very entertaining and it eventually ended with checkmate on the board after a precise sequence of moves. A great first game for a new club member!
My own game was not so interesting, although the context perhaps was. My opponent David is also my colleague and we both co-host a chess club at our office! We have played blitz games against each other many times, with mixed results. This time he tried some offbeat moves in the opening and got into an awkward position early on, until his queen got trapped in a somewhat amusing way.
These 3 results were enough to win us the match, but the fight continued on boards 3 and 4. Bajrush had an unfortunate moment when he captured a pawn leaving a piece en prise, as he would give a back-rank checkmate a few moves later. I was watching and thought it was a clever trick, only to realise Black could actually block the “checkmate”… So White lost a piece and the game later on.
On the last game to finish, Christof played a complex middlegame which turned into a fascinating knights endgame, full of tactics and counterattacks. His central pawns were marching on but his king was unable to support them, while his opponent’s monarch marched to the queenside to push his pawn majority. Christof managed to use his knight to stop white’s last passed pawn, but with the white king trying to chase it away, a threefold repetition could not be avoided.
The final result was Hammersmith 3.5 – 1.5 Pimlico.
Hammersmith 1 vs Streatham 1 (Thursday 20 Feb 2025)
We knew this match was going to be tough and even then Streatham was stronger than we expected. All their players were rated higher than our board 1! The first result was decided on the Tube: some incident caused disruption on several lines and prevented Streatham’s board 5 from arriving before the default time, and unfortunately Berk did not get a game.
The other four games did get played, and mine was the shortest one: it was an unusual line in the Accelerated Dragon which I had played a month ago with opposite colours against Hammersmith 2’s Grigoris, when I deviated earlier from the known theory. This time I had Black and my opponent Jeremy did play the most critical moves, although the time he was spending suggested he was out of book. The lines I had once looked at were complex and I could not remember what I was supposed to do, so I got in a bad position after giving up a pawn. I was lucky to find a tactic that restored the material balance, and we landed on a rook endgame with 5 pawns each. A draw was agreed shortly after.
Sergiy was facing their highest rated played (and FM) on board 2, and he had a slight initiative at some point in an Italian game, gaining space on the queenside and keeping a solid pawn centre. He then tried to push forward on the kingside too, but it was his own king who got exposed in the process. Black got a strong attack with some rook lifts and won a pawn, converting in the endgame and equalizing the match score.
All the fireworks were happening on board 4, with Christof launching a daring kingside attack and then finding a nice sequence that won an exchange as shown in the diagram, where 1… Qe7 would lose to 2. Rxf6. The game ended quickly after 1… Qxd4 2. Qxe8 Kg8 3. Qe4 Qb6 4. Qd5+ Kh8 5. Qf7 Qb8 6. Rxf6! gxf6 7. Nf5 d5+ 8. Kg2 1-0
This result brought some relief, as we were then leading 2.5-1.5 meaning we could not lose the match. We were still hoping for a win and it all depended on Harry‘s game. He was defending as Black against a King’s Gambit, and while it looked scary at some point, White settled for trading queens and coming out with an extra pawn. After more trades, the resulting endgame had White with a bishop and 5 pawns and Black with a knight and 4 pawns. Harry tried to create a fortress but his opponent played very accurately and managed to convert the advantage. Overall, an amazing effort by our team, outgraded by a large margin on all boards.
The Fight for Promotion
Drawing this match keeps us potentially on equal footing with Streatham, as we have played fewer matches. Our next match (6th March) is the return leg against them. We are yet to face Battersea Galacticos which is another strong team in this division and our first encounter will be in March as well. Please let Tom know if you want to play either or both.
Clearly, next month will be crucial as only one team gets promoted. Let’s keep it up!
