It’s fair to say that the Roehampton is a bit of a trek. You emerge from a Victorian station at Barnes and have to trek through woodland to get to the road. It’s a bit like being in the country, even though you’re still in zone 3.
The four NLC warriors available for the orienteering trip made their way to the Roehampton Club, with Mister Jacobs making his match debut (after scoring an impressive 3/5 in the Lightning).
The Roehampton is a large modern building set in very impressive grounds. It has its own 18-hole golf course too!
The NLC was expecting a hard match. The fixture against the Roehampton last year was a 3-3 draw, and you don’t know what you’ll find on the opponent’s home patch. But maybe it’s a measure of how far we’ve come. Four games, four wins. Four went wild in Barnes!
In standard NLC fashion Doctor Kirby lost the toss, but the good Doctor was thinking of choosing black anyway. The game against Nick Greenwood followed the same Nimzo-Indian Leningrad variation as their encounter last year. In that game Doctor Kirby emerged a pawn up but couldn’t convert it to victory. But study repays itself and this time he was quickly two pawns up with more accurate play. He simplified the position and sent his extra Queen’s Side pawns motoring.
Mister Whiteley gave his trademark King’s Indian attack another outing against John Purmandy. Mister Whiteley used his development edge and better piece deployment to move to victory.
Mister Widdicombe won in fairly short order against Nina Sugarman. He was wary against an unfamiliar fast-moving opponent but quickly obtained a material advantage.
Mister Jacobs made an impressive debut on Board 4 against Richard Howe. Mister Jacobs had a development edge and won quickly.
Dinner was three courses in the same room as the chess match. All very tasty. It’s a tough job playing chess – visiting other people’s clubs, playing chess and eating good dinners.
Bit of a delay to the post, but that was an excellent trip. I think it shows that playing in the Hamilton Russell gives a structure which works to our advantage in Friendlies.
Just like to put in a word for the Mozzarella starter too – very fresh and springlike.