Kenilworth stormed into the final of the Leamington League KO Cup last night, with a convincing 4-1 win at Solihull. Last year - and against a much stronger Solihull team - we had enjoyed an unbelievable 5-0 win at the same stage of the competition. There must be something in the air at the Blossomfield Club that gets our adrenaline flowing!
Carl continued his unbelievably hot streak by getting our first point with his third win in a matter of weeks against Tony Sadler on Board 3. Yet again the game was wild and Carl's position looked rather dubious at times, but just like the other twice, he weathered the difficulties to keep his nerve and bring home the bacon. But is advancing your g and h pawns all the way up the board and then castling kingside really the safest strategy, Carl?!
Then we had two quick draws to cement our lead. Bernard drew with Black on Board 4 against Ian Brodie after an interesting game (was it really a Modern Benoni?!) ended up in an equal rook ending. I had hoped Bernard's passed c pawn might yield more, but White was able to win it in exchange for his h pawn, which left 3 pawns each on the kingside and no way to progress for either party. Immediately afterwards Ben drew on Board 5 after seemingly having the upper hand against Julian Summerfield's Dutch Defence. Ben's attack against the Black king didn't cause as much damage as it looked likely to, though, and it ended up as a knight v bishop ending. Black's pawns were all blocked on the same coloured squares as his bishop, so again I hoped for better things, but Ben's knight was apparently unable to cause any havoc.
And then right at the time control, the two remaining games both ended in our favour to wrap up a comprehensive win. Andrew started with one of his bizarre opening sequences against Ray Carpenter on Board 1 (1 c3 and 2 h3) but it worked a treat. Ray took a hot pawn and found himself immediately pushed back as Andrew exerted enormous pressure down the e and f files. Black's rooks took up very strange positions on b6 and h7, and with his king stuck in the centre, his pawns shattered and pins all over the place, the position proved indefensible. A very nice win by Andrew.
Seconds later, I followed up with a win against Neil Clarke on Board 2 - also the third time we've played in the last few weeks. (Though unlike Carl I can't boast a 100% record!) Neil tried the strangely trendy London System, but I managed to equalise quite easily and play revolved around White's bishop on h2. When Neil decided to play g3 to push my knight out of f4 it wasn't the most dynamic of pieces. He sacrificed a pawn for some activity, but in trying to liberate his entombed bishop with an f4 break he allowed my queen into f3. Fritz tells me the position was still defensible (it didn't look it at the time!), but in time trouble he mistakenly captured a pawn on f7 with a bishop from c4. This removed a key defender of his king, and a couple of checks forced the win of his queen.
So an excellent win from our So Solid Crew, and a great credit to our squad depth. Our defence of the Cup continues and we can now look forward to a final - probably against Olton - in early May.
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