Fireworks and Terrible Decisions

But enough about the US election...

The D team was at Olton last night, with a new look line-up. Bernard Rogers has now taken over from me as the captain, so I can lead the C team, and Daniel Bayliss got a late call-up to make his D team debut.

At 7.45 I was the only Kenilworth player in the building, and getting a little nervous, but bad traffic was the culprit. Soon afterwards we had a full team and proceedings got underway.

Bernard was the first to finish, with a pretty quick, very solid looking draw. The other three games were more dramatic. On Board 2, I was up against Trevor Holt. I was in a terrific position out of the opening and despite then making several sub-optimal choices, landed in a relatively routine endgame two pawns up. Somehow I drifted into time trouble, and was conspiring to make it harder than it should have been. However, Trevor unfortunately missed that he was in check, and the only legal move he could replace his illegal move with, lost instantly and he resigned. I would much prefer that this hadn't happened, and having looked at the game briefly this morning, I was still clearly winning. But the rules are the rules, and certainly on the couple of occasions when I've made the same mistake, my opponents have had no hesitation in enforcing touch-move. So we were up 1.5 - 0.5.

On Boards 1 and 4 respectively, Paul and Daniel were both a pawn down, but their prospects looked very different to me. Daniel had a nice tactic to win back his pawn, after which his opponent Kacper Durkarczyk had to contend with a a terrible pawn structure in a double rook and pawn endgame. Daniel played with real fluency, getting his rooks on just the right squares. He then used a pawn lever to excellent effect to break through. A very good debut win, which put us over the line at 2.5 - 0.5!

On Board 1, I really feared for Paul. There was no way for him to get back to material equality, but queen and pawn endgames are always tricky. Paul showed a great deal of imagination in sacrificing more material to open up more lines for his queen. It was pretty high-stakes stuff and made for a nail-biting watch, but Paul had judged the position brilliantly and Rob Reynolds could not escape a perpetual check. A draw ensued.

So 3-1 and a second victory in a row for the team, which has moved us up to 4th in the table. Planning all our teams this season remains a complex task. So, I did just want to echo Bernard's previous plea to some of our less frequent players, to help us out where they can, and to ask that everyone responds promptly to availability asks. A lot of work is going into our selection processes, and everyone can help to make this a little easier... 

I would much rather things had landed more happily on the other side of the Atlantic, but at least it was a good night in Olton.

Home Again

 Last night the C team played Rugby A, back at the Abbey Club, 2 weeks on from the D team's victory against them on the road. 

This was my first match as C team captain, and we showed only one change from the previous D team line up, with Andy Ward in on one, and Paul, Dhairya and me all dropping down a board. This wasn't a case of me doing an Eric Ten Hag and simply picking the players I had worked with before (with the same risks to my long-term employment prospects!?!). More the vagaries of availability on the night and the challenges we face in managing our squads. On the one hand, we were stronger than the D team which had run out 3.5- 0.5 winners. Yet on the other, Rugby (who were unchanged from that encounter) do possess two 1900+ players, so nothing could be taken for granted. Hence, we were delighted to match the D team result with another 3.5 - 0.5 win!

My own game against Christopher Badley on Board 4 was not one for the album. I was better out of the opening, but struggled to pick up the pace, and eventually found myself in time-trouble. For whatever reason, I was reluctant to play my breakout move as everything looked very double-edged. My hesitation did nothing to help my position. Christopher played the middle phase of the game very well, and despite the good coaching advice I had received from Paul Lam about minimising the risks and making things routine against weaker players, I ended up in a tactical melee that would not have looked out of place in a casino. Christopher had some good chances, but fortunately I was able to find the right tactic to eventually bring home the point. Later in the bar, the two of us enjoyed analysing it with Paul Badger and Phil Wood - one of those games that shows how rich chess really is in terms of the sheer number of possibilities to contemplate. I now just have to brace myself to plug it into Fritz to see how inaccurate we probably both were!

Unfortunately, my battle with the clock meant that I saw nothing of either Paul or Dhairya's games, but both pulled off excellent wins against Patrick Reid and Dave Riley respectively, which meant that we were 3-0 up with the match won! Irrespective of our challenges with player numbers this season, we are truly blessed to have the depth that we do.

We all gathered to watch the end of Andy's Board 1 game against the super-strong Paul Colburn. Andy was grappling to contain Paul's passed pawn, and when he had a 4 minute think which left him a minute on the clock to Paul's five, I feared the worst. However, it transpired that Andy had worked things out brilliantly. Ultimately Paul's pawn was prevented from reaching the 8th rank by a series of very skilful moves on Andy's part, and a draw ensued. 

So a terrific result for the team. For all our talk of just making it through this season, whisper it, but we are second in the table with games in hand... We now have a few weeks off, before games against Olton, top of the table Shirley and Solihull to look forward to this side of Christmas. Here's hoping we build on tonight with some future festive cheer!

Terafic Success for Billy!

And first place in the worst pun of the year competition for me!

Though as pointed out to me by my old friend John Saunders (which has necessitated this update!), my pun is very close to being plagiarism given this offering from the splendidly batty Mrs Doyle!

But its Billy whose performance needs to get star billing here as he recently won the U-12 Terafinal (that's the Grand Final to you and me!) of the mammoth UK Schools Chess Challenge - at the rather prestigious venue of Blenheim Palace, no less. After fighting through Megafinals and Gigafinals, it was just 60 juniors left by the time of the Terafinals, split into 5 age groups playing 12 player all play all tournaments to decide the champions.

The U-12 Terafinal Crosstable - Billy wins by a whole point!

In achieving this great triumph Billy is following in the footsteps of Jude who was a Terafinal winner himself a couple of years ago, and who finished a close up 4th in the U-14 tournament this time around.

The U-14 Terafinal Results

And while two KCC winners at the highest possible junior level is quite something, its even more a case of hats off to Paul, who has coached three Terafinal winners, with Birmingham's Elis Dicen also successful in a previous year.  Remarkable stuff which confirms what a Golden Age this is for junior chess in Warwickshire. (And the county's "old timers" aren't doing too badly either, as 30-something Ameet Ghasi just got his third GM norm and with the rating requirement already achieved will soon be confirmed as Warwickshire's third GM, after Tony Miles and Keith Arkell.)

Billy Receiving the Terafinal Trophy from WFM Sarah Longson, UKSCC Supremo. Thanks to our Social Media Correspondent Bernard Rogers for spotting this Instagram post

By the way, is it just me, or has anybody else noticed a passing resemblance between Billy and Uzbeki Olympiad winner, GM Javokhir Sindarov? Alright, its just me.

A triumph like this deserves a top quality piece of music. One of the greatest pop songs of all time seems appropriate. Apologies if I've used this before, but you really can never hear this brilliant song too often.

From the Archives - Part 18 - Not Much to Shout About, 2006 - 2008

Just when you'd given up hope of ever seeing another of these articles, along comes a fresh instalment - just the 15 months since the previous one. (Which itself saw a wait of 27 months for publication!) But its a story that must be seen through to its end - as Magnus (not Carlsen, but Magnusson!) used to say, "I've started so I'll finish."

Part 15 of our epic saga took us up to the 2006 AGM, since which time the two most recent articles have been concerned with filling in some previous gaps after new information came to light. Our story starts again at the 2006 AGM, but only to touch upon financial matters, as I now have a copy of the accounts. These show that we had made a surplus of £43.37 in 2005/6, stemming the hemorrhaging of the previous year. As a consequence we were sitting on a tidy accumulated fund of £309.42 - all of which, interestingly, was in our building society account. There has never been a club account since I have had anything to do with the financial administration, but maybe we will find out just what caused this change of policy amongst the new papers?

September 2006 - There is a big turnout (apologies from Tom Swallow, Rob Olley, Paul Lam and Len Krombeen, with all other members present) for the team formation meeting, where there is some bombshell news - 2 strong players have joined the club since the AGM and we may be over subscribed with "only" 4 teams entered in the League. Chris, supported by Geoff King, proposed that we should try to secure the admission of a fifth team, but when this was put to the vote, it was rejected by 6-2. Instead we would accommodate the new players by forming squads for each team as follows:-

A team - Phil Pelton, Bernard Rogers, Carl Pickering (Captain), Mike Johnson, Phil Wood
B Team - Paul Mills, Len Krombeen (Captain), Rod Webb (part-time), Nigel Morris, John Skinner, Nick Mottram (part-time)
C team - Roy Watson, Rob Olley (part-time), Chris Aldridge (Captain), Geoff King, Bruce Holland
D team - Tony King, Tony Pickering, Mike Whatson, Frank Holmes (Captain), Steve Payne (part-time)

I can imagine that Phil Pelton was one of the newcomers, but its a mystery to me as to who the other new arrival at that time might have been. Any ideas?

April 2007 - The AGM is to be held on April 28, though in his advance notice of the agenda, the Secretary (B. Rogers, Esq) decides no-one needs to know the venue of the meeting. He must have been watching Field of Dreams on video. "If you don't tell them, they will come anyway. Even when you tell them the wrong date." Because the AGM is actually on April 26, but what's a couple of days between friends?! Apologies were received from Geoff King, Tony King, Len Krombeen, Carl Pickering, Dave Shurrock and John Skinner, while paul Lam, Rob Olley and Phil Pelton were "absent without apology!"

The Chairman's report (presented in absentia) recorded that the A team had finished 8th in Division 1 (this sounds perilously close to last!); the B team 4th in Division 2; the C team 7th in Division 3 and the D team 4th in Division 4.Not much to celebrate there, while the 3 cup teams were all eliminated in Round 1. Thankfully there were some individual successes to report. Carl and Phil contested the final of the League Individual Championship (Carl victorious after a replay), while Carl had also won the Coventry League Individual Championship (not that this had anything to do with Kenilworth!) for a splendid double triumph. He then made it 3/3 by winning the club's own Tilley Trophy, while Nigel Morris won the Soesan Trophy and Mike Whatson the Kenilworth Trophy (of which I have never heard - before or since!)

Perhaps embarrassed by his massively misleading AGM notice, the Secretary did not give a report.  (If I had adopted a similar policy, recent AGM's could have been over in about 10 minutes!) Thankfully the Treasurer did not follow this example and tabled accounts which showed a massive surplus of £139.50, and net assets of £451.42. Despite this, it was proposed that subs should be increased to £20 to enable the purchase of digital clocks and this was agreed by 7-4. 

Phil Wood was elected as the new Club Chairman, while Bernard, Roy and Tony Pickering remained in situ as, respectively, Secretary, Treasurer and Competitions' Secretary.

It then all gets very confusing, as our entry of League teams is apparently dependent upon what night of the week we play.  Someone proposed that we revert to Thursdays for the majority of the matches, using the downstairs room. (Where??) But if needed the A team could play upstairs on Wednesdays. (Sounds like the British Legion Club to me.) We would beg/request that our A team stayed in Division 1, with the B team in Div 2, C and D in Div 3 and E in Div 4. Captains would be, Phil W, Mike J, Len K, Roy W and Mike W. In a display of massive hubris it was also decided to play in all 3 KO Cups, with 2 teams in the U-100 tournament.

Frank Holmes proposed that we should give £50 to Kenilworth Cricket Club for their Fire Appeal. On a vote of 6-4 this was agreed. (I reckon I would have voted against!) They subsequently sent us a letter of thanks. Frank also offered to try and keep the Club website (who knew we had one?) up to date. Wonder how that went?

September 2007 - The Team Formation meeting is attended by all members of the club, except Tom Swallow who sent his apologies. We are up to 5 teams as follows:-

A team - Paul Lam (when available), Phil Pelton, Carl Pickering, Bernard Rogers, Phil Wood (Captain)
B Team - Nigel Morris, Dave Shurrock, Mike Johnson (Captain), Rod Webb, Paul Mills (reserve)
C team - Len Krombeen (Captain), Nick Mottram, Roy Watson, Chris Aldridge (reserve - and E team reserve - try doing that under the current rules and you'd be well and truly hauled over the coals!!)
D team - Geoff King, Frank Holmes (part of season only), Bruce Holland, Mike Whatson (Captain)
E team - Tony King (Captain), Cathy Raison, Steve Payne, Michael Oldfinch, Chris Aldridge

Cup Captains were to be Carl, Bernard, Chris and Mike.

May 2008 - Its that time of the year again, and once more the Secretary decides to keep members guessing about the AGM venue. But at least he gives them the right date this year! No less than 16 members are present (Messrs Aldridge, Holland, Johnson, King T, Krombeen, Morris, Mottram, Payne, Pickering C and T, Rogers, Shurrock, Swallow, Watson, Webb, Whatson, Wood. Apologies were sent by Messrs Skinner, Pelton and Holmes. Regrettably Frank Holmes will be unable to play in the coming season due to ill health, which has also defeated his ambitions to maintain the club website.

The Chairman reported on the Club's League performances, but these were considered too sensitive to be recorded for posterity. However, the club won the U-625 cup, while the two U-100 Cup teams each managed a win before losing in Round 2. Shame on the Open KO tem, though, who withdrew without playing.

Once again the Secretary reported nothing. Nada. Zilch. Rien. One wonders what we were paying him for?

Whereas Treasurer Roy is right on top of his administrative brief and tables the Accounts which show a massive loss of £286.10 and total expenditure of a scarcely credible £667.22. Looks like we had a Labour man in charge of the finances!! We would have broken almost exactly even, though, if we hadn't invested in digital clocks and random donations to organisations with massively greater financial resources than ourselves. Assets are down to £149.67 and we still have a building society account. Fees are to remain at £20 pa, with no charge for juniors.

August 2008 - The British Legion Club confirms our booking of the (upstairs) Concert Room for every Wednesday from September to April. This doesn't seem significant in its own right, but as will become clear in Part 19 - because yes, there's still more to come! - the seeds of a club crisis have been sown. Stand by for more revelations ........ sometime in the future!

No real need for any music to accompany this article, but for anyone who, like me, is being massively annoyed by a current Compare the Market ad on TV it can't hurt to set the record straight and hear the original - and wow, what a spectacular performance this is. You could only get a show like this in Vegas! But you'll have to be patient - the song itself doesn't start till several minutes in!

Victory on the Road

We were at Rugby last night, in sombre circumstances, following the untimely death of Rugby's Club Secretary Malcolm Harding. Malcolm did so much for chess in this area, both at club level, and to support the Coventry League. He will be missed by many. On behalf of all connected with Kenilworth Chess Club, I wanted to share our condolences. Malcolm and his family and friends are very much in our thoughts. Life really is precious and to be cherished. 

At the Board, we were certainly a team in need of a win, and after previous nights of frustration this was one where everything clicked. Dylan led the way brilliantly against Chris Badley on Board 4. Dylan picked up the exchange and liquidated a 2 rook v rook and bishop endgame with ruthless efficiency, giving the material back in exchange for an unstoppable passed pawn. Thus putting us 1-0 up and getting his just rewards, after several previous good games where he might have got more. A terrific first Division 2 point for Dylan - I have no doubt that many more will follow!

Dhairya was on Board 2 against Patrick Reed, who must be glad to now see the back of Kenilworth players for a bit, having lost to me in the Birmingham Rapidplay the day before. Another excellent game from a Kenilworth junior. Dhairya played really well, and created a beautiful mating net in a heavy piece endgame, to put us 2-0 up. With players like Dhairya and Dylan in our ranks, the future looks very positive for the club.

I was on Board 3 against Dave Riley. Usually I would be happy to have White. However, having scored 3/3 with Black and 0.5/4 with White at the forementioned Rapidplay, I was in two minds as to whether to change up my openings. Ultimately I elected to "stick," and as ever against Dave a wildly complicated affair ensued. Fritz unsurprisingly notes we could both have played better, but I always felt I had a slight edge. Eventually a raging kingside attack translated into a more prosaic ending where I was up the exchange but very short of time. However, a knight is never much of a match for a rook in these circumstances, and the final moves proved to be comfortable enough. So 3-0!

Paul was up against the very strong Paul Colburn on Board 1. Down a pawn and down on the clock, I feared the worst. However, our Paul played terrifically and with lots of energy to completely neutralise Colburn's advantage and a draw was agreed. 

3.5 - 0.5 is always a great result, and especially so given we were the lower rated team. I'm now stepping back from D team captaincy duties, to captain the C team. However, I'm still hoping to play in the team's future fixtures, so more posts on our exploits will follow!

A Different Line: Double Headed Farce

 Coming up England by a different line

For once, early in the cold new year,

We stopped, and, watching men with number plates

Sprint down the platform to familiar gates,

"Why, Coventry!" I exclaimed. "I was born here."

Phillip Larkin

Well, if matches against Coventry on successive nights of the week don't warrant a bit of Phillip Larkin, I don't know what does. Even if both games left me feeling about as cheerful as the the curmudgeonly "Bard of Coventry".  

On Monday things seemed to be going exceptionally well, when the D team played Coventry A, in the Leamington League. I was up the exchange on Board 3 against Tom Stamper and Bernard had a dream of a position against Mike Johnson on Board 4. However, at the hour mark, with his rooks menacingly poised on the seventh rank, a monster passed pawn, and threats all over the board, something went horribly wrong for Bernard. He thought he saw a mate, missed Mike's defence, and in a heartbeat a certain point became a defeat. We've all been there. It's part of being a chess player. But it was painful to watch. It just shows however good a position appears, nothing can be taken for granted. Still, Bernard will bounce back!

Moments later Paul lost to the very strong Maung Latt. I didn't see any of the game, yet the reality was we were 2-0 down by about 8.45. When Rhys's game against Ed Goodwin on Board 2 petered out into a draw around 9.00, the match was lost.

My game while now pointless in terms of the match, turned into a real roller-coaster. I missed a win, went wrong and ended up with rook and 2 v knight and bishop. Fortunately for me, Tom also was not as a accurate as he could have been, and I somehow managed to swing back from close to lost to winning again. In the dying seconds (literally) Tom found a good defence and we ended proceedings with just the two kings left on the board. So a 1 - 3 defeat...

So, on to Tuesday. I'm looking after the Coventry League team while Mark is convalescing, and I know how much everyone involved on both sides over the two nights (and of course our whole club) is wishing Mark well. He truly is one of us and we all stand with him and look forward to welcoming him back to the board when he is better.

Unfortunately last night's Coventry match turned into a total farce. At 7.30 Mike and Ben Larkin kicked off on Board 2, but we were waiting for a full compliment of players to arrive. At which point, Coventry realised that their Board 1 was unlikely to appear for the brilliant reason that no one had told him about the game. Terrible organisation on Coventry's part. Much debate ensued about whether Coventry should default on Board 1 or Board 4. We felt it was more sporting to default on 4, however, I did respect the fact that Ed did not want to play himself above Jonathan.

Unfortunately, this meant that Keatan did not get a game, and I want to thank both him and Nash for their patience and understanding and to apologise for a wasted evening. Having played so late the previous night, I somehow found the conversations around the Coventry Board order a bit draining, so by the time I eventually sat down to play I wasn't feeling great, but there we have it.

Ultimately we started 1-0 up. Mike and Jonathan played out an interesting draw. My second game in 24 hours against Tom was a slower burn than the previous night's but ended in another blitz shoot-out. I'd successfully defended a slightly weak IQP all night, and with a level position and two minutes each left on the clocks, fully expected Tom to accept a draw, particularly given in my view Coventry should have forfeited on Board 4 rather than Board 1. But Tom opted to play it out, as of course was his prerogative, and I succumbed in the final less than cheering moments of the game. Fortunately Paul played brilliantly against Ed Goodwin, and won a superb rook and pawn ending which he played with great aplomb to bring home the full point and to give us a 2.5 - 1.5 victory. 

Given we won the match, I won't take issue with the Coventry decision not to play on Board 1 with the League, but will note that when team's are as poorly organised as this, it does take a lot of the fun out of the night for all involved.

So a win and a loss. Some brilliant games (especially Paul's win.) Some real nail-biters (both my games with Tom) and some more painful encounters (particularly Bernard's game against Mike.) On a good day chess is amazing and brilliant. On a bad night, there is a tendency to feel like Larkin who wrote:

"Morning, noon & bloody night

Seven sodding days a week

I slave at filthy WORK

that might

Be done by any book-drunk freak

This goes on until I kick the bucket"

(I've left off Larkin's final line. This being a family friendly publication and all that, but do look it up, for a full sense of how a chess-player feels after a bad loss.)

Still, all chess players know there will always be other nights to look forward too, when things will go better. Those moments when the black and white pieces resonate and connect with us, which is much like the feeling you get, when you happen on the place where you were born.

Up and running

After a couple of false starts (one postponement and one forfeiture), Kenilworth E's season finally got underway on 30th September with a match against Stratford C.

The team line-up was Dan, making his competitive debut in England, Gregory, Roy and Steph.

Gregory was the first to finish. He opened with a London, and soon had a knight, a rook, and a bishop bearing down on the c7 square. His opponent left his queen en pris as he castled queenside, but Gregory didn't waste any time in capturing it. Instead he went in for the kill, with his other knight and queen joining the attack, and checkmate following in only 19 moves. Gregory remains unbeaten whilst playing for Kenilworth.

On board 4, Steph was playing white. Her opponent blundered a bishop on move 5. A menacing attack followed, with queen and knight combining to threaten a fork of rook and king. In attempting to avoid the fork, Black allowed Steph to capture the rook with her queen. A few moves later, Black blundered his second rook. He decided to play on, but Steph easily completed a checkmate in 24 moves.

After his match, Roy, playing black, said that he had messed up the opening, but he got back into the game, and was a knight up in exchange for two pawns. As the pieces were swapped off, the endgame came down to White having a and b pawns versus Roy's knight and a b pawn. There was no way through for either player to promote their pawns, so a draw was agreed.

Dan, playing black on board one, was last to finish. For most of the game, he had a bishop stuck on g7 behind his pawn on f6, and after the heavy pieces had been exchanged, he was left with the bishop against White's knight. Dan had a 3-2 pawn majority on the kingside, and White had a 2-1 majority on the other side. Once his bishop was activated, it landed on a central square, paralysing the knight. With less than a minute on the clock, Dan was able to advance his kingside pawns while his opponent's king was stuck defending the queenside. His opponent resigned, and a 3.5 - 0.5 victory was completed.

Including the forfeited game, it is two wins in two, and as it stands we are top of Division 3.

Well played everyone.

Incoming Storm

 Following a day in which the rain lashed down on Kenilworth, we gathered in the glooming for our match against Shirley B. It is fair to say that this was not an evening where I can honestly declare that it proved to be darkest just before the dawn, so I will keep this match report brief.

On Board 4, Bernard Rogers seemed to have a devastating early kingside attack against Gordon Christie. I wasn't exactly analysing it, but I assumed we were on for a quick point. To his credit, Gordon defended with a lot of skill and somehow Bernard's attack blew itself out, after which Gordon was completely won. So 0-1.

Incredibly, on Board 2 a similar pattern appeared to play out in Rhys's game against Keith Ingram. I suspect this one was always a bit more double-edged, but both players had contributed to a very violent heavy piece position. Ultimately Keith prevailed to make it 0-2.

On Board 3, I had another in a series of very interesting games with Dave Thomas. I didn't get the opening right and was down a pawn, but somehow managed to get a lot of play, and eventually ended up in an endgame a pawn up which I assumed (as did Dave) would be a win. The reality was that it was very difficult. One of those positions where if Dave just sat (which he did) there were real risks that me committing might actually give Dave the win. Having turned down an earlier draw, following a repetition I just couldn't find a way through, so split the point with a few minutes left on my clock. I suspect a GM would have won it, but when we analysed with others in the bar afterwards, it still wasn't obvious. Given I had been behind out of the gate, it was certainly a half point I would have been much happier with earlier in the proceedings.  

Ultimately, it made no difference. Paul and Darren Whitmore played a really good game that went to the wire, but unfortunately for us, Darren just edged it to wrap up a comprehensive win for Shirley.

As I said to Paul afterwards, the margins in chess are always very fine. There wasn't much between the teams on paper and on another night we might have done better. Still all credit to Shirley - they deserved their victory and a few of us had a nice drink and a catch up in the bar afterwards.

For Kenilworth, we've had a somewhat disappointing start to the season, but these things happen. There are plenty of matches still to play. I have no doubt that brighter days are ahead!

Soon to be champions - an arrogant team captain's diary (part 1)

News from the B team's intrepid visit to Stratford-upon-Avon or, to be more precise, an industrial estate just outside Starford-Upon-Avon. I knew it wasn’t a good sign when my phone told me to get off the train at Stratford-Upon-Avon Parkway, not the nice train station in the town itself.

The first game to finish was Keatan, who had what looked like a very aggressive game as white against Ben Larkin, with an open Sicilian in which Keatan had pushed both b4 and c4. However, just as things were about to get interesting, Ben offered a draw which Keaton, correctly for the match situation, agreed to. An excellent result, if a little anti-climactic as a game.

My game against Richard McNally did at least end in a decisive result, if the game itself was quite a few levels less exciting. As black, and playing my standard d6 f5 line, we reached the following position in which, true to his style, Richard has just lunged forward with f4:

Fortunately for me, it appears that, despite how many possible ways it could go wrong, I can just take this pawn with my bishop and be a pawn up. Even with the multiple ways white can recapture, and the 3 different queen checks he can throw in at different points, nothing works, and I ended up a pawn up in a rook and knight endgame. The conversion went reasonably smoothly, and we were a point up.

For those keeping score (primarily Mark, who does love quoting my many failures with this line) that puts me at 2/2 for the season. I will unfortunately have white in the next game, so will need to work on some transpositions to get back to the correct starting position.

This is the point in the evening when my very knowledge starts to run out, as I left to catch as train. Both Mike (some c4, g5 Maroczy bind stuff as white) and Bernard (a modern Benoni as black) seemed to have very solid and approximately level positions, so as I left the stereotype function in my brain assumed that both might well end as draws.

Of course, as we all know, stereotyping is a dangerous thing to do in life, so I shall just report that both games did indeed end as draws. That left us with a 2.5-1.5 win overall, a welcome reminder of our favourite score from last season. Also, a rare occasion where I can take credit for the team’s win, not blame when things go wrong.

In other (Kenilworth A) news, it is good to see my planting of Andrew Paterson as a B team agent in that team is working as planned. Sadly, a loss for Andy meant the A team could only draw 2-2 with Banbury, meaning that we are currently 3 points clear of our own A team. Long it may it continue, say I and Andy.

Blue on Blue - Take 2!

 

Following the excitement of last week's A v B match, on Monday the C and D teams battled it out, in a contest that proved to be every bit as dramatic. These intra-club affairs always take a fair amount of organisation, and myself, Harry, and Mark had spent quite a while sorting the line-ups. With Mike, Michal, Andy and Bernard Rogers all unavailable, Dhairya and Paul Badger both stepped up to represent the C team. I was delighted that Phil came out of retirement to help the D team, and we were also delighted to call Dylan up again. 

Bernard Charnley was the only one of the eight of us, who also played in the A v B match. It speaks both to the strength and depth we have in the club (and the excellence of Rhys, who made a welcome return to the club on Board 1 for the D team) that having won his match against the A team, Bernard would be defeated by his D team opponent.  Rhys and Bernard were actually the first to finish. I didn't see as much of this one as I would have liked, but Rhys appeared to pick up a pawn and then played with a lot of control and skill to bring home the full point. A terrific effort, and we are so pleased to have him as a part of our squad for the season ahead.

Dhairya finished moments later with a good win against Phil on Board 3. Dhairya broke through very convincingly on the kingside, and while Phil had castled queenside, Dhairya's pieces found more than enough material to feast on. A very good game, as Dhairya bounced back in style from his Banbury reversal. I guess with myself and Dhairya both having played 21 rated games over the weekend at the Warwickshire Rapid and Blitz the pair of us were well practised! 

With the match at 1-1, I would not have wanted to wager a penny on the final outcome. I was playing against Harry in the battle of the captains on Board 2. Very early in the game, Harry missed a trick and I picked up the exchange. However, as we agreed afterwards, I should have spent more time thinking about whether this was really the best approach. I ended up behind in development, and my reluctance to castle due to Harry's light square pressure on the a8 - h1 diagonal simply gave me other problems to deal with. In truth, a game that I thought I was winning comfortably at 7.45 became harder and harder over the next couple of hours, as Harry's pieces swarmed and his bishop pair combined well with his knight and queen. We both missed chances, but ultimately, when well below 5 minutes on my clock, I managed to find a resource that turned the tables and gave me a mating attack. Neither of us will see this as being amongst our finest games, but for all its rawness and imperfections, it was a pretty exhilarating way to spend the evening!

My win guaranteed that at 2-1 the D team were at least good for a point. On Board 4, Dylan was playing a terrific game against Paul. While down a pawn, Paul had doubled pawns to contend with as well as a formidable looking passed pawn. Frankly, I thought Dylan was winning at this point, but it was all very complicated and I might be wrong. Either way, it just shows how well Dylan is developing that he was giving Paul such a strong game. Both players queened, but neither new monarch survived. At the death, heartbreakingly for Dylan, he missed a chance to force a draw with a king move, instead pushing his a pawn which proved to be the losing blow. A shame, but it doesn't detract from how well Dylan had played, and for that reason I'm giving him my player of the night award. 

So 2 - 2, which felt like a very fair result. Both teams are in good shape for the season ahead. I'll try not to think about the fact that we have to do it all again in January - at least for a little while!