Down But Not Out

Kenilworth C went down 0-4 away to Solihull A last night, in our final league game of the season. We had already long since been relegated, and you might think this heavy defeat was a cause for further lament, but I don't see it like that. It was always going to be a challenge for our third team to take on rival first teams, and that all too often proved to be the case. 

Yet we'd earned our place in the top league on merit, by winning the Division 2 title in style last year. This season we struggled to always get our best team out, for a variety of completely understandable reasons. But I am immensely grateful to everyone who did play the games. There must have been times (like last night) when players turned out knowing that they were going to be heavily outgraded, but nobody hid and you can't ask for more than that. 

Albeit, we could perhaps have hoped that our own B team might have demonstrated some of the same enthusiasm they showed in beating us, instead of then losing limply to our relegation rivals a few days later, but that's chess. You can never quite predict what is going to happen, and ultimately when the clock starts it is every man (and woman) for themselves. The truth is we weren't quite good enough and there is no shame in that.

One of my most heart-breaking moments in football was when Man Utd lost the League title to Leeds in 1992. In their next game, which was then a dead rubber against Spurs, Man Utd won (3-1 I think.) The newspaper report said, it hurts now for Man Utd fans, but the future looks bright. A somewhat prescient comment to say the least! So many of the C team players have improved during the season and I really think we are in great shape for next year.

Rhys had a great game against Don last night. I didn't see much of Dan and Dylan's games, but the pair of them epitomise our growing strength in depth. The truth is I didn't see much of anything, as my own game was an unmitigated disaster. I walked into an opening trap and that was that. I said to Mark the other day that I am aiming to be much more philosophical about chess these days. So, while I can't quite say that I laughed, I'm not dwelling on it either. After all, when you've got the worst game you've ever played behind you, the only way is up, right?!? 

There are plenty more games to follow. Both for me personally, and for the C team next season. We will be back in Division 2 next year. Doubtless there will be more drama. Good days and bad days. New opportunities to chase down. One way or another, there is every reason to think that we will have a lot more to smile about. 

B-athos

Bathos (noun):- anti-climax

Well, thank goodness that's the end of the season for the B team and I can be done with all that B nonsense in the match report titles. Until next season, I imagine, when I find it hard to imagine I will have any better idea than to repeat my previous theme. But that can wait, because there is the little matter of last night's match to round-up first.

We went to Stratford (birthplace of the Bard, who was something of a master of deliberate bathos) seeking the one point which would secure second place in the table, but we returned home with none, and now have to wait for Warwick University to play their final two matches. If they win both they will overtake us. Its out of our hands now, so what will be, will be.

We were off to a flyer last night, when Richard McNally made a terrible blunder against me, and in a totally innocuous position walked into a deadly pin which should have cost the exchange and a pawn, but as played cost him his queen for a rook. When I returned the queen for an ending with two pieces against one, Richard resigned after just 80 minutes and 21 moves.

Things certainly looked bright elsewhere, because Mike was outplaying Carl Hibbard on Board 2 and Ben was at least equal on 3. Daniel was under some pressure on Board 4, but it didn't seem especially serious. But first Mike's game ended in a draw, as Carl just about held his position together without dropping any material, and then things started to go pear shaped on the other two boards. Tantalisingly we just needed a draw from the two games to clinch second spot, but it wasn't to be. For no obvious reason, Ben's position drifted depressingly into a lost rook and pawn ending against Alexander Roberts, when it looked like a nailed on draw and then disaster struck on Board 4.  Dan was under pressure on the clock, but it was his opponent, George Clifton, who made a massive oversight which gifted Dan a piece thanks to a back rank trick. But the clock situation proved decisive, and instead of pocketing a whole piece Dan missed the winning move and instead found himself mated about three moves later! Sic transit gloria mundi. Or something like that.

In the overall scheme of things it won't matter too much whether the B team finishes second or third, as this has still been a massively successful season for our second team. But it would be nicer to be second, don't you think?! So, a rather anticlimactic finish to the season after the peak performance last week against Banbury A. Hence the title of this report!

I think a shot of the blues is called for to reflect my subdued mood today. So it has to be the Allman Brothers again! 

B-looming B-rilliant

A great win for the B team away against a full strength Banbury A last Thursday, which completed a remarkable league double for the season. It hasn't quite wrapped up 2nd place for the B team, but its taken us right to the brink of a second 1-2 finish in the league.

And there was no question that we deserved the victory (I say we, because I was in the team!), as we never looked to be losing at any stage of the evening. Although the scoreboard got moving in the wrong direction to begin with. Andy repeated his recent trick of getting a winning position out of the opening, and then collapsing due to a tactical oversight. This time the beneficiary was Georgs Vikanis, as Andy's extra pawn became irrelevant when the Black heavy pieces invaded the White kingside in a distinctly vicious manner. But the accident on Board 3 was about to be balanced by a reverse slip-up on Board 2 which went very much in our favour. Joshua played a very enterprising opening against Tom Day, sacking an exchange for some very threatening looking connected pawns. Tom decided that discretion was the better part of valour and gave the exchange back to eliminate the connected pawns, and for some unfathomable reason Josh failed to take the fat, juicy White e pawn in return. So he was just a pawn down. But then the legendary Pink magic (or is it luck?) kicked in and the next thing you know, Tom has dropped a whole piece. Joshua's technique in winning with rook, knight and three against rook and three wasn't the best I've ever seen, but it was good enough in the end to queen the last remaining pawn and level the match scores.

And then we were in the driving seat when Mike, who has also been having a rocky time of things over the last few matches, played a very powerful game with the Black pieces to overcome Gary Jackson. Indeed, White looked almost totally busted straight out of the opening with his king wandering around in the centre and Black having very active pieces and a big central pawn. I missed the middlegame phase, but it eventually came down to a double rook ending with Mike a couple of pawns up and when he got a pawn to the seventh rank, Gary had to concede. Which put us 2-1 up, and in possession of at least one match point, with my game against IM James Jackson deciding whether we got both.

Now normally you'd bet long odds on that I would lose, but this was one of those nights (song clue there, by the way!) where I managed to avoid any blunders or major inaccuracies. James sacked a pawn in a line of the Spanish that was completely new to me, and got some play for it, but the engine says I was much better, even when I mistakenly simplified the position, leaving him with a rook and a pair of bishops against my rook, bishop and knight. I still had my extra pawn - passed! - though it was sat on a2, so had a long way to go before it became a factor in the game. I defended sensibly, but as time pressure grew, James started ramping up the pressure and managed to open the position for his two bishops and get himself a passed h pawn. But I defended quite well, and although I eventually lost all my advantage the position was never worse than equal - and I still had an extra pawn - as he also ran short of time. And then he prodded his passed pawn one square too far and with the aid of some elementary tactics I was suddenly completely winning. I suspected as much, but had too little time to calculate things. I saw a way to eliminate all the Black pawns and draw and just headed for the safe solution to win the match.

A brilliant win for the B team, then. One point at Stratford in our final match of the season will seal second place, as Warwick University could still overtake us on game points if they win their last two matches. But its third place as a minimum for the B team, after a splendid season.

So did you guess the song?  Not that it matters, coz' here it is anyway!

Anything A Can Do, B Can Do Better - B Can Do Anything Better Than A!

Well, maybe not anything. Like winning the League. But when it comes to beating Olton A, then its definitely the B team that takes the biscuit!  Because after the A team's rather unfortunate accident away at Olton a couple of weeks back, the B team hardly broke sweat in chalking up a 3-1 win against exactly the same Olton A team last Tuesday.

Bruce "Bruiser" Baer was particularly brutal, winning a whole piece in broad daylight with Black against Mark Cundy, and forcing resignation shortly afterwards. I imagine he was back home in plenty of time to watch the 9 o'clock news. Especially as its not on till 10 o'clock these days. Andy had been the chief culprit in the A team's loss, frittering away a totally won position against Mike Hollier, but he made no mistake when offered the chance of revenge. Once again he got a won position surprisingly quickly (two pieces for a rook) and this time he made the advantage count. Although Mike managed to check Andy's king around the board for a few moves, by this stage he was a whole 2 pieces down and as soon as the checks stopped it was game over.

I then made it 3-0 on the night in rather strange circumstances. Believe it or not, I actually played a rather good game against Alan Lloyd on top board, after Alan had blundered a pawn in the opening. In order to break a mini-blockade, I correctly sacrificed the exchange, but gained a second pawn in the process. And one of them was a monster passed pawn on b6 that was straining at the leash to get to b7 and b8. Alan defended as well as he could, but he was completely lost ....... when I allowed him the chance to return the exchange and enter a king and pawn ending a pawn down which, as far as I can tell, would have been a draw. But - just like me! - he didn't notice this possibility and instead resigned. Ultimately a lucky point for me, but I felt I deserved it. And as I'm writing the match report, that's the opinion that counts! Unfortunately, we couldn't make it 4-0, as Mike went horribly wrong against Richard Liszewski in what looked like a favourable position and managed to lose his queen for a rook. Quite a few fairly pointless moves later the inevitable happened and Mike was forced to resign.

With Banbury A winning on the same night, its still all to play for in the fight for second place in Division 1, and next week's direct encounter between the two teams may well decide the final outcome - though the B team does have one more match after that, away at Stratford.

This week's song was somewhat telegraphed by the title, so no prizes for guessing we're taking a trip to the golden age of the Hollywood musical. Not our normal cup of tea, but I like to cater for all tastes! 

Full House

Don't worry - I haven't suddenly developed an interest in poker (as if!). Its just that last night we had a rather full house in the Jephson Room, as the U8750 Cup semi-final against Leamington (5 boards) and an A team league match against Stratford A (4 boards) combined to create quite a rather full room.

And the intense atmosphere clearly did our teams no harm, as we came away with two clear cut victories. As I was present in a non-playing capacity, I had rather a good view of proceedings - at least for the last hour, as before then I had adopted a hands-off approach and retreated to the bar for a chat with Nash and Richard.

My return to the action was not in time to see any of Josh's game, though, as he had won in double quick time for the A team on Board 4 and already departed the scene. Good to see the legendary Pink Points Machine back in full working order! Javier, making his first appearance at the Holiday Inn (which might - just - excuse him for going to the Abbey Club first. No, on reflection it doesn't!) performed a massive hatchet job on Richard McNally's usually very potent Morra Gambit and didn't take long to make an extra piece tell, for a very convincing win. But things weren't necessarily going to plan on the other two boards, so the match win wasn't totally assured. However, I needn't have worried as things turned decisively in our favour as the clocks ticked down. First, Andrew found a very nice way to force a repetition on Board 3 and escape from a pawn down ending with a draw, and then Keatan went one better by producing a monster knight fork to win Carl Hibbard's rook after a very tense struggle where the momentum seemed to be going to and fro at varying moments. Which meant a 3.5-0.5 victory and a 10 point lead at the top of Division 1. And a massive game points score of +36 - just the 23 more than the next best score!

But with the league title already secured, the bigger match last night was the cup semi-final. Ben's team was already missing a couple of players and then had to cope with a late withdrawal as well, but thankfully the assembled team rose to the occasion and produced a really splendid effort. It was far from plain sailing, of course, and for much of the evening it looked possible that we would be going out. Even very close to the finishing line we could still have been eliminated on tie break, but thankfully it didn't come to that.

Our only loss on the night came on board 3, where Phil succumbed to a massive attack targeted at his king. White lined up queen and bishop on the a1-h7 diagonal and two rooks on an open g file - and with everything pointing at the g7 square there was no defence. Thankfully we bounced back when Patrick secured an excellent win on Board 5 with Black. I missed the end, but earlier he had won an exchange and looked set to start picking off pawns and exposing the White king in last viewing. And then we were in the lead when Ben played an excellent game against Joshua Simpson on Board 2, winning a piece and setting up a mating attack. Though disappointingly he didn't deliver mate and won on material instead!

But despite it being advantage Kenilworth, it was still all to play for. Dylan looked to have walked into a vicious pin and attack on Board 4, but he kept his cool and found a way to stave off immediate disaster at the cost of a pawn, and then sacrificed an exchange which soon led to a draw by perpetual. I wasn't sure if it should have, but I wouldn't trust my analysis too much! Anyway, it was all irrelevant as this was a crucial half point saved. We now led by 2.5-1.5, with just Rhys' game against Ben Egid on Board 1 left in play. A Leamington win and they would go through on tie break. White seemed to be pressing with doubled rooks on the open d file, but Rhys had challenged these and also covered possible entry squares. Much more significant, though, was White's dreadful light squared bishop and a rapidly evaporating time allowance. Rhys jumped in on the dark squares tro win a pawn, and then refrained from winning a second in favour of keeping the queens on, so that White had to worry about a possible mating attack. The defensive task proved too much and the clock took over to finish the game in our favour. A tremendous win for Rhys - with Black - against Leamington A's regular board 1.

So many congratulations to both teams on a double triumph, but no doubt that the major honours go to the U8750 cup team for securing our first cup final appearance of the season. The Open KO team is still hoping to join them, though we have a few weeks to go yet before a semi-final against Solihull.

Onto the music - and after being in such a crowded room last night, the selection of our group seemed  pretty obvious to me!

B Minus

A 2-2 draw for the B team against Stratford A could often be considered a point gained, rather than a point lost, but last night was not really one of those occasions. Continuing a pattern which has become worryingly prevalent over the last couple of weeks, we failed to make the most of our substantial grading advantage on every board (averaging over 150 points) and had to rely on me - yes, it was that desperate! - to save the draw in the last game to finish.

Mike's game against Richard Dobedoe on Board 3 never seemed to get going. Maybe I looked away at the exciting moments, but its also possible there weren't any! So a fairly uneventful draw. It was much more exciting on Board 4, where Michal and his opponent Paul Budd were soon in a very unbalanced position, with Michal having a rook and 2 pawns for a bishop and knight. I was vaguely hopeful Michal might be better, but the next time I looked, the imbalance had become rook and 2 pawns for two bishops and Black looked to be doing fine. As must have been the case, since a draw was agreed soon after.

I was initially slightly worried about Josh's game against Carl Hibberd on Board 2, as Black appeared to have emerged better from the opening (some sort of Sveshnikov/Kalashnikov Sicilian) but on my next viewing I thought Josh's position had greatly improved and he seemed to be threatening quite a lot of Black pawns. However, I was either way off with my assessment, or something went wrong (both possibilities highly likely!) because further viewing revealed that Josh was a pawn down and looking likely to lose another one. I missed the climax to the game, but it didn't end well.

And it could easily have been curtains for us, as I was very nearly lost straight out of the opening against Richard McNally (just our 12th encounter!) when I found myself with almost no squares to put any of my pieces on. Thankfully, though, a couple of inaccuracies allowed me some breathing space, albeit at the cost of a pawn - but as White had tripled b pawns I wasn't too worried about the slight material deficit. But then Richard overlooked a knight fork from my only active piece and I won an exchange and messed up his pawns in the process. It should have been fairly straightforward, but of course it wasn't. We repeatedly traded inaccuracies, but eventually time trouble proved the deciding factor and Richard's king came under heavy fire in the middle of the board. Facing total disaster he lost on time and we'd saved the match.

The point gained put the B team onto the same points as Warwick University and Banbury A, but with a game in hand, so the push to secure another 1-2 finish for Kenilworth is still possible. Though with an away match at Banbury still to come, the bookies would not have us down as favourites, I suspect!

Music time and in keeping with my theme it has to be another B artist. (But not a B-lister, lets be clear about that!) I don't know how The Band have only managed 2 appearances on this website so far, but its high time we increased that number to 3. I love this song and I really love this live version from the film The Last Waltz. Hope you do, too.

Blip!

But what a big blip! Tuesday night's 1.5-2.5 reverse for the A team away at Olton put an end to our hopes of an unbeaten season and temporarily put a stop to any celebrations of a sixth successive Division 1 title. Except that it didn't really, because as Andrew had already worked out, even if we lost every remaining match 0-4, and Banbury won every remaining match 4-0, we would still win the title on game points. But all the same, you don't really feel much like celebrating after a chastening defeat, do you? And this was actually the A team's first defeat since September 2, 2024 when we famously got annihilated 3.5-0.5 by our B team! So our unbeaten run came to an end after 561 days.  And in fact you have to go back to October 16, 2023, when Banbury beat us 2.5-1.5, for the last time the A team lost against another club. Which I make 882 days. Almost as long as the Third Reich!

But enough of this tub-thumping, its the gory details of this week's loss you want to hear about, I'm sure. It really was a case of lightning from a clear blue sky, as we had a pretty useful team deployed (none of our titled players, though) and Olton have been having a tough season. But they raced into a 2-0 lead. Andrew lost against Mark Cundy on Board 2 after an absolutely insane game. After 15 moves Andrew was an exchange and two pawns up, but while his queen had decimated the White queenside and sat on a1supported by a black pawn on b2, his remaining pieces - 2 bishops and 2 rooks were all on their starting squares. I'm sure I remember reading something about developing your pieces in an old Fred Reinfeld book, but chess strategy has obviously moved on in the computer age! Apparently this crazy position was actually close to equal, but in practice there could only be one winner - and it wasn't Andrew!

That was fair enough, but what happened on Board 3 simply defied belief. Andy was hounding Mike Hollier all over the board, continually threatening to trap pieces or win the Black queen. But all he netted for his troubles was an extra doubled pawn which had also opened the g file towards his own king. He assures me the position was completely winning, as it certainly looked, but one careless move cost him the exchange and suddenly the Black heavy pieces swarmed in down that g file (I knew it looked risky!) with a winning attack. Total calamity. Instead of 1-1 and being in total charge, it was 0-2 and we were staring defeat in the face.

I at least managed to beat Richard Liszewski on Board 4 (yes, for once I wasn't the culprit!), finishing with a very nice (though I say so myself) queen sacrifice to win a rook, though I have to admit that Richard didn't help his cause with some very strange moves. And so it was down to Keatan, on Board 1 against Olton stalwart Alan Lloyd, to try and save the match. Watched by a rather large crowd of spectators the game ended up in a knight v bishop ending, where Alan had a more active king and an annoying passed pawn, but doubled f pawns which looked ripe for the picking. It was very difficult and both players were short of time. At times I thought Keatan was winning and at others I thought he was in difficulties, but despite lots of knight jumps and nearly moves he couldn't find a way to win any of the weak Black pawns and Alan managed to hold the draw and secure the win for Olton. And bring our record breaking run to an end. Rats! But many congratulations to Olton for a super strong team performance.

So after losing on the night, it didn't feel like we had really won the title. But thankfully the wait for final validation was only two days, because we had a very quick follow-up match (and thanks to Keatan, Andrew and Andy for playing two away matches in 3 nights) last night against our main rivals, Banbury A. I wasn't present, but on checking the LMS results page this morning I was delighted to see that our brave boys had returned from Oxfordshire with a 3-1 win, so that the title celebrations can truly start. In fact, I'm just about to kick things off with a glass of orange juice. Party!!! With any luck a first hand report of the match may grace this site in the next few days. There are 2 more A team matches left, plus a KO Cup campaign, while the B team has 4 matches left to try and claim the runner-up spot.

It seems strange to choose a downbeat song for this week's musical offering when we;'ve just won the league title again, but I can't ignore the fact that we lost Tuesday's match. And until last night, it had actually been a very bad week for the club, as the C team lost 0-4 to Warwick Uni on Monday, and the same night the U1600 cup team went out in the semi-final at Shirley. So I think something bluesy is entirely appropriate!

One Thousand and Thirty Eight

Not the mileage to this week's trip to Daventry for the final Coventry League match of the season (though it felt like it!), nor the combined age of our team (though it was probably close - see below), but rather the aggregate grading points advantage that we enjoyed over the home team. And rather embarrassingly it was not enough to eke out a win and from 2-0 down Daventry fought back to secure their first point of the season - in their final match. So while they were probably dancing in the streets of Daventry late into the night, I couldn't help but detect a pall of disappointment hanging over Kenilworth as we drove back into town.

As far as the league situation was concerned, neither this set-back, nor our recent loss against Division 1's second bottom team, Warwick University B, made the slightest difference, as we were guaranteed to finish third whether we took four points or none. Its been an almost unmitigated disaster since Christmas - when we led the league with a 100% score from 4 matches - with just one win and one draw from six further games. Warwick Uni A took home the title for the umpteenth time, but only 1 point clear of Nuneaton, who certainly gave them a good run for their money. Congratulations to both, who were clearly the strongest and most consistent teams in Division 1 this season.

We got off to a flyer on Wednesday night when I won quite quickly against my young opponent, James Brown, on Board 1. After a trendy, theoretical line in the Caro Kann we both played a couple of sub-optimal moves and I then sacked a knight for what I thought was a winning attack against his king. As indeed it turned out to be, as he played all the moves I expected and it ended with me winning the Black queen. But - you guessed it - the silicon monster spotted an inspired defence that neither of us saw, which would have held the position to a probable draw. Chess is a difficult game! And it was soon 2-0 to us as Phil got revenge for his earlier loss against Abbie Stevens on Board 4. After a rather strange opening where Abbie rather neglected her king safety, Phil forked a loose rook on a1 and a mate threat on f2, so that the Loose Piece did indeed have to Drop Off - LPDO! Phil wasn't the most efficient after that, but with an extra rook the win was never in doubt.

But there the good news ends. because despite being better on both the remaining boards, we managed to lose them both. Mike unfortunately not only missed a win, but then had a rush of blood to the head and sacked an exchange against Harvey Monroe on Board 2, only to find that when he won it back he would be a pawn down. Except that he then blundered and made it two pawns. And then he blundered a third pawn and despite some White inaccuracies in the rook ending, there was no way that 3 extra pawns weren't going to win.

It was even more tragic watching Paul lose on Board 3 against Andy Johnson. He was playing a very nice controlled game and won a pawn. But he started taking ages to play his moves and then allowed an onslaught against his slightly open king, when he just needed to regroup and defend for a couple of moves. Andy finished things off very nicely to deliver checkmate.

So two points that should have been ours went to Daventry and a probable 4-0 win became a 2-2 draw. Hey ho, that's the way the cookie sometimes crumbles.

Its only while writing this report, though, that it suddenly struck me that this was almost certainly the oldest Kenilworth team I have ever played in. I was - strange but actually true! - the youngest player in the team, which I seriously doubt has ever happened before. Not a good look for our demographic and our reputation as the home of young talent!!

I couldn't think of a song that referenced 1,038, so another number will have to step in and take its place. I bet you're all expecting The Proclaimers now, but you're wrong! 500 is such a mundane number compared to 20,000,000. And just for the hell of it, we'll double that up to 40,000,000 by having two versions of the song. As a nod to populism, we'll kick off with Robert Palmer and Jools Holland and then move on to the original by Lowell George of Little Feat. Both great, but when push comes to shove, I know which one I'm voting for!

Warwick Wanderers: Who'd be a Skipper?!

Wednesday night saw the A team travel to Warwick University, the only team to have taken points off us this season, and one of the few capable of catching us at the top of Division 1. An important game, to say the least!

In spite of the skipper’s excellent communication, featuring multiple emails outlining exactly where we were playing (the science building), both David and I still managed to turn up at the Students' Union. Who’d be a skipper! I eventually made it to the board 20 minutes late, with all the other games already in full swing.

Two things of note quickly became apparent: we outgraded Warwick by around 200 points on every board, and we were playing 90+0, so no increment.

First to finish was Javier, who looked to my eyes to have crushed his opponent from the off. His opponent was struggling with king safety, a problem he eventually solved, but only at the expense of everything else. An overwhelming win and a great start.

Keatan’s game on board two was much closer. He pushed consistently, with his opponent struggling but just managing to hold the balance. However, Keatan was relentless and clearly wasn’t settling for a draw. Eventually, the position distilled down to rook and pawn versus rook and pawn, theoretically a dead draw, but Keatan kept making life difficult. His opponent eventually cracked, and Keatan annexed the whole point.

I was next to finish. I eventually managed to equalise out of the opening and found myself in an unbalanced position, with kingside play in exchange for queenside weaknesses. My play eventually turned into an attack that practically played itself, crashing through much faster than the queenside counterplay. So, 3-0, and the match was secured.

Last to finish was David on board three. His play was as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar; at no point did his opponent have even a sliver of active play. David might have swapped off the queens a little early, but nonetheless found himself in a knight versus bishop endgame where his king was vastly superior and his 4-vs-3 kingside pawn majority was far more mobile. He quickly proved the knight was the better minor piece in the position, put his pawns on light squares, created a passed pawn, and relentlessly applied pressure. His opponent finally cracked while trying to force counterplay on the other wing, but David’s king and knight had absolute control. A few tactics later, and David had brought home the bacon.

All in all, one of the best team performances of the season, with all four boards never in trouble and showing some excellent fighting spirit.

 

The Thrill of the Fight

Explain this if you can - on Tuesday night Kenilworth loses 1-3 to Warwick Uni B in the Coventry League. On Wednesday night Warwick Uni loses 1.5-2.5 to Kenilworth B in the Leamington League. Thankfully, I had nothing to do with the match on Tuesday, so there will not be a report on that particular encounter. Instead, I'll focus on the much happier event of the B team victory, which went down to the wire and was one of the most thrilling matches I've been involved in recently.

Mike (Bd 4) and I (Bd 2) were first to finish, almost simultaneously, and so in the wink of an eye the score went from 0-0 to 1.5-0.5 in our favour. Against Piotr Arp, Mike had to face a massive pawn storm heading for his king, but got counterplay on the queenside at the cost of an exchange. It was all pretty hair-raising stuff, as White then managed to set up a very nasty pin on the 8th rank, but thankfully Mike's queen jumped in to give perpetual check. I faced Ben Fearnhead for the third time this season - all with Black. In the previous two games he had sacked, first, a piece and a rook, and more recently three pieces against me. I, of course, had sacrificed nothing in return and had somehow (and most undeservedly) acquired 1.5 points from the two encounters. So I shouldn't really have been surprised when - out of nowhere - he sacked a knight for three pawns. I should have refuted the sac on the spot, but despite seeing the right move, I miscalculated the consequences and instead we ended up in a position where I had two bishops for a rook and pawn, plus one more rook each and a collection of pawns. But on the open board my bishops then caused instant mayhem. The White pawns started to fall off, and a final desperate move walked into the loss of an exchange and more pawns, forcing resignation.

But the match was anything but over, despite our healthy lead. Dave and Bruce were both having mega-fights which might have gone either way. Playing against correspondence chess Senior IM, Vitalii Mikhalchuk, Dave eventually won a pawn on Board 3 and it came down to rook and three v rook and two. The Black king got very active and things looked highly unclear, but a couple of crucial checks got Dave's king over to stop the last remaining Black pawn, and there was nothing to stop one of his own pawns from queening. Tremendous stuff, and some swift consolation for his agonising near-miss against IM James Jackson in a C team match on Monday.

Unfortunately, we didn't end on a high as Bruce went down on top board against Damirali Magzumov, despite being much better for most of the game. But the absence of any increment assumed massive significance, and after he'd missed the right set up against another somewhat dubious kingside pawn-storm he couldn't find a way to defend his pawns and his king as his clock ticked down. And to top it all, he managed to get lost both on the way to the match, and on the way home afterwards! Doesn't bode well for this weekend when he's playing in the Warwick Uni Open.

The B team stays in third place after this latest success, but now sits only one point behind Banbury A with a game in hand. However, both Stratford A and Warwick Uni are also in the fight for second place - and maybe first if our A team falter, though we have a reasonably healthy lead at the moment.

There's so much good music out there that its a struggle to make my regular selections. But since I just noticed that we've never had a song from Steely Dan, I think its time I remedied that omission.

Strange fact number 1 - the amazing lead guitarist is Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, who in later years became a major authority on missile defence systems!! Don't judge a book by its cover!