Another B team match this Monday, before we have a one month gap ahead of our final fixture. Dave was still away on his travels, and Phil came in to replace Stuart for this game, so once again we failed to field the same team two games in a row (one chance left to manage it). Without any further ado, on to the games.
4) Nick Mottram vs Daid Bowie - This game shocked me as, for the first time I have seen him play, Nick actually put his pawns and pieces somewhere near the centre of the board. By the time he had pawns on e4 and d4, knights on c3 and f3 and bishops on d3 and e3, I was convinced it was an imposter. The game was a great success for the new classical Nick, who won a pawn and then swiftly converted into a winning rook endgame, which he converted thanks to a strong pair of connected past pawns.
Kenilworth B 1 - Stratford B 0
3) Brian Eastgate vs Rajen Parekh - This started as a London System/Queen's Indian hybrid and, thanks to the extremely solid systems used by both sides, an entirely level position emerged with seemingly not much play. Things livened up however, when, after both sides has castled kingside, an exchange of pawns left a completely open g file. Fortunately, black was in a better position to exploit this, getting his rooks into position first, leading to some nice material winning tactics (okay, a cheap knight fork) which decided the game.
Kenilworth B 2 - Stratford B 0
2) Phil Wood vs Philip Bennett - This was a tricky game to understand, both for some of the moves played and the way the result didn't seem to match the way the game was going. It started off as a fairly standard looking Catalan, except white neglected to play c4, seemingly reducing the pressure on black's position considerably. Once c4 finally came, transposing into what must have been a favourable line of the closed Catalan, white then immediately pushed c5 next move, removing the tension and giving away a lot of the advantage. White remained better, however, thanks to a very out of place black knight on a7, which had no way to get back into the game. Phil carefully converted this advantage into an endgame where he was playing with a good knight against a very bad bishop, but to my great surprise (and his) this position turned out not to be winning. His opponent had managed to get one pawn off the colour of his bishop, and this provided just enough space and counterplay to hold on for a draw.
Kenilworth B 2.5 - Stratford B 0.5
1) Steve Henderson vs Joshua Pink - This was a ridiculous game. I think it is fair to say any game that begins with the moves 1.e4 c6 2.d3 d5 3. Nd2 h5 should be consigned to the dustbin without much further consideration. Suffice to say, I made an entirely unsound pawn sacrifice on move 7, spent the next forty moves desperately trying to attack to justify this decision, until finally my opponent made a mistake in time trouble and I was able to break through. I would show the whole game but I feel it would only depress people.
Final score: Kenilworth B 3.5 - Stratford B 0.5
This now makes it three wins in a row, an excellent recovery after the way we were playing earlier in the season. It also means I have won every single game since I started putting the results on this website, so that is obviously providing motivation to get good results, if not to actually play good chess. One game left for us now this season, and if we win that it should guarantee us a respectable 4th place in the table.
4) Nick Mottram vs Daid Bowie - This game shocked me as, for the first time I have seen him play, Nick actually put his pawns and pieces somewhere near the centre of the board. By the time he had pawns on e4 and d4, knights on c3 and f3 and bishops on d3 and e3, I was convinced it was an imposter. The game was a great success for the new classical Nick, who won a pawn and then swiftly converted into a winning rook endgame, which he converted thanks to a strong pair of connected past pawns.
Kenilworth B 1 - Stratford B 0
3) Brian Eastgate vs Rajen Parekh - This started as a London System/Queen's Indian hybrid and, thanks to the extremely solid systems used by both sides, an entirely level position emerged with seemingly not much play. Things livened up however, when, after both sides has castled kingside, an exchange of pawns left a completely open g file. Fortunately, black was in a better position to exploit this, getting his rooks into position first, leading to some nice material winning tactics (okay, a cheap knight fork) which decided the game.
Kenilworth B 2 - Stratford B 0
2) Phil Wood vs Philip Bennett - This was a tricky game to understand, both for some of the moves played and the way the result didn't seem to match the way the game was going. It started off as a fairly standard looking Catalan, except white neglected to play c4, seemingly reducing the pressure on black's position considerably. Once c4 finally came, transposing into what must have been a favourable line of the closed Catalan, white then immediately pushed c5 next move, removing the tension and giving away a lot of the advantage. White remained better, however, thanks to a very out of place black knight on a7, which had no way to get back into the game. Phil carefully converted this advantage into an endgame where he was playing with a good knight against a very bad bishop, but to my great surprise (and his) this position turned out not to be winning. His opponent had managed to get one pawn off the colour of his bishop, and this provided just enough space and counterplay to hold on for a draw.
Kenilworth B 2.5 - Stratford B 0.5
1) Steve Henderson vs Joshua Pink - This was a ridiculous game. I think it is fair to say any game that begins with the moves 1.e4 c6 2.d3 d5 3. Nd2 h5 should be consigned to the dustbin without much further consideration. Suffice to say, I made an entirely unsound pawn sacrifice on move 7, spent the next forty moves desperately trying to attack to justify this decision, until finally my opponent made a mistake in time trouble and I was able to break through. I would show the whole game but I feel it would only depress people.
Final score: Kenilworth B 3.5 - Stratford B 0.5
This now makes it three wins in a row, an excellent recovery after the way we were playing earlier in the season. It also means I have won every single game since I started putting the results on this website, so that is obviously providing motivation to get good results, if not to actually play good chess. One game left for us now this season, and if we win that it should guarantee us a respectable 4th place in the table.
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