Another Tuesday, another Coventry League match, and regrettably this time a defeat by 2.5-1.5 against Warwick University B. Coupled with other results, this saw us sink to 7th place, although we remain 7 points clear of Coventry B, and a win against them next week will make us mathematically certain to avoid last place. And any remote possibility of relegation.
Nearly every week, someone rises to the occasion to be a hero for the team, and last night we had two such people. Unfortunately it turned out that we needed three.
Dave was the first to answer the call to arms, notching an excellent first Coventry League win on Board 4 against Steve Turvey, after some interesting play on the White side of a Spanish. Unfortunately, the next two games did not go so well for us, and any heroism was only conspicuous by its absence. I was very nicely despatched by Peter Williams (my first Coventry League loss of the season) after a tense game from an English Opening. In a very tactical position I was out-calculated and lost material - as well as losing on time! Luckily they only got one point for that. Then Ben, so often our saviour this season, went the same way on Board 3, losing a depressingly one sided game against Andras Forizs who, having already seen off Roy and Dave, took his League score against us to 3/3 - while scoring 1/5 against everyone else.
So two villains, I'm afraid, but there was still time for a second hero to arise in the shape of Carl, who made light of a 34 point grading deficit to hold Paul Lam to a very creditable draw. (Clearly Paul was not at ease sitting on the "wrong" side of the table!) Not enough to save the match, but more than enough to give the score a thoroughly respectable appearance.
With University A being held to a very surprising 2-2 draw by Rugby (which did us no favours), this result was enough to return Paul's University B team to the top of the table. So at least one member of Kenilworth Chess Club can survey the League standings with satisfaction!
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