Three and a Half Out of Four Ain't Bad!

A crushing 3.5-0.5 win over a luckless Coventry B in our latest Cov League match has seen us jump up to fifth place in the table. A fourth place finish is not impossible, if things go well in our four remaining games, though being honest, if we can stay where we are now I will be one very happy match captain. We also have a KO Cup quarter-final to look forward to, and with the big guns from Warwick University not participating, this is a wide open competition.

Last night's success was not quite as convincing as the score suggests, because yet again Ben pulled off one of his great escapes to beat John McCann on Board 4. I had just assumed he was going to lose as every time I took a look at the position, more pieces had been swapped off and Ben's shattered queenside pawns seemed to be sitting ducks for a dominant white knight and rooks. But then out of nowhere White blundered and we had a full point.

By this stage we were already one point up, as Carl played a very smooth and powerful game with the white pieces against John Harris on Board 3 - breaking through decisively down the d file with his rooks to win material in double quick time. This was an impressive demolition job. I can't believe I ever called his White opening set up turgid. (And who I am to talk - see below!)

And all the time we were sitting on a guaranteed extra point as Mike was winning against Bob Holmes on Board 2 right out of the opening. White carelessly allowed a b5-b4 push undermining his extended pawn centre and Black was a solid pawn up almost immediately. Some energetic play by Mike swapped off the pieces around the White king which was left defenceless against Mike's queen and rook, so that the inevitable point duly came our way.

But regrettably your match correspondent was unable to complete the clean sweep, playing an anaemic opening very anaemically, and failing to show any superiority of bishop over knight in the ending. In fact Bernard C - yes, it was another of our very own in opposition - found a nice regrouping of his king side pawns and knights to secure a draw from a position of slight superiority.

So, as Meatloaf would have sung if he'd been a Coventry Chess League Match Captain, "three and a half out of four ain't bad."