We are going to be spending a lot of time in Coventry over
the next few weeks, with matches coming up against their A team in the KO cup
and the C team in the Divisional Cup. Last night we were in action against
Coventry B in the Divisional Cup and ran out 3-1 winners, to consolidate a
pretty good run for us in this competition.
It probably wasn’t the most eventful of matches. I was the
first to finish on 1, with a win against Drago. He walked into an opening trap
and I pocketed a piece early on, but there were some imbalances and I had a
pretty shattered pawn structure. It was all a bit messy, but in the end it was
fine so 1-0. We had the Champion of all Hereford (I think that’s his official
title now, and the most appropriate way for non-family members to address him)
in action on Board 4 and Roy continued his red hot streak. I didn’t see much of
the game, but once he’d got over the shock that Coventry had fielded an
opponent against him (often opposing teams don’t bother to in this competition)
he seemed to make pretty short work of John Conway to put us 2-0 up.
Mike’s game with Nigel Morris looked extremely boring. They
got down to Queen, Rook, Bishop and five vs Queen, Rook, Knight and five,
without obvious opportunities for either side. Mike manoeuvred around for a
bit, before agreeing the draw around the time control. Dave’s game against Kate
Donegan was a lot more interesting. I think Kate tried some sort of sacrifice
early on, but Dave defended well and was up the exchange. It ended up in a heavy
wood ending with Queens and Rooks still on the board and Kate’s Knight able to
defend Dave’s two potential entry points on the a and c files. No question Dave
was better, but equally no question that Kate defended well and had a lot of
defensive opportunities. (One of those positions where proving the benefit of
the exchange is far from easy.) With Dave better on the Board, but very short
of time a draw felt like a fair result.
So a pretty competent night from us. Perhaps not one that
will live in the memory, but we are much more consistently doing what we should
be doing than we were at the start of the season. Coventry B also deserve
credit for a good effort. Onwards!
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