So last night we went down to a 2.5-1.5 defeat to Banbury A. It looks pretty bad with second place Kenilworth losing to second bottom Banbury, but things were not that simple. With three of our five man squad missing, the two teams were equally matched on ratings, as Banbury had successfully wheeled out their usually absent big hitter James Jackson (221), in an effort to stave off relegation. He duly brought home a full point on Board 1, but only after a titanic effort from Andrew on the White side of a Modern Benoni which took the game right to the wire. A brave exchange sac to eliminate a monster Black knight on d4 just failed to get any reward, despite the fragile looking Black king.
On Board 2 I failed to make a similar 30 point grading advantage count against Dan Rowan. I could have won first the d pawn, and then an exchange in the early middle game, but rejected both as they would each have given White plenty of compensation. and left me very passive But the attempt to exploit my edge positionally foundered as Dan defended well, and although I got to a queen ending a pawn up I couldn't prevent perpetual check.
Ben made no such mistake on Board 3. After a very pianissimo Giuoco Piano, he played an excellent exchange sac (theme of the night?!) on f6 against Nathan Manley and with a monster bishop on c3 cutting the Black position to shreds, he followed up with a crushing king side attack for an excellent win.
Which brings me to Board 4. What can I say? No really, what can I say? After 9 moves of very well known Sveshnikov theory, Bernard (C, of course, not the perpetually absent R) reached a position which he has had twice against me on a Thursday night at The Engine. Then he had twice sidestepped the one trick that is White's only hope for an advantage in this line, and gone on to win both games. I felt confident. About three minutes later he had resigned. Either he hadn't known the trap at all and had just luckily avoided it against me, or he was overcome by the futility of life, the universe and everything (especially chess) and wanted the game over quickly.
So there you have it, a disappointing result, but these things can happen when one team is highly motivated and mobilised, and the other not so much so. I wasn't too upset last night, as I was already reconciled to the fact that we were not going to catch Olton at the top of the table anyway. They only needed to avoid defeat in their final match against bottom placed Solihull B to win the league title. So what went and happened at Olton last night, while we were going down to Banbury? Yes, you've guessed it - Olton A 1 Solihull B 3.
I guess that's just the way the cookie crumbles, but I am definitely not a happy bunny (Easter or otherwise!) this morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment