Off we go again

A new season dawns for all the Kenilworth teams. Not too much has happened during the transfer window, only a small amount of shuffling due to changing grades and a new registration system and time control. The only exception to this is that Joshua Pink continues his tale of three cities and has found that he can slot in a few KCC games into his busy schedule - a welcome return. Also fantastic to see Bernard Rogers playing again as he continues his retirement planning by playing some games for the C team.

 The first match of the division 2 season is traditionally B versus C. However, last night's game looked more like Ken B versus Ken B with most players being from last season's B team.

 On board 1 Mike played Bernard Charnley. An uneventful closed Sicilian led to a draw. Even Mike's tactical innovation failed to generate no more than a rapid exchange of pieces and an even position.

 Board 2 saw the most exciting game of the match with Joshua playing Bernard Rogers. Clearly Joshua has been mixing with some chess undesirables whilst away and has picked up some adventurous attacking habits and obviously forgot that this type of chess just simply isn't played by the B team generally. This was a game straight out of the nineteenth century with an Evans Gambit being played. I managed to lose at least five minutes on my clock whilst trying to work out what was going on and not paying attention to my own opponent. Games like this are horrendously complicated and can go either way so easily. With most of his pieces on prix Joshua mated Black's exposed king.

 Board 3 saw Phil playing Ben. Out of the opening Ben seemed to have a slight advantage with an open h file against Phil's castled king side position. However Phil consolidated his position very well and a draw was agreed fairly early.

 Dave was playing Rod on board 4 with the white pieces. An irregular line of a Closed Sicilian position left neither side with an advantage out of the opening. A very early draw in 16 moves was agreed as white took advantage of his time position to offer a draw and seal the match result of 2.5 - 1.5.