Home and Away

Last night, thanks to the good offices of Drago, Ken B played both Home and Away. Our 'away' match against Cov Uni was played at 'home' in order to accommodate our juniors.

Once again my eternal optimism was confounded.

First to finish was Algis. It looked like a pretty standard Ruy Lopez but I did not see much of it and can only report that Algis lost on bottom board.

Next to finish was Jude playing a London System in which he played his trademark delayed Nf3 move in combination with a devastating h-pawn push - all against a double fianchetto - and winning the exchange before Black decided to try his luck on the Queenside. Sadly for Black this only resulted in dropping his h-pawn, then his rook, then the b-pawn then the c-pawn and the game a couple of moves later.

Ben also played a London System but this time I think an early Nf3 was played.  Ben reports that essentially 'we played out a very complex doubled edged opening. In a tension filled position I miscalculated and simply made the wrong choice. The game was still very tense and tactical for a while, but when my counter-play was eventually extinguished it was game over. Good play from my opponent. Clearly, being at Carlsen-Cajurana the day before did not rub off on me!'

Last to finish was yours truly, needing a win to draw the match. Probably with inadequate preparation I played a Nimzo, got outplayed, dropped two pawns and was only saved from disaster by a blunder by White who, forgetting queen's can move sideways, dropped a bishop for a pawn.  Material equality, my four isolated pawns, my king exposed, rooks and queens flying all over the show - this was too much for me to overcome and a draw was offered by my opponent and accepted - with great reluctance but to press on would almost certainly have resulted in a loss.

Having gloated last week about my Captaincy and claiming unwarranted credit, I must, in the interest of balance, claim at least some discredit for my Captaincy in this match. Must do better!

Final score 2.5 v 1.5 loss.