Buoyed up by the one point starting advantage, I faced Bava
on Board One as Black. In this game I failed to see the BIG PICTURE. In a
Nimzowitch, Bava Manickammade a simple error on move four handing me a pawn, thank you
very much. From then on, though, Bava completely outplayed me. Foolishly trying
to hang on to this extra pawn rather
than exchanging it for some other advantage – a bit like the monkey with his
hand on a peanut in a jam jar and won’t let go I was completely outmanoeuvred. Bava
built up an attack against my King with his Queen and two knights, which,
mesmerized by my ‘advantage’, I underestimated. And was mated. Still, after tI
had been mated, I was still a pawn up!!
Board Two saw a MAGNIFICENT PERFORMANCE by William Morris playing White against Coventry
League’s Simon Weaver. This game will be
used for instruction purposes on Saturday morning at the Chess Academy.
After a shaky start in an Advanced French William won a pawn
and entered a Knight (William) v Bishop endgame. With couple of fine finesses
and textbook play, White reduced Black to shuffling his Bishop up and down the
same diagonal whilst methodically advancing his extra pawn. Black exchange the
minor pieces which did not affect the fundamentals. White was then free to
abandon his unpromotable advanced pawn, pick up Black’s remaining pawn and
promote. And William has not even heard of Silman’s book on endgames. Just a
natural. Another KCC major asset.
On Board Three Algirdas, as Black played Ian Evans. The opening
looked to me very much like a line played by Ben Graff a few matches ago. There
is probably a name for it (Mexican perhaps?) – it looked to me very much like a
sort of Queens Gambit Declined with Black having a knight on c6. Any road up, Algirdas managed to win two extra pawns - passed a- and b-pawns. With a clear win in
sight for Black, White blundered his knight and instantly resigned.
Final score 3-1 (including a default) which should save
us from relegation. It makes you proud to be Captain!
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