Tuesday 10 September 2019

The Battle of Kenilworth

No, not some obscure encounter in the English Civil War, but the Kenilworth B v Kenilworth A match which kicked off the 2019-20 Leamington League season last night.

This was the first time I had ever played in a Kenilworth v Kenilworth encounter, but it was not new territory for several of the participants, as the B v C team match has occurred in each of the last two seasons. And with the B team winning Division 2 last season, the intra-Kenilworth encounter now takes place in Division 1. Neither team was at full strength, but it was still a pretty meaty encounter. The A Team averaged 177, and the B Team 153 - though that did include Jude's distinctly understated (as he was to prove) grade of 141.

Ben pulled off the first masterstroke of the evening by putting Andy W on Board 1 to play me, when I had been expecting Ben himself. But he was unable to bask in the glory of out-captaining me for long, as he had guessed our Boards 3 and 4 the wrong way around, so it ended up that no-one in the entire match played their expected opponent! Except that some of us have a lot of time on our hands, and can prepare for more than one eventuality.....

And so it was that I had taken a look at Andy's pet opening and had a good line ready against it. (Which was more than I had when he first unleashed it on me at the Perth Open in 2017!) Although Black got some activity for a few moves in the middlegame, as soon as this petered out he was in a very difficult position, with a knight stranded on h6 and his king in the firing line of a White pawn storm. I quickly got in the thrust f4-f5-f6 and it was curtains for the Black king.

Meanwhile, on Board 2 a modern-day masterpiece was being created by Joshua (as Black) against Ben. Or it was a totally unsound hack, I'm not sure?! What I do know is that as A Team Captain I was distinctly worried when Ben simply won the exchange, but then he made the fatal mistake of castling queenside and walked into a Pink brilliancy as a Black knight landed on b4 and after being taken by a pawn (leaving White a whole rook up) was replaced by another knight which not only won back a piece but forced the White queen to the pathetic square a1. Ben tried to save himself by returning the exchange, but Josh was having none of it and simply advanced his a pawn down to a3, causing ruination to the White king.

So 2-0 to the A team, and the match was clinched almost immediately when Jude and Mike agreed a draw on Board 4. Jude, showing little respect for his elders, had gone for the jugular from the opening with an e5-e6 pawn sac, but Mike defended this well and used some nifty knight jumps to consolidate his pawn advantage. But the extra pawn was doubled and on e6 and Jude adopted a very good piece set up that seemed to tie down Mike's pieces. With a massive time disadvantage, Mike opted for the pragmatic decision to offer a draw and Jude accepted, to make it a memorable Division 1 debut for him.

Which left Board 3, where our new recruit Dragomir enjoyed an even more memorable debut by winning, as Black, against Bernard C. Bernard seemed to be doing all the right things as Drago kept his king in the centre, but at a crucial moment Bernard decided to castle queenside and - like Ben (but thankfully not like me!) - found this caused him major headaches. Drago produced a highly imaginative piece sacrifice that, in the heat of battle and with the clock ticking (digitally, of course!), was very difficult to refute. Bernard gave up his queen for a whole heap of pieces, but the Black queen was a monster and Bernard's defence eventually faltered. The Black queen then danced in to deliver mate, aided by a monstrous pawn on c3.

So 4 highly entertaining games, a very close match, and a result that left both sides with plenty of positives for the season ahead. Its good to be back in league action!

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