It was back to business as usual this week, as KCC returned to winning ways in the Coventry Trial Online League. We outpointed Rugby comprehensively by 9.5-2.5 over the full 6 boards, and by 6.5-1.5 on the top 4 boards which count for the league result.
Rugby's top players seem to have largely shunned the online world so far, and only Simon Turner of their established Division 1 squad was in action against us. In the first game he sacked a pawn against me for a bit of play. I didn't play that well, but then neither did Simon, and before you knew it I had won a whole piece. And then I started to play like a total idiot. I couldn't see even one move ahead, and Simon simply started picking off my pawns. Three to be precise. While my extra piece did absolutely nothing. I was pleased to take the draw when it got down to rook, knight and 2 against rook and 5. Game 2 possibly saw a mouse slip on move 1, as Simon opened with 1 d3, when he has played 1 d4 in every game of his I've ever seen! He played rather passively and I was able to win a pawn and get a nice juicy one of my own onto d3. In rounding this up, Simon dropped a piece and this time round I managed to make it count.
Andy W was back from his holiday in Crete to take over Board 2 duties against Dave Riley. Alexei Shirov's chess autobiography was famously entitled Fire on Board, but on the evidence of Andy's first game, his would be Chaos on Board. He won an exchange by good opening play, but then lost control big time, as Dave played some imaginative stuff, including a bishop sac. Andy's king looked as though it was a goner for all money, but somehow he shed enough material to stave off mate. Inevitably the game ended in a draw, even though Andy was a pawn down and facing connected passed f and g pawns in a rook ending. White could/should certainly have played on as he was now winning! Game 2 was slightly less manic. But only slightly. Andy should have won a piece in the opening, but didn't and had to settle for a pawn. This then became two pawns, but in an opposite bishops ending. The position was totally drawn, but Dave went slightly wrong and suddenly White was probably winning. However, the resignation which then came was definitely premature - but I don't suppose Andy was too bothered!
Joshua was in ruthless form on Board 3 against John Hall. Game 1 featured a crushing attack against the Black king, but Game 2 was something of a grind before Joshua won with some extra pawns in a knight ending. Skipping a board, Ben showed even less mercy, winning both games against Pavel Scerbakovs in a combined 31 moves. In fact he had finished his second round game before anyone else had finished their first!
Back to Board 4, where Mike finished off the League match with a 1.5 pts haul from his two games against Stephen Belding. Game 1, with Black, could hardly have gone any better, as the last 12-15 moves seemed to consist of nothing but Mike either taking material or giving check. Or both at once. Game 2 was far less entertaining. Mike got an edge against the Albin Counter Gambit but failed to turn the screw at the right moment and drifted into a slightly inferior position before a timely draw offer secured the half point.
But all this is by way of a warm up for Matt's heroics on Board 6. Answering a late call to arms, after Billy found himself needed by Warwickshire Bears in the online 4NCL, Matt found himself up against Nigel Malka. With an OTB grade of 129, Nigel "should" have been on Board 2, but the vagaries of the chess.com rating system had him on Board 6 instead. So full credit to Matt for notching a sparkling win in Game 1. An excellent exchange sacrifice was followed up by a brutal knight fork which brought the game to an end in just 21 moves. This game certainly warrants publication! Matt couldn't repeat the magic in Game 2, but a 50% score on the evening was an excellent result.
And so its on to the title decider against Warwick University next week, when the League wraps up its 5 week run. We could well get blown out of the water if they suddenly wheel out all or even some of their big guns, but there's no point worrying about that. What will be, will be - as that widely respected philosopher Doris Day so memorably sang!
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