Omnishambles

No, not on the board, but off it! There was an organisational meltdown by Warwick Uni this week, as we took on their B team in our second Coventry League Division 1 match of the season. Having been given a dispensation to drop the incremental time limit, because they supposedly had to vacate the venue by 10.30 prompt, the Uni B team managed to delay the start of our match by 20 minutes. But when the final game eventually finished - at around 10.45 - no one had tried to kick us out, so we could have played with an increment anyway. Except that we couldn't, because only one digital clock was available when we got off to our belated start! So three far from pristine analogue clocks had to be used. That shiny digital clocks then turned up about 5 minutes later only rubbed salt into the wound. And there were no score sheets available, either. Though scraps of paper were kindly provided.

Anyone hoping to see the first ever usage of this word here, will have to be disappointed, I'm afraid, as it has failed the KCC Acceptability Test. Well, we do have our younger readers to think about! But if you are determined to explore further you won't have much trouble finding the clip on YouTube. Just don't play it at work. Or at school. Or with other people in the room!

Thankfully things proceeded more smoothly on the board - at least for us. Andrew, playing his first ever Coventry League game for Kenilworth, continued his 100% start to the KCC season with a very convincing refutation on Board 1 of Black's optimistic opening set up. The way he dismantled the Black position was almost surgical - in the same way that Jack the Ripper's methods were! Ben finished next, chalking up the full point on Board 4 after a very expansive piece of play by his opponent who advanced his pawns to h4, g4, f4 and e5 - leaving rather a lot of space in behind them. When Ben was allowed to open a kingside file, the White position collapsed.

I continued the good work by winning a rather dull game on Board 2 - no sarcastic comments, please. After equalising from the opening, I managed to swap most of the pieces off and win a pawn. In a double rook ending I then won another pawn, and eventually I was able to get my queenside connected passers rolling to victory. For much of the evening it looked like Mike would win on Board 3 to complete a clean sweep, but despite him pressing hard, his opponent stood firm, and when Mike finally won a pawn it was at a cost of disco-ordinating his pieces. Even so, getting a piece trapped in the middle of the board was hardly forced, but when it happened he quickly offered a draw which turned out to be the best move of the game. His opponent was very low on time - yes, even lower than Mike - and with no increment (am I the only won noticing the irony, here?) he decided he had no alternative but to accept.

That makes it 2/2 so far, but the two Division 1 heavyweights, University A and Nuneaton A now await us, so that perfect record is not likely to continue much longer!