Not ITMA but ITSA!

Though I imagine that anyone under the age of around 60 will not know what either of these acronyms stand for. Well, this will explain ITMA (It's That Man Again) to those not in the know.

But ITSA is my own invention - It's That Score Again! Because, yes, for the fourth time in four matches, Kenilworth A won by 3.5-0.5 in our latest Division 1 encounter last night. This time it was a good Shirley A team that was on the receiving end of a very strong KCC performance, which took us to the top of the table, a point ahead of Stratford A with a game in hand. And still no games lost yet by any A team player.

Jude finished first, after a relatively uneventful and carefully played top board draw against Phil Purcell, but thereafter the Kenilworth wins steadily mounted. Joshua was the first to gain the full point, beating Darren Whitmore in a rather strange game. It looked very even, until Darren voluntarily swapped off into a king and pawn ending that looked - and was - just lost for him. Win number two came courtesy of yours truly, as I took Marcus Walsh's gambit pawn, weathered a bit of a storm (when both players missed some good moves) and then rounded up a second pawn. Marcus threw the towel in rather early, but when you play a gambit, I don't imagine you are in the right frame of mind to just prolong the game when two pawns down and losing in an ending. As so often happens, the player who had been most obviously winning from the earliest moment was the last to finish. The seldom seen Andy B, on a rare outing, just marched into Dave Thomas's queenside and took two pawns for virtually nothing. Dave organised a little bit of counterplay but Andy quickly snuffed this out and then won a third pawn for good measure. Even opposite bishops couldn't have saved Dave in this ending, but there was still a pair of rooks on as well, and Dave managed to fall into a mating net which duly brought matters to a conclusion.

An excellent win for the team, and it was pretty happy car load of campers who returned home afterwards. But while winning is nice, let's not forget that there are three possible results to a chess game/match. And here's a song to remind you of that fact!