On a Roll

Two strong team performances in the Leamington and Coventry Leagues this week, as we powered to consecutive 3.5-0.5 Division 1 wins.

First up it was a home match against current LDCL leaders Stratford. Coming into the match they were unbeaten and we had a 100% record. Happily, it was our record that remained intact. Joshua was first to finish, and even by his standards this was a brutal performance! Checkmate on the board in about 17 moves. With the Black pieces. David Gardiner probably didn't know quite what hit him. I couldn't keep pace with that, but I was next to finish when Richard McNally ran out of threats and I was a rook up. It was a strange game, as Richard simply gave me a piece in a completely equal position, and then felt obliged to give me an exchange to try and keep some play going.  Apart from one check, though, there wasn't any play and so it was 2-0 to us. Mike then took us to victory with a highly original win against Sam Cotterill. All Mike's queenside pawns disappeared, while Sam had connected a, b and c pawns. Mike had a central majority, but even so this seemed a bit radical to me and I was rather worried. But the next time I looked, Sam's queen had ventured out to a rather unfortunate square and could only be saved by giving up a whole rook. Resignation would have been the best move, but around 20 more were made before we inevitably went up 3-0. Jude had been in a spot of bother against Ben Larkin on Board 1 and went a pawn down. But then he switched on the turbo drive and steadily outplayed his opponent. It looked as though he was going to win with a lone h pawn and a fantastic light squared bishop against a  knight and three connected passed queenside pawns. But Ben found an excellent defence and in time trouble Jude was unable to prevent White from also queening and drawing with a perpetual. So, 3.5-0.5 to us, and while Stratford are still top, we have closed up to 1 point behind with 2 matches in hand.

Since our opening Coventry League match loss to Nuneaton A, we had chalked up back to back wins against Warwick University's A and B teams, and on Tuesday we took on their C team, aiming for a clean sweep and three in a row. In a rather packed room (5 matches were going on!) this aim was duly achieved as we ran out easy 3.5-0.5 winners - already the fifth time this season I've been on the good side of that score-line. Jude was in no mood to hang around (much to his Dad's delight!) and won effortlessly with the Black pieces on Board 2. Connected passed pawns on b2 and a3 in the middle game were rather difficult to fight against! For the second night running I got gifted a piece in an otherwise equal position. I found a cunning knight retreat which should have netted me a pawn, but my opponent overlooked a pin and the pawn turned into a full piece. I simply had to avoid a one move threat of checkmate later on and the win was very easy. At one point I wasn't so sure that Ben would be joining me and Jude in the winner's club, as nothing much seemed to be happening, but when I next looked, a hurricane had blown through the White position and Ben was on the verge of delivering mate. That didn't quite happen, but in staving off mate, White had to shed too much material. And it seemed certain to become 4-0, as Mike was up a piece for 2 pawns on Board 3. However, this didn't go as smoothly as we might have hoped. First there was a long delay when Mike's opponent claimed a threefold repetition. But (a) he claimed it (very!) incorrectly and (b) Mike was adamant there had only been a twofold. So, the game continued and came down to an ending of knight and 2 against 4 pawns. But the 4 pawns could yield two passed pawns on the c and h files and in order to stop them both, Mike had to let his last pawn go and accept it was a draw. I suspect there was a win somewhere along the line, but it was not at all obvious how White should best deploy his king and knight to restrain the Black pawns and hold onto his own last foot soldier. Which meant we missed out on a 4-0 win at the death for a second night running.

Now sit back and enjoy this week's musical offering while you roll right through the night! The available live versions didn't quite fit the bill, but you can never go far wrong with the original version of a classic like this.