And the young man in question was Jude, who came, saw and conquered very quickly on Monday night, as Kenilworth A scored a 3-1 win over Olton A in our latest Division 1 fixture. Against the very solid and experienced Alan Lloyd on Board 1, Jude totally bamboozled his opponent and the game ended very quickly when Jude attacked a loose knight on a4 with Rb4. The knight couldn't be defended, but if it moved a bishop on b2 would have been unprotected. White was just losing a piece. End of game. Not surprisingly, Alan looked rather crestfallen after this accident. I bet he was wishing he'd been playing me!
Especially as I had experienced not 1 but 2 complete mental blackouts in the opening against Mark Cundy. First I couldn't remember the new line I was planning to play against his particular Sicilian variation, so I went back to a pawn sac line (yes, really - me of all people!) only to forget the rest of the line on the very next move. Oh dear. Tempus is certainly fugiting as far as my memory is concerned. The result was that I never got my pawn back, and I just had to concentrate on putting up a barrier to the Black pieces. This worked - just - but it still came as a very pleasant surprise when Mark offered me a draw.
Board 3 saw Andrew P, as black, against Richard Reynolds. The game was - let's not beat about the bush - not a riveting spectacle for the spectators (P. Lam, Esq), though I'm sure both players were totally enthralled by the slow manoeuvring that took place. Anyway, from almost nowhere, Andrew started to turn the screw and when he forced a passed a pawn, the position shifted drastically in his favour. White only had a rook to try and stop the pawn, as his other pieces were stranded on the kingside, whereas Andrew's rook, bishop and knight were all on hand to shepherd the pawn to a1.
Thinking about things, I may have been unfair to Andrew about the excitement levels of his game, because in comparison to Josh's Board 4 encounter with Rob Reynolds, it was thrill a minute stuff. Josh totally failed to generate any of the chaos on board for which he is famous, and the inevitable result was a draw. The White pieces certainly did not distinguish themselves in this match!
What shall we have as our song this week, I wonder? How about ............ this!? A whole band's worth of young men in a hurry!
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