Another hard night's work

For my sin of playing in a Kenilworth match Mark was not part of, I suppose I have to go to the effort of writing something about it myself. And what could be a more exciting tale to regale you with, than a Wednesday evening with the B team at the Blossomfield Club in Solihull.

Pride of place (though not pride of performance) for finishing first goes to Harry, whose punishment for stealing Bernard C from my team to play for his one instead earlier in the week was having to take Bernard's place in this match. I think it is fair to say his opening was not a tremendous success, with some sort of irregular King's pawn opening engine up with him fairly quickly down an exchange, and with his opponent's (a newcomer called John Raouf) queen installed behind his front line. There was brief optimism that perhaps Harry could prevent the queen returning and trap it, but whilst he achieved the first of those things he only succeeded in keeping the queen in his position to win yet more material and the game. 0-1

Things were soon evened up however thanks to Mike's victory over Ray Carpenter. A slow Catalan from Mike established the trademark nagging edge he seems to have in virtually all his white games. I was very much expecting a long and slow squeeze to occur, always on the border of victory and a draw. However, Ray then decided not to move his rook when it was attacked by a bishop, lost the exchange for no clear reason, and a slow potential victory became a fast and instant one. 1-1

Another victory followed relatively soon afterwards, with Andrew scoring a very nice win over Don Mason on top board. After having castled kingside, Andrew was forced/decided to recapture gxf3 when a black bishop took his knight, giving him excellent central control at the cost of a weak king. Ultimately, either Andrew's long-term strategic judgment or Don's poor time management left Andrew with a better endgame, that was always going to be converted against an opponent playing on a 10 second increment. 2-1

That left my game as the last to finished, in a game where I had earlier on been faced with this decision as black.

My view at the time was that taking the a2 pawn was probably the correct move, given I could see no immediate tactical issues, and I would horribly regret it if I did. Both of these predictions came true. After capturing the computer informs me I held the princely advantage of -0.1, and I spent the entire rest of the game grimly hanging on with no active plans at all. Fortunately, results elsewhere meant that I heroically agreed a draw so the team won the match/desperately clung on in a worse endgame (delete as appropriate). 2.5-1.5 to us as the final score, and we are off the mark for the season.