Return of the Twofer!

Not exactly by popular demand, but simply because once the Coventry League starts and I'm often playing on consecutive nights, even I don't have time (or energy!) to write separate match reports. And at least this way you only have to suffer one example of my exquisite musical taste each week, so everyone's a winner. (And that's definitely not a clue to this week's song!)

So, on Monday the A team had its third match of the season, with what looked like a tough encounter away against Shirley A. Shirley hadn't had the best possible start to the season, by somehow losing to their own B team, but they fielded a pretty useful side against us and I expected a very close match. I was wrong!

Crazy things happened right from the start on Board 4, where Josh had Black against Jonathan Dale. He won a couple of pawns very quickly, and then temporarily seemed to have an extra piece as well. He gave back an exchange for a pawn, but the position was very complex, with neither king safe. I may be doing the players a mis-service, but I got the impression that after every move the advantage was possibly changing from one side to the other. Well, chess is a difficult game! Except when you get gifted a rook, which is what happened to Joshua, and it was 1-0 to us. Almost immediately it was 2-0, as Bruce, making his belated Leamington League debut for us on Board 3, was also gifted a full point when Marcus Walsh played a combo which just didn't work and cost him a piece and the game.

Meanwhile, I had survived a slight scare in the opening to get a very good position with Black against Russell James on Board 2. I missed a very strong continuation, but was still clearly better when - as soon as Bruce's game was over - I decided to offer a draw to make sure we clinched the match. Russ had little alternative but to accept, as he was also well behind on the clock. This just left Javi in play, against Phil Purcell on Board 1. Javi was applying some slight, but persistent pressure to the Black position, and eventually the tension was too much for Phil who allowed a Bxf7+ sacrifice which couldn't be taken because of mate. But declining it was not much better, and it was soon an excellent win for Javi, to round out a good evening's work by the team. Though a bit galling that I was the only one not to win, despite having the clearest winning position of everybody for quite a large part of the evening!

Fast forward 24 hours, and it was time for our annual trip to Nuneaton for the first match in our defence of the Coventry League Division 1 title. Arriving slightly later than ideal due to some rather heavy traffic, my rather frazzled mood wasn't improved on discovering that Nuneaton had their strongest possible team out, which meant we were rather up against it.

And things started to go wrong quite quickly, as Bruce played in very optimistic style against Phil Briggs on top board and his position began to unravel from quite early on. Mike drew quite quickly against Paul Davies on Board 3, which meant that our two boards with the White pieces had yielded a solitary half a point. And as things weren't exactly going our way on the two remaining boards, either, it all looked a bit bleak. But cometh the hour, cometh the Kenilworth heroes!

First Keatan, on his Coventry League debut, showed great resilience and fighting spirit to hold a draw against Tony Green, despite being down a queen for rook and minor piece. This kept - just - our heads above water, and meant that everything depended on my game with Maurice Staples. Remarkably we started with exactly the same opening line I had had against Paul Davies (who was sat right next to me last night) in an online league match during Covid - right up to Maurice playing exactly the same bad move (7 c4) which allowed me to play Nd3+ with a big advantage. Which I squandered on the very next move - with exactly the same inaccuracy as I had against Paul! We are supposed to learn from our mistakes, but seemingly that's beyond some of us. The game carried on and it was sort of level and rather tense. But I was conscious that I had to try and win for us to have any chance of saving the match. So with Maurice's clock ticking down, I decided to go for it, and sacked an exchange for two pawns. Unfortunately, White got an active rook on the seventh which might even have given him the advantage. But whether by design or oversight, he allowed me to skewer his rooks, which forced a trade to a rook and opposite bishops ending with me having a single extra pawn. I had to keep the rooks on to have any chance of winning ....... but I couldn't and it looked like a stone cold draw. Which it was until, again under great clock pressure, Maurice blundered his f2 pawn away, and suddenly I was able to create passed pawns on each side of the board, one of which was going to queen. Phew!  To paraphrase Nigel Short, God is not a Nuneatonian!

Which meant that we somehow kept intact the club's unbeaten record against third parties this season - the C team having drawn against Olton B on Monday night. Now its down to the D team to keep the run going against Banbury B tomorrow. Good luck, folks! You don't want to be the first team to let the side down!

Truly, last night we escaped by the skin of our teeth - but somehow we made it out of the darkness. Cue this week's song from Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul. Nearly 40 years old, but still packing one hell of a punch. A great song, and a great performance.