Natural Order Restored!

So - for the time being at least - there will be no article on the KCC blog entitled Top of the League (temporarily - Part 4) as in the decisive shoot-out at the Abbey Club on Monday night, the A team powered past the B team 3-1 and re-assumed leadership of Division 1. But with the A team only having one match before the middle of February, compared to the B team's 3, there is every chance that this headline might yet be seen!

The League table after Monday's match certainly makes excellent reading for the club.

Kenilworth first and second - has this ever happened before??

All four games were full blooded encounters, as Jude's pre-match suggestion that he would offer a draw after 3 moves proved to be a bit of a tease. There was not a draw to be seen, and checkmate even appeared on one of the boards.

The A team got off to a fast start by converting the advantage of the White pieces on Boards 2 and 4. Bruce notched the first point when his growing pressure caused Harry to either blunder or misevaluate the position, as a couple of pawns failed to provide adequate compensation against an extra bishop. Personally I was slightly disappointed by this game, as it was very sensible indeed, which is hardly what you'd expect from two such chaos merchants as these! Full marls to Bruce for keeping Harry's natural attacking tendencies under lock and key for the whole evening.

Javier weighed in next, with a bit of a demolition job against Josh, who played an unsound opening unsoundly. Which is seldom a good combination! Despite seeming to castle into Josh's "attack", Javi didn't allow even one check against his king in the whole game, and dominated with the extra piece that Josh had given him. He finished with an exquisite queen sac on f7, which just exploded the Black position into smithereens. If I had the authority I would ban this opening, but doubtless Josh is even more fired up to give it another go after last night!

But then the advantage of the White pieces saw the B team strike back, when Andrew got a big win on top board against a rather subdued Jude, who looked in need of his Christmas holiday. This looked like a really well played game by Andrew, who even allowed a couple of Black's heavy pieces onto the seventh rank and close to his king, but seemingly he was never in danger and eventually won on time.

I don't know why this happens so often, but this left me yet again as the last game in progress. After an unexpected opening, where neither player had much prior knowledge to work with, I slowly got a slight advantage with the Black pieces against Mike, and then managed to shatter his whole kingside structure with a timely pawn to e3 thrust. Then his king came under direct fire, and I could have won a rook for nothing, but calculated a forced mate instead. Except that I had - of course - missed one variation in which the White king ran from c1 to f1 and I was left without a sensible check. But thankfully, a strong queen move renewed all the threats and as the engine has subsequently confirmed there was no defence. Rather than give up his queen to stave off mate, Mike sportingly allowed me to check him back across the board from f1 to a4 where his king finally perished after the move pawn b5 mate.

There can surely never have been such an important A v B match in Kenilworth's history, but doubtless one of our heritage members will correct me on that if I am wrong. When you think that Paul, David and Billy - all rated around 2100+ - have not played a single game between them for the club, the strength in depth needed to sit first and second in the table is quite remarkable. And the B team have lost only to the A team all season, which is no mean achievement in itself.

But enough of all that self-congratulatory twaddle, I hear you say. What is this week's song? Good question, dear reader, because even as I type this sentence, I still haven't decided. But now I have! Why this wasn't a monster hit I will never know.