Not Our Knight...

Sometimes it is when you come up short, that you realise how much progress you have actually made. Leamington A v Kenilworth D would have sounded like a real mismatch in years gone by. However, this season sees us as rivals at the business end of Division 2. 

We went into the match unbeaten in the League against all teams other than our own C team, but it was clear from the outset that it was going to be tough. Leamington's Board 4 was higher rated than I was on Board 1 for Kenilworth, but the match itself was very competitive, even if it was clear that Leamington always had the edge.

Solomon answered the call at short notice, and resisted well on Board 4 against Andy Collins. However, credit to Andy who built up a blistering kingside attack. Pawns rolled, rooks occupied menacing files, and eventually the defences around Solomon's king were breached. Certainly a decent game.

On Board 3 Bernard and Ola played out a very complex and double-edged encounter. It was not entirely clear to me who stood better (at a pinch I would say Ola) but possibilities abounded for both players, and I was unsurprised when the two of them decided discretion was the better part of valour and agreed a draw.

All of which left me against Tom Darling and Phil against Ben Egid. My game with Tom was very interesting. I had the bishop pair and the better pawn structure, Tom had the attack. When he sacrificed a pawn that I had no choice but to take, I feared the worst, but managed to build a good defence. With my king on g2 and my own rooks on the h-file, I certainly had equality, if not slightly more. However, bafflingly given the amount of Bullet chess I play, for the second night in a row I was running on vapours timewise. Phil's position looked pretty dire to me by this point, so with the match looking lost, I agreed the draw.

Phil and dodgy knight moves have a bit of a history (as I recall from my own Leamington days.) Last night, we had a variation on a theme, when Ben Egid moved his king into a knight check and pressed the clock. Tom immediately intervened and we agreed to give Phil an extra two minutes. However, while this gave Phil 12 minutes to Ben's 2, Phil's position was still horrible. Ben could not stop laughing at his inadvertent error and there were twenty seconds or so when I wondered whether Phil might win on time, but sadly for us Ben composed himself. Once he had, pretty much anything won and so it proved.

So not our "knight". But this doesn't detract from a really good season and we'll be back in action next week against Solihull!