Incoming Storm

 Following a day in which the rain lashed down on Kenilworth, we gathered in the glooming for our match against Shirley B. It is fair to say that this was not an evening where I can honestly declare that it proved to be darkest just before the dawn, so I will keep this match report brief.

On Board 4, Bernard Rogers seemed to have a devastating early kingside attack against Gordon Christie. I wasn't exactly analysing it, but I assumed we were on for a quick point. To his credit, Gordon defended with a lot of skill and somehow Bernard's attack blew itself out, after which Gordon was completely won. So 0-1.

Incredibly, on Board 2 a similar pattern appeared to play out in Rhys's game against Keith Ingram. I suspect this one was always a bit more double-edged, but both players had contributed to a very violent heavy piece position. Ultimately Keith prevailed to make it 0-2.

On Board 3, I had another in a series of very interesting games with Dave Thomas. I didn't get the opening right and was down a pawn, but somehow managed to get a lot of play, and eventually ended up in an endgame a pawn up which I assumed (as did Dave) would be a win. The reality was that it was very difficult. One of those positions where if Dave just sat (which he did) there were real risks that me committing might actually give Dave the win. Having turned down an earlier draw, following a repetition I just couldn't find a way through, so split the point with a few minutes left on my clock. I suspect a GM would have won it, but when we analysed with others in the bar afterwards, it still wasn't obvious. Given I had been behind out of the gate, it was certainly a half point I would have been much happier with earlier in the proceedings.  

Ultimately, it made no difference. Paul and Darren Whitmore played a really good game that went to the wire, but unfortunately for us, Darren just edged it to wrap up a comprehensive win for Shirley.

As I said to Paul afterwards, the margins in chess are always very fine. There wasn't much between the teams on paper and on another night we might have done better. Still all credit to Shirley - they deserved their victory and a few of us had a nice drink and a catch up in the bar afterwards.

For Kenilworth, we've had a somewhat disappointing start to the season, but these things happen. There are plenty of matches still to play. I have no doubt that brighter days are ahead!

Soon to be champions - an arrogant team captain's diary (part 1)

News from the B team's intrepid visit to Stratford-upon-Avon or, to be more precise, an industrial estate just outside Starford-Upon-Avon. I knew it wasn’t a good sign when my phone told me to get off the train at Stratford-Upon-Avon Parkway, not the nice train station in the town itself.

The first game to finish was Keatan, who had what looked like a very aggressive game as white against Ben Larkin, with an open Sicilian in which Keatan had pushed both b4 and c4. However, just as things were about to get interesting, Ben offered a draw which Keaton, correctly for the match situation, agreed to. An excellent result, if a little anti-climactic as a game.

My game against Richard McNally did at least end in a decisive result, if the game itself was quite a few levels less exciting. As black, and playing my standard d6 f5 line, we reached the following position in which, true to his style, Richard has just lunged forward with f4:

Fortunately for me, it appears that, despite how many possible ways it could go wrong, I can just take this pawn with my bishop and be a pawn up. Even with the multiple ways white can recapture, and the 3 different queen checks he can throw in at different points, nothing works, and I ended up a pawn up in a rook and knight endgame. The conversion went reasonably smoothly, and we were a point up.

For those keeping score (primarily Mark, who does love quoting my many failures with this line) that puts me at 2/2 for the season. I will unfortunately have white in the next game, so will need to work on some transpositions to get back to the correct starting position.

This is the point in the evening when my very knowledge starts to run out, as I left to catch as train. Both Mike (some c4, g5 Maroczy bind stuff as white) and Bernard (a modern Benoni as black) seemed to have very solid and approximately level positions, so as I left the stereotype function in my brain assumed that both might well end as draws.

Of course, as we all know, stereotyping is a dangerous thing to do in life, so I shall just report that both games did indeed end as draws. That left us with a 2.5-1.5 win overall, a welcome reminder of our favourite score from last season. Also, a rare occasion where I can take credit for the team’s win, not blame when things go wrong.

In other (Kenilworth A) news, it is good to see my planting of Andrew Paterson as a B team agent in that team is working as planned. Sadly, a loss for Andy meant the A team could only draw 2-2 with Banbury, meaning that we are currently 3 points clear of our own A team. Long it may it continue, say I and Andy.

Blue on Blue - Take 2!

 

Following the excitement of last week's A v B match, on Monday the C and D teams battled it out, in a contest that proved to be every bit as dramatic. These intra-club affairs always take a fair amount of organisation, and myself, Harry, and Mark had spent quite a while sorting the line-ups. With Mike, Michal, Andy and Bernard Rogers all unavailable, Dhairya and Paul Badger both stepped up to represent the C team. I was delighted that Phil came out of retirement to help the D team, and we were also delighted to call Dylan up again. 

Bernard Charnley was the only one of the eight of us, who also played in the A v B match. It speaks both to the strength and depth we have in the club (and the excellence of Rhys, who made a welcome return to the club on Board 1 for the D team) that having won his match against the A team, Bernard would be defeated by his D team opponent.  Rhys and Bernard were actually the first to finish. I didn't see as much of this one as I would have liked, but Rhys appeared to pick up a pawn and then played with a lot of control and skill to bring home the full point. A terrific effort, and we are so pleased to have him as a part of our squad for the season ahead.

Dhairya finished moments later with a good win against Phil on Board 3. Dhairya broke through very convincingly on the kingside, and while Phil had castled queenside, Dhairya's pieces found more than enough material to feast on. A very good game, as Dhairya bounced back in style from his Banbury reversal. I guess with myself and Dhairya both having played 21 rated games over the weekend at the Warwickshire Rapid and Blitz the pair of us were well practised! 

With the match at 1-1, I would not have wanted to wager a penny on the final outcome. I was playing against Harry in the battle of the captains on Board 2. Very early in the game, Harry missed a trick and I picked up the exchange. However, as we agreed afterwards, I should have spent more time thinking about whether this was really the best approach. I ended up behind in development, and my reluctance to castle due to Harry's light square pressure on the a8 - h1 diagonal simply gave me other problems to deal with. In truth, a game that I thought I was winning comfortably at 7.45 became harder and harder over the next couple of hours, as Harry's pieces swarmed and his bishop pair combined well with his knight and queen. We both missed chances, but ultimately, when well below 5 minutes on my clock, I managed to find a resource that turned the tables and gave me a mating attack. Neither of us will see this as being amongst our finest games, but for all its rawness and imperfections, it was a pretty exhilarating way to spend the evening!

My win guaranteed that at 2-1 the D team were at least good for a point. On Board 4, Dylan was playing a terrific game against Paul. While down a pawn, Paul had doubled pawns to contend with as well as a formidable looking passed pawn. Frankly, I thought Dylan was winning at this point, but it was all very complicated and I might be wrong. Either way, it just shows how well Dylan is developing that he was giving Paul such a strong game. Both players queened, but neither new monarch survived. At the death, heartbreakingly for Dylan, he missed a chance to force a draw with a king move, instead pushing his a pawn which proved to be the losing blow. A shame, but it doesn't detract from how well Dylan had played, and for that reason I'm giving him my player of the night award. 

So 2 - 2, which felt like a very fair result. Both teams are in good shape for the season ahead. I'll try not to think about the fact that we have to do it all again in January - at least for a little while!

An organisational paradox

Arriving in Banbury at around 7.15 last night, I was confronted by a scene that I never thought I would witness in these parts. The club was open, the lights were on, all the boards were set up, and indeed 7 of the match participants were already assembled. Having done a doubletake and realised that this was indeed reality, the too-good-to-be-true principle kicked in. Firstly, I realised that I had forgotten my glasses. The vagaries of age mean that I now need one pair for driving and one for closer work. Until last year my sight meant that my driving glasses were the ones I played chess with, but thanks to a change of prescription they no longer are. I resigned myself to a night of squinting somewhat hopefully at the pieces. (Given what happened, one theory I am considering is whether looking at the chessmen too much is where I have hitherto been going wrong.) Secondly, which did not seem like so much of an issue in the beginning but would become more of one later, Paul Rowan was missing from the Banbury team. 

 We got underway promptly, with Dylan who was making his debut on Board 4 lacking an opponent. Dylan had a great season last year and we are looking forward to him playing a part as one of our key reserves in this campaign. Dylan waited patiently, while Mal (who I was playing on Board 3, for our 5th game in two seasons) made increasingly frantic, unanswered calls to Paul. Eventually we agreed that Banbury could make a substitution. Sadly this is where home advantage can tell, as Banbury had the equally strong Arran Grundy in the house, who stepped in. Obviously Paul then turned up a few minutes later, but that's by the by. At the board, my own game started really well. I got strong initiative out of the opening, and gave Mal the unpalatable choice between allowing a super strong attack or tripling his pawns. He went for the tripled pawns, but I felt at this point that I was strategically won. I set about applying some of the lessons I have picked up from Paul Lam (with huge thanks!) over the summer, in terms of keeping the position completely under control and gradually turning the screw. 

  However, when I surveyed the other games, things were looking less promising. Gary Jackson seemed to be edging a complicated game against Paul on Board 1. Nathan Manley appeared to have tied Dhairya completely in knots, on 2, with Dhairya's pieces mainly rearranged on the back-rank. On Board 4 Arran had got the better of the opening and looked like he had a monster pawn break on the queenside, and the exchange. 

 Dylan played really well to hold Arran at bay for a while, but the end looked inevitable, and the Banbury supersub had put them 1-0 up. Dhairya lost moments later. Not his best evening, but Nathan is a strong player and we know what Dhairya can do, so doubtless a good learning experience. So many times last season, we were bailed out by our juniors (especially Dhairya and Keatan), but now myself and Paul had to do the job. 

 Mine was the much easier task. My position was just a joy, to the point that I wondered if this, along with the (briefly) seemless start to the evening was all but a dream. I brought myself back to reality by missing my best move as our clocks ran down, but it made no difference. I broke through with my rooks, and Mal resigned when I was one move from mate. I always have great games with Mal, but this was my best effort for quite sometime. Having thrown away six months of rating gains during one weekend at the British, I can start rebuilding once again!

 Paul battled valiantly against Gary. It was very complicated and I did not see all the detail, but Gary ultimately brough home the point. So a 1-3 loss on the road, but we were up against a strong team, who certainly deserved their win on the night. 

 We now go on to the C v D match up next week. One thing is for sure. The chess season is back! We will have plenty more opportunities in the weeks and months ahead.

There's Something Happening Here, But What it is Ain't Exactly Clear....

Though at least there's not "A man with a gun over there, Telling me I got to beware."

You couldn't tell from the traditional pre-match photo of the Kenilworth A v Kenilworth B season-opener that witchcraft and sorcery were in the air, but Monday evening's subsequent events proved conclusively that strange forces were at work.

Kenilworth A (left; front to back) - Mark Page, Billy Fellowes, Andrew Paterson, Jude Shearsby v Kenilworth B (right, front to back) - Bernard Charnley, Joshua Pink, Ketan Patel, Bruce Baer

Now we always like these matches to be competitive, so both teams were at as full strength as possible on the night, and it wouldn't be ridiculous that the ratings for each board would have pointed to a score of about 3-1 to the A team - when everyone could have gone home happy, feeling God was in his heaven and all was well with the world. The one relatively risky board for the A team looked to be Board 2, where Andrew had to face up to a still rapidly improving Keatan, who is full of ambition and thirsting for blood every time he sits down at the board.

The match was set up almost perfectly as a contest between Youth and Experience, except that there was also a Dinosaurs Board where Bernard and I faced each other. I was confident, because we had more Youth than the B team but ......... dear, oh dear!

The B team struck immediately in decisive fashion, where Keatan - in line with my very worst fears - simply demolished Andrew with a very deep piece of opening prep. One automatic move from Andrew and he was in a desperate, virtually losing position, after no time at all. He shouldn't feel too bad as plenty of strong players - GMs even - have walked into the same position and gone down to defeat. It really is a great line for White, so naturally I'm not going to reveal it!

Still, this was surely just a minor set-back, as Jude was already giving Bruce's kingside a real pounding, but a timely exchange sac (or was it just lost, I don't know?!) that yielded bishop and pawn for the rook, was enough to turn the tables, and in the final position Black had the luxury of a perpetual attack on a White rook, or playing on. With only 2 minutes against Jude's 50, Bruce erred on the side of caution, and took the draw.

Which meant the pressure was on, as Billy and I both had to win to secure the match victory. Billy initially seemed to be better against one of Joshua's regular, unorthodox openings, that he is just about the only person in the world to play. Given he scored 1/5 when using it at a recent British Rapidplay, it seems fair to say its not an entirely solid Black defence! But, of course, even against someone of Billy's monstrous strength, Joshua eventually got in a counter blow by rushing his d pawn down the board and getting a rook to the seventh rank. Billy had to be careful and to make matters worse, he was on the increment from a very early stage of the game (why?? - it was only Joshua!!). Somehow he navigated his way to a totally drawn position of rook and 1 pawn each. Joshua's pawn had whizzed down to a2, but Billy's rook was perfectly placed to sac itself when his own advanced g pawn would in turn force Black to give his rook up. But then - horror of horrors. Completely inexplicably, Billy played an instantly losing move when he had a very simple drawing sequence. If even I saw it while still in play on my own board it must have been simple. Joshua could scarcely believe his luck and proved quite quickly that he knew how to win with queen against g pawn.

So that was that, the match was gone and my game against Bernard was irrelevant. Except to the pair of us. The position was fairly level for the most part, though I missed a really good pawn sac in the middle game which would have put me right in the driver's seat. We swapped off a lot of pieces and were left with queen and knight each. My only hope was that Bernard had an isolated g pawn in front of a rather naked king, but against that his pawn structure was  better than mine, and his knight was threatening to get quite jumpy against my own king. I was miles behind on the clock, but Bernard started thinking (always a mistake!) and soon I had won the g pawn and followed up by winning another on the queenside, leaving me with h, g and a pawns against a solitary a pawn. The knights were exchanged and I thought my connected passers would just waltz down the board and win the game. But I was kidding myself, as I soon pushed the wrong pawn and gave Bernard a perpetual check. Rather than accept that, though, and make a king move and take the draw, I just sat in my chair and let my time run down until I suddenly saw I had one second on the clock. This proved insufficient time to make a move and press the clock, and so I managed to lose despite being 2 pawns up. Criminal and tragic at the same time.

Which meant that the final score was Kenilworth B 3.5 - Kenilworth A 0.5. I didn't see that coming!

Well played the B team - and especially Keatan for the game of the night - but it did require a whiff of brimstone and magic dust in the air to produce such an unnatural match result. Let's hope normal service can be resumed as soon as possible!