As Harry pointed out to me when we were in the Bar at Shirley last night, following the C team's 2.5 - 1.5 victory against Shirley B.... Kenilworth C and D are now first and second in Division 2. We've even got the picture to prove it!
This has not been the easiest of seasons for all sorts of reasons. Yet while we are continually having to re-jig our teams, and we know eligibility issues will make this even more challenging in the second half of the campaign, at the Board we continue to put it together. It has made me reflect that for all our difficulties, we still have considerable strength and depth, and a roster that would be the envy of many a club.
I cannot tell you as much about the games last night as I would like, for the simple reason that I spent most of the evening in my seat struggling with a very difficult position, but we'll get on to that in a moment...
On Board 1, Andy Ward unfortunately went wrong against Darren Whitmore. These things happen, but it left us 1-0 down.
Harry was losing, I was losing, but Rhys was winning and swiftly turned down Dave Thomas's offer of a draw. None of the games ultimately ended as might have been predicted at the halfway point in the proceedings.
I'm not sure exactly what happened in Harry's game on Board 2, but Keith Ingram perhaps overreached and Harry's resilience paid off - somehow we were back to 1-1.
My position on Board 4 had been excruciating all night. Owen Adams is new to OTB chess but is 2100 on chess.com and has been doing very well in quicker games in the Shirley club. He was much better out of the opening, and I was desperately trying to find some space to ward off a kingside attack. By a miracle, I managed to find an OK defence and to gradually untangle things. We landed in an endgame in which I had two knights vs two bishops (and 5 pawns each.) I had 3 minutes to Owen's 10, but this was probably where my experience showed. I would say I have felt every emotion it is possible to feel at a chessboard except for rustiness (e.g. 32 Blitz and Rapid games last weekend at the London Chess Classic) and I just held my nerve better. I got the knights working more effectively than Owen's Bishop's, found a couple of tactics and picked up a Bishop and a pawn to bring home an unlikely point. I have no doubt that Owen will do really well going forward, but I was delighted to put us 2-1 up!
Somewhere along the line Rhys had lost his advantage against Dave, and eventually ended up playing with just a knight against Dave's two pawns. Fortunately there was no way for Dave to win and they ended up with seconds left on their clocks and just the two kings left on the board, after what was a highly entertaining game. No one could accuse them of not trying!
So a very satisfactory evening. Both the C and D team have one more game before Christmas. Here's hoping we can keep on setting the pace!
