It was a disappointing night for the D team on Monday, at home against Rugby A, so we will keep this report brief.
We were delighted to welcome Paul back from his travels. I did not see much of his game against the very strong Paul Colburn on Board 1, but sadly it did not go our way. On Boards 2 and 4, Rhys and Bernard played out the opposite side of near mirror image positions. Bernard had two knights and an extra pawn vs two bishops. In his game, Rhys had the bishops against the knights, but was down a pawn.
Unfortunately Rhys got edged out against Mark Gilbert to make it 0-2. Meanwhile, Bernard's opponent James Peel deserves a lot of credit for an impressive game, as he generated enough counterplay to hold the draw.
My game against Dave Riley was not one to write home about. I outplayed him and we entered a heavy piece endgame which looked crushing for me. Unfortunately, I have been getting into time trouble a lot lately and went wrong. Right at the death, with 20 seconds on my clock, I took a perpetual - missing a move that would have been overwhelming. I only have myself to blame, although it would not have changed the match result. So 1-3 on the night.
Completely unrelated to Monday's debacle, but perhaps highlighting what a mystery chess is, last night I drew an excellent game for Shirley against CM Keith Duncan (2066). The best I have played in a long time. I'm yet to Fritz it to see how much of a chicken I was in taking the draw, but we were down to two minutes each and I couldn't see a clean kill. Given my clock prowess the previous night, discretion felt like the better part of valour!
Kenilworth has some very important games coming up, and I resolve to play more like I did on Tuesday than on Monday. If only it were that simple!
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