Black is OK. Kenilworth D slightly less so...

 There was a moment at the British Rapidplay, after I threw away a third winning position, when I inwardly compared myself to the hapless banker in the film Notting Hill. You might know the scene? The poor chap staggers home only to declare "Another disastrous day at the office... millions down the drain I fear...I never did understand this job," or something along those lines. Fortunately, my tournament picked up with 3.5/4 at the finish, which meant that my personal takeaway from the proceedings ended up being a lot more positive. Namely I noticed that I had scored 4.5/5 with black and 1.5/6 with white. So perhaps black really is OK? 

Partly this was the vagaries of playing stronger players with white and weaker players with black in the early rounds. But not entirely... Indeed had my 1950 opponent not missed N-f6+ in the final round, my tally with the white pieces might have been even worse. Heck, I wouldn't presume to say that the chess gods owed me one, but it was certainly a very satisfying final move to play in the tournament.

Just by way of reference, it is possible for games with black to resemble puzzle rush on chess.com. I very much enjoyed playing Rh1# in the below in an earlier round. (My opponent asked me afterwards where I thought he had gone wrong and I did gently suggest he should have given the material back and chopped off the black bishop when that had still been a possibility...) 

So when Kenilworth D travelled to Shirley on Monday night I was intrigued to see if black would prove to be OK once more - and indeed it was - even though as a team we we weren't. Black ended up with 3/4 on the night, and while both our half points came with black, it obviously wasn't enough...

I finished first on Board 2 against Keith Ingram. While playing down a line I knew well, I tried something different to see what would happen (that's what a weekend of fast chess will do for you...) It wasn't great, but I untangled myself reasonably easily, a lot of wood came off and we were the first to finish.

Dylan was playing the very strong Owen Adams (who I suspect is going to be much higher rated very soon) on board 3. A tactical melee ensued. It was very complicated and very difficult. I went through the game in the bar afterwards with Owen and a couple of the Shirley players. Dylan put up a good fight, but unfortunately it wasn't quite enough - still a good effort though.

Which left Dhariya up against Darren Whitmore on one, and Dan playing Dave Thomas on four. There was a time when I thought both Kenilworth players were winning, albeit I now suspect Dhariya never was. Dan was up the exchange against Dave, but Dave had a central pawn break and a bishop that controlled the key queening square. One of those positions where it was hard to see what else Dan could have done. Ultimately he had to return the material and ran very short of time, so a draw was a fair result. A great game for the spectators though.

Dhariya's was even more so. A whole host of pieces were en prise, but what I had probably overlooked in my initial assessment was the strength of Darren's passed b pawn which managed to find its way to the second rank. A whole host of tactics suddenly went Darren's way despite Dhariya's excellent resistance. A really terrific battle - but one that left us 1-3 losers, with Shirley (and black) as the winners!

It doesn't matter too much as the team is safe from relegation and can just enjoy our chess between now and the end of the season. We're next in action next week, when we will see once again if black continues to be OK!