Should future chess historians ever decide to put together a Kenilworth club quiz, asking which enthusiastic member managed to captain the D, C and B teams in a six-day period, might be a good starter question. Albeit I’m guessing that keen students of this period, would probably correctly hazard a guess that it was me. You have already seen the write up of the D team encounter against Leamington B. I am going to draw a veil over Kenilworth B’s attempt to hold off Banbury A, suffice to say the night was about as cheering as the 3.5 – 0.5 Banbury victory suggests.
Yet in many ways, it was the Monday night battle between Kenilworth C and (again) Leamington B that was the most crucial. Coventry had slipped up last time out, which meant with three games to go (before this match) the promotion quest (and of course the Division 2 title) were back in our own hands.
It was our Board 4 stand in, Dylan, who proved to be the star of the show. Up against Alex (who is over 1700), Dylan played a fantastic game, building up a great attack in a really controlled way. It was one of those positions where I didn’t have to calculate anything to be pretty sure that Dylan was going to win. Ultimately Dylan took the very sensible decision to cash out his attack for a big material advantage and soon afterwards the point was ours. Undoubtedly Dylan’s best night as a Kenilworth player – and we are very grateful to him for stepping up.
The remaining three games were all very tense, but Dylan’s win seemed to settle our nerves a bit. I was playing Tom Cockell on Board 3 and was the next to finish, after a game I would rather forget. Up against 1.b4 and Tom’s deep understanding of the system, I played the opening very poorly and found myself in a very difficult position having made various mistakes along the way. A pawn down, I managed to turn the tables with a fork which gave an ending of rook and three (me) vs knight and four (Tom). My rook dominated the f file, cutting Tom’s king off from the action, while my king made the slow walk into white’s position. As per usual I hadn’t helped myself by having to play the whole ending on vapours time wise, but eventually I got my king where I wanted it. Faced with either losing his remaining pawns or being mated in the corner, Tom resigned. Not my finest hour, but I’d dug myself out and we were 2-0 up!
Boards 1 and 2 both went to the brink. Paul was playing Chris Ward on Board 2 and seemed to have marginally the better of a rook and pawn ending but it still looked drawn. Paul offered a draw when both players were below a minute on their clocks, which was turned down. My heart was in my mouth a bit as anything can happen in such circumstances, but a draw was agreed soon afterwards, so we had done it!
All of which meant that Dave’s game against Joshua Simpson was no longer key to the match, but it was still a fascinating tussle. Dave pressed all night and was a pawn up in another rook and pawn ending. However, his structure wasn’t perfect, and Joshua had a passed pawn of his own that needed to be carefully watched. So, a draw felt like a fair result – and both players deserve credit for a really good game.
Our win ended Leamington B’s faint hopes of winning the Division themselves. We are four points clear of Coventry A and Shirley B, with 2 games left to play (with Coventry and Shirley having 3 games left, albeit one of which is against each other.) Our final two games are away to Solihull and at home against Shirley. A win and a draw from these encounters would guarantee the title. We’ll keep our feet on the ground and just take them one game at a time.
