Well, this is a first. Two Games of the Month in the same month, when we're typically lucky to get two in a year. But what can you do when one's inbox over-floweth with splendid offerings?
One of the big plusses for the club this season, when people were dropping like flies or heading for the hills, was the return to regular action of Andy Ward. While this further complicates matters by having 3 Andrews/Andys to differentiate, its a small price to play for the return of a strong player who has played a massive part in the C team's promotion challenge. Our game, though, somes from a recent Division 1 match against Olton A, when a somewhat under-strength Kenilworth B managed to win despite only turning up with 3 players! This was one of the decisive games that saw us overcome our numerical deficiency and secure a third place league position. Not quite matching last season's 2nd place finish for the B team, but probably an even better effort in view of our loss of players for much of the season. I don't suppose those of us in the A team will ever be allowed to forget that we managed to score just a single match point against the B team this season, and suffered our biggest drubbing (0.5-3.5) for many a year in the first encounter.
But back to the Game of the Month, and here - with Andy's own comments - is Andy's excellent victory over Richard Liszewski, who must be sick of the sight of Kenilworth players, having also lost to Bruce and myself earlier in the season. Here Black gets slowly strangled as Andy takes full advantage of some rather passive play by Richard, which ends up with Black having the worst pair of rooks you could ever see, and his light squared bishop is not much better. At the end, Andy is only a pawn up, but the Black rooks and king are so badly placed that it is impossible to avoid massive material loss. This was a very smooth and well controlled game by Andy. Black never seemed to have a chance!
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