Last night Kenilworth C played Leamington A for the first time since the Division 2 promotion decider a couple of years ago. On that occasion Leamington secured promotion to Division 1 with a narrow victory. We then followed Leamington up to the top League by winning Division 2 the following season. With this now a Division 1 fixture, Kenilworth C returned the favour after that fateful previous encounter, with a narrow win (despite being outgraded.) For once the proceedings were slightly more comfortable than the 2.5 - 1.5 score line suggested.
Dhairya got us off to a terrific start on Board 2 against Ben Egid. Ben walked into a well-known opening trap minutes into the proceedings. Dhairya pocketed considerable material, and while Ben tried everything to complicate the position, Dhairya proceeded to completely outplay him. I was so impressed by Dhairya's calmness and his accuracy. To see another of our juniors performing so well on a high board in Division 1 is a real cause for celebration. Dhairya's chess is getting better and better and he is such an asset to the team.
Paul was next to finish on Board 1, unfortunately losing to Tom Darling after a Smith-Morra Gambit generated its usual complexities. I must admit, I did not see much of this, but I'm sure it would have been a good battle.
So 1-1, but I was winning on Board 3 against Joshua Simpson (of which more later) and I thought Dan looked very solid against Chris Ward on four.
Dan keeps conjuring up the points and this proved to be no exception. In a quietish position he set up various tactical threats and ultimately found a fork to win a piece. In a very similar vein to Dhairya, Dan did not look back, and brought home the full point for another fantastic victory. I've written it before, but Dan is another player who is developing at a rate of knots, and making such a difference to the club.
My own night was somewhat bizarre. With a day job in a UK-US Business, it's not unusual for me to sometimes be on calls with the US in the evening, but I plan rigorously to ensure it doesn't cut across chess nights. Until yesterday, when at 6.40 I was told our US President (not that one) wanted to talk to me at 7.00. I sprinted across to Kenilworth and started the call sat in my car in the pitch-black car park. Eventually I moved inside to at least let the players know I was there. Eventually I managed to extract myself at 7.35 and Joshua very sportingly hadn't started the clocks.
I still have a job, but I don't think it was the best preparation. I started sluggishly and Joshua missed a good chance in the opening. I eased myself back into the game, set up a nice kingside attack and picked up a pawn. As usual this all left me very short of time. I thought simplifying was the best way to go, but Joshua's passed pawn and bishop proved to be good compensation against my knight and extra pawn. I'm sure a computer would have found a win for me, but with seconds left on my clock (and conscious that a draw was all we needed to win the match) I split the point. It's not the first time this season that I've not managed to convert, but if you keep getting into decent positions, I know from experience that you are probably doing OK...
Last season we celebrated when the C team beat other clubs B teams. We can now add Leamington A to Olton A as C team scalps. Our priority remains to get enough points to stay up. I'm sure we can do it and yesterday was another good step...