B-rutal

There was no messing about (except by me, of course) when the B team travelled to take on Leamington A on Tuesday. I had managed to assemble a pretty useful team for our encounter with the current bottom placed team in Division 1 and most of the big guns duly delivered. But of course, there's always an exception and there are no prizes for guessing who was less big gun than small water-pistol on the night.

Dhairya made his B team debut, and found himself facing another of Paul's CCA stars, Anvi Prabhakaran, who was herself making her Leamington A debut and who had been one of our guest participants in the Mickey Adams simul. (Its a shock to find them playing against us rather than for us!) Dhairya was in no mood to mess about and took over with Black from an early stage, soon marching his king side pawns up the board and winning the exchange. The rest of the pieces were steadily exchanged and when Anvi tried a desperate stalemate trick Dhairya sidestepped it and delivered mate instead.

In very different fashion, David subsequently made it 2-0 by downing Ben Egid on Board 1. David seemed to play relentlessly to win a weak Black pawn on d5 and when he finally annexed this, he cleverly returned the extra pawn to get a totally crushing position where his rook and knight totally dominated Ben's rook and (very bad) bishop. Ben then lost on time in a position where he was bound to lose most of his pawns.

I was next to finish, and for the second successive game, I managed to throw away a completely won position (two extra pawns) after rather needlessly getting into time trouble. Just as I thought I was about to annex the full point Tom produced an unexpected bishop sacrifice which I couldn't accept due to mate. In a state of shock I decided to head for a draw but in the process made a bad mistake that could have put me on the defensive. Thankfully Tom was so relived to be getting a draw that he fell in with my plan and the game ended in perpetual check. I really need to get my act together!

At least the match was now won, which left Bruce in play against Chris Ward (no, not the GM!). Something had gone slightly wrong for Bruce in the opening, and he was obliged to give up/sac a pawn. It soon came down to queen and rook each, with plenty of pawns (Black having one more) but where Bruce had definite compensation through his greater piece activity. I imagine it should have been about equal, but when the queens got exchanged a couple of Black pawns suddenly dropped off and Bruce was winning, to make the final score 3.5-0.5 and send the B team to the top of the table! At least until the Kenilworth A v Banbury A match next Monday when one of those two teams will definitely jump ahead.

Obviously the B team's table topping position requires some suitably 'B' themed music. In fact, lets go double B and enjoy some historic footage of the Byrds and Bob Dylan, which is very apposite given that on the same night as the Leamington match Bob was appearing live in Coventry. (Anyone wanting a concert review should ask Dan, as I think he was going to be there!) Anyway, great version of Turn Turn Turn, followed by a slightly bizarre collaboration on Mr Tambourine Man, where Dylan sometimes appears to be singing a completely different song to the Byrds! But maybe that's just me. It doesn't help that the sound and film are properly synched, but what can you expect from such primitive times as 1990?? 

Another Week, Another Match Against Warwick University!

This season our various teams have to play against Warwick University a total of 10 times - 6 in the Leamington League and 4 in the Coventry League. Talk about over-kill! Of course, you never know who's going to turn out for them, as they have such a large group of players, so actually there is probably less chance of playing the same opponent over and over than there is with teams that we meet less often, but who have a settled team.

And so last night they descended on Kenilworth to play the third of our 10 encounters - but with just 1 of the team that drew with our A team a few weeks back, and only 2 of the team that beat our C team a week ago. Not one single player has appeared for them in all 3 matches. Their latest team was, by rating, the weakest they have fielded against us so far, and thankfully our B team just about took advantage with a hard earned 2.5-1.5 victory that lifted us up to 4th place in the table.

Though things looked far from promising to begin with, as Joshua fell for a very simple tactic against David Cebolla that cost him a piece and the game in rather quick order. I guess he had a train back to Manchester to catch. But this was eventually balanced by a hard fought win for Bruce on Board 2. He sacked an exchange for a pawn (or maybe two?) and a dangerous initiative on the kingside, and in time trouble and a difficult position his opponent, Piotr Arp, blundered a piece away.

Meanwhile, on Board 1, Ben Fearnhead had sacked a whole piece against me almost straight out of the opening, and seemed to have plenty of compensation as my pieces were dreadfully short of squares. But the computer tells me I was simply winning all the way until the end, when I spoilt a rather well played defence by walking into a series of dreadful pins. By this stage I was a whole rook up, but I simply couldn't move most of my remaining pieces - a queen on h8, king on h7, rook on g8 and bishop on g7 - due to a pin along the seventh rank and a double attack on g7 by a queen and bishop on the a1-h8 diagonal. All I could do was repeat the position by moving my extra rook to attack the White queen. Most frustrating to be a whole rook up, with half an army of pieces left on the board, and yet be in virtual zugzwang! Anyway, a very interesting and enterprising slugfest in which honours were shared.

Which left Mike to win the match for us on Board 4 against Bence Szakmanyi. After the game, Mike's opponent told him that his opening idea (an unexpected a5-a4 push with Black on moves 6 and 7) of a standard well known line, was part of an on-line course he had just completed, and that it had been played several times by Carlsen and many other top players - to Mike's complete ignorance. Despite this, it was Black that got into severe time trouble and with less than 1 minute left he accepted a piece sacrifice that allowed a forced mate - with the exact same combination Mike had played at least 35 years before his opponent was born!

A good, but hard fought win for the B team, who at full/near-full strength are a match for all but a couple of teams in Division 1.

This week's song seems very apposite given the frequency with which these two clubs will face each other this season. I think most of us can sing along to it, too!

Remarkably, I once saw the Three Degrees live, sometime in the 1970s! Not singing, of course, as its most definitely not my kind of music. They were appearing locally in cabaret (those were the days) and came on the pitch at Filbert Street (long gone!) to kick some giant inflatable balls around at half time in a Leicester v Coventry match! Don't ask me the score/result as that memory is long gone, but I do recall they were all wearing fur coats!! Well, it was a bit chilly.

No Firework Night Sparkle For Kenilworth C

We always knew that our matches against Warwick University were going to be amongst our most challenging. Still, buoyed by back to back victories and playing a strong but not at full strength Uni team, I thought we might be in with a shout. As it turned out, the upset never really looked on.

I had my usual battle with the Warwick Parking App, which can be trickier than the chess when you are in a rush, but that was the most dramatic part of my night. I was the first to finish, after a couple of hours, with a draw on Board 3 against Pitor Arp. The game had its moments but came down to a knight and pawns (him) v bishop and the same number of pawns (me) ending. His knight was well placed and he had the slightly better prospects of creating a passed pawn, but it felt like I had everything covered. The beauty of playing a University Student is that they are able to immediately analyse proceedings on their phone. Fritz's verdict? A final evaluation of + 0.0.

While I was never going to get more, I already knew that it was unlikely to be enough. Dhairya (Board 2 v Ben Fernhead) and Dave (Board 1 v Damirali Magzumov) went down to defeat practically simultaneously. All credit to Dhairya, who having been caught in an opening trap, then proceeded to bravely defend an excruciating looking position for far longer than seemed possible. It wasn't to be, but he showed excellent fighting qualities. I didn't see as much of Dave's game, but it appeared more double-edged, before his opponent seemed to get the better of proceedings. Playing Board 1 in Division 1 is always a tough gig, and Dave, like Dhairya, had made a good fight of it.

Last week I thought Dan would draw, and he won. This week, I thought he would win and he drew. It made no difference to the match result, but was another great example of Dan's growing strength. I thought he completely bossed the game, and was a pawn up in the ending. However, with no increment and short of time, it was a perfectly reasonable shout to split the point.

So 1 - 3 to Warwick Uni. No reason for us to launch any celebratory fireworks. Equally though, our survival hopes have far from gone up in smoke. If we keep performing as we have been, I am sure we will be fine.

Onwards!