Eight Days A Week

At least that's what it feels like, after important KCC matches on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. With 2 wins and a loss, the week can be judged, on balance, a success, especially as it ended with us sitting on top of the two leagues we play in.

It got off to a mega-start as the A team welcomed current Leamington League leaders, Banbury A, to a head-on collision of the two strongest teams in the league. As usual this season, Banbury were headed by IM James Jackson, who was doubtless out for revenge against Jude after losing the decisive game in our earlier KO Cup encounter a few weeks back. I was present for the first hour of the match and when I left it was naturally all to play for. Javier and Bruce both appeared to be slightly better with the White pieces, while Jude seemed to have plenty of activity, but a slightly loose structure. (Though I am clearly not qualified to make such judgements!) As for Keatan, I was slightly worried by his knight on b4 which seemed to be stranded, with no retreat squares if White could arrange the move pawn to a3. Thankfully there was a knight on that square for the time being, but my immediate thought was that this was a difficult position.

So, of course, the first message I got later on, was from Nash telling me Keatan had won against Gary Jackson! I'm giving up the prophecy game completely, as I always get it wrong. And then a bit later, a photo appeared showing the completed official match score-card (or tatty scrap of paper as its also known) which told me that we had chalked up a significant win!

Now that's what I call impressive!

So many congratulations to the A team for a big performance which lifted us to the top of the table for the first time this season - at the expense of our B team! Sorry I can't do the individual players justice with a detailed report of their performances, but hey! - you guys are humble and are not looking for cheap praise. Virtue is its own reward after all. Especially not from the likes of me.

Tuesday night and it was a Coventry League encounter away against Warwick Uni B. We should have gone one better than Monday and won 4-0, but yours truly let the side down by losing from a position where I was +6. It didn't help that my opponent continually transgressed the Laws of Chess by moving the pieces with one hand and pressing the clock with the other. But no excuses from me. I played a good game, but ruined it with one bad move. My own fault. Mike, Ben and Phil all won readily enough. Phil was soon an exchange up on Board 4 and later upgraded this to a rook before liquidating to an ending where he had a single bishop left, but his opponent didn't. Mike won a pawn in the opening but couldn't remember his decades old theory and was soon a pawn down. White generously gave it back and it came down to a battle between White's rook, knight and two connected queenside pawns against Mike's rook, bishop and three connected kingside pawns which Mike won. I didn't see much of Ben's game, but when I did look he had a queen and his opponent didn't, which as you can imagine was a fairly important advantage! So 3-1 and we're top at Christmas for the second year running. Let's hope it goes a bit better than last season!

And so to the end of an exhausting week, and an away match at Solihull for the B team. Unfortunately, Solihull managed to get their 4 strongest players to the board for the first time this season, and coupled with our frailties on the night, it was enough to send us down to a 2.5-1.5 defeat. Thereby missing the chance for the B team to go back to the top of the table. Andy drew very quickly on Board 1 against Don Mason, but there was a long wait until the next game to finish. But as this was Mike losing to Ray Carpenter after one careless move wrecked an equal position, things started to look a bit bleak. I had been completely winning out of the opening against Andrew McCumiskey on Board 2, after his Jobava London opening went belly up. As this is the opening I detest more than any other (sorry Paul and the CCA Opening Handbook team!) I was exceedingly pleased with myself. But I then failed to continue with my attack when I could have pulverised the White king into submission with a bit more imagination. I then almost messed up a completely drawn ending, but somehow saved myself by the skin of my teeth. Which left Bruce needing to beat Akshath Shivakumar on Board 3 to save the match. It was very complicated, but Bruce's position had a lot of holes and he was in considerable trouble. He tried one last throw of the dice with an exchange sac, but the Black defences held quite easily and as the clocks ticked down, Black gave perpetual check to clinch the match for Solihull.

I rather telegraphed this week's song. So here it is.