The A team, looking very much like the normal Kenilworth B team (with the exception of Andrew on Board 1), faced off against a B team looking very much like a cross between the C and D teams. Such is the price of a seemingly never-ending succession of fixtures - compounded by a C team match the following night. There's no doubt that nine teams in Division 1 is one too many - especially when we have 3 teams each playing 2 extra fixtures. Its no wonder a bit of chess fatigue sets in.
For once I scored the first point, beating Ben - who had been my nemesis in the summer quickplay club championship events - after he blundered on move 7. It immediately cost him a pawn, but his position was wrecked too, and the very best he could have done would have been to lose a second pawn. But he actually lost a piece and even I was able to wrap up proceedings without any major alarms after that. Mike followed just after, though I failed to see the end of his game against Patrick. Earlier on he looked to be building up a very strong position, with an extra pawn and a monstrous line up of pawns across the fourth rank leaving the Black army struggling for room.
But - as always seems to be the case - matters elsewhere were not so clear cut. Michal and Andrew were having a very tense encounter on Board 1, while Phil and Joshua were having a rather crazy game (who could have guessed?) on Board 3. On two occasions the player of the White pieces (Mr Wood!) was moved to utter a mild, but clearly audible, obscenity - first when he missed a knight fork that won a pawn, and secondly when he responded to a knight check by moving his bishop. As is well known, Phil is a master of the illegal move gambit, but this time Joshua spotted it - unlike Ben when he was playing for Leamington against us many years ago!!
Andrew turned down a draw offer, and soon after Michal lost the exchange, but with the position somewhat blocked it was not at all clear that Andrew's extra rook was better than Michal's extra knight. Meanwhile, Phil and Joshua had reached a bishop v knight ending where Black had an extra pawn but was on the verge of defeat with White threatening to get two widely separated passed pawns that couldn't have been stopped. Superficial (what other kind are we capable of?) analysis afterwards suggested it should have been a draw, but Phil made one wrong move and all of a sudden Joshua's extra pawn steamed down the board to force resignation. A very close run thing indeed, and if Phil had been a bit more match-fit he might well have taken a notable scalp.
Back on Board 1, Andrew cleverly rearranged his pieces and then broke the position open with a pawn push to c4. Pieces were exchanged and when the smoke cleared Black had a passed pawn on b2 and was about to get a rook to the back rank to force further material gains. So 0-1, and the A team had a clean sweep. This looked like a really tough and well played game by both players, with Michal giving a great account of himself on top board against such strong opposition.
Well, we now need some music to represent both A and B teams, so it has to be the Allman Brothers. Absolutely Brilliant. And two of the greatest ever rock guitarists - Duane Allman and Dickey Betts. A and B again, Spooky when you think about it!
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