Blip!

But what a big blip! Tuesday night's 1.5-2.5 reverse for the A team away at Olton put an end to our hopes of an unbeaten season and temporarily put a stop to any celebrations of a sixth successive Division 1 title. Except that it didn't really, because as Andrew had already worked out, even if we lost every remaining match 0-4, and Banbury won every remaining match 4-0, we would still win the title on game points. But all the same, you don't really feel much like celebrating after a chastening defeat, do you? And this was actually the A team's first defeat since September 2, 2024 when we famously got annihilated 3.5-0.5 by our B team! So our unbeaten run came to an end after 561 days.  And in fact you have to go back to October 16, 2023, when Banbury beat us 2.5-1.5, for the last time the A team lost against another club. Which I make 882 days. Almost as long as the Third Reich!

But enough of this tub-thumping, its the gory details of this week's loss you want to hear about, I'm sure. It really was a case of lightning from a clear blue sky, as we had a pretty useful team deployed (none of our titled players, though) and Olton have been having a tough season. But they raced into a 2-0 lead. Andrew lost against Mark Cundy on Board 2 after an absolutely insane game. After 15 moves Andrew was an exchange and two pawns up, but while his queen had decimated the White queenside and sat on a1supported by a black pawn on b2, his remaining pieces - 2 bishops and 2 rooks were all on their starting squares. I'm sure I remember reading something about developing your pieces in an old Fred Reinfeld book, but chess strategy has obviously moved on in the computer age! Apparently this crazy position was actually close to equal, but in practice there could only be one winner - and it wasn't Andrew!

That was fair enough, but what happened on Board 3 simply defied belief. Andy was hounding Mike Hollier all over the board, continually threatening to trap pieces or win the Black queen. But all he netted for his troubles was an extra doubled pawn which had also opened the g file towards his own king. He assures me the position was completely winning, as it certainly looked, but one careless move cost him the exchange and suddenly the Black heavy pieces swarmed in down that g file (I knew it looked risky!) with a winning attack. Total calamity. Instead of 1-1 and being in total charge, it was 0-2 and we were staring defeat in the face.

I at least managed to beat Richard Liszewski on Board 4 (yes, for once I wasn't the culprit!), finishing with a very nice (though I say so myself) queen sacrifice to win a rook, though I have to admit that Richard didn't help his cause with some very strange moves. And so it was down to Keatan, on Board 1 against Olton stalwart Alan Lloyd, to try and save the match. Watched by a rather large crowd of spectators the game ended up in a knight v bishop ending, where Alan had a more active king and an annoying passed pawn, but doubled f pawns which looked ripe for the picking. It was very difficult and both players were short of time. At times I thought Keatan was winning and at others I thought he was in difficulties, but despite lots of knight jumps and nearly moves he couldn't find a way to win any of the weak Black pawns and Alan managed to hold the draw and secure the win for Olton. And bring our record breaking run to an end. Rats! But many congratulations to Olton for a super strong team performance.

So after losing on the night, it didn't feel like we had really won the title. But thankfully the wait for final validation was only two days, because we had a very quick follow-up match (and thanks to Keatan, Andrew and Andy for playing two away matches in 3 nights) last night against our main rivals, Banbury A. I wasn't present, but on checking the LMS results page this morning I was delighted to see that our brave boys had returned from Oxfordshire with a 3-1 win, so that the title celebrations can truly start. In fact, I'm just about to kick things off with a glass of orange juice. Party!!! With any luck a first hand report of the match may grace this site in the next few days. There are 2 more A team matches left, plus a KO Cup campaign, while the B team has 4 matches left to try and claim the runner-up spot.

It seems strange to choose a downbeat song for this week's musical offering when we;'ve just won the league title again, but I can't ignore the fact that we lost Tuesday's match. And until last night, it had actually been a very bad week for the club, as the C team lost 0-4 to Warwick Uni on Monday, and the same night the U1600 cup team went out in the semi-final at Shirley. So I think something bluesy is entirely appropriate!