Bouncing back with a.... draw!

Daventry hosted Stratford B in the Leamington League last night and we drew 2-2 with them.

My game below was a good example of how to give away a slight opening advantage.

Andy Foulds won on board 2, managing to win a pawn and once his opponent allowed the Queens to be swapped, it was all over. We had a look through afterwards and with Queens on the board, it would have been difficult for Andy to make progress. However, he did and he won and that contributed to our solid start to the season (up to third in the league by my reckoning!).

Rob Stevens looked to be in the sort of mess that I often found myself in last season. The only difference being that he was managing to do this on board 3 instead of board 1!! However, he dug in and fought back really well. A pawn down in a rook and pawn ending and I felt he perhaps had drawing chances. To no avail, however, so this was a loss for us and a win for Stratford.

On board 4, Kevin Bowman had, as usual, a very unusual position! Bits flying around everywhere and I felt he was winning comfortably (that's when I accepted a draw in my game!). However, his opponent whipped up some counterplay - and by counterplay I mean mating threats, threats to win Kevin's Queen and generally just making poor Kev hold his head in his hands whilst his time (inevitably) ticked away (no change there then!). Fortunately for Daventry, Kevin is deservedly our blitz champion. The game finished with Kevin delivering a series of about 13 checks before a draw was agreed. Could he have gone on to win this? Well, with the time remaining, most likely not - but exciting stuff eh!?

Here's my game - short, sweet and as ever, packed with a mixed bag of good, bad and downright ugly moves!