"The rain it raineth every day"

 There is of course always reason to be more cheerful than the title of this blog suggests. However, it is now the start of Advent, so what better way to mark this than through a reference to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night? Besides, it was pouring down on Monday evening, when Kenilworth C played Olton A, and to quote another renowned philosopher (Ruben Amorim) it did feel as if "a storm is coming" in more ways than one...

We had already come out on top against Olton twice this season, in both the away leg of this fixture and the U8750 cup, but I was very keen to make it a hat-trick.  Ultimately, Olton A and Leamington A are our fellow relegation battlers and two points on Monday would have been extremely useful. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

Rhys got the team off to a terrific start on Board 3 against Mike Hollier. When I looked he seemed to be in an ending with some nice looking tactical opportunities. When I next glanced over, he was a rook up. The conversion thereafter was very swift. Rhys showed me the computer analysis yesterday - and he'd played at 99% accuracy (to Mike's 88%) with zero inaccuracies. A terrific effort on Rhys's part.

Meanwhile on Board 4, I was engaged in a wild battle against Richard Liszewski which was extremely double-edged. I certainly thought I was winning and sacrificed a pawn to open up the f-file to give me a very pleasant looking attack. At which point the match began to turn. Richard dug in and found a good defence. Meanwhile, Michal and Dhiarya lost their games on Boards 1 and 2 respectively. Unfortunately I didn't see either of these, but I'm sure they were good battles.

All of which meant I needed to win to split the points, but by this time I was down to rook and 2 vs rook and 3, and my winning prospects were precisely zero. I almost don't need to bother writing that I was also playing on the increment and Richard had ten minutes left. Fortunately my rook was well placed to slow Richard's king up, Richard's pawns weren't brilliant and I was able to get my king into the crucial defensive zone on the board. One of those situations where instinctively I thought it should be a draw (and Mark Cundy told me afterwards that he thought it was drawn from some way out) but equally it's easy to go wrong when you are having to play instantly.

Eventually Richard was forced to give up his extra pawn to try and make progress, but by this point I knew I had the situation covered. We shook hands at King and pawn v King and pawn, where neither of us could queen. Despite my draw earlier in the season with Richard, I still see him as a difficult opponent for me based on our previous games, so I was both slightly relieved and disappointed that it wasn't enough. So 1.5 - 2.5 to Olton on the night.

This would have been a good match to win, but we are still competitively placed, with one more game this side of Christmas. So it's still all to play for, and who knows, maybe we'll be singing in the rain before too long.

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.

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!

Back to Back C Team Wins!

 Last night Kenilworth C played Leamington A for the first time since the Division 2 promotion decider a couple of years ago. On that occasion Leamington secured promotion to Division 1 with a narrow victory. We then followed Leamington up to the top League by winning Division 2 the following season. With this now a Division 1 fixture, Kenilworth C returned the favour after that fateful previous encounter, with a narrow win (despite being outgraded.) For once the proceedings were slightly more comfortable than the 2.5 - 1.5 score line suggested.

Dhairya got us off to a terrific start on Board 2 against Ben Egid.  Ben walked into a well-known opening trap minutes into the proceedings. Dhairya pocketed considerable material, and while Ben tried everything to complicate the position, Dhairya proceeded to completely outplay him. I was so impressed by Dhairya's calmness and his accuracy. To see another of our juniors performing so well on a high board in Division 1 is a real cause for celebration. Dhairya's chess is getting better and better and he is such an asset to the team.

Paul was next to finish on Board 1, unfortunately losing to Tom Darling after a Smith-Morra Gambit generated its usual complexities. I must admit, I did not see much of this, but I'm sure it would have been a good battle.

So 1-1, but I was winning on Board 3 against Joshua Simpson (of which more later) and I thought Dan looked very solid against Chris Ward on four. 

Dan keeps conjuring up the points and this proved to be no exception. In a quietish position he set up various tactical threats and ultimately found a fork to win a piece. In a very similar vein to Dhairya, Dan did not look back, and brought home the full point for another fantastic victory. I've written it before, but Dan is another player who is developing at a rate of knots, and making such a difference to the club.

My own night was somewhat bizarre. With a day job in a UK-US Business, it's not unusual for me to sometimes be on calls with the US in the evening, but I plan rigorously to ensure it doesn't cut across chess nights. Until yesterday, when at 6.40 I was told our US President (not that one) wanted to talk to me at 7.00. I sprinted across to Kenilworth and started the call sat in my car in the pitch-black car park. Eventually I moved inside to at least let the players know I was there. Eventually I managed to extract myself at 7.35 and Joshua very sportingly hadn't started the clocks.

I still have a job, but I don't think it was the best preparation. I started sluggishly and Joshua missed a good chance in the opening. I eased myself back into the game, set up a nice kingside attack and picked up a pawn.  As usual this all left me very short of time. I thought simplifying was the best way to go, but Joshua's passed pawn and bishop proved to be good compensation against my knight and extra pawn. I'm sure a computer would have found a win for me, but with seconds left on my clock (and conscious that a draw was all we needed to win the match) I split the point. It's not the first time this season that I've not managed to convert, but if you keep getting into decent positions, I know from experience that you are probably doing OK...

Last season we celebrated when the C team beat other clubs B teams. We can now add Leamington A to Olton A as C team scalps. Our priority remains to get enough points to stay up. I'm sure we can do it and yesterday was another good step...

Billy, Please Do Be a Hero

24 hours before our latest Coventry League match, against Nuneaton A, Billy wasn't even in the team (and had never played a single game in this League!), but with Keatan having to drop out there was a large hole on Board 1 that he thankfully stepped in to fill. And what an inspired piece of captaincy that turned out to be by yours truly, as Billy got the sole decisive result of the evening and steered us to a 2.5-1.5 win which - quite by chance - sent us to the top of the table on maximum points after 2 matches.

But for much of the evening I was fearing the worst, as an enterprising pawn sac in the opening by Phil Briggs seemed to put Billy in considerable trouble, and when Phil's rook crashed in on g7 and a Black rook was simultaneously hanging on a8 it looked like curtains for the youngest of our Candidate Masters. But what do I know? Billy somehow rode out the storm and then pocketed a whole piece when Phil completely forgot about his loose bishop that had previously captured the loose rook on a8. So Billy had an extra piece and a centre pawn then yomped down the board to queen and end the game. Phew!

The remaining games all ended, almost simultaneously, in draws. Mike, on 3 against Colin Green and Ben, on 4 against Maurice Staples both seemed to be pushing for much of the evening, but couldn't get a decisive edge, while I was the one hanging on in a rook ending a pawn down against Paul Davies. But with all the pawns on the same side of the board, it wasn't too difficult for me to hold the draw.

We've now got a three week gap till our next match, but after just two weeks of action we are the only team in Division 1 with a 100% score. Not bad considering we've already used 7 different players and are not taking the competition too seriously!

No special reason for this week's song. Except that I like it and its a great video. Like a 5 minute episode of Miami Vice, but with a killer song! Can't think what took me so long to choose it.

Controversy and Drama as U8750 Team Beats Olton

We had a true battle of the heavy-weights in the U8750 KO Cup last night. Kenilworth are the defending champions with back to back victories to our name. Olton were the last non-Kenilworth team to win the trophy, three years ago. They also outgraded us, with a team weighing in at 8746 to our 8519... It is unlikely that we will face stronger opponents in this year's competition, but our 3.5 - 1.5 victory does not tell the full story of a match that went to the wire. 

We lined up with four of the five players who had taken part in every round of last year's triumph. Our grades have gone up, so that original five aren't an eligible team anymore. Yet with Dhariya away, I was spared any difficult selection decisions. Algirdas was our new recruit on Board 5 (and ended up being one of our heroes, as we will see later in this report.) 

Dylan got us off to a very solid start with a relatively quick draw against Rob Reynolds on Board 4. Rob does draw a lot, but I was very pleased to see Dylan split the point so comfortably with such an experienced opponent.

All the other games went deep into the night. I was the next to finish on Board 2 against Richard Liszewski, who as I've noted in a previous report, I have a terrible record against. Last night went pretty well in comparison to many of my previous experiences with Richard. It was a very active game, with Richard attacking on the Kingside, me on the Queenside. Completely engrossing, but eventually we cancelled each other out to make it 1-1.

At which point, looking around the other boards, it was clear how tough it was going to be. Paul looked to be a little better against Mike Hollier on Board 1. Dan was struggling against Richard Reynolds on Board 3, and Algirdas didn't look like he had much against Warren Archibold  (and Algirdas was also playing on vapours timewise.)

As so often happens, things seemed to swing in those final twenty minutes. Paul launched a crashing attack out of nowhere. I didn't see exactly what happened, but he gave up material to drag Mike's king up the board. Suddenly, it seemed obvious he was winning, but I wouldn't have bet my house on it either. (Paul told me afterwards that he hadn't been totally confident, but his attacking instincts proved to be correct, as Mike's king fell deeper into a mating net.) A terrific win and Paul's two victories against Olton in a week have been integral to Kenilworth's improving fortunes.

All of which meant we were 2-1 up and with the win on Board 1, needed only half a point from the two remaining games. I thought Dan was completely finished in an impossible knight ending (more on this later) so the attention turned to Algirdas, who was starting to outplay Warren. The huge gulf between them on the clock narrowed to almost nothing as Algirdas marched his queenside pawns down the board. There might have been a mating chance in there somewhere, but no matter, as Algirdas's approach had conjured up an overwhelming position - and this was where the controversy started...

Deep in trouble on the board, Warren proceeded to run out of time. Unfortunately, Algirdas was so engrossed in his winning plans that he did not notice. A few moves later, Algirdas made an illegal move - at which point Rob and Warren asked for 2 minutes to be added to Warren's clock. I would welcome thoughts on this request.... In my view Warren had been out of time for a while and had clearly lost. Algirdas might not have pointed out that Warren's clock had run out previously, but clearly noticed it when the request for the extra two minutes was made. 

I thought Algirdas was still winning easily on the board and we agreed to give Warren the extra two minutes, but I did say to Rob and Warren that we reserved the right to appeal. As it turned out, Warren's position was so difficult that it made no difference, and he managed to almost immediately drop a rook and then run out of time (despite the extra two minutes.) This time Algirdas pointed it out instantly and we had won the match! Ultimately, it was a victory earned at the board and a great debut for Algirdas in the U8750 team. [Postscript on this - I had an affable chat with Rob and Warren in the Bar afterwards, and there were no hard feelings, but I said would seek guidance as to what should have happened, purely for future reference.]

Meanwhile, on Board 3, Dan was doing the impossible. He had somehow held together an exceptionally difficult knight and pawn endgame with immense skill. Somehow Richard had allowed his king and knight to be pulled to the queenside, with Dan only having to defend against pawns on the kingside. Remarkably, what had appeared to be a certain defeat was now a draw. A fantastic tribute to Dan's resilience under pressure and his growing prowess! Another very impressive performance.

So, an unbeaten start, as we aim for a hat-trick of titles. With the five who played tonight, plus Dhairya in the squad, I think we've got a really good chance. We will certainly give it our best shot...

Not a Draw in Sight

A rather delayed report of this week's match activity, which spread across two leagues, over two nights, with 8 games played - and all of them decisive. Who said chess is basically a draw? Not in Kenilworth, it isn't.

Monday night saw the first ever Kenilworth - Warwick University match in the Leamington League, but shelve any thoughts that this was a unique occasion, as there will be five more such encounters this season, plus four in the Coventry League for good measure. The series didn't get off to the perfect start, as Kenilworth A dropped it's first point of the season in a 2-2 draw. Our opponents came with a pretty useful team, but I was hoping we would pack enough of a punch to claim the victory, as we had deployed our strongest line-up so far this season and had a ratings edge on every board - slight on Boards 1 and 3, but substantial on 2 and 4.

I finished first, beating David Cebolla on Board 4 after he mistakenly gave up two pieces for a rook and pawn, and then immediately made a catastrophic oversight which led to the loss of his queen.  Not long after, Javier marked his first outing of the season by beating Magnus Borissow, making use of his extra exchange after carefully neutralising the threat from Black's pair of bishops. So two White games, and two White wins. Unfortunately that pattern continued for the rest of the match!

On Board 3, David had got himself into terrible trouble in the opening and was fighting a rearguard action to try and hold off a big attack on his highly vulnerable king. Eventually he had to give up his queen for two bishops, subsequently picking up an exchange to leave him with a pair of rooks and a bishop against queen and rook. The position may have been holdable, but David's king was very exposed and he had almost zero time. 10 seconds doesn't go very far in such circumstances and the inevitable loss duly arrived. Which left the match outcome depending on Jude's heavyweight Board 1 encounter with CM Edward Jackson. (No relation to IM James, who Jude had beaten a week earlier to heroically win our KO Cup tie against Banbury.) Jude sacked a pawn very early on to get an open g file against the White king and in a complex middle game had plenty of compensation - at the point where Jude's score sheet became indecipherable, the engine was giving him a clear edge. But when I returned to witness the final moments, things had changed horribly, and Jude was now 3 pawns down. although he made life very difficult for his opponent with two bishops and a rook. But pieces kept getting exchanged and when Black's last pawn disappeared the game was up and the match was drawn.

24 hours later it was another first, as we welcomed Daventry on their first ever Coventry League visit to Kenilworth, for what was their Division 1 debut. We had a sizeable rating edge on all 4 boards, and the match ended in a 3-1 win for us. I left after about 90 minutes (I was only present in my dogsbody role of setting everything up) knowing that we would soon be 1-0 up, as Phil - on his much anticipated return to the team - was material up with a dominant position against Abbie Stevens. Of course, the inevitable happened and Phil somehow contrived to lose - I need to give up making these predictions when I am a spectator as I keep getting them hopelessly wrong. But thankfully, the other games all went our way. Keatan won a rather wild game on Board 1, while Mike played very correct and sensible chess to bring home another point on Board 2. After pressing for most of the evening, Paul eventually found a rook sacrifice to secure a decisive advantage and clinch a solid victory. But 4-0 would have been much nicer!

So no shortage of blood and thunder in the two matches, and all 8 games being decisive. After a 4-0 win for White on Monday, Black cut back the deficit on Tuesday by winning 3-1.

No logical reason for this week's song, except that I went to see a Billy Joel tribute act last week and I guess he's at the top of my current musical memories. Plenty of cracking tunes to choose from, and here's the one you lucky readers get to hear now. I recommend putting the subtitles on or you'll likely miss half the lyrics!

The Famous Five

"You can't possibly do anything if you think you can't. But you can do impossible things sometimes if you think you can." 

Enid Blyton

Future Kenilworth chess historians will look back at this week as one in which we achieved things that might once have seemed impossible. As Mark wrote in his blog yesterday, our Open team had a terrific win against Banbury in the Cup on Monday, led by Jude's Board 1 win against James Jackson. I still remember when Jude started. The idea way back then that he (or any other new starter) would one day be beating an International Master with Black would have seemed "impossible," but he did it - and of course this was far from his first IM scalp! A terrific achievement of which he, Paul, and everyone at the club is very proud.

On Tuesday night, Kenilworth C ratcheted up 2.5 points across four boards to beat Olton A in our Division 1 match. For many years, Olton were the League's juggernaut team winning title after title. If someone had told you not all that long ago that our C team would beat them in a Division 1 match, that too would have been seen as "impossible." But it's now in the books...

Olton are not quite as strong as they once were, but they are still formidable, and we were out graded on every board. It would take a statistician of Joshua's calibre to calculate the likelihood of four players coming out on top against 4 players who are higher graded than them (with significant differentials on three of the four boards.) Not "impossible," but far from easy. Which is what makes this achievement all the more special.

Added to the challenges, we had a lot of players unavailable and organising the team had been very difficult. Ultimately Mark's inspired suggestion that Michal might be available made all the difference...

Dan was back in the team against Richard Liszewski on Board 4, but couldn't quite replicate his heroics against Banbury. I personally always find Richard annoying to play against. Partly because he always yells "check" at the top of his voice, but mainly because we usually have a wild game that he wins. Dan's game had a familiar look to my watching eyes. Sharp, with chances for both sides and ultimately unsuccessful. Richard is undoubtedly a canny operator and late in the night his rook, queen and bishop combined to break through Dan's tough defences and put Olton ahead.

My game with Mike Hollier on Board 3 was the quietest of the evening. A lot of wood came off very quickly, but my early draw offer was declined. We played on for nearly the full three hours in a complicated rook and minor piece ending. Mike was slightly better for most of this, but over pressed and gave me the open "a" file for my rook, after which I had secured full equality and we split the point.

At the exact same moment, on Board 2, Paul Badger secured a fantastic win against Mark Cundy. An extremely tense game. Mark had been attacking with queen and knight on Paul's kingside, while Paul was pressing on the queenside (Mark having castled long.) Paul's bishop and queen were combining well with his rook on c8 to tighten his grip around the white king... I always thought Paul was better but it was one of those games that looked like it had the potential to go either way. Ultimately Paul held his nerve superbly to bring us level at 1.5 - 1.5.

We all gathered around Board 1 to watch the final moments of Michal's shoot-out with Alan Lloyd. This being the game where Olton had the biggest grading differential of them all... To my joy I saw that Michal was the exchange up, but there was a lot of play left. Eventually Michal gave back the exchange to put himself two pawns up. With opposite coloured bishops on the board, I felt (as did Michal) that Alan might still have played on. That said, it seemed as if Michal's excellent play all evening had taken the last drops of Alan's energy and Alan resigned to give us an "impossible" victory. A brilliant effort from Michal!

This will surely be remembered as the week in which Kenilworth teams' secured five famous points (2.5 in the Open Ko and 2.5 here) and two amazing wins!

I always said to the C team at the start of the season that our aim was to stay up this year. We might have had a difficult start, with not many of the breaks going our way before this week, but we've shown we've got the strength and depth to make the "impossible" happen. Warwick University (which will be tough) and Leamington await in the coming weeks. We're going to give this a really good go. If results do go our way, maybe we should even consider getting a dog...

Postscript - three votes of thanks...

 I did want to thank Paul Badger for suggesting The Famous Five theme for this piece and Mark again for thinking of Michal for this game. I also wanted to thank all the Kenilworth players who played in my online 50th birthday bash. It was a big deal for me and I really appreciate those who made the effort.