Victory on the Road

 We were at Rugby last night, in sombre circumstances, following the untimely death of Rugby's Club Secretary Malcolm Harding. Malcolm did so much for chess in this area, both at club level, and to support the Coventry League. He will be missed by many. On behalf of all connected with Kenilworth Chess Club, I wanted to share our condolences. Malcolm and his family and friends are very much in our thoughts. Life really is precious and to be cherished. 

At the Board, we were certainly a team in need of a win, and after previous nights of frustration this was one where everything clicked. Dylan led the way brilliantly against Chris Badley on Board 4. Dylan picked up the exchange and liquidated a 2 rook v rook and bishop endgame with ruthless efficiency, giving the material back in exchange for an unstoppable passed pawn. Thus putting us 1-0 up and getting his just rewards, after several previous good games where he might have got more. A terrific first Division 2 point for Dylan - I have no doubt that many more will follow!

Dhairya was on Board 2 against Patrick Reed, who must be glad to now see the back of Kenilworth players for a bit, having lost to me in the Birmingham Rapidplay the day before. Another excellent game from a Kenilworth junior. Dhairya played really well, and created a beautiful mating net in a heavy piece endgame, to put us 2-0 up. With players like Dhairya and Dylan in our ranks, the future looks very positive for the club.

I was on Board 3 against Dave Riley. Usually I would be happy to have White. However, having scored 3/3 with Black and 0.5/4 with White at the forementioned Rapidplay, I was in two minds as to whether to change up my openings. Ultimately I elected to "stick," and as ever against Dave a wildly complicated affair ensued. Fritz unsurprisingly notes we could both have played better, but I always felt I had a slight edge. Eventually a raging kingside attack translated into a more prosaic ending where I was up the exchange but very short of time. However, a knight is never much of a match for a rook in these circumstances, and the final moves proved to be comfortable enough. So 3-0!

Paul was up against the very strong Paul Colburn on Board 1. Down a pawn and down on the clock, I feared the worst. However, our Paul played terrifically and with lots of energy to completely neutralise Colburn's advantage and a draw was agreed. 

3.5 - 0.5 is always a great result, and especially so given we were the lower rated team. I'm now stepping back from D team captaincy duties, to captain the C team. However, I'm still hoping to play in the team's future fixtures, so more posts on our exploits will follow!

A Different Line: Double Headed Farce

 Coming up England by a different line

For once, early in the cold new year,

We stopped, and, watching men with number plates

Sprint down the platform to familiar gates,

"Why, Coventry!" I exclaimed. "I was born here."

Phillip Larkin

Well, if matches against Coventry on successive nights of the week don't warrant a bit of Phillip Larkin, I don't know what does. Even if both games left me feeling about as cheerful as the the curmudgeonly "Bard of Coventry".  

On Monday things seemed to be going exceptionally well, when the D team played Coventry A, in the Leamington League. I was up the exchange on Board 3 against Tom Stamper and Bernard had a dream of a position against Mike Johnson on Board 4. However, at the hour mark, with his rooks menacingly poised on the seventh rank, a monster passed pawn, and threats all over the board, something went horribly wrong for Bernard. He thought he saw a mate, missed Mike's defence, and in a heartbeat a certain point became a defeat. We've all been there. It's part of being a chess player. But it was painful to watch. It just shows however good a position appears, nothing can be taken for granted. Still, Bernard will bounce back!

Moments later Paul lost to the very strong Maung Latt. I didn't see any of the game, yet the reality was we were 2-0 down by about 8.45. When Rhys's game against Ed Goodwin on Board 2 petered out into a draw around 9.00, the match was lost.

My game while now pointless in terms of the match, turned into a real roller-coaster. I missed a win, went wrong and ended up with rook and 2 v knight and bishop. Fortunately for me, Tom also was not as a accurate as he could have been, and I somehow managed to swing back from close to lost to winning again. In the dying seconds (literally) Tom found a good defence and we ended proceedings with just the two kings left on the board. So a 1 - 3 defeat...

So, on to Tuesday. I'm looking after the Coventry League team while Mark is convalescing, and I know how much everyone involved on both sides over the two nights (and of course our whole club) is wishing Mark well. He truly is one of us and we all stand with him and look forward to welcoming him back to the board when he is better.

Unfortunately last night's Coventry match turned into a total farce. At 7.30 Mike and Ben Larkin kicked off on Board 2, but we were waiting for a full compliment of players to arrive. At which point, Coventry realised that their Board 1 was unlikely to appear for the brilliant reason that no one had told him about the game. Terrible organisation on Coventry's part. Much debate ensued about whether Coventry should default on Board 1 or Board 4. We felt it was more sporting to default on 4, however, I did respect the fact that Ed did not want to play himself above Jonathan.

Unfortunately, this meant that Keatan did not get a game, and I want to thank both him and Nash for their patience and understanding and to apologise for a wasted evening. Having played so late the previous night, I somehow found the conversations around the Coventry Board order a bit draining, so by the time I eventually sat down to play I wasn't feeling great, but there we have it.

Ultimately we started 1-0 up. Mike and Jonathan played out an interesting draw. My second game in 24 hours against Tom was a slower burn than the previous night's but ended in another blitz shoot-out. I'd successfully defended a slightly weak IQP all night, and with a level position and two minutes each left on the clocks, fully expected Tom to accept a draw, particularly given in my view Coventry should have forfeited on Board 4 rather than Board 1. But Tom opted to play it out, as of course was his prerogative, and I succumbed in the final less than cheering moments of the game. Fortunately Paul played brilliantly against Ed Goodwin, and won a superb rook and pawn ending which he played with great aplomb to bring home the full point and to give us a 2.5 - 1.5 victory. 

Given we won the match, I won't take issue with the Coventry decision not to play on Board 1 with the League, but will note that when team's are as poorly organised as this, it does take a lot of the fun out of the night for all involved.

So a win and a loss. Some brilliant games (especially Paul's win.) Some real nail-biters (both my games with Tom) and some more painful encounters (particularly Bernard's game against Mike.) On a good day chess is amazing and brilliant. On a bad night, there is a tendency to feel like Larkin who wrote:

"Morning, noon & bloody night

Seven sodding days a week

I slave at filthy WORK

that might

Be done by any book-drunk freak

This goes on until I kick the bucket"

(I've left off Larkin's final line. This being a family friendly publication and all that, but do look it up, for a full sense of how a chess-player feels after a bad loss.)

Still, all chess players know there will always be other nights to look forward too, when things will go better. Those moments when the black and white pieces resonate and connect with us, which is much like the feeling you get, when you happen on the place where you were born.

Up and running

After a couple of false starts (one postponement and one forfeiture), Kenilworth E's season finally got underway on 30th September with a match against Stratford C.

The team line-up was Dan, making his competitive debut in England, Gregory, Roy and Steph.

Gregory was the first to finish. He opened with a London, and soon had a knight, a rook, and a bishop bearing down on the c7 square. His opponent left his queen en pris as he castled queenside, but Gregory didn't waste any time in capturing it. Instead he went in for the kill, with his other knight and queen joining the attack, and checkmate following in only 19 moves. Gregory remains unbeaten whilst playing for Kenilworth.

On board 4, Steph was playing white. Her opponent blundered a bishop on move 5. A menacing attack followed, with queen and knight combining to threaten a fork of rook and king. In attempting to avoid the fork, Black allowed Steph to capture the rook with her queen. A few moves later, Black blundered his second rook. He decided to play on, but Steph easily completed a checkmate in 24 moves.

After his match, Roy, playing black, said that he had messed up the opening, but he got back into the game, and was a knight up in exchange for two pawns. As the pieces were swapped off, the endgame came down to White having a and b pawns versus Roy's knight and a b pawn. There was no way through for either player to promote their pawns, so a draw was agreed.

Dan, playing black on board one, was last to finish. For most of the game, he had a bishop stuck on g7 behind his pawn on f6, and after the heavy pieces had been exchanged, he was left with the bishop against White's knight. Dan had a 3-2 pawn majority on the kingside, and White had a 2-1 majority on the other side. Once his bishop was activated, it landed on a central square, paralysing the knight. With less than a minute on the clock, Dan was able to advance his kingside pawns while his opponent's king was stuck defending the queenside. His opponent resigned, and a 3.5 - 0.5 victory was completed.

Including the forfeited game, it is two wins in two, and as it stands we are top of Division 3.

Well played everyone.

Incoming Storm

 Following a day in which the rain lashed down on Kenilworth, we gathered in the glooming for our match against Shirley B. It is fair to say that this was not an evening where I can honestly declare that it proved to be darkest just before the dawn, so I will keep this match report brief.

On Board 4, Bernard Rogers seemed to have a devastating early kingside attack against Gordon Christie. I wasn't exactly analysing it, but I assumed we were on for a quick point. To his credit, Gordon defended with a lot of skill and somehow Bernard's attack blew itself out, after which Gordon was completely won. So 0-1.

Incredibly, on Board 2 a similar pattern appeared to play out in Rhys's game against Keith Ingram. I suspect this one was always a bit more double-edged, but both players had contributed to a very violent heavy piece position. Ultimately Keith prevailed to make it 0-2.

On Board 3, I had another in a series of very interesting games with Dave Thomas. I didn't get the opening right and was down a pawn, but somehow managed to get a lot of play, and eventually ended up in an endgame a pawn up which I assumed (as did Dave) would be a win. The reality was that it was very difficult. One of those positions where if Dave just sat (which he did) there were real risks that me committing might actually give Dave the win. Having turned down an earlier draw, following a repetition I just couldn't find a way through, so split the point with a few minutes left on my clock. I suspect a GM would have won it, but when we analysed with others in the bar afterwards, it still wasn't obvious. Given I had been behind out of the gate, it was certainly a half point I would have been much happier with earlier in the proceedings.  

Ultimately, it made no difference. Paul and Darren Whitmore played a really good game that went to the wire, but unfortunately for us, Darren just edged it to wrap up a comprehensive win for Shirley.

As I said to Paul afterwards, the margins in chess are always very fine. There wasn't much between the teams on paper and on another night we might have done better. Still all credit to Shirley - they deserved their victory and a few of us had a nice drink and a catch up in the bar afterwards.

For Kenilworth, we've had a somewhat disappointing start to the season, but these things happen. There are plenty of matches still to play. I have no doubt that brighter days are ahead!

Soon to be champions - an arrogant team captain's diary (part 1)

News from the B team's intrepid visit to Stratford-upon-Avon or, to be more precise, an industrial estate just outside Starford-Upon-Avon. I knew it wasn’t a good sign when my phone told me to get off the train at Stratford-Upon-Avon Parkway, not the nice train station in the town itself.

The first game to finish was Keatan, who had what looked like a very aggressive game as white against Ben Larkin, with an open Sicilian in which Keatan had pushed both b4 and c4. However, just as things were about to get interesting, Ben offered a draw which Keaton, correctly for the match situation, agreed to. An excellent result, if a little anti-climactic as a game.

My game against Richard McNally did at least end in a decisive result, if the game itself was quite a few levels less exciting. As black, and playing my standard d6 f5 line, we reached the following position in which, true to his style, Richard has just lunged forward with f4:

Fortunately for me, it appears that, despite how many possible ways it could go wrong, I can just take this pawn with my bishop and be a pawn up. Even with the multiple ways white can recapture, and the 3 different queen checks he can throw in at different points, nothing works, and I ended up a pawn up in a rook and knight endgame. The conversion went reasonably smoothly, and we were a point up.

For those keeping score (primarily Mark, who does love quoting my many failures with this line) that puts me at 2/2 for the season. I will unfortunately have white in the next game, so will need to work on some transpositions to get back to the correct starting position.

This is the point in the evening when my very knowledge starts to run out, as I left to catch as train. Both Mike (some c4, g5 Maroczy bind stuff as white) and Bernard (a modern Benoni as black) seemed to have very solid and approximately level positions, so as I left the stereotype function in my brain assumed that both might well end as draws.

Of course, as we all know, stereotyping is a dangerous thing to do in life, so I shall just report that both games did indeed end as draws. That left us with a 2.5-1.5 win overall, a welcome reminder of our favourite score from last season. Also, a rare occasion where I can take credit for the team’s win, not blame when things go wrong.

In other (Kenilworth A) news, it is good to see my planting of Andrew Paterson as a B team agent in that team is working as planned. Sadly, a loss for Andy meant the A team could only draw 2-2 with Banbury, meaning that we are currently 3 points clear of our own A team. Long it may it continue, say I and Andy.

Blue on Blue - Take 2!

 

Following the excitement of last week's A v B match, on Monday the C and D teams battled it out, in a contest that proved to be every bit as dramatic. These intra-club affairs always take a fair amount of organisation, and myself, Harry, and Mark had spent quite a while sorting the line-ups. With Mike, Michal, Andy and Bernard Rogers all unavailable, Dhairya and Paul Badger both stepped up to represent the C team. I was delighted that Phil came out of retirement to help the D team, and we were also delighted to call Dylan up again. 

Bernard Charnley was the only one of the eight of us, who also played in the A v B match. It speaks both to the strength and depth we have in the club (and the excellence of Rhys, who made a welcome return to the club on Board 1 for the D team) that having won his match against the A team, Bernard would be defeated by his D team opponent.  Rhys and Bernard were actually the first to finish. I didn't see as much of this one as I would have liked, but Rhys appeared to pick up a pawn and then played with a lot of control and skill to bring home the full point. A terrific effort, and we are so pleased to have him as a part of our squad for the season ahead.

Dhairya finished moments later with a good win against Phil on Board 3. Dhairya broke through very convincingly on the kingside, and while Phil had castled queenside, Dhairya's pieces found more than enough material to feast on. A very good game, as Dhairya bounced back in style from his Banbury reversal. I guess with myself and Dhairya both having played 21 rated games over the weekend at the Warwickshire Rapid and Blitz the pair of us were well practised! 

With the match at 1-1, I would not have wanted to wager a penny on the final outcome. I was playing against Harry in the battle of the captains on Board 2. Very early in the game, Harry missed a trick and I picked up the exchange. However, as we agreed afterwards, I should have spent more time thinking about whether this was really the best approach. I ended up behind in development, and my reluctance to castle due to Harry's light square pressure on the a8 - h1 diagonal simply gave me other problems to deal with. In truth, a game that I thought I was winning comfortably at 7.45 became harder and harder over the next couple of hours, as Harry's pieces swarmed and his bishop pair combined well with his knight and queen. We both missed chances, but ultimately, when well below 5 minutes on my clock, I managed to find a resource that turned the tables and gave me a mating attack. Neither of us will see this as being amongst our finest games, but for all its rawness and imperfections, it was a pretty exhilarating way to spend the evening!

My win guaranteed that at 2-1 the D team were at least good for a point. On Board 4, Dylan was playing a terrific game against Paul. While down a pawn, Paul had doubled pawns to contend with as well as a formidable looking passed pawn. Frankly, I thought Dylan was winning at this point, but it was all very complicated and I might be wrong. Either way, it just shows how well Dylan is developing that he was giving Paul such a strong game. Both players queened, but neither new monarch survived. At the death, heartbreakingly for Dylan, he missed a chance to force a draw with a king move, instead pushing his a pawn which proved to be the losing blow. A shame, but it doesn't detract from how well Dylan had played, and for that reason I'm giving him my player of the night award. 

So 2 - 2, which felt like a very fair result. Both teams are in good shape for the season ahead. I'll try not to think about the fact that we have to do it all again in January - at least for a little while!

An organisational paradox

Arriving in Banbury at around 7.15 last night, I was confronted by a scene that I never thought I would witness in these parts. The club was open, the lights were on, all the boards were set up, and indeed 7 of the match participants were already assembled. Having done a doubletake and realised that this was indeed reality, the too-good-to-be-true principle kicked in. Firstly, I realised that I had forgotten my glasses. The vagaries of age mean that I now need one pair for driving and one for closer work. Until last year my sight meant that my driving glasses were the ones I played chess with, but thanks to a change of prescription they no longer are. I resigned myself to a night of squinting somewhat hopefully at the pieces. (Given what happened, one theory I am considering is whether looking at the chessmen too much is where I have hitherto been going wrong.) Secondly, which did not seem like so much of an issue in the beginning but would become more of one later, Paul Rowan was missing from the Banbury team. 

 We got underway promptly, with Dylan who was making his debut on Board 4 lacking an opponent. Dylan had a great season last year and we are looking forward to him playing a part as one of our key reserves in this campaign. Dylan waited patiently, while Mal (who I was playing on Board 3, for our 5th game in two seasons) made increasingly frantic, unanswered calls to Paul. Eventually we agreed that Banbury could make a substitution. Sadly this is where home advantage can tell, as Banbury had the equally strong Arran Grundy in the house, who stepped in. Obviously Paul then turned up a few minutes later, but that's by the by. At the board, my own game started really well. I got strong initiative out of the opening, and gave Mal the unpalatable choice between allowing a super strong attack or tripling his pawns. He went for the tripled pawns, but I felt at this point that I was strategically won. I set about applying some of the lessons I have picked up from Paul Lam (with huge thanks!) over the summer, in terms of keeping the position completely under control and gradually turning the screw. 

  However, when I surveyed the other games, things were looking less promising. Gary Jackson seemed to be edging a complicated game against Paul on Board 1. Nathan Manley appeared to have tied Dhairya completely in knots, on 2, with Dhairya's pieces mainly rearranged on the back-rank. On Board 4 Arran had got the better of the opening and looked like he had a monster pawn break on the queenside, and the exchange. 

 Dylan played really well to hold Arran at bay for a while, but the end looked inevitable, and the Banbury supersub had put them 1-0 up. Dhairya lost moments later. Not his best evening, but Nathan is a strong player and we know what Dhairya can do, so doubtless a good learning experience. So many times last season, we were bailed out by our juniors (especially Dhairya and Keatan), but now myself and Paul had to do the job. 

 Mine was the much easier task. My position was just a joy, to the point that I wondered if this, along with the (briefly) seemless start to the evening was all but a dream. I brought myself back to reality by missing my best move as our clocks ran down, but it made no difference. I broke through with my rooks, and Mal resigned when I was one move from mate. I always have great games with Mal, but this was my best effort for quite sometime. Having thrown away six months of rating gains during one weekend at the British, I can start rebuilding once again!

 Paul battled valiantly against Gary. It was very complicated and I did not see all the detail, but Gary ultimately brough home the point. So a 1-3 loss on the road, but we were up against a strong team, who certainly deserved their win on the night. 

 We now go on to the C v D match up next week. One thing is for sure. The chess season is back! We will have plenty more opportunities in the weeks and months ahead.

There's Something Happening Here, But What it is Ain't Exactly Clear....

Though at least there's not "A man with a gun over there, Telling me I got to beware."

You couldn't tell from the traditional pre-match photo of the Kenilworth A v Kenilworth B season-opener that witchcraft and sorcery were in the air, but Monday evening's subsequent events proved conclusively that strange forces were at work.

Kenilworth A (left; front to back) - Mark Page, Billy Fellowes, Andrew Paterson, Jude Shearsby v Kenilworth B (right, front to back) - Bernard Charnley, Joshua Pink, Ketan Patel, Bruce Baer

Now we always like these matches to be competitive, so both teams were at as full strength as possible on the night, and it wouldn't be ridiculous that the ratings for each board would have pointed to a score of about 3-1 to the A team - when everyone could have gone home happy, feeling God was in his heaven and all was well with the world. The one relatively risky board for the A team looked to be Board 2, where Andrew had to face up to a still rapidly improving Keatan, who is full of ambition and thirsting for blood every time he sits down at the board.

The match was set up almost perfectly as a contest between Youth and Experience, except that there was also a Dinosaurs Board where Bernard and I faced each other. I was confident, because we had more Youth than the B team but ......... dear, oh dear!

The B team struck immediately in decisive fashion, where Keatan - in line with my very worst fears - simply demolished Andrew with a very deep piece of opening prep. One automatic move from Andrew and he was in a desperate, virtually losing position, after no time at all. He shouldn't feel too bad as plenty of strong players - GMs even - have walked into the same position and gone down to defeat. It really is a great line for White, so naturally I'm not going to reveal it!

Still, this was surely just a minor set-back, as Jude was already giving Bruce's kingside a real pounding, but a timely exchange sac (or was it just lost, I don't know?!) that yielded bishop and pawn for the rook, was enough to turn the tables, and in the final position Black had the luxury of a perpetual attack on a White rook, or playing on. With only 2 minutes against Jude's 50, Bruce erred on the side of caution, and took the draw.

Which meant the pressure was on, as Billy and I both had to win to secure the match victory. Billy initially seemed to be better against one of Joshua's regular, unorthodox openings, that he is just about the only person in the world to play. Given he scored 1/5 when using it at a recent British Rapidplay, it seems fair to say its not an entirely solid Black defence! But, of course, even against someone of Billy's monstrous strength, Joshua eventually got in a counter blow by rushing his d pawn down the board and getting a rook to the seventh rank. Billy had to be careful and to make matters worse, he was on the increment from a very early stage of the game (why?? - it was only Joshua!!). Somehow he navigated his way to a totally drawn position of rook and 1 pawn each. Joshua's pawn had whizzed down to a2, but Billy's rook was perfectly placed to sac itself when his own advanced g pawn would in turn force Black to give his rook up. But then - horror of horrors. Completely inexplicably, Billy played an instantly losing move when he had a very simple drawing sequence. If even I saw it while still in play on my own board it must have been simple. Joshua could scarcely believe his luck and proved quite quickly that he knew how to win with queen against g pawn.

So that was that, the match was gone and my game against Bernard was irrelevant. Except to the pair of us. The position was fairly level for the most part, though I missed a really good pawn sac in the middle game which would have put me right in the driver's seat. We swapped off a lot of pieces and were left with queen and knight each. My only hope was that Bernard had an isolated g pawn in front of a rather naked king, but against that his pawn structure was  better than mine, and his knight was threatening to get quite jumpy against my own king. I was miles behind on the clock, but Bernard started thinking (always a mistake!) and soon I had won the g pawn and followed up by winning another on the queenside, leaving me with h, g and a pawns against a solitary a pawn. The knights were exchanged and I thought my connected passers would just waltz down the board and win the game. But I was kidding myself, as I soon pushed the wrong pawn and gave Bernard a perpetual check. Rather than accept that, though, and make a king move and take the draw, I just sat in my chair and let my time run down until I suddenly saw I had one second on the clock. This proved insufficient time to make a move and press the clock, and so I managed to lose despite being 2 pawns up. Criminal and tragic at the same time.

Which meant that the final score was Kenilworth B 3.5 - Kenilworth A 0.5. I didn't see that coming!

Well played the B team - and especially Keatan for the game of the night - but it did require a whiff of brimstone and magic dust in the air to produce such an unnatural match result. Let's hope normal service can be resumed as soon as possible!

National Award for Paul!

Great news, if you haven't heard already, but Paul has just won the 2024 ECF Award for Contribution to Junior Chess. This is a massively deserved accolade for both Paul and the Coventry Chess Academy, which he has been running so brilliantly for a scarcely believable 11 years.

Thanks are due to Bernard C and Roy for preparing the submission, and I'm pleased to say that my Seconder's Statement at least did not derail the application! You can read the citation here. Paul is far too modest and self effacing to broadcast his achievement, but he should be extremely proud of this award, which also reflects splendidly on the likes of other KCC members Bernard, Roy, and Andy Ward who have been steadfast supporters of the CCA since its inception. 

And with Paul being the man who introduced the very stylish Basque beret to Kenilworth, this seems like quite an appropriate choice of song to kick off the new season's musical contribution!

Thursday Club Nights - an Update

Following the closure of our most recent Thursday evening home, The Gauntlet, KCC successfully held its first on-line club night since covid-times last week, at which Jude was apparently in imperious form, demolishing virtually all comers as a warm up for his tilt at the British Championships. Full credit to Keatan, though, for depriving him of a 100% score with a crucial victory.

We will again be meeting on line this Thursday (August 1st), but from August 8th, we will resume meeting in person - at the Abbey Club, which is, of course, already our home match venue. This can only be a temporary arrangement, however, as we will not be able to continue on Thursdays once the snooker season re-starts. Rest assured, though, that our Chairman is working night and day (alright, that's a bit of an exaggeration!) to find us a suitable permanent venue for our club nights after the recent unlucky turns of events we have experienced.

Any developments will be circulated immediately to all club members and also be posted here for the benefit of prospective new members.