A-wesome and B-fuddled

A slightly low key Kenilworth A v Kenilworth B encounter last night ended up as a 4-0 whitewash for the A team. As they say, be careful what you wish for, because when I was lamenting the absence of a clean sweep win for any of our teams this season, I didn't want it to occur when two of them were playing each other!

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!

B-arnstorming

A B-ig win for the B team this week, as the Holiday Inn welcomed its first non-Kenilworth visitors to our new match venue. And once again it was yours truly who got in the way of the club's first 4-0 win of the season!

Olton A came to town, but left empty handed after a 3.5-0.5 victory for the B team, which put them into second place in Division 1 - 1 point ahead of Warwick University, but 3 points behind Kenilworth A. I must say the league table makes pleasant reading at the moment - as long as you shield your eyes when looking towards the bottom teams, where the C team is in a life or death struggle to avoid relegation.

Joshua is a remarkable chess player. As I said to Ben, I can't work out if he's a strong weak player or a weak strong player. What he definitely isn't is either a strong strong player or a weak weak player. He was up to his old tricks again against Olton, totally bamboozling Mark Cundy on Board 2 and somehow transforming a worse/lost position into a crushing win - seemingly in less time than it takes to blink. As has been the case tens of times during his quite remarkable Kenilworth career, a probable loss became a win, as he worked his usual chessboard magic. He's an amazing points machine, but he would definitely have been burnt at the stake in an earlier age!

And things always looked pretty good for us elsewhere. Mike and myself were comfortable as Black while Ben was building up a good head of steam on Board 4 against Richard Liszewski. I finished first, eventually sharing the point with Alan Lloyd (who I have never beaten with the Black pieces) after a repetition in a level position - but not before I had blundered a pawn on two successive moves. Which Alan twice failed to notice!

I adjourned to the bar for a chat with Alan, and even before we returned the match had ended decisively in our favour with wins on both the remaining boards. Mike avoided Mike Hollier's attempt to block the position completely and managed to engineer a winning breakthrough, while Ben played an excellent game that consistently netted extra material while simultaneously attacking the Black king, before forcing resignation.

So a very efficient and convincing win (me apart, of course), which we can celebrate with another classic from the Byrds (had to be a B band, after all). Remember - they also serve, who only stand and mime!

A New Era!

A new era got under way last night, as KCC played its first match at The Holiday Inn, after 13, hugely successful, years at the Abbey Club. That's a long time - and indeed it is the only home match venue we have had since I joined the club. Our first outing in the plush new surroundings of the Jephson Room was a sort of test event for future encounters, as our C team hosted our A team in a match which pitted one team fighting to avoid relegation against another trying to stretch its lead at the top to 4 points. The eventual result, a 3-1 win for the A team, went the way of ratings, but the C team once again gave a very good account of itself and only slipped to defeat in the last minutes of the evening - and even had the satisfaction of scoring a splendid individual win on Board 3 in the last game to finish.

The new era begins (l to r):- Rhys, Paul, Andrew, Mike, Keatan, Billy, Dave, Ben

Dave had the unenviable task of taking on Billy with the black pieces on Board 1. When I got my first glimpse of the position about 45 minutes in, material was level, but Dave's king was looking rather lonely on d7, with all the heavy pieces and a couple of minor ones still on the board. I couldn't see any immediate way to exploit this, but then I'm not Billy. And it wasn't too long before Billy was able to report that he had become the first person ever to win a game at KCC's new venue. Probably not one of the bigger honours he will accumulate in his chess career - and, in fact, not even one of the bigger honours he's already achieved! But still worthy of a place in the history books.

The score stayed the same for quite some time, before Mike added to the A team account with a black pieces win on Board 4 against Paul B. Mike had jumped in on c2 with a knight early in the game to snaffle the White rook on a1, but Paul got a piece for it and was subsequently able to round up the stray knight to have two pieces for a rook - but crucially Mike had 2 extra pawns and they were beautifully connected, whereas Paul's pawns were scattered to the four winds. Mike's pawns duly started to yomp down the board, sweeping everything in their wake aside, and the defensive task proved impossible, with Paul eventually losing on time.

Keatan's game with Ben on Board 2 became very exciting as the clock ran down. Ben had largely blocked the queenside and the centre, but Keatan was the one pressing on the kingside, where he had the open g file to work with. Very cleverly he kept the tension in the position as Ben's time ebbed away and then rushed his own king from h8 over to the queenside gaining plenty of time in the process. The clock disparity spelled disaster for Ben who couldn't stop the Black pieces jumping in when the pressure on g2 became overwhelming , first winning an exchange and then mating the White king in the middle of the board. A very powerful attack by Keatan.

But the C team did not go home completely empty handed, as Rhys upset the form book against Andrew, finishing with the rather powerful move pawn from e3 to e2 checkmate! Earlier on I had thought Andrew was slowly building up a strong position, as he had more space and was pushing his kingside pawns up the board in a rather threatening manner. But Rhys kept his cool, and found a tactic which won White's e3 pawn, which was the cornerstone of his position, and left Andrew floundering for survival. The Black bishops were monsters and Andrew was playing on seconds. He somehow kept the game going, but when Rhys brought his king in to support his rook, bishop and advanced e pawn the end was night. An excellent game by Rhys and a well deserved win.

So much for the chess. Recently the world has seen the passing of another of my musical heroes, Joe Ely, who I saw live just the once, at The Mean Fiddler in Harlesden in around 1988. An absolute titan of Texan country music, rather serendipitously, he produced this great song, which also serves to commemorate our first ever winner at the Holiday Inn! Though I like to think that me and our Billy the Kid do get along!

RIP Joe. Thanks for the wonderful music.

2025 KCC Christmas Quiz - The Denouement!

Like the assembled Grandmasters, officials and spectators on Hyland Island, I imagine you have been on tenterhooks waiting for Inspector Hector, FIDE's top cop, to reveal the name of the dastardly murderer of the mega-wealthy chess sponsor, Mitch Rich. Unless, of course, you also cracked the case. In which case I hope it took you a bit longer than Patrick who had (correctly) solved the mystery within a couple of hours of me posting the quiz. Did I make it too easy, or is he just a born sleuth? But never mind more questions, its answers we're here for and its Inspector Hector who is about to provide them.

WHODIDIT?

A CHESS MURDER MYSTERY - SOLVED!

It was a motley group of chess-players and hangers on who had gathered in the tournament hall to learn the truth about the murder that had rocked the chess world. Some looked unconcerned, their consciences completely clear, but a few looked far more furtive and nervous. Especially the super-GM I had my eye on. He sat at the back, perhaps hoping to escape scrutiny - or maybe even to make a run for it if things went badly. Not that there would have been any way of escaping from the island, but I could do without any unnecessary drama. And in any case I had positioned the Kenilworth Chess Club cohort to cover the door. An unlikely bunch of heavies, but needs must, as my usual colleagues had been unable to join me to make the arrest. Sergeant Eaton was stuck in Nuneaton with Constable Keatan, completely beaten by the British weather. I would have to bring the killer to book on my own, but that was no problem as all the pieces of the jigsaw had fallen into place and it was now time to reveal the shocking truth.

"I checkmated the killer in 4 moves," I told the assembled crowd. "You all know about pattern recognition in chess, but maybe you need reminding that it works in other fields as well. That was how I knew where to look. This was a rhyme crime. Time after time. And it set off a chime. Move one - how did the killer get hold of the gun? In an auction - he bid it. Move two - what was the pseudonym he used on the dark web? isawt94. If a few more of you had been paying attention at school instead of studying the Najdorf Poisoned Pawn variation, you might have remembered the phrase attributed to Julius Caesar on the conquest of Britain. Veni, vidi, vici. I came I saw, I conquered. It was an easy piece of calculation for me to replace the English part of the pseudonym with the Latin original. And it was good of the killer to give us his birth year, too. He really shouldn't have left that en prise. Very careless. Move three - the killer committed the crime. You could say he did it. And move four - what did the killer do with the gun after the murder? That's right - he hid it. So there could only be one correct solution. Check and mate. Our killer is none other than Indian super-GM, Vidit. He bid it, he did it and he hid it. Now, if you know what's good for you, you'll come quietly."

And that's how I solved the case at Hyland Island and returned the chess world to normal. All in a day's work for Inspector Hector. I hope you followed the same clues I did. Especially as you had a big extra clue in the story title.

But I can't hang around here all day, I've got other cases to solve. First I'm off to Brazil, where Henrique Mecking was found unconscious on some decking after disturbing a brekkin. Then its on to St Petersburg where Peter Svidler has been attacked by a fiddler dressed as the Riddler and then Amsterdam where Loek Van Wely was turned to jelly after being hit in the belly while watching the telly. Possibly by the same man, a roofer, who attacked Daniil Yuffa with an oofer doofer and a loofah.

So I'll be on my way. Evening all."

DISCLAIMER

Once again, any resemblance to real chess players is solely due to them having delightfully rhymable names. There is no need for Interpol to follow up any of the cases I have fabricated!

2025 KCC Christmas Quiz - Who Did It?

Something very different for your seasonal entertainment this year - a chess murder mystery! 

By my reckoning there are enough clues to give you every chance of finding the killer, though maybe I under-estimate the difficulty that normal, well-adjusted people will have in trying to follow the logic trail that my slightly twisted brain has created. But that, fellow armchair sleuths, is your problem, not mine! As a rather more famous character than me once said, "Frankly my dear ........"

It should certainly be easy enough for one of our members - elementary, my dear Watson - after his long career as sidekick to Sherlock Holmes. So get your deer-stalkers on and immerse yourself in a bit of whimsical problem solving. If you can work out chess solutions over the board, you can surely work out "whodunnit" in this little fiction. Good luck and be sure to come back here soon, when the killer will be unmasked. Read on and get those little grey cells working!

WHODIDIT?

A CHESS MURDER MYSTERY

 

It was a gruesome scene when I entered the private quarters of Mitch Rich, the aptly named wealthiest man in Britain and lately the world’s leading chess sponsor. He was dead in his bed, with his head full of lead. He wouldn’t be sponsoring anything again, that was for sure, but it would look very bad for world chess if they couldn’t bring his killer to book. Which is where I came in - Inspector Hector,  FIDE’s top cop, though you probably know me better as a Swedish GM.

A couple of IMs had been shot at two other Mitch Rich sponsored tournaments earlier in the year, but we hadn’t made much progress on those. And to be honest, no-one had seemed too fussed by that. Now, though, the stakes had really been raised, especially as the murder had been committed during a major tournament, which was being hosted by Rich on Hyland Island, his private luxury retreat off the coast of Cornwall. Many top players were there, together with a few officials and support crew, as well as a handful of spectators from Kenilworth Chess Club. The island was only accessible by helicopter, which meant that the killer was, beyond doubt, still on the scene. Not quite a locked room mystery, but certainly a locked island one.

As soon as I knew the murder weapon was a gun, I thought of John Nunn, but he was away somewhere having fun in the sun. And that guy from Bristol owned a pistol, but as it was made of crystal, it wasn’t the murder weapon I was looking for. But although none of the assembled chess players had a record of gun ownership or gun crime, there had been enough previous incidents to arouse my suspicions. Chris Ward once brought a sword to the board when his opponent accused him of fraud, while Markus Ragger owned a dagger and Glenn Flear a spear. And Nihal Sarin shared a name with a nerve gas, which was well dodgy.

It was time to interview a few people, and I first made a beeline for the Chinese and Vietnamese contingents. Ding didn’t know a thing, while Bu, Hou, Ju, Lu, Zhu, Xu and Yu didn’t have a clue. Wei and Le said they’d been out all day. No progress there.

I had no better luck with the Americans. Wesley So said he wanted to go before it started to snow. His finances were low and he needed some dough, though that’s true of most chess players. And with no money or possessions missing, robbery didn’t seem to have been a motive, anyway.  Jeffery Xiong and Andrew Hong said I’d got it all wrong – it couldn’t have been Sam Shankland, as he was still at home in Yankland.

My suspicions turned to the Indian group. There was something fishy about Vishy while Ganguly was very unruly. Pragg still had jet lag and was as limp as a wet rag, which was a real drag. Humpy was jumpy and Gupta looked upta no good. Adhiban had a plan (as did Sethuraman and Sasikiran) but even though I wasn’t their biggest fan, I couldn’t throw them in the can just for that.  But I could certainly keep my eye on them.

The Kenilworth contingent of tourists were a strange bunch, too. And distinctly out of place amongst such strong chess players. Maybe jealousy could have spurred one of them into action? They’d certainly shown some weird behaviour in the few days they’d been at the tournament. First, Mark Page, in a rage, had stormed the stage and been locked in a cage until he began acting his age. Then Joshua Pink had caused a stink by throwing ink over someone’s mink, after having too much to drink. And most suspicious of all, Phil Wood was wearing a hood, that was covered in blood and looked up to no good, though he claimed he’d just slipped on some mud while out walking with Jack Rudd. But the bullet in his pocket turned out to be a dud. You didn’t have to be a soothsayer to know that Bruce Baer was bit of a player – currently drinking wine with the lady mayor - but I couldn’t see him as a slayer.

And everywhere I turned, there were more strange or aggressive characters ready to confront me. In the dining room, Anish Giri was chatting with Siri while eating gambas piri piri while Jan-Krzysztof Duda, eating some Gouda, couldn’t have been any ruder, but said he hadn’t committed the muder. MVL gave me hell but had nothing of interest to tell (apart from advising me to sell shares in Dell), and then Shak went on the attack, said I was on the wrong track and before I could answer back he gave me a smack. This job comes with a lot of flak. Nick Pert was pretty curt and acted all hurt when he splashed yoghurt on his shirt.

I interrupted Emmanuel Berg, who was eating curried murgh and he went on the offensive for his compatriot Grandelius. “Nils feels you’ve had him kicking his heels making him miss his meals. And a Swede never squeals, so go spin your wheels.” Though he wasn’t the only one going hungry, as I then mistook Grischuk for the cook and ordered the duck, but was bang out of luck.

I sat in the bar for a night cap to review what I’d learned so far. But my thoughts were disturbed when, after drinking too much port that someone else had bought, Vlastimil Hort started haranguing Nigel Short for being a bad sport. These chess players are a touchy bunch. And I should know, I’m one of them too, don’t forget.

Thankfully there were at least a few names I could cross off the suspects’ list. Ivan Saric and Alisa Maric were both stranded in Harwich, due to a derailed carriage. Luke McShane and Malcolm Pein had nothing to gain. And while Gawain Maroroa Jones had taken out big loans to buy some drones and phones, I knew in my bones he’d been watching “Game of Thrones” on his owns, at the time of the crime.

I didn’t sleep easy that night, but in the morning I got my first break. Forensics came back with lots of good info. The murder weapon had been used before – on the 2 IMs we’d already lost.  We’d  tracked it’s history and found it had been sold by auction on the dark web to someone with the username isawt94. I got my first light-bulb moment on the case. It was time for some action.

I ordered a search of the Indian players’ rooms and we struck gold. The gun was found in a bag belonging to Pragg and I saw him visibly sag. “Is this a gag? I’ve never seen it before in my life.” And though I ordered him to be locked in his room, this was just to buy myself a bit more thinking time as I knew he was telling the truth. The gun had clearly been planted there. Probably in a hurry and to be retrieved later.

Because I’d now worked out exactly who did it. The truth would rock the chess world – a 2700+ super-GM was guilty. (That’s all the English players, women and KCC tourists in the clear, then!) And I would name him just as soon as I had got all the players, officials and spectators assembled in the tournament hall. They say “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime”, but when Inspector Hector is on the case it’s more like “If you can’t make it rhyme, you won’t solve the crime.”

Have you worked it out yet? Do you need any more clues? I’ll just say that the murderer may not even have been mentioned yet, but he’ll certainly be found on the current rating list at over 2700. (Which you can peruse here.) Which means you've currently (December 24th, 2025) only got 34 people to choose from.

So, thinking caps on and I’ll see you back here in a few days when all will be revealed.  

 

DISCLAIMER
Any resemblance between characters mentioned in this story and real life chess players of the same name is purely a product of my invention and your imagination. I have no doubt they’re all splendid, polite and law-abiding guys and gals in the real world!

It's Christmas!

It's difficult to write a match report when you were never anywhere near the venue, but I felt I should record the fact that the A team chalked up another win on Thursday, away at Leamington, to retake first place in Division 1 as the season reached half-way. In the process the team also ensured that our C team would stay off the bottom of the table, a single point above Leamington A, albeit having played a game more. At the top, the picture is somewhat rosier, as Kenilworth A now has a two point lead over Warwick University, with a game in hand, while the B team is a further point back, having played the same number of games as the A team.

Looking good!

For the third time this season the A team won by 3-5-0.5 (a score achieved twice so far by the B team), but a 4-0 clean sweep remains elusive. Against Leamington there were wins for Keatan, Andrew and Josh on the top 3 boards, but Mike was held to a draw on Bd 4. No idea if we were thoroughly efficient or lucky as hell, but the final score will do just nicely thanks.

I think we can celebrate our mini-success with a bit of seasonal music. Ho-ho-ho and all that!

My all knowing spreadsheet tells me we've had this song once before, which is news to me. But I'm pretty sure it wasn't this version, which dates from 47 years ago. And the 50th anniversary of Bruce's first performance of the song has just passed, so it must be one of the earliest recordings out there. Happy Christmas everyone!

The Final Curtain

"You only grow by coming to the end of something and by beginning something else"  

John Irving - The World According to Garp

We played at the Abbey Club for the final time on Monday, when Kenilworth C took on Solihull A. From January, we will be moving to the Holiday Inn across the road, so this match brought down the curtain on a thirteen-year period in our history. I'll leave it others to do the stats, but we've won multiple titles, cups and promotions from the confines of the small room at the Abbey Club, with its paper-thin partition between us and the snooker players. Various changes to the space meant that a new home was needed, but this venue will always be associated with the most successful period (to date!) in our history, and a lot of good nights - as well as a multitude of individual triumphs and disasters along the way.

While I am delighted by our move, I did feel a hint of nostalgia when I set everything up, but we were soon down to business against a very strong Solihull team. Unfortunately, we didn't give the Abbey Club the send off we had hoped for, but it wasn't for want of trying.

Dave Ireland was the first to finish on Board 1 against the super-strong Don Mason. Don showed me the game afterwards and it was really interesting, but Don just found the right tactic at the critical moment to put Solihull 1-0 up.

Rhys had a good game against Andrew McCumiskey on Board 2. I didn't see enough to judge this one, but it was incredibly complicated and unfortunately didn't go our way.

I played my worst game of the season against Ray Carpenter and was -7 at one point. Incredibly I found a tactical hit that swung things back to +2 to me and out of nowhere looked to be on the brink of a win with 2 rooks and knight against a queen and two extra pawns. Unfortunately, Ray's pawns were well advanced and connected and my co-ordination was very poor with my rooks on a8 and h8, my king in the middle of the board and my knight on the back-rank and short of squares. With very little time left, I didn't find the right plan and took the draw. Don showed us both afterwards how I could have untangled to win. On another night I would have seen it, but I was just a bit out of sorts, and I would have been delighted with a draw earlier in the evening. At least this got us on the board.

Tony Sadler rolled back the years on Board 4 against Dylan, with a nice exchange sacrifice, which seemed to leave Dylan's pieces awkwardly placed. Dylan fought till the bitter end and was the last to finish, but unfortunately he succumbed in the end. So 0.5 - 3.5 to Solihull.

Not the result we wanted, and our games after Christmas will be crucial. We still have a decent chance of staying up, if we can win against our relegation rivals in the months ahead. It's still all to play for. 

Here's to new beginnings in 2026.

Don't Stop B-lieving

Banbury made their third visit of the season to Kenilworth on Monday night to play our B team, and just like the other two occasions (KO Cup and A team matches) they once again "wound up on the wrong end of a gun", to quote the Allman Brothers. However, its a very brave man who would expect the same to happen when they make their fourth visit to play the C team in the New Year!

Banbury's league title aspirations have taken a bit of a hit lately, with consecutive losses to our A team, Stratford and Warwick University and their losing run extended to four as the B team rediscovered its winning mojo which had been rudely derailed at Solihull last time out. The evening got off to a rather predictable start, though, when David was unable to overcome a 300 point rating disadvantage against Banbury's formidable IM, James Jackson, but only went down after a spirited effort to mix things up with the Black pieces. At a crucial stage David offered the exchange for a pawn, but James simply declined the offer and played on David's weak pawns, eventually prevailing in a double rook ending.

Things then improved, as Joshua played an uncharacteristically normal/sound game with the White pieces against Paul Rowan, eventually swapping off into a level material but winning king and pawn ending, where his king couldn't be stopped from invading. Not too long later we took the lead, as Bruce played the game of the evening to beat Gary Jackson with powerful pawn and piece play on Board 3. A passed White pawn got to c6 and the Black king was also under a major attack on the dark squares. As Bruce has delightedly pointed out to me, he is currently the club's 4th highest rated player and he certainly played like it in this game.

Which left me in play against Danut Joian. The game had been pretty boring and heading towards an inevitable draw until the position burst into life as we both came under time pressure. I was the first to crack, though, blundering a pawn due to a simple oversight, but Danut then mistakenly gave up his bishop for my knight to enter a rook and pawn ending where he had f and g pawns on their starting squares and I had a pawn on f5. A long period of manoeuvring occurred as the White king tried to get in to attack my sole pawn, but this proved impossible and eventually we ended up with a rook each and a lone f pawn for White. I've somehow managed to lose this ending twice, despite having my king blockading the last opposition pawn, but I like to think I've learned my lesson and comfortably held it on this occasion (for the second time in a few weeks, in fact). And so, after what I imagine was the best part of 80 moves, the match was eventually ours.

The win was not enough to lift us back into second place, as Warwick Uni have a much better game points score, but it was a very powerful team effort against such strong opposition. Don't give up on the B team just yet - in fact, keep on B-lieving.

All's Well That Ends Well

It seems highly appropriate to continue Ben's Shakespearean references when reporting on the A team's latest match, given it involved a trip to Stratford to take on a team that had recently scored a very impressive 3.5-0.5 win over Banbury.

We were down to just 2 registered A team players amongst the quartet I had managed to assemble for this encounter, so were very much not at full strength. So it was a bit of a relief to discover that Stratford weren't either, as they were missing their regular Board 1, Ben Larkin, against whom Javier normally draws in about 10 minutes flat.  Mind you, as I was giving him a lift, he would have been hanging around for some time if he'd tried that approach again!

Last season this fixture was interrupted by about 4 power cuts, but the National Grid seems to have got its act together as far as the supply to this part of Stratford is concerned, as the lights stayed on all night. (Well done, Ben!) But that didn't stop it getting very dark for our intrepid warriors at one point in the evening. This was when Mike managed to lose from what looked like an overwhelming position against Carl Hibbard on Board 4. This was quite a reverse for our prospects, as I'd mentally marked this up as 1-0 to us some time earlier and seeing it become 0-1 was very painful. Especially as the brutal reality of these 4 board matches meant we needed to score 2.5 points from the remaining 3 games to secure the points. Thankfully, that was when things turned in our favour.

Javier had played a very shaky opening on Board 1 against Richard McNally and there seemed to be a very simple queen exchange line that would have left Richard better and with almost zero risk. But Richard's style is generally never to exchange queens, which meant that the game continued with plenty of firepower on  the board. Javi finally woke up and started taking pawns while Richard - of course! - went for a king attack. But White had no weaknesses and was able to transpose to a rook and opposite bishops ending with 2 extra pawns. However, the win may not have been trivial, except that Richard overlooked a rook check on the 6th rank which forked king and bishop and won a piece.

Another win came our way when I beat Alexander Roberts on Board 3. From a highly theoretical opening I got what I thought was zero advantage, though the engine gives a clear White edge. I decided to spice things up by sacking the exchange for a pawn and - in my dreams - chances of mate on g7 or h8 due to my control of the dark squares. All fiction, of course. The sac wasn't very good and the position was level-ish until Alex rather needlessly gave back the exchange and I was able to shove my passed d pawn down the board to force resignation. Somewhat fortuitous and probably undeserved.

Which meant we were ahead in the match and just needed a draw to secure the victory. Andrew had been pressing with Black against David Gardiner for most of the evening and would have played on had we needed the full point, but being a great team guy decided to take a draw to win the match. Very pragmatic and just what a hyper-nervous team captain likes to see. Other club members please take note!!

This win temporarily put us three points clear at the top of the table, but Warwick Uni's subsequent 3-1 away win at Banbury has brought the gap back to 1 point, though we have a game in hand.

If anybody thinks the Shakespeare references mean that this week's song is going to be David Essex singing "A Winter's Tale" they can think again. My wife likes him and the song, but she doesn't write these reports, I do! And I much prefer something like this!

Nothing to do with Shakespeare of course. Just the best rock instrumental song ever. God bless whoever invented the electric guitar, and God bless the truly brilliant Dickey Betts for the way he played it. Top Gear would have been a lot better if they'd used all of this awesome live version for the intro and slashed the time allocated to Jeremy Clarkson and his chums!

"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.