Spooky or What?

So there I was, on holiday in Spain, minding my own business, as I strolled around the stupendous Gothic Cathedral in Leon. Naturally I didn't wish to miss out on the exquisite walnut choir stalls, amongst the oldest in Spain, which were carved by Flemish artists in the 15th century. An idle glance here; an idle glance there; and then .... what on earth?! Was I seeing things?!

No I wasn't. Completely by chance, I had happened upon a carving which quite clearly bore the name of KCC's highest graded player. Not a great likeness (too much hair for a start!), but you can't have everything. Never before had I remotely considered that our very own Andy Baruch had any elements of the divine or sacred about him, but you can't argue with the evidence, can you?  I think we'll all have to look at him in a different light from now on!

Early Season Fixture News

The 2016-17 fixture lists for the Leamington and Coventry Leagues are almost ready to be published - just one or two problematic dates still to be rearranged - and as soon as they are available I will ask Rod to post them under the respective tabs on this website. But I know that some of you are really eager to mark those early season dates into your diary right away, so here are the September matches which we can look forward to:-

LEAMINGTON LEAGUE

A Team (Div 1)
Sep 12 - Home v Shirley A
Sep 20 - Away v Banbury B
Sep 27 - Away v Banbury (KO Cup Rd 1)

B Team (Div 2)
Sep 05 - Home v Kenilworth C
Sep 12 - Away v Shirley B
Sep 19 - Home v Solihull C

C Team (Div 2)
Sep 05 - Away v Kenilworth B

D Team (Div 4)
Sep 26 - Home v Banbury D

So busy starts for the A and B teams, and a more leisurely beginning for the C and D teams. But initially all eyes will be on the massive B v C team clash on September 5th. I can almost feel the ground shaking already!

COVENTRY LEAGUE

Division 1
First match not till October 04 v Rugby A (away)

Divisional Cup
First match not till October 25 v Coventry D  (home)


And two more important pieces of information ahead of the new season:-

1) Don't forget that most KCC players will need to renew their ECF membership - you will probably get a reminder e-mail from the ECF if your membership is due to expire at the end of this month. I shall be checking renewals and will doubtless be sending my own reminders to anyone who hasn't renewed by the end of September! (At the moment, that means I will have to e-mail myself.)

2) The KCC Team Formation meeting will be taking place at the Abbey Club, on Monday, August 22nd at 7.30 pm. This is where we will be trying to sort our who is playing for which team in which league/cup this year. If you aren't going to be present that night, please let me know in advance if you have any special preferences about where/when/how often you play - otherwise we are going to assume you will have the same availability as last year - adjusted for any team or board order changes needed because of the new grades.

Leamington League Jamboree - September 6th

For those of you who don't pore over the LDCL website on a regular basis, this is a notification that this year's Jamboree will take place at 7.30 on Tuesday 6th September at the Leamington Chess Club venue, Oak House, 87 Upper Holly Walk, CV32 4JS. The Jamboree, which is traditionally the League's curtain raiser, is an easy going competition designed to blow the summer cobwebs off. Entries are £2 per person and include food.

Teams of two compete in two pools of strength over four or five rounds to determine the winners. Each team of two must have a combined grade of no more than 280.

Entries to Jason Madden, whose contact details are on the LDCL website here within the entry detailing this event.

As I am not a prospective participant in this event, I'm afraid any interested parties will need to make up their own teams. Feel free to use the comments box below to advertise your interest to other club members who might want to join in a team. Or I suppose you could simply talk to some people to unearth a team-mate. Good luck to any Kenilworth teams that enter the fray!

New Grades - How Did You Do?!

The new ECF grades have just been published, and as these are the ones that will determine board order for the whole of next season they are quite important for everyone. Our super-efficient new webmaster has already updated the relevant page on this site (click the Players tab to discover your new grade), and now it falls to me to mark your report card, according to whether your grade went up or down:-

Top Of The Form

Ben +18
Dave +8
Stuart +7
Rod +6
Andy B +3
Steve +2
Phil +2

Could Do Better

Tony - no change
Nick - no change

See Me After Class

Mike W -1
Andrew P -2
Rajen -2
The Club Organiser -3
Mike D -4
Roy -4
Bernard C -5
Carl -6
Chris -7
Bruce -8
Paul -8
Mike J -10

So, pop-pickers, from our 21 rated players we had 7 risers and 12 fallers, with two non-movers. In total we lost 60 grading points and won 46, for a nett club loss of 14 points - an average of less than 1 point per person. Not bad, really, considering our demographic!

We now have a new club number one - move over Paul and make way for Andy, who edges him out by three points. I wonder what's put the lead back in his chess pencil?

Star man was our current Clubman of the Year, Ben Graff, who increased his grading by a massive 18 points in just 6 months. If he can repeat this for each of the next 7 grading periods he will overtake Matthew Sadler (282!!) as England's highest rated player. Go, Ben!