Did You Know There are Currently 8 KCC World Champions?!

I know, I know - you're all thinking that the Club Organiser has gone lock-down crazy and finally lost all contact with reality. But just bear with me on this.

There are several World Chess Champions at the moment - Magnus Carlsen (just the three titles, Classical, Rapid and Blitz); Ju Wenjun (women's Classical); Humpy Koneru (women's Rapid); and Kateryna Lagno (Women's Blitz) will do for starters, but then there are all the senior and junior age groups (male and female, too many to count). Plus bullet and 960. And correspondence. And visually and physically impaired. And Problem Solving. And maybe more that I can't even think of. And the one thing that all these World Champions have in common is that they aren't KCC members.

So come on, Mr Club Organiser, what's with the claim of 8 Kenilworth World Champions??

Well, its really quite simple, because there is another category, of which you might be unaware (as is FIDE and the rest of the world), which is World Surname Chess Champions.  And its here where we really come into our own. Because of the 17 KCC players with ratings on the April 2020 FIDE list, no less than 8 of them are the highest rated players in the world with their surname! If that doesn't make you a World Champion (of a kind!) I don't know what does. Read on for the glorious roll of honour.

First, there's the "by default" category, where we have the only FIDE rated player with a particular surname. So maybe not such a great achievement - but so what? It's still a World Title for Kenilworth! We have three of these:-

Billy Fellowes (1493 Rapid)
Lionel Riou-Durand (1954)
Jude Shearsby (1673)

This group is closely followed by Bernard "The Artist" Charnley (1896), who had to out-perform a whole one other Charnley (Chris, from Australia, rated 1415) to secure his World Champion crown. And next is Dragomir Zarev (1645), who has left two unrated Zarevs trailing in his wake on the way to his own title. But then the competition gets tougher. Much tougher!

So, in ascending order, in third place in the pantheon of KCC World Surname Champions is Andy Baruch (2063), who towers over a group of 9 Baruchs, with the next best being an Israeli (Dror) who is almost 450 points adrift. Andy seems to have his World title in the bag in perpetuity!

In a glorious second place (and it would have been first if I'd written this when I first had the idea!) is yours truly (2121), who heads a massive group of 19 Pages ahead of my German namesake Pascal (2009). Not much room for a slump there, if I want to keep my title, so I'd better try and keep my wits about me.

But the undisputed winner, and the greatest of the KCC World Champions is the phenomenon that is Paul Lam (2115- yes, lower than me!), who emerges as King of the Hill from no less than 89 Lams on the FIDE rating list. But his tenure may be short lived, as there are plenty of other Lams snapping at his heels - most obviously FM Daniel KW Lam from Hong Kong, who is just 6 points behind. If they tie, Paul will still retain his title however, due to a better tie break of middle initials. GM trumps any other combination, after all!

So there you have it - 8 KCC Surname World Champions. A proud achievement, to be sure. And if some of the other members of the club would just get their fingers out, the number could be even greater.

I have not yet given up, for instance, on the chances of Bernard "The Accountant" Rogers (1842), overhauling the ratings of the 9 other Rogers currently ahead of him. Which admittedly includes Australian GM Ian (2545) - but Bernard just needs to practice a bit more! And then there's Andy Ward (1873 and the 8th strongest of 43 Wards), who also has a GM (Englishman Chris, at a far more manageable 2402) to chase. Come on chaps - what's keeping you?

I also have high hopes for Mike Donnelly (1855), who ranks second amongst all the World's Donnellys - but first amongst males. Admittedly he trails someway behind the 2030 rated American Ruth Donnelly, but her birth year is given by FIDE as 1920!! If that's right, he must surely become outright World Champion soon?!

But, alas, I fear there is little hope for Phil Wood, who is not, of course, even the highest rated person in his own family and overall comes in at 10th of 46 amongst fellow Woods. And I am especially disappointed in Joshua Pink (1924). With only one other Pink to beat, he finds himself in second place some 126 ELO points behind fellow Englishman Stuart. So not even an English Champion. I fear a name change may be required for Joshua to lift a world crown!

And for completeness (and because I've done the research and don't want the effort to go to waste!), I can also mention William Morris (1375, 21st of 51 Morrises, headed by Australian IM James at 2473); David Phillips (1825, 9th also of 51); Andrew Paterson (2046, 3rd of 9) and Ben Graff (1867, 2nd of 19).

So there you have it. Eight KCC World Champions, and more in prospect. Makes you proud. Doesn't it?