Introducing The Ale Rooms

So, farewell then, The Gauntlet. It was late June 2017 when we moved there (read all about in the Blog post of July 7, 2017), so that is some 5 years and 4 months residence - less the 15 months or so when we could not meet due to Covid. That probably means around 200 club nights there, so it is of course a big wrench for us to have had to move. But the KCC Pub Inspection Squad (unfortunate acronym, though that is) quickly lined up a new venue, and last night was our first club evening at The Ale Rooms.

Our new home, where we will be meeting in the upstairs room every Thursday from 7.30 till late

It is only right that I record the names of those present on this historic occasion, in order of arrival:-

Bernard R
Paul
Me
Roy
Bernard C
John (and Richard)
Hector (and Hector's mate)

So 9 of us, which is 50% more than were present at the first night in The Gauntlet. Still, I expected more, but it was half-term week. In the very first game to finish I beat Paul with the black pieces in a very few moves. I take this as a massively favourable omen for my future chess performances.  We will gloss over the fact that I then immediately lost the return encounter. There's absolutely no need to dwell on the negatives, so I don't want to hear anything from you doom mongers in the anti-growth coalition, thank you very much.

Our first night coincided with the news that The Ale Rooms had retained its place in the 2023 Good Beer Guide, one of only two Kenilworth pubs to reach such lofty heights. And very well deserved it is too, as the beer is consistently excellent.

Many thanks to the Manager, Sam Parham, for being so welcoming and making our change of venue so smooth. The upstairs bar is exceedingly comfortable and very conducive to ale quaffing and relaxed conversation. Never mind the chess, let's put the world to rights each Thursday!

KCC's new Thursday evening host, Manager of The Ale Rooms, Sam Parham. Cheers, Sam!

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Location details can already be found on - amazingly! - the Location tab of this website, while (limited) free parking is available outside Kenilworth Library (literally next door!) or, more plentifully, two minutes' walk away in Forest Road or Abbey Hill. Parking in the town centre car parks will set you back £2. And, of course, the main bus stops are within 50 yards of The Ale Rooms. We have never been this central before! As can be confirmed by reference to the history of KCC venues as described in the Blog post of May 12, 2020.

The First to Come and the Last to Leave

Or in Jude's case, make that the last to come and the first to leave. Arriving at last night's KCC v University B match after the other 3 games had started (but still ahead of the 7.30 scheduled start, which may well have been critical, as his phone went off when he came in the room!), he was finished in about 30 minutes or less. Having already played Nc7+ and Nxa8, he soon followed up with Ne5+, which would usually be a good move, but when the Black queen is on c6, it is rather terminal.

Mike finished next with another win, but I had long since given up looking at this game as I couldn't understand what either player was doing. But Mike clearly understood more than his opponent and was a rook up in the final position.

Ben tried to drum up a big attack against the Black long castled king, but some nice bishop play by his opponent convinced him to take a draw by repetition after a perpetual attack on his rook.

As is often the case, I was last to finish when I avoided the one move on the board that would have delivered stalemate in favour of queening a pawn. And I was already 2 pieces up. Things had not been so straightforward from the opening, but as soon as my opponent decided to jump in with Nb7+ he was doomed, as the advance knight had no way out and was certainly going to drop off eventually.

So a 3.5-0.5 win for us, to get us on the scoreboard for the season.

And now for the song. Another classic performance from Jackson. Listen carefully, and the title of this post will appear before your very ears! Sometimes, even I don't know how I do it.

Fever Pitch

High excitement, on and off the board - all of the wrong kind - at our Coventry League season opener away at Nuneaton. As far as the match was concerned, we went down to a 2.5-1.5 defeat. Ben was our sole winner, despatching Thomas Glenn with the Black pieces after a tough fight. If I can get the new game reader to work, then his win should appear ......... here!

Mike and Tony Green opted not to play their game out and agreed to a draw. with lots of pieces on the board and a very unclear position. This means, by process of elimination, that the guilty parties for KCC were myself and Jude, who found ourselves sharing joint membership of The Losers Club. Jude went down with Black to Paul Davies after getting in quite a bind out of the opening and dropping an exchange. But undaunted, he soon got it back and reached a rook and bishop ending with equal pawns, where White had a dangerous pair of queenside pawns. Jude queened a pawn of his own to win White's Rook, but he was then unable to prevent Paul's last pawn from queening (though I think Paul pointed out a way he could have held the draw) and then succumbed rather quickly in a queen v rook ending which I know from experience is far from trivial to win. I managed to lose with the White pieces to Phil Briggs, who I have to say played an excellent game, with a couple of really good moves that I failed to see coming. rather luckily I survived his middle game onslaught (though I definitely shouldn't) but then failed to hold a difficult rook ending a pawn down.

But the excitement was not over, as the following morning came the news that one of the Nuneaton players had tested positive for covid (quick work, I must say). Now we - and the rest of the Nuneaton team - have to wait to see if any of us produce a similar reading on our lateral flow tests. Not the start to our campaign I would have chosen!  Just as well we have some music to cheer us up, don't you think? And, you lucky people, this week you get an absolute epic. Live music really can't get much better than this.

Was Your Journey Really Necessary?

Well, as far as Mike was concerned, the answer was no, as the home team had suffered a late call off and could only muster three people to play against us in last Thursday's Banbury A v Kenilworth A Division 1 encounter. But the missing person missed out on quite a strange and rare experience - it was certainly a new one for me! When we arrived, the usual venue of St Mary's Church Centre was full to the rafters with non-chess players, who had in fact assembled there for a talk on "Mountains and Fjords". And very interesting it was, I'm sure, but (a) it wasn't chess and (b) where was our match going to be held?

The answer, it transpired (clever choice of word there - pay attention at the back!) was ........ here!

We actually played in the South Aisle, off to the right

Yes, next door in the imposing St Mary's Church itself. Which if you are interested, doesn't have a spire, but a dome, so my clever word play was a bit off target. But never let the facts get in the way of a joke! Anyway, it was dark, cold, short of facilities and slightly spooky. Interesting for a one-off, but I wouldn't like to make a habit of this. (Another religion-inspired pun - please try and keep up.)

And so to the match, where Banbury were lacking not just one player called Jackson (IM James) but two (Captain Gary), and with a default on Board 4 (which left Mike freezing and with nothing to do for a couple of hours) we were obviously in the driving seat. Joshua was the first to finish (I seem to recall typing those words before, once or twice) conducting a ferocious attack on Paul Rowan's king, after Paul had inexplicable dropped an exchange to an eminently avoidable knight fork. Jude was playing Nathan Manley on Board 1, and after seeming to overlook some tricky moves, he had to temporarily regroup before eventually transitioning into a rook and pawn ending, where he soon annexed a stray Black pawn. The game then ended in truly dramatic fashion, as Nathan marched his king forwards only to be hit by the move h4 mate!  So 3-0 to us, and just me left in play. Another rather too familiar line! I was trying very hard to make something happen with my slight advantage of two bishops and a weak, isolated White pawn on b6. But my opponent, Danut Joian, defended well and in the end I had to be thankful that he missed a chance to turn the tables on me and start pushing for a win himself. So honours even in that game, and a 3.5-0.5 win overall for us.

I'm almost spoilt for choice on the music front this week, given the match venue, but I decided to go with my very first thought. I mean, you can't really go wrong with a Nobel Literature Prize winner, can you?

But it was a close run thing, as I quite fancied this, too. (Now, you'll believe that a man can fly! And what about those hair styles?? Even more remarkable than early-Jude!)

And this! But I'll stop now, you'll be pleased to learn!