The Changing of the Guard

Another win for the A team last week, but this time "only" by 3-1 against Olton A, which spoilt our run of 4 consecutive matches where we had dropped just half a point in each. But still no individual losses for the team yet, which is a splendid record after 5 matches.

In fact, things could easily have gone pear shaped, as Joshua e-mailed me around 5.30 on the evening of the match to say that he was stranded in London with no trains for at least 2 hours, so he wasn't going to make it back to Kenilworth in time. I don't like to say it, in case he gets a bit of an inflated ego, but this was a bit of a blow, as he has resumed his role of points machine (4/4) this season. More to the point it left us with only 3 players, but thankfully Bernard C agreed at very short notice to ride to our rescue and bring us back up to full strength.

This was our first encounter with Olton since the tragic passing of both Phil Holt and Richard Smith, so the mood was obviously a bit sombre as play began. And we could certainly have done without Richard Liszewski's phone making some beeping noises a few moves into the match. The Leamington League rules are quite explicit that this results in instant loss of the game, but for the second season running we were simply too nice to our perennial rivals and play carried on as though nothing had happened.

And this time there was a happy ending, as Bernard proceeded to build up a very big kingside attack and eventually won the black queen with consecutive moves of his knights to f5 to give us an early match lead. I was getting nowhere against Mark Cundy on Board 2 and decided to offer a draw before I did anything really stupid. Thankfully this was accepted.

But then came the evening's truly historic moment as Jude, with the Black pieces, beat Alan Lloyd on Board 1. So at the age of 12 he has already achieved something which I have failed to do in 15 years of trying over 10 attempts - 5 of which I have ended up losing! It's now official, in case it wasn't already, that Jude is better than me. Which is why he is playing on Board 1, of course! Anyway, big congrats to Jude on taking one of the biggest scalps in the League, and in the process wrapping up the match victory for us.

One game remained, and this went right down to the wire, as Mike put Rob Reynolds under considerable pressure in a pawn up rook and knight ending. Eventually it became a two pawns up rook ending, but with both players frequently down close to the 10 seconds increment, Rob defended very tenaciously and his active king and rook were able to secure the draw. This was the second consecutive game where Mike couldn't make his extra material tell in the end. Let's hope this is not one of those sequences which come in threes.

It takes a Nobel Prize Winner for Literature to do justice to the historical significance of this match. And it's also the only song I know with "Changing of the Guard" in the lyrics/title. So there wasn't much alternative really, was there?! Anyway, it's a hell of a song, and if anyone has the slightest clue what on earth it's all about, please do let me know.

Not ITMA but ITSA!

Though I imagine that anyone under the age of around 60 will not know what either of these acronyms stand for. Well, this will explain ITMA (It's That Man Again) to those not in the know.

But ITSA is my own invention - It's That Score Again! Because, yes, for the fourth time in four matches, Kenilworth A won by 3.5-0.5 in our latest Division 1 encounter last night. This time it was a good Shirley A team that was on the receiving end of a very strong KCC performance, which took us to the top of the table, a point ahead of Stratford A with a game in hand. And still no games lost yet by any A team player.

Jude finished first, after a relatively uneventful and carefully played top board draw against Phil Purcell, but thereafter the Kenilworth wins steadily mounted. Joshua was the first to gain the full point, beating Darren Whitmore in a rather strange game. It looked very even, until Darren voluntarily swapped off into a king and pawn ending that looked - and was - just lost for him. Win number two came courtesy of yours truly, as I took Marcus Walsh's gambit pawn, weathered a bit of a storm (when both players missed some good moves) and then rounded up a second pawn. Marcus threw the towel in rather early, but when you play a gambit, I don't imagine you are in the right frame of mind to just prolong the game when two pawns down and losing in an ending. As so often happens, the player who had been most obviously winning from the earliest moment was the last to finish. The seldom seen Andy B, on a rare outing, just marched into Dave Thomas's queenside and took two pawns for virtually nothing. Dave organised a little bit of counterplay but Andy quickly snuffed this out and then won a third pawn for good measure. Even opposite bishops couldn't have saved Dave in this ending, but there was still a pair of rooks on as well, and Dave managed to fall into a mating net which duly brought matters to a conclusion.

An excellent win for the team, and it was pretty happy car load of campers who returned home afterwards. But while winning is nice, let's not forget that there are three possible results to a chess game/match. And here's a song to remind you of that fact!

On a Roll

Two strong team performances in the Leamington and Coventry Leagues this week, as we powered to consecutive 3.5-0.5 Division 1 wins.

First up it was a home match against current LDCL leaders Stratford. Coming into the match they were unbeaten and we had a 100% record. Happily, it was our record that remained intact. Joshua was first to finish, and even by his standards this was a brutal performance! Checkmate on the board in about 17 moves. With the Black pieces. David Gardiner probably didn't know quite what hit him. I couldn't keep pace with that, but I was next to finish when Richard McNally ran out of threats and I was a rook up. It was a strange game, as Richard simply gave me a piece in a completely equal position, and then felt obliged to give me an exchange to try and keep some play going.  Apart from one check, though, there wasn't any play and so it was 2-0 to us. Mike then took us to victory with a highly original win against Sam Cotterill. All Mike's queenside pawns disappeared, while Sam had connected a, b and c pawns. Mike had a central majority, but even so this seemed a bit radical to me and I was rather worried. But the next time I looked, Sam's queen had ventured out to a rather unfortunate square and could only be saved by giving up a whole rook. Resignation would have been the best move, but around 20 more were made before we inevitably went up 3-0. Jude had been in a spot of bother against Ben Larkin on Board 1 and went a pawn down. But then he switched on the turbo drive and steadily outplayed his opponent. It looked as though he was going to win with a lone h pawn and a fantastic light squared bishop against a  knight and three connected passed queenside pawns. But Ben found an excellent defence and in time trouble Jude was unable to prevent White from also queening and drawing with a perpetual. So, 3.5-0.5 to us, and while Stratford are still top, we have closed up to 1 point behind with 2 matches in hand.

Since our opening Coventry League match loss to Nuneaton A, we had chalked up back to back wins against Warwick University's A and B teams, and on Tuesday we took on their C team, aiming for a clean sweep and three in a row. In a rather packed room (5 matches were going on!) this aim was duly achieved as we ran out easy 3.5-0.5 winners - already the fifth time this season I've been on the good side of that score-line. Jude was in no mood to hang around (much to his Dad's delight!) and won effortlessly with the Black pieces on Board 2. Connected passed pawns on b2 and a3 in the middle game were rather difficult to fight against! For the second night running I got gifted a piece in an otherwise equal position. I found a cunning knight retreat which should have netted me a pawn, but my opponent overlooked a pin and the pawn turned into a full piece. I simply had to avoid a one move threat of checkmate later on and the win was very easy. At one point I wasn't so sure that Ben would be joining me and Jude in the winner's club, as nothing much seemed to be happening, but when I next looked, a hurricane had blown through the White position and Ben was on the verge of delivering mate. That didn't quite happen, but in staving off mate, White had to shed too much material. And it seemed certain to become 4-0, as Mike was up a piece for 2 pawns on Board 3. However, this didn't go as smoothly as we might have hoped. First there was a long delay when Mike's opponent claimed a threefold repetition. But (a) he claimed it (very!) incorrectly and (b) Mike was adamant there had only been a twofold. So, the game continued and came down to an ending of knight and 2 against 4 pawns. But the 4 pawns could yield two passed pawns on the c and h files and in order to stop them both, Mike had to let his last pawn go and accept it was a draw. I suspect there was a win somewhere along the line, but it was not at all obvious how White should best deploy his king and knight to restrain the Black pawns and hold onto his own last foot soldier. Which meant we missed out on a 4-0 win at the death for a second night running.

Now sit back and enjoy this week's musical offering while you roll right through the night! The available live versions didn't quite fit the bill, but you can never go far wrong with the original version of a classic like this.

A Hard Day's Night

Another week, another Warwick University team, only this time it's their A team, and even if they leave plenty of strong players at home, they can be relied on to be formidable opposition.  Who can forget them rolling us over 3-1 in the final match of last season when we only needed a draw to win the title?

But an unlikely revenge, of sorts, was taken last night when our collection of 60 somethings, plus young whippersnapper Jude, proved too good for their 4 bright young things, winning 2.5-1.5.

Bernard R was having one of his rare outings to ensure we at least had 5 eligible players for the rest of the season and was first to finish with a draw against his opponent, Marc Arnau, from Barcelona. (Who the spectating Paul naturally had a good long chat to - in Spanish, of course - after the game finished.) Apparently this was a stroke of good fortune for us, as Bernard could have lost a piece to a g5/g4 pawn push just before the draw was agreed!

For once I was not the last to finish, also sharing the point against the rather strong Viktor Stoyanov on Board 1. This was a rather exciting game - certainly by my standards - in which I sacked a piece for a couple of pawns and what I thought was sufficient pressure to win the piece back. Wrong! I had, of course, overlooked several important tactics, but luckily so had my opponent (chess is a difficult game!) and after some tense moments, when it would have been very easy for both players to go wrong, we ended up in a completely drawn rook and opposite bishops ending.

And then Mike struck what turned out to be the decisive blow, delivering checkmate on the board against his Filippino opponent, Santiago German, who had defeated Andrew Paterson last season. This had been a wild affair, but Mike always seemed to have the tactics working for him and played a very good game before finishing with a brutal kingside attack.

Which left Jude hard at work against Ivan Nikolov on Board 2. Jude also played an excellent game and was on the verge of victory, with 2 extra pawns in a rook and pawn ending. But his king was stuck on the back rank, and his queenside pawns were awkwardly placed. No doubt, though, this was a winning position, but the clock proved to be more important than anything else and with Jude down to seconds he could only make a draw. This was definitely one that got away as far as Jude was concerned, though in the overall match context it balanced out the missed win in Bernard's game.

Well, it was indeed a hard day's night, but the end result was an excellent win for KCC. There's clearly some life left in us old dogs yet. Now, if I could only think of a song to go with this post's title ........