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I'm thinking of re-titling this series to Game of the Year, so infrequent have they become, but who knows - maybe my new year's resolution for 2024 will be to be more diligent in continuing these articles? (Hint: it won't be!) Once again, to make up for the long interval between instalments (by which time I've forgotten how to get the game viewer to work, and have to relearn it all over again), there are two games for your entertainment. And mighty good games they are two, as a pair of International Masters get put to the sword by two of Kenilworth's finest - with just the eight and a half years between the two games. Neither played for KCC teams unfortunately, but Warwickshire Select will do just fine for me, given I captain that lot too!
Besides the result and the quality of the opposition, what these two games have in common to my eyes is that they are both played entirely on the front foot, with a total refusal to take a step backwards - despite the strength of the opposition. I just hope a little of this single-minded focus and aggression can rub off on me!
Anyway, here are two tremendous games gthat reflect bgreat credit on both victors. And while we are all only too well aware of Jude's prowess, its good to be reminded that Paul was also a pretty useful player once upon a time! Will we ever see those days again, I wonder?!
Yes its Quiz time again, and this year - would you Adam and Eve it - I've had a new idea. Maybe its the influence of our new ex-Cockney member Bruce B, but whatever the reason I've suddenly come aver all funny and developed a compulsion to speak in Rhyming Slang. Now most of you will know only too well just how this works, but for those who don't, I couldn't find a better explanation than this, from the unlikely source of Rice University, Houston:-
"Rhyming slang
works by replacing the word to be obscured with the first word of a phrase that
rhymes with that word. For instance, "face" would be replaced by
"boat," because face rhymes with "boat race." Similarly
"feet" becomes "plates" ("plates of meat"), and
"money" is "bread" (a very common usage, from "bread
and honey"). Sometimes the full phrase is used, for example "Currant
Bun" to mean "The Sun" (often referring to the British tabloid
newspaper of that name). There is no hard and fast rule for this, and you just
have to know whether a particular expression is always shortened, never
shortened, or can be used either way."
I couldn't have said it better myself! Except to give a couple of chess examples. So Gatling, for instance would obviously refer to John "Gatling Gun" Nunn, and Nuremberg would naturally be Tony "Nuremberg Trials" Miles. Simples!
Below you will find a list of 28 rhyming slang clues to the names of 25 current KCC members (by which I mean registered for the club in 2023-24, or attendees of club nights in the current season) plus 3 former members (all quite recent). In several cases there are multiple clues for a single KCC member (shown as a,b,c etc) - which should make your life much, much easier. They all give rise to phrases - usually two words, but definitely not always - which rhyme with the surnames of KCC members. And to make things even easier, the clues are presented in alphabetical order, by surname, of the solutions. Generous, or what?!
Your primary task, then, is to identify the 28 KCC members, but if you are really keen, you might like to try and work out all of the 45 individual rhyming slang phrases. But to do that you will really have to get right inside my brain, which might not be the smartest course of action. Because, in no particular order, a passing knowledge of the following subjects will be useful in solving some of the individual clues - chess (who'd have guessed?); Welsh cuisine; fairy stories; Shakespeare; Rolling Stones' songs; US TV series; designer labels; Private Eye characters; 16th century Scottish history; 1960's US folk music; Billy Idol songs and Looney Tunes cartoons. Seems quite a normal knowledge spread to me!
Apologies in advance to the 9 current members who I couldn't find a sensible rhyme for. I won't make it too easy by telling who they all are, but you will probably work out very quickly that Javier and Katya, for instance, are amongst the group that totally defeated me!
Enough explanation. Let the Quiz begin!
1 Midnight 2 Dragon 3 Habsburg 4a Imperial 4b One Horse 5 Lord 6 Puff the
Magic Dragon 7 Weather 8 Blacksmith 9a Belly 9b Transport 10a Grand 10b Wham Bam 10c Hoover 11a Waifs 11b Dog 11c Polluter 11d Latest 11e Mysterious 12 West* 13 Abercrombie 14 Black &
Decker* 15 Sid 16 Now 17a Minimum 17b Difficult 17c Narrow 17d All the
World 18 Rebel 19 Purple* 20 Stiff 21 Draft 22a Henry 22b Bara 23 Late-Night 24 Fire 25 Stay Out 26 Johnny 27a Greater 27b Chewing 27c Blue 27d Elmer 27e Little Red 28a Big 28b Andrew
(* = former KCC member)
As usual, I'll post the answers early in the New Year, so feel free to take your time. This song won't directly help you get any answers, but having already tipped you off that the Rolling Stones feature somewhere in the quiz, it seemed highly appropriate.
So - for the time being at least - there will be no article on the KCC blog entitled Top of the League (temporarily - Part 4) as in the decisive shoot-out at the Abbey Club on Monday night, the A team powered past the B team 3-1 and re-assumed leadership of Division 1. But with the A team only having one match before the middle of February, compared to the B team's 3, there is every chance that this headline might yet be seen!
The League table after Monday's match certainly makes excellent reading for the club.
Kenilworth first and second - has this ever happened before??
All four games were full blooded encounters, as Jude's pre-match suggestion that he would offer a draw after 3 moves proved to be a bit of a tease. There was not a draw to be seen, and checkmate even appeared on one of the boards.
The A team got off to a fast start by converting the advantage of the White pieces on Boards 2 and 4. Bruce notched the first point when his growing pressure caused Harry to either blunder or misevaluate the position, as a couple of pawns failed to provide adequate compensation against an extra bishop. Personally I was slightly disappointed by this game, as it was very sensible indeed, which is hardly what you'd expect from two such chaos merchants as these! Full marls to Bruce for keeping Harry's natural attacking tendencies under lock and key for the whole evening.
Javier weighed in next, with a bit of a demolition job against Josh, who played an unsound opening unsoundly. Which is seldom a good combination! Despite seeming to castle into Josh's "attack", Javi didn't allow even one check against his king in the whole game, and dominated with the extra piece that Josh had given him. He finished with an exquisite queen sac on f7, which just exploded the Black position into smithereens. If I had the authority I would ban this opening, but doubtless Josh is even more fired up to give it another go after last night!
But then the advantage of the White pieces saw the B team strike back, when Andrew got a big win on top board against a rather subdued Jude, who looked in need of his Christmas holiday. This looked like a really well played game by Andrew, who even allowed a couple of Black's heavy pieces onto the seventh rank and close to his king, but seemingly he was never in danger and eventually won on time.
I don't know why this happens so often, but this left me yet again as the last game in progress. After an unexpected opening, where neither player had much prior knowledge to work with, I slowly got a slight advantage with the Black pieces against Mike, and then managed to shatter his whole kingside structure with a timely pawn to e3 thrust. Then his king came under direct fire, and I could have won a rook for nothing, but calculated a forced mate instead. Except that I had - of course - missed one variation in which the White king ran from c1 to f1 and I was left without a sensible check. But thankfully, a strong queen move renewed all the threats and as the engine has subsequently confirmed there was no defence. Rather than give up his queen to stave off mate, Mike sportingly allowed me to check him back across the board from f1 to a4 where his king finally perished after the move pawn b5 mate.
There can surely never have been such an important A v B match in Kenilworth's history, but doubtless one of our heritage members will correct me on that if I am wrong. When you think that Paul, David and Billy - all rated around 2100+ - have not played a single game between them for the club, the strength in depth needed to sit first and second in the table is quite remarkable. And the B team have lost only to the A team all season, which is no mean achievement in itself.
But enough of all that self-congratulatory twaddle, I hear you say. What is this week's song? Good question, dear reader, because even as I type this sentence, I still haven't decided. But now I have! Why this wasn't a monster hit I will never know.
Another week - another unimaginatively titled blog post.
This week we were at home to Shirley A and, even though they did not bring a full strength team, the match was a close one all the way through. It should also be noted that I arrived fashionably/27 minutes late for my game, so all comments on other boards should be viewed through the prism of my not having seen what went on.
The first game to finish was Mike, who won a nice looking game on the black side of a Benoni/Benko (I believe Mike said afterwards it is the first time he has ever played this line). Mike delayed playing the b5 Benko sacrifice for a number of moves, but even so when he did play it, it immediately caused Dave Thomas no end of classic Benko problems. It took Mike a while to finally cash in his advantage, but for a long-time Dave seemed to be desperately staving off catastrophe with every move, until finally it could be staved no longer.
We held the lead for approximately 3.5 seconds before Andrew resigned, going down in flames against Phil Purcell on board 1. Andy played some version of a Stonewall Dutch, and there really isn't much to say other than he seemed to get absolutely hacked to pieces, with a passed white c pawn costing Andy a whole piece and the game. I think the most positive thing that can be said about this one is because Andy delayed resigning for a few moves past the point where it was probably warranted, it did at least mean that technically we were never behind on the scoreboard at any point in the match.
Next up was Harry, who I think played 2/3 of a very good game against Darren Whitmore. I'm reasonably confident it wasn't a 1. b4 opening, but it certainly ended up in a 1.b4 like position, with a white pawn ending up first on b5, then on b6, clamping down on the black queenside. It looked like very good strategic play, up until the point Harry decided strategy was boring and went for a massive queenside hack, castled queenside (where, as I have already noted, his b pawn is on b6) and blasted open the center of the board. It looked like the position was in danger of turning around, but fortunately Harry then came in with a very cleverly timed (and accepted) draw offer, before things got out of hand.
That left things level after 3 completed games, with just the B teams star player left to finish, playing against Marcus Walsh. Fortunately, things had gone relatively well so far in this game, with some fairly pointless and random maneuvering on the white side of a Sicilian, combined with one flashy but ultimately pointless tactic, eventually leading down to a position where i was able to play a couple of pawns and transition into a queen endgame, as follows:
The primary issue at this point was both players were now down to playing on the increment, with one of them very much wishing he could have his 27 minutes back. The secondary issue is that whilst I am sure the position is objectively winning, the process to win it (involving pushing pawns and supporting them with the king) is exactly the same one as is likely to lead to bumbling into a perpetual check. Fortunately, 7 or 8,000 checks later, black eventually misplayed the position and was unable to block white from promoting the b pawn, and another glorious, well deserved, and in no way random victory was achieved. In a statistic which most certainly does not reflect the low quality of my recent play, this marks the first time I have won 2 games of chess in a row since the British Championship in July.
Still, back to the top of the table we go, with a somewhat unusual +4 match score with only a +3 game point difference, and this series most likely comes to an end, given our next match is against a full strength Kenilworth A team.
Another week, another leader of Division 1. After the B team had reclaimed top spot last Tuesday, seven days later it was the turn of the A team to leapfrog them again, after a 3-1 win away at Stratford last night. Even finding the new Stratford venue should be worth half a game point bonus for visiting teams - I managed to get lost inside the building, and finding the way in is even harder than tracking down the room. Still, its a nice enough venue, in a church hall sort of way, which - of course - means there's nowhere to get a drink. Of any description. We may have venue issues ourselves, but at least we don't have to die of thirst during a game. And, of course, we don't have to shell out a hefty fee to hire a room for each match/club night. If you want to see what effect that has on club subs you might want to take a look at this! If that doesn't encourage you to buy a drink at The Abbey Club and the Ale Rooms, nothing will.
But I digress. Andrew, borrowed for the evening from the B team, was first to finish, despatching Richard Dobedoe on Board 4, about 10 minutes after I'd taken my one and only look and thought it could be a long game! Says it all really. I suppose if there's a queen and a knight loitering around the enemy king's broken defensive position, a quick conclusion is always a possibility. But given that Andrew's b8 and a8 pieces were still on their start squares, I didn't envisage quite such a swift finish.
Bruce then continued his impressive form with a chaotic win over Sam Cotterill on Board 3. We've all heard about "fire on board", but this was more a case of "anarchy on board". Bruce sacked an exchange, but had a horde of monstrous minor pieces swarming around Black's long castled king. Even with queens off this looked very dangerous, but how he actually finished the game I am unable to report - even though I only needed to turn around in my chair to get a good view of events. That will tell you what kind of time trouble I was in!
Our progress towards the match victory was temporarily halted when Javi went down to defeat on Board 1 against Ben Larkin. It all seemed to be going nicely to begin with, but at some point Javi's kingside pawn advance came to a halt and Ben seemed to jump in down the c file with a rook to stress the White queenside, and the next thing I knew it was all over. This was probably a very well played game by Ben.
But fear not readers, for on Board 2 I had reached a position against Richard McNally which was impossible for me to lose. Wait, did I really just write that? After my recent performances, I am clearly capable of losing any position. Especially when I was well below one minute on the clock for about the last 20 moves. Luckily I was in the driving seat, but the game was too difficult for the two players. When Richard moved the evaluation would swing in my favour, but as soon as I replied it was back to equal. The position was, in fact, drawn, as despite an extra passed pawn, and the presence of rooks, opposite bishops basically meant I couldn't make any progress. But instead of sitting tight, Richard went for counterplay (that's his style, after all!) and I won his bishop at the cost of two pawns. Now it was rook, bishop and 2 against rook and 3. Mistakes were swapped, and instead of liquidating all the pawns and forcing me to try and win R+B v R, Richard self-cheapoed himself and ended up giving one of his pawns away, while simultaneously letting me keep my last pawn which then couldn't be stopped.
So the ball is now back on the B team's side of the net, ahead of the match against Shirley A next Monday. Which could just be a warm-up for the mother of all internal battles on December 18th, when its the second A v B match of the season. At least that means one of our teams will be top of the league at Xmas. The only question is which one?!
And talking of Xmas, how about this for a suitably seasonal song? I believe that this is the last time Clarence Clemons played with the E Street Band before his tragically early passing and, poignantly, it also features a surprising guest appearance on fiddle by David Lindley, who we sadly lost earlier this year. A Blue Christmas, indeed.
Yesterday saw another Warwickshire title making its way to Kenilworth, as Keatan triumphed in the county Under 16 championships, held in Coventry as a seven round rapid swiss. He consequently joins Javi, who captured the 2023 Warwickshire Blitz title in September, as a current KCC county champion.
The Under 14, 16 and 18 sections were run as one, combined tournament and, as the final ranking list shows, Keatan was not the only KCC member in action. Katia was runner-up in the Under 14 section, with Gregory half a point back in 3rd equal - the same position claimed by Dylan in the Under 16 championship. And there was also a silver medal for Lionel in the Under 12 event, where 21 competed in a stand-alone section.
So tremendous congratulations to all our players, who all finished very high up in the standings - and extra kudos to Keatan for standing on the top step of the podium and following in the illustrious footsteps of none other than our very own Paul Lam, who won the same age group title a few (!) years ago.
Keatan and the Warwickshire Under 16 Trophy
And as this tsunami of youthful achievement and excellence wasn't enough, I happened to be at Leamington on Saturday afternoon for the conclusion of the UK Blitz Championships, where Warwickshire IM Ameet Ghasi finished third in the Open section, and Warwickshire phenom Elis Dicen won the Women's title at the age of just 12! Ahead, on tie break, of Bodhana Sivanandan, this year's triple World Under 8 Girl's Champion (Classical, Rapid and Blitz - with a score of 33/33 in the 3 events!) We can't claim Elis as a KCC player, unfortunately, but she did attend several pre-pandemic club nights at The Gauntlet with dad Dennis and big sister Imogen, and Paul has been a major influence on her rapid development into a very strong player. Well done, Elis!
Elis receives the UK Women's Blitz Trophy from ECF Director of Home Chess, Nigel Towers
I am pleased to follow up Mark's report with the second installment of this hopefully many part series, coming just 14 days after the first (which I would argue is much more impressive than Mark's second installment of his "Railway Station Named After a Grandmaster!" series, seeing as that took over 4 years).
Tonight's victims were the fine people of Olton. They decided to field 2 players named Reynolds on the bottom 2 boards, all but guaranteeing 2 draws would occur, and so it duly proved. Harry was the first to finish, in a game somewhat lacking in sparkling excitement. The Robert variety of Reynolds played an early b3 setup, Harry easily equalised, and then nothing much happened until a draw was agreed. Mike's game was at least a little more interesting, as he had the decency to sacrifice/blunder a pawn at some point on the white side of a Queen's gambit accepted, but appeared to end up with almost exactly 1 pawn's worth of compensation, so once again a draw was agreed relatively early.
That left Andy and myself to decide the match. I had (unusually for me) a relatively successful opening as black, and was soon a little better against Mark Cundy in a Caro-Kann. By move 40 we had reached the following R+4 against R+3 endgame.
Now, unlike R+3 versus R+2, some 4v3 endgames actually give the stronger side winning chances. Unfortunately, I don't think this is one of them, and I compounded the issue by quickly bungling into a position where the only way I could even try and make progress was to swap a pair of pawns off into said 3v2 endgame. However, since Andy was better but not yet winning against Alan Lloyd at this point, I thought I might as well play on.
Fortunately, my appalling technique was not to prove an issue in the end, as Andy did indeed bring home the match for us, defeating Alan in very much his own style. Andy played 1.g3 and then a very slow setup against the KID. He then proceeded to very slowly advance his kingside pawns against Alan's king which, combined with some seemingly well calculated tactics, eventually won material and left him with 2 unstoppable connected past pawns. Seemed like a well played game as far as I could tell (not that anyone should trust my analysis of these things).
At this point I really should have offered a draw to win the match, but basically by the process of inertia I continued to limp on for a few more moves. Eventually, after 114 moves and with the last pawns about to be swapped off a draw was finally agreed, with I'm pretty certain no progress at all ever having been made from the position at move 40 above.
However, with Andy's victory, a 2.5-1.5 win was achieved, and we are once again (temporarily) on top of the table.
Its been 6 weeks since the last A team match, during which time those of guilty for causing the loss against Banbury A (ie me) have had to watch while other teams - most noticeably that nice group of people collectively referred to as Kenilworth B, have been accumulating points and challenging our lead at the top of Division 1. So last night's home encounter with Shirley B was a long overdue chance for the A team to return to the top of the table, especially as we were playing the bottom team.
After our long hibernation, I expected us to come out the blocks on the B of the Bang - like Usain Bolt on a good day.
I was disappointed. It was more like this.
And surprise, surprise, it was our superstar Jude who was slowest away and who then got blown off the board by Jonathan Dale's h pawn advance and exchange sac. For a demonstration of how to respond to this tactic I would refer Mr Shearsby to the recent game Dale-Pink, where this tactic was effortlessly - correction, I mean chaotically - refuted. But Jude was by no means alone in his suffering, as I also went totally wrong in the opening and lost a pawn, with a terrible position to boot, against Keith Ingram. Fortunately, though, Keith neglected to push a pawn to d6 which would have virtually blown me off the board, and after grabbing that very pawn a move later I hung on and eventually jumped out to win with my own passed d pawn. Though not before missing a two move forced promotion of this pawn and prolonging the game many moves more than needed.
Thankfully, the Kenilworth players in charge of the White pieces were altogether more convincing. Javi took on Dave Thomas's favourite Open Spanish, and after what I suspect was lots of theory eventually complicated the game sufficiently that Dave blundered a piece. Bruce was also in piece-winning mode against Nigel Foster, trapping a Black knight on h5. I don't know about surprise, fear or an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope, but such ruthless efficiency was sadly well beyond both Jude and myself last night.
So 3-1 to us eventually, but a real let off as it could so easily have been 2-2. So for now, we are safely back at the top of Division 1, though we may only be there for 24 hours as our B team are in action tonight, and could have vaulted back to first place by the time you read this!
After such a plethora of videos I'm loth to add my usual musical contribution ......... but, what the hell?! Of course there's going to be a song. It wouldn't be a proper match report without one. So how about another stirring anthem from Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul? Music like this demands to be played! Often and loud!!
It was a very long time ago (July 30.2019 to be specific) that the first - indeed only - contribution to the KCC Blog on this topic occurred. For those whose memory isn't what it used to be, here is the station that prompted the initial post.
Named after not 1, but 2, GMs Torre can be found just outside Torquay
Well, its been a long wait, but today has just produced contribution number 2, in what can now be called a series.
Some people might say I'm cheating, but everyone in the chess world knows who Gata is, so no surname is needed!
Gata is a small town somewhere slightly inland between Calp and Denia, south of Javier's old home city of Valencia. But don't take my word for it. Here's a map!
Wikipedia tells me that it has an "unusually large number of bars and restaurants per capita." Sounds like my kind of town! And, spookily, that it is known for its wicker industry - doubtless connected to Kevin of that name, once a well known openings' analyst. Who I drew with, from a position of strength, in the London League in 1988. Everything's connected in this wonderful chess world of ours!
Matches against underdog opponents can be tricky affairs. Particularly in the Coventry League KO, where a handicap system provides a further challenge. Last night we played Coventry B, needing to win at least 3-1 to go through. Despite having a significant rating advantage on every board, there was no room for complacency. All it takes is a mistake here, or a position fading to a forced draw there, and the pressure can really begin to tell. Mark had left strict instructions that we would all need to play to win, and in the end we got over the line with something to spare.
I finished first against Margarita Nasibova. Having offered a chance for early simplification, Margarita spurned this, electing to try to keep the queens on. However, this allowed me to pick up a pawn, and a second soon followed. It was just one of those positions that more or less played itself, and for once I managed to win without any drama.
Keatan was next to bring home the full point. I really enjoyed watching his game against Mike Johnson. Keatan played with a lot of energy, pushing Mike onto the defensive and having tied him down, picked up the spoils elsewhere on the board. A nice effort that made it 2-0.
At which point I was pretty confident we were going to win 4-0. All credit to Bava Manickam for giving Javier a good game on Board 1 (something I know from my own experience is not easy to do!) But Javier's class told, as his rooks ultimately exerted a tight grip on the second rank. In conjunction with a monster passed pawn, it was just too much to defend against. So 3-0 and the match was won.
Mike's game against Kate Donegan was very interesting. Mike built up really good kingside initiative, and seemed to me to be smoothly going through the gears. However, all credit to Kate for her determined defence. Somehow an opposite bishop ending eventually ensued, in which Mike was a pawn up but struggling to find a way through. With both players low on time, it seemed that Mike had found an excellent queenside break, but post game analysis showed that while he had the better practical chances, with best play it was indeed a draw. Something the players agreed to in the dying embers of the night. All credit to Kate, and of course Mike had been one of the heroes the previous evening for the B team. It just goes to show how little margin there is in these matches.
So 3.5 - 0.5! The banana skin had been avoided, and we march on in our quest for silverware!
I think the headline says it all really. It might be mainly
because we’ve played more games than other teams, but the point still stands that
the “Bad” Kenilworth team are currently sitting on top of the table (I’m open
to suggestions for a better nickname for Kenilworth B, as I’m not sure that is
the best).
It was all looking a bit ropey at many points during our
match against Stratford however. The first game to finish was Andrew P, who
seemed to have rather a tough time against Ben Larkin on board 1. It was some
version of the silly Ng5 line in the two knight’s defence, so white wins a pawn
but loses loads of time getting his pieces chased around. Unfortunately, whilst
Andy was gaining time on the board, he was losing it on the clock, so whilst I
still think he probably had compensation, his being 30 minutes behind was slightly
concerning. Trying to make something of the compensation in time trouble proved
impossible, and therefore we were 1-0 down.
The less spotted Andy Baruch soon levelled the score. The opening
was so earth shatteringly dull I can’t bring myself to describe it, but against
Richard McNally that can only be regarded as a success. Andy looked to be slowly
outplaying him, until he found a clever tactic that involved letting Richard take
a piece with check on Andy’s back rank, but with the tactic somehow resulting in
Andy being a piece up. The conversion took somewhat longer than was optimal
(for reasons that will make sense in two paragraphs time) but nonetheless we
were level.
Mike had a comparatively smooth win, with perhaps one
exception. Playing white against a stonewall Dutch, I expect Mike was delighted
when his opponent played Rf6, then Rh6, then Nf6, and trapped his own rook. I’m
not convinced Mike took the exchange in the cleanest way possible, but
nonetheless he was the exchange up, and remined the exchange up until he
converted it into a winning king and pawn endgame. Now we just needed a draw
for victory – how could I mess this up.
The answer as to how was that I had already turned down a
draw offer, as I hadn’t been convinced Andy was going to win his game (why I
had more faith in myself than him is a mystery, given my current level of
play). It was all going so well – playing as black, I won the exchange and a pawn against Sam
Cotterill, and had a large lead on the clock. Then I totally messed it up into
a level position, then declined a draw, then horribly blundered into a position
where Sam had two pieces and an extra pawn against a solitary rook. I don’t
know how easy the position below is to convert, but I feel like it should be
possible. However, the pressure of trying to win for the team proved too much,
and in the end Sam not only failed to do so, but blundered away both his kingside
pawns, to somehow end up losing.
I therefore technically ended up winning the match for the
team, but in such a way as to lower even further the already very low quality
of my play for the season. Still, top of the league in such a situation – how bad
must the other teams be?
The C and the E team (CE - geddit?) were both in action at Banbury last night. While Banbury had four matches on, as per usual the person with the key to the venue was amongst the last to arrive. Still, at least this allowed us all to catch up with each other in the somewhat bracing air, and then in the venue while the pieces were being set up. Who needs the Pump Rooms!
As per usual we started at around 7.45. I did not see a huge amount of the E team match, but the juggernaut continues. Solomon, Patrick and Steph all won well to maintain their personal 100% records in the league this year, as the team sweeps all before them. That's now four wins from four, with a whopping 11.5 individual game points won and only a single half a point dropped. Go team!
I wish I could report on a similarly successful night for the C team, but it was not to be. Perhaps any outfit which is relying on me to bring a dash of youth to the proceedings is going to struggle! In all seriousness we never looked like replicating the D team's success against these opponents a couple of weeks ago. Forty-five minutes in, I thought Mike's game against Paul Roper and Paul's encounter with Mal Waddell both looked pretty flat and drawish. I told myself that the beauty of league chess is that it is so unpredictable and you never know what is going to happen. Except this turned out to be wrong. Both games ended in draws.
My own tussle with Nick Martin was marginally more interesting, but only marginally. We reached a late middlegame that was reasonably poised when Nick offered a draw. I couldn't face the prospect of potentially turning down two draws in a week and losing both, so I took it. When we analysed the position afterwards it soon became clear that this was the right decision.
Unfortunately, the decisive game was Bernard Rogers' battle with Francesco Poderico which looked very difficult from the outset. Francesco secured excellent looking central passed pawns and space to attack. I thought Bernard did brilliantly in making a real fight of it, finally succumbing to the pressure with just seconds left on his clock. An heroic attempt to hold the game, but just not quite enough.
By my reckoning that's Banbury's first win in four recent games against the C, D and cup team at their place. Still, maybe now they'll be keener to open their doors on time, and let the next visiting Kenilworth team in!
For the second time in a month, I played in a Kenilworth team that drew 2-2 with Olton B, as the D team secured a well-earned point last night. This was all thanks to superb efforts from Keatan and Dhairya!
An hour in, Keatan and Phil were both in endgames, while my game and Dhairya's were both barely out of the opening, but ultimately it would prove to be a long evening on all four boards.
I thought Phil was holding Andy Cottam. Even when Andy picked up a pawn, his remaining structure did not look too hot, and I was still hopeful. Despite Phil's best efforts, Andy then played really clinically to bring home the point and to put the visitors 1-0. (Big shout out to Phil though for his fine win against Leamington last week.)
Dhairya then struck the first blow for youth, by finishing next against Warren Archibald on Board 4. I really admired Dhairya's patience, and the way in which he slowly but surely built up an overwhelming position, which he then executed very nicely. An excellent effort to level the score.
Yet the player of the night award must go to Keatan. He turned down a draw in an ending that looked very level, despite being short on time. He then played brilliantly to tie Rob Reynolds in absolute knots, bringing home the full point. This was Keatan's best performance of the season and shows what an asset he is on top board! Exceptional stuff! It was just as well really...
On Board two I was up against Richard Liszweski, who I don't have a very good record against. My previous 7 days had already consisted of (1) Missing a forced win and having to settle for a draw against a much lower rated opponent in the Coventry League (2) Turning out for Shirley in the Birmingham League and going from lost to won, before turning down a draw and losing. So it's fair to say I was not in the best of spirits. As we all know, when you are down, the chess gods generally do not smile on you, and so it proved. We had a very tough game, which swung a bit, but I just seemed to go wrong in the late middlegame. I battled till 10.30, but in some ways the fact that Richard did not close the proceedings out cleanly almost made it more excruciating. Ultimately Richard found a way through to level things up at 2-2. Laughing at the swings and arrows of fate might be a bit much, but I'm doing my best to muster a weak smile!
Still a very good result for the team and that's the main thing! Hats off to Keatan and Dhairya. They say that youth is wasted on the young. That is definitely not the case when it comes to Kenilworth D!
At least it was on Boards 3 and 4 of our Coventry League encounter with Rugby A on Tuesday, where neither Ben nor I had any reason to be happy about scoring half a point each against Martin Wilson and Dave Riley respectively. I'm fairly sure we were both winning at one stage, but I strongly suspect we were then both losing not long afterwards. So while relief was the order of the day, happiness was definitely nowhere to be seen. How could you be happy after playing like we did??
Thankfully, there were two rather more praiseworthy efforts going on higher up the board order, as Javi and Bruce each scored a full point, to see us comfortably home in the end with a 3-1 victory. Javi despatched Simon Turner on top board after trapping the White queen. Simon could only get two Black minor pieces in return, and the win for Javi followed soon after. Bruce had an exciting game against Tom Burgess on Board 2. He seemed to be well on top, and although things got a bit messy he picked up two knights for a rook. Black got some play with one of his rooks, but in trying to activate the other one he walked into a very decisive knight fork.
Anyone thinking this week's musical number might be Ken Dodd singing "Happiness" is going to be sadly disappointed. Believe it or not, I do still have some standards! I think this is much more acceptable.
When it's a Leamington League Cup match, of course. As then we need a tie break to see who has actually won. And, as I'm sure you are familiar with, Rule 22 says "In Team Knock-Out Cups, if the matches are drawn the result shall be decided by board elimination." For which we have very good reason to be thankful, as it enabled us to scrape over the line against Olton in our first round Open KO Cup match this week. It really shouldn't have been necessary, since we had a clear rating advantage on every board, and at various stages of the evening it looked like it was going to finish about 4-1 to us. But there's many a slip twixt cup and lip!
We had a very strong team out, but the expected flow of points just didn't happen. Javi was the first to finish, on Board 2 against Mark Cundy, but after a lot of opening theory had been put on the board, it turned out White had precisely no advantage, and when it came down to opposite bishops and hardly any pawns on the board, a draw was inevitable. Quite a bit later Jude followed suit, but after a very much more exciting game against Alan Lloyd on top board. Jude won (or Alan sacked) a pawn and sometime later Alan sacked a piece. I gave up looking at the position as it was too difficult for my brain, but - possibly the least likely outcome after all these complications - it ended as a draw. So Olton had done a good job of neutralising us on the top two boards, but there was nothing to worry about, as we had a 2-300 point rating edge on the other three, so the match was surely a foregone conclusion, right? Wrong!
But it all happened in a bit of a haze as far as I was concerned, since I was far too occupied with my own game against Richard Reynolds on Board 3 to see what happened on the other two boards. All of a sudden, though, I looked around the room and discovered mine was the only game still in progress. What had happened? Well, first Joshua had contrived to lose on Board 5 against Richard Liszewski, having seemingly been virtually winning from a very early stage of the game. Super-spectator Paul Lam subsequently rattled off a few lines which would have been a big improvement on Joshua's play - and I have such confidence in Paul's analysis that I christened him LamFish - KCC's human answer to StockFish! This could have been a total disaster, but for the fact that Bruce rose to the occasion and struck back with a win against Rob Reynolds on Board 4. I last noticed this game sometime after 22.00, when it had been in progress for over two and a half hours - and just a single pawn exchange had occurred. I thought Bruce might be better, but with30 pieces/pawns on the board who can tell what's going to happen? Thankfully what happened was that Bruce sacked a piece for two pawns and a massive pawn roller supported by a strong bishop pair. He was winning, but then he messed it up, only for Rob to return the favour and Bruce was able to bring home the full point which we - ultimately - seriously needed.
So now I knew that I only needed a draw to win the match for us on tie break. I had been better for the whole game and as we descended into mutual time trouble my advantage got bigger and bigger. But I missed an elementary winning line and both players were floundering around in a bit of a daze when news of the other games was finally conveyed to me. I immediately set about swapping off as many pieces as possible to avoid any major accidents, and eventually we came down to a rook and pawn ending - and Richard immediately blundered a pawn away to give me another winning position. But - quite in character - I eschewed this latest opportunity and simplified further, when a little thought would have enabled me to win a second pawn, as Javi pointed out to me as soon as I had agreed the draw (still a pawn up and still with a possible winning plan that I could have tried, risk-free). But I had had enough! Another massive disappointment for me, though, having failed to win from a queen for 2 minor pieces advantage against Richard just a couple of months ago in the Phil Holt Memorial Team Tournament. I dare not look to see how many rating points those two games have cost me!
Well, a happy ending, of sorts, but without Bruce's win on Board 4 we would have been sunk. All credit to Olton for a massive team effort, which just came up short. And all credit to the Leamington League for their inspired adoption of Rule 22. Jimi Hendrix once sang that "If 6 turned out to be 9, I don't mind", but you'll notice Jimi very pointedly did not say anything about numbers 4 and 5. As it transpired in this match, I would definitely have minded if 4 had turned out to be 5!
Last year we entered the U8750 Cup as the defending champions, only to fall at the very first hurdle. Returning to Banbury, a week on from our triumph in the League, we made it through to the next round but it was a tougher evening than the final score suggested. It is fair to say that on a rainswept night, there was more than a storm or two raging at the board...
All the early action was on Board 4. Banbury's Chris Evans looked very keen to avenge his loss against Katya in last week's League game, and launched a brutal assault on Bernard Roger's kingside, straight out of the gate. Chris threw his pieces forward with the force of a hurricane, leaving Bernard desperately trying to batten down the hatches. Bernard put up a good fight, but for the second week in a row Chris was the first to finish. Unfortunately, this time he had put Banbury 1-0 up.
My view from Board 3 was certainly not the best at this stage of the proceedings. Keaton's position against Nathan Manley on Board 2 was also pretty dreadful. He was down material and I feared we were on the brink of going 2-0 down. But as they say, it's often darkest just before the dawn, and if the sun did not exactly start to shine, this is when everything started to change.
Firstly Solomon who was making a welcome appearance on Board 5, steadied our nerves a bit by bringing home the full point against Richard Meakins. I didn't see a huge amount of this one, but Solomon always looked very comfortable to me, and while credit is due to Richard for a good effort against a stronger opponent, Solomon had got the job done with something to spare. So 1-1.
On Board 3, I was up against Mal Waddall for the second week in a row, with the same colours. I switched openings from my improvised efforts last week which had secured a great position and ultimately the win, and went for something more tried and tested. Predictably, I got a lot less from it and soon we were in a very tight game, which always looked destined to go to the wire, as it ultimately did.
Meanwhile, our debutant Paul Badger was giving Paul Rowan the run around on Board 1, with a terrific looking kingside attack, albeit Paul Rowan was defending doggedly. So my guess as to the final match score at this stage was that we would likely draw 2.5-2.5, with us going through on board count (so no margin), but then lightning struck!
Nathan had been drifting into time trouble, and while he still had much the better position, it was clear that the strength of Keaton's resistance was beginning to tell. Nathan had four minutes left to Keaton's forty-four, and just seemed to be losing the thread, when astonishingly he dropped his queen to a knight fork and immediately resigned. I doubt Keaton will see this as having been one of his better games, but he showed real strength of character. It was clear that his practical match play and never say die attitude had won us the point.
As a captain, I was delighted that we were now 2-1 up and that thanks to Paul, we were also clearly winning on Board 1. However, as a player, I now had to resist Mal. He had clearly realised that he was going to have to win our game to give Banbury any chance. Just as earlier in the week against Coventry, I found myself in a minor pieces endgame, but this one was a lot more active. At one point I thought I was better, at another Mal managed to get his knight onto a killer square and I clearly wasn't. Somehow I brought things back to equality, and reached a moment where I might have actually been ahead again. (While we both thought so at the time, subsequent analysis showed that it was not clear cut.) Mal had 4 minutes left, I had 20 seconds and happily took the draw he offered. So 2.5-1.5.
But we weren't quite done. Paul Badger needed at least a draw. Up the exchange and with a lot of play, it seemed like he was very close, but Paul Rowan is a real fighter. As the clocks ticked down, Paul Rowan generated some counterplay with a passed pawn that reached the second rank. At all times Paul Badger was better, but playing on embers it was easy to envisage a mistake being made. Paul Rowan eschewed a perpetual check that would have cost Banbury the match, but the reality was that he did not have anything better and Paul Badger did not give him another chance to split the point - forcing resignation in the final seconds. An amazing debut performance!
So, a tense and stormy night. I didn't feel the same euphoria as last week, when driving home on soaking wet roads. More a sense of relief that we'd got the job done. Now we can plan for the next round. With the squad we've got, we're certainly going to give reclaiming the Cup a good go!
In June 1919, a German Captain (alright, he was an Admiral actually, but let's not get bogged down by details) gave the order to scuttle the entire German fleet that had been detained in Scapa Flow since the end of WW1. In October 2023, a Kenilworth Captain, rather less deliberately, sank his own team and brought the club's unbeaten record for the season to a shuddering end.
Yes, by losing to Georgs Vikanis - with White - in just 24 moves, I more or less instantly condemned Kenilworth A to defeat against Banbury A. Woe is me. Especially as I subsequently discovered, thanks to our good friends Mr Stockfish and Mr Fritz, that just when I essentially self destructed, I had a very strong continuation that would have left me at least equal, and probably better. Unfortunately, chess is a difficult game and this encounter had been on a knife edge ever since I grabbed a pawn at the expense of allowing a Black knight to get to e3. With Black's queen's bishop and rook seemingly incarcerated on their starting squares I couldn't see how the remainder of the Black pieces could do me significant damage. And I was almost right, even though the whole game was extremely difficult and tense and I was clearly having to fight hard to contain the very dangerous Black initiative. In the end it was all too much for me, and Georgs finished brilliantly, after what had been a terrific game by him.
This debacle was soon followed by a draw on Board 3, where Bruce and Danut Joian repeated moves in a position where Bruce was a pawn down and left with little choice but to gratefully take the chance to get half a point. Things hadn't looked entirely convincing for us on Board 4, either, where Andrew was taking on Gary Jackson's Dragon in some mainline theory. I missed almost the entire game but despite some apparently dodgy moments, Andrew eventually came through to win and tie the match score.
But ....... Banbury had come with a very strong side - and had somehow coaxed IM James Jackson to the board for the first time in more than 3 years. He was doubtless expecting to face Jude on Board 1, but our man had succumbed to covid and it was very fortunate for us that Javier was available as a late substitute to at least ensure we had someone who could put up a serious fight. And he played an excellent game and looked to be at least equal for the entire evening, until, after having to play on the increment for about 30 moves in a double rook, then single rook, ending, he made a fatal mistake and allowed the White king to make a decisive entry into his position at around move 80. A great shame after playing a very strong game.
And so the Captain had indeed scuttled his own team and cost it the match. Sigh. But at least it provided an excuse to give everyone a history lesson!
With some prescience, though, the Captain had already rested himself from the team for the following night's Coventry League encounter with Coventry A. When you are fighting on so many fronts, you need a bit of squad rotation to keep things fresh, as Pep, Jurgen and I have all discovered. And happily, it turned out to be an inspired decision, because we were able to secure a 3-1 win, which temporarily puts us top of the league, thanks to a very strong looking Warwick Uni A having a bye this week.
Ben was first to finish, drawing very comfortably - and probably from a position of slight advantage - against Ed Goodwin on Board 4. As it could well have taken 50 moves to make any progress at all in the triple minor piece ending, though, there was plenty of scope for things to go wrong, and a draw looked like a sensible decision from a match perspective. Because Bruce had been winning against Joshua Pink (opposition players must be named in full - we can't get over familiar with these people, after all!) straight out of the opening. After first going a pawn up, he converted that to an exchange, and while his technique may not have been Capablanca-like in its precision, it was good enough to eventually bring home the full point.
And this was followed moments later by another full point from Mike, against Jonathan Fowler - even though this had seemed highly unlikely for much of an eventful evening. To begin with, it looked like the Curse of Donnelly had struck again, as Jonathan was nowhere to be seen. Eventually he arrived - at 19.59, 1 minute before default time. Talk about cutting things fine! This must have discombobulated Mike, as within a few moves his position looked like a car wreck - white pawns had got to d5 and e6 and while these were cleared away a White knight jumped into e6. For reasons that were too deep for me, Mike decided to give up an exchange and play on rook for knight down. But while my back was turned - alright, I was watching the England - Italy match on TV (though I managed to miss two of the goals by foolishly going off to watch the chess) - Mike got his exchange back, and established a totally drawn position. But Jonathan declined Mike's draw offer and kept playing - only to somehow blunder a piece and give the game away. Which meant the match was ours!
I was expecting another full point on Board 1, where Javier had been slowly outplaying Francis Sagyaman with the Black pieces. But despite whizzing through the opening at the speed of light, he still managed to get himself into some serious time trouble while searching for a way to make his advantage count. He won a pawn, but Francis found an excellent response which unleashed his queen to harry the Black minor pieces, while also threatening perpetual checks against the Black king. Which is what happened, and so for the second night running the clock had cost Javi half a point. I think he is definitely spending too much time in Paul's company - how else to explain this time trouble addiction?!
At least the Coventry League team lifted my sinking spirits (another Scapa Flow reference!) a bit, but what I could really do with after Monday night's cold bath (yet another water-based remark! How do I do it?) is a good friend to put an arm around my shoulder and cheer me up. Someone like Clarence Clemons, for instance!
Well, so said the football commentator Alan Hansen, as he opined sceptically on Manchester United's young, new look team. A group which happened to contain the then relatively unknown Gary and Phil Neville, Paul Scholes, and some bloke called David Beckham. Fortunately, at Kenilworth, we've always been a much better judge of youthful talent than many a football pundit! Katya and Keatan both fully justified their positions on the top two boards, in what turned out to be a fantastic victory last night, against a very strong Banbury B.
The evening started a little more eventfully than I would have liked, with some debate as to where Banbury were actually playing their home matches this season. A few phone calls later, it was clear that it is indeed the Hanwell Fields Community Centre, but it transpired there was no great rush. As is probably written into the Banbury constitution, the person with the key to the centre did not turn up until 7.30, and we did not get underway until about 7.45.
When we did start, I spent most of the first 30 minutes watching Katya playing blitz against the equally quick-moving Chris Evans. A very interesting opening and middle game quickly came and went, and then things slowed down half a notch, in a pawn and same coloured bishop ending. Katya had an outside passed pawn and her exceptional technique was plain to see. Chris was left desperately trying to ward off multiple pawns with a bishop that could defend some but not all of the key squares. It was then just a matter of time (and actually not very much time.) Katya had put us 1-0 up well before 9.00! A fantastic achievement. Chris is a very good player, but Katya made it look easy, bringing home the full point on Board 2.
I was on Board 3 against Mal Waddall. We've had many interesting games over the years, but I ranked my defeat against him in a League game last season as one of my most painful, as he just squeezed me out in an endgame that I really should have held. I was determined to redeem myself! I switched to 1.d4 on the spur of the moment and felt pretty comfortable out of the opening. I found a nice tactic, and picked up a pawn. We ended up in an ending of queen, bishop and five (me), versus queen, knight and four (Mal). I tried to force the queens off, but when Mal attempted to avoid the exchange I found another tactic, which was set to pick up a second pawn. The game was lost for Mal at this point, but he blundered and then resigned. So 2-0!
Then the real agony started. Keatan was playing very well on Board 1 against Paul Rowan, but it was extremely hard to judge who was winning. Meanwhile, Phil was up against it on Board 4. Nick Martin had established a Steinitz knight on e6. The stuff of chess player's nightmares the world over. Yet Phil was doggedly trying to shift it, and had the potential to open the Kingside and turn the tables if he could. I paced a lot. I had a nice chat with Nash, telling him with utter confidence that it was going to be a late night... On returning to the playing hall, Keatan's game was over, and a draw had been agreed!
Paul told me that he thought he was winning, but the more he thought about it, the more it seemed that Keatan might be better. Keatan was a touch disappointed as he felt the same. It certainly did not look clear cut to me, and while Keatan's will to win shows an excellent attitude, taking the draw was exactly what the team needed to secure a brilliant victory! So all credit to him.
Sadly, Phil lost the battle with Nick's knight shortly afterwards. A tough game, and it's only a matter of time until results start going Phil's way again. Most importantly, we'd got the job done and had beaten one of the strongest teams in the Division.
I said at the start of the season that I was really excited as to what the D team could achieve this season. With Dhairya (who was unavailable last night, but had an excellent win in our narrow defeat against the C team) also in our squad, we've absolutely got youth on our side.
And for older hands like me, who have experienced far too many painful nights for both teams and individually, this was one of those that made it all feel worth it! I drove home feeling much as I did on childhood Christmas Days!
Not exactly by popular demand, but simply because once the Coventry League starts and I'm often playing on consecutive nights, even I don't have time (or energy!) to write separate match reports. And at least this way you only have to suffer one example of my exquisite musical taste each week, so everyone's a winner. (And that's definitely not a clue to this week's song!)
So, on Monday the A team had its third match of the season, with what looked like a tough encounter away against Shirley A. Shirley hadn't had the best possible start to the season, by somehow losing to their own B team, but they fielded a pretty useful side against us and I expected a very close match. I was wrong!
Crazy things happened right from the start on Board 4, where Josh had Black against Jonathan Dale. He won a couple of pawns very quickly, and then temporarily seemed to have an extra piece as well. He gave back an exchange for a pawn, but the position was very complex, with neither king safe. I may be doing the players a mis-service, but I got the impression that after every move the advantage was possibly changing from one side to the other. Well, chess is a difficult game! Except when you get gifted a rook, which is what happened to Joshua, and it was 1-0 to us. Almost immediately it was 2-0, as Bruce, making his belated Leamington League debut for us on Board 3, was also gifted a full point when Marcus Walsh played a combo which just didn't work and cost him a piece and the game.
Meanwhile, I had survived a slight scare in the opening to get a very good position with Black against Russell James on Board 2. I missed a very strong continuation, but was still clearly better when - as soon as Bruce's game was over - I decided to offer a draw to make sure we clinched the match. Russ had little alternative but to accept, as he was also well behind on the clock. This just left Javi in play, against Phil Purcell on Board 1. Javi was applying some slight, but persistent pressure to the Black position, and eventually the tension was too much for Phil who allowed a Bxf7+ sacrifice which couldn't be taken because of mate. But declining it was not much better, and it was soon an excellent win for Javi, to round out a good evening's work by the team. Though a bit galling that I was the only one not to win, despite having the clearest winning position of everybody for quite a large part of the evening!
Fast forward 24 hours, and it was time for our annual trip to Nuneaton for the first match in our defence of the Coventry League Division 1 title. Arriving slightly later than ideal due to some rather heavy traffic, my rather frazzled mood wasn't improved on discovering that Nuneaton had their strongest possible team out, which meant we were rather up against it.
And things started to go wrong quite quickly, as Bruce played in very optimistic style against Phil Briggs on top board and his position began to unravel from quite early on. Mike drew quite quickly against Paul Davies on Board 3, which meant that our two boards with the White pieces had yielded a solitary half a point. And as things weren't exactly going our way on the two remaining boards, either, it all looked a bit bleak. But cometh the hour, cometh the Kenilworth heroes!
First Keatan, on his Coventry League debut, showed great resilience and fighting spirit to hold a draw against Tony Green, despite being down a queen for rook and minor piece. This kept - just - our heads above water, and meant that everything depended on my game with Maurice Staples. Remarkably we started with exactly the same opening line I had had against Paul Davies (who was sat right next to me last night) in an online league match during Covid - right up to Maurice playing exactly the same bad move (7 c4) which allowed me to play Nd3+ with a big advantage. Which I squandered on the very next move - with exactly the same inaccuracy as I had against Paul! We are supposed to learn from our mistakes, but seemingly that's beyond some of us. The game carried on and it was sort of level and rather tense. But I was conscious that I had to try and win for us to have any chance of saving the match. So with Maurice's clock ticking down, I decided to go for it, and sacked an exchange for two pawns. Unfortunately, White got an active rook on the seventh which might even have given him the advantage. But whether by design or oversight, he allowed me to skewer his rooks, which forced a trade to a rook and opposite bishops ending with me having a single extra pawn. I had to keep the rooks on to have any chance of winning ....... but I couldn't and it looked like a stone cold draw. Which it was until, again under great clock pressure, Maurice blundered his f2 pawn away, and suddenly I was able to create passed pawns on each side of the board, one of which was going to queen. Phew! To paraphrase Nigel Short, God is not a Nuneatonian!
Which meant that we somehow kept intact the club's unbeaten record against third parties this season - the C team having drawn against Olton B on Monday night. Now its down to the D team to keep the run going against Banbury B tomorrow. Good luck, folks! You don't want to be the first team to let the side down!
Truly, last night we escaped by the skin of our teeth - but somehow we made it out of the darkness. Cue this week's song from Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul. Nearly 40 years old, but still packing one hell of a punch. A great song, and a great performance.
A slightly belated report on recent B team exploits, with the delay in no way caused by how absolutely appalling my game in this match was.
We will start with the better parts though, which were two nice wins by Bernard and Mike. Mike's game was particularly smooth. A late arrival by his opponent left open the possibility for a while that Mike could once again not be required to play a game of chess in one of his appearances (a surprisingly common occurrence these days), but even his eventual arrival at the board didn't seme to improve his opponent's chances very much. A smooth Catalan opening as white, giving his usual opening advantage, the magnitude of which can be judged by the fact that toward the end he was choosing not to win pieces as stronger moves were available.
Bernard's victory seemed somewhat less convincing, at least to everyone other than him. Playing some Dutch looking position as black, he ended up subjected to a kingside pawn storm from Chris Evans, and had to give up the exchange for a pawn to keep things somewhat under control. From both looking during the game, and seeing the post-mortem, I am convinced Bernard was in a lot of trouble most of the way through. However, Bernard seemed to have great confidence in his position and, in a sign that confidence can triumph over objective truth, ended up putting his extra pawn to good use (specifically, the use of becoming a queen) to win the game.
At this stage we were 2-0 up, and you might think the match was looking good, but unfortunately was already pretty much nailed on to be a draw. Not much more needs to be said about my game than to look at my kingside position after around 15 moves.
For various reasons, my bishop was never going to be able to return via f1, leaving me needed to play the moves h4, g5, Bh3, Bg4, Kh2 and Kh3 to have a decent position. Very unsportingly, Nathan did not decide to allow me to play all those moves, and unceremoniously crashed through on the queenside to win the game. That makes it 1 win in my last 12 games now - sigh. Still, I did sor e6/6 to win the unrated season opening Coventry League rapid tournament, proving I can still play chess when it absolutely does not matter.
That left Andy P, also on the black side of a Dutch, and also in trouble. A decent opening had converted into a position where he was down a pawn, with another isolated pawn, less space, and unsafe king and little active prospects. He did have the bishop pair, but in such a way that his opponent's knight was able to dominate both of Andy's bishops. I'm really not sure how it went quite so downhill quite so fast, but it really was rather ugly to behold (even if not as ugly as my position above) so a 2-2 draw in the match was the result.
Not bad, not great, and ceratinly work to do for the players on boards 1 and 2.
For my sin of playing in a Kenilworth match Mark was not part of, I suppose I have to go to the effort of writing something about it myself. And what could be a more exciting tale to regale you with, than a Wednesday evening with the B team at the Blossomfield Club in Solihull.
Pride of place (though not pride of performance) for finishing first goes to Harry, whose punishment for stealing Bernard C from my team to play for his one instead earlier in the week was having to take Bernard's place in this match. I think it is fair to say his opening was not a tremendous success, with some sort of irregular King's pawn opening engine up with him fairly quickly down an exchange, and with his opponent's (a newcomer called John Raouf) queen installed behind his front line. There was brief optimism that perhaps Harry could prevent the queen returning and trap it, but whilst he achieved the first of those things he only succeeded in keeping the queen in his position to win yet more material and the game. 0-1
Things were soon evened up however thanks to Mike's victory over Ray Carpenter. A slow Catalan from Mike established the trademark nagging edge he seems to have in virtually all his white games. I was very much expecting a long and slow squeeze to occur, always on the border of victory and a draw. However, Ray then decided not to move his rook when it was attacked by a bishop, lost the exchange for no clear reason, and a slow potential victory became a fast and instant one. 1-1
Another victory followed relatively soon afterwards, with Andrew scoring a very nice win over Don Mason on top board. After having castled kingside, Andrew was forced/decided to recapture gxf3 when a black bishop took his knight, giving him excellent central control at the cost of a weak king. Ultimately, either Andrew's long-term strategic judgment or Don's poor time management left Andrew with a better endgame, that was always going to be converted against an opponent playing on a 10 second increment. 2-1
That left my game as the last to finished, in a game where I had earlier on been faced with this decision as black.
My view at the time was that taking the a2 pawn was probably the correct move, given I could see no immediate tactical issues, and I would horribly regret it if I did. Both of these predictions came true. After capturing the computer informs me I held the princely advantage of -0.1, and I spent the entire rest of the game grimly hanging on with no active plans at all. Fortunately, results elsewhere meant that I heroically agreed a draw so the team won the match/desperately clung on in a worse endgame (delete as appropriate). 2.5-1.5 to us as the final score, and we are off the mark for the season.
And the young man in question was Jude, who came, saw and conquered very quickly on Monday night, as Kenilworth A scored a 3-1 win over Olton A in our latest Division 1 fixture. Against the very solid and experienced Alan Lloyd on Board 1, Jude totally bamboozled his opponent and the game ended very quickly when Jude attacked a loose knight on a4 with Rb4. The knight couldn't be defended, but if it moved a bishop on b2 would have been unprotected. White was just losing a piece. End of game. Not surprisingly, Alan looked rather crestfallen after this accident. I bet he was wishing he'd been playing me!
Especially as I had experienced not 1 but 2 complete mental blackouts in the opening against Mark Cundy. First I couldn't remember the new line I was planning to play against his particular Sicilian variation, so I went back to a pawn sac line (yes, really - me of all people!) only to forget the rest of the line on the very next move. Oh dear. Tempus is certainly fugiting as far as my memory is concerned. The result was that I never got my pawn back, and I just had to concentrate on putting up a barrier to the Black pieces. This worked - just - but it still came as a very pleasant surprise when Mark offered me a draw.
Board 3 saw Andrew P, as black, against Richard Reynolds. The game was - let's not beat about the bush - not a riveting spectacle for the spectators (P. Lam, Esq), though I'm sure both players were totally enthralled by the slow manoeuvring that took place. Anyway, from almost nowhere, Andrew started to turn the screw and when he forced a passed a pawn, the position shifted drastically in his favour. White only had a rook to try and stop the pawn, as his other pieces were stranded on the kingside, whereas Andrew's rook, bishop and knight were all on hand to shepherd the pawn to a1.
Thinking about things, I may have been unfair to Andrew about the excitement levels of his game, because in comparison to Josh's Board 4 encounter with Rob Reynolds, it was thrill a minute stuff. Josh totally failed to generate any of the chaos on board for which he is famous, and the inevitable result was a draw. The White pieces certainly did not distinguish themselves in this match!
What shall we have as our song this week, I wonder? How about ............ this!? A whole band's worth of young men in a hurry!
Seven days on from the C v D match, this week it was the turn of the A and B teams to go head to head as both kicked off their Division 1 programmes. I find it hard to imagine that there has ever been a stronger Kenilworth B team than the one to take to the battlefield yesterday, but equally, the A team was pretty meaty too, and the spectators (Harry and, at times, our E team players Steph, Solomon and Rhys, who were simultaneously beating Stratford D 3-0 next door) were provided with a rich evening's entertainment from a full-on encounter.
When Worlds Collide! The heavyweight Kenilworth A v B match - (left-right}: Andy, Mark, Javi, Jude, Andrew, Josh, Mike, Bernard
It was well after 22.00 that the first game finished, and uncharacteristically it was my game on Board 3 against Mike. We both got our move orders wrong in the opening, but it seemed to affect Mike more and he soon had to give up an exchange for a pawn to avoid a total calamity. He was on the verge of establishing a fortress to keep one of my rooks out of the Black position, but time trouble meant it was very difficult to find the precise defence needed, and when both rooks broke through to the Black king it was mate.
Shortly afterwards, a very eventful game on Board 4 between Bernard C and Andy finished in a draw - result which seemed the least likely outcome for most of the evening! Bernard gave up his fianchettoed bishop for a knight on c6, which left Andy's pawn structure in ruins, but also Bernard's king rather devoid of defenders. But even though Andy got a very dangerous kingside attack going, that I felt was bound to win material, Bernard defended resolutely and suddenly was 2 pawns up and seemingly winning. Quite what then happened I'm not sure, but at least one of Bernard's extra pawns was very weak, and opposite bishops were also involved. A close escape for both players I reckon, so a draw must have been a fair result.
But this was to be as good as it got for the B team, as two further wins followed for the A team, but in very contrasting styles. On top board, Jude and Andrew had a real heavyweight encounter, which probably featured some rather good chess. Completely to my surprise, Andrew played something which looked distinctly like main line theory and a big battle ensued. At one point Jude had sacrificed a pawn to get a monster knight on d5 with lots of tactical threats. I missed much of the action, but later I did see that Jude had two bishops for a rook and pawn (maybe even 2?) but how he eventually won totally escaped me. But win he did, as did Javi against Joshua on Board 2, though Josh must have antagonised the chess gods something wicked to have lost this game. It looked like he was all over Javi, with the Black queen on the verge of being trapped for some time, but somehow it refused to die. Josh tells me he was more than +4 at one point, but when the great scorer in the sky came to write down the result at the end of the evening it was 1-0 to Javi. A very fortunate escape. Funny how strong players get all the luck, isn't it?
No time for either side to rest on their laurels/lick their wounds (delete as applicable), as they are both back in action next week. Its all go in the Leamington League!
Bit of a novelty for this week's music, as I'm not sure I like this song at all. But since it's titled Springsteen, it simply demands to be played anyway! And a 10 point bonus to anyone who's ever heard of Eric Church.
The new league season kicked off for KCC last night as the C and D teams met in a Division 2 encounter. I'm not sure if this is the first time ever that our C and D teams have been in the same division (probably not), but I'm pretty sure its the first time its happened since I joined the club, and it must almost certainly be the first time its ever occurred in Division 2.
On paper there really wasn't much to choose between the teams, with the C team's grading edge being compensated by the more youthful nature of the D team. (And yes, I do realise that Phil was in the D team!)
Kenilworth D v Kenilworth C - left-right, Dhairya, Phil, Ben, Keatan, Mike, Bernard, Harry, George
At least Phil won the Most Amusing T-Shirt Slogan prize!
There was a very dramatic start to the match when Dhairya trapped George's queen in very short order to give the D team a surprise early lead. George's head was already clearly in University mode - even though he's not starting for more than a week yet! - as he failed to notice that his queen on h5 was going to be trapped by Black's Bg4. And it was! A painful way for George to lose his 100% record for the club, but an excellent start to the season for Dhairya.
C team captain Harry immediately came to his side's rescue, though, downing Phil in very clinical style, and making it 2-0 to the Black pieces. If the position I later saw on the board was the actual game, then the decisive blow had been a Qb6+ move by Black, which was picking up a loose bishop on b2. Ouch!
But after this early exchange of wins, the match was very much in the balance. I stayed away, but my spies told me it was all to play for. Keatan and Mike were equalish on Board 1, but Keatan was burning the clock. On Board 2, Bernard C had sacrificed a pawn against Ben for considerable compensation in the form of very active pieces. This could go either way. But then the match situation clarified, as time pressure reared its ugly head. Keatan blundered badly against Mike in a difficult position and lost two whole pieces, which immediately decided the outcome, even though the game continued for several more moves. This put the C team 2-1 ahead, but Ben was defending heroically on the remaining board, and despite his clock running dangerously low, he was able to give back a pawn to get all the major pieces off and establish a drawn position. Unfortunately, this couldn't save the match for the underdogs, but it did mean that the C team had only won by the narrowest possible margin.
An excellent match, played in an excellent spirit with no quarter asked or given, which confirmed that both these teams are going to be very competitive in Division 2 this season - especially when thinking of those who were missing from last night's battle, such as Billy, Katya, Bernard R and Rhys to name just four!
Its another local derby next week, when the A and B teams have their by now traditional early season dust-up, and looking at the two teams intended line-ups, I'm predicting another close match, as there is very little between the two teams on paper, which reflects the number of strong players the club can currently boast. A win for the underdogs is definitely not out of the question!
The KCC army was out in force at last weekend's Warwickshire Rapid and Blitz Championships in Coventry (Alan Higgs Centre) and made sure to bring home plenty of the loot on offer! The Blitz events kicked things off on Saturday (10 KCC participants), with the Rapid Championships (8 KCC participants) on Sunday.
Pride of place for the whole weekend has to go to Javi, who claimed the Warwickshire Blitz title just ahead of Jude on tie-break. They each scored 9/14 to share 2-4th place with Thomas Sygnowski, a full 4 points behind runaway winner IM Yichen Han, who was ineligible for the county title (but not the prize money!). Trailing in far behind were myself (6pts/9th place) and Bruce (5.5 pts/10th place) in a disappointingly small field of only 11 starters.
There were 2 KCC participants in the Major section, with Joshua on the podium in clear third place with 9/14, in a field of 15 starters. His cause was aided by a totally undeserved win over Ben, from a position a full piece down with no compensation. Ben finished in a tie for 8-11th on 6.5 pts and both our chaps ended up above their starting rank.
The Intermediate section saw 4 KCC entrants, and the accent was decidedly on youth. Dhairya was the star, coming clear second with an excellent 10/14 performance (15 players). Keatan scored 7.5 for a share of 5th/6th, followed by Lionel (tied 7-10th with 7 points) and George right behind on 6.5 pts (tied 11-13th). There was no official KCC representation in the Minor section, but congratulations have to go to Dhairya's dad, Sagar, who finished 10th =, well above his start rank. Can't think why Keatan's dad, Nash, wasn't also taking part!
Sunday's rapid tournaments saw many of the same faces in action, but Javi, Jude, Ben and Lionel were missing from the Blitz contingent while only David and Rhys joined the fray anew. Overall, though, numbers were much higher for the Rapid than the Blitz.
I took advantage of some rather friendly pairings to top the KCC entrants in the Open, with 4.5/7pts (4-6th), while David played much better opposition in scoring 4pts as he finished tied 7-9th. Joshua, unable to blag his way into the Major section for the Rapids, was a further half point behind (tied 10-12th) and Bruce's disappointing weekend saw him score 3 to tie for 13-17th place. The title of Warwickshire Rapid Champion was retained by John Pitcher, while Yichen Han comfortably completed a double success on the weekend.
Keatan flew the lone flag for KCC in the Major, and finished on 50% for a share of 7-14th place, but in the Intermediate section 3 of KCC's finest went into battle and we ended with 2 people on the podium. Star performer was Rhys, who came second alone with 5.5/7 - half a point behind the shock winner who had started as the absolute bottom seed! George followed half a point behind Rhys sharing 3/4th place but having cause to regret his loss on time from a superior position against the tournament winner, which stopped a good tournament from being an exceptional one. Dhairya couldn't quite repeat his prize winning performance of the day before, but still managed a highly respectable 4 points and a share of 8-11th place.
So 6 prize winners for KCC, including a county champion. All good omens for the rapidly approaching club season ahead. All in all this was a fun event, which I would strongly recommend - though maybe give the Blitz a miss if you are over the age of about 25! It will be far too quick and you will end up losing on time. And yes, I am speaking from bitter experience.
Javi receives the stunningly impressive Warwickshire Blitz trophy from local chess supremo Alex Holowczak
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