Return of the Twofer

Two Leamington League matches within 5 days for Kenilworth A seemed like the obvious excuse to go for another two for the price of one report.

So let's wind back to last Wednesday when the A team bounced back from the shambolic defeat against Banbury A to register a 3-1 win away against Solihull A. It was by no mean plain sailing for our all conquering team, though, as Javier was completely busted for most of the evening against Don Mason on  Board 1, but somehow hung on to eventually secure a draw by perpetual check. This was the second consecutive game where he had to suffer big time on the White side of a Spanish. Ironic or what?! There was better news on Board 2, where I beat Neil Clarke on the Black side of a London System/Barry Attack, but not without an alarm or two along the way. Eventually, though, the position got too difficult for both of us and Neil made a losing mistake in a position where it was still all to play for. On one of his rare outings, Andy B drew with White against Ray Carpenter on Board 3 after a very strange opening. I thought Andy was slowly turning the screw until all of a sudden ray jumped out with 2 rooks and a knight threatening the White king, and Andy was forced to allow a repetition. Thank goodness, then, for Joshua, who always seemed to be better on Board 4 against Paul Roper and eventually broke through to win material after a sustained attack against White's long-castled king. 3-1 then, and our title quest was firmly back on track.

Last night we were at home to Shirley A, and our return to form continued, as we posted the same scoreline to send us 5 points clear of Stratford A and Olton A at the top of Division 1. Javier drew again on top board, this time with Black against Phil Purcell, but this was a much, much calmer encounter than last week's game. In fact, not much happened at all! Mike was rather stunned by Jonathan Dale's opening on Board 4 - 1 d4 e5 2 dxe5 d6!? - and was unable to create any advantage after - perhaps wisely - declining to take the gambit pawn. But KCC won the match on the middle two boards where, first, I broke through down the h file against Marcus Walsh and won two pieces and a pawn for a rook, prompting instant resignation, and then Andrew P continued his good form since returning to the team, with a tense win over Dave Thomas. The position was rather murky, as Andrew took a risk or two to unbalance matters, but eventually the mist cleared and he was a pawn up. Dave then inexplicably swapped off into a totally lost king and pawn ending, which was duly lost, to give us another 3-1 win.

We are firmly back on track in our attempt to win a third successive Division 1 title (either side of a one year pandemic break), but next have a cup semi-final to navigate against Solihull. Where we are also chasing a third successive triumph (either side of a two year pandemic break!).

And to finish, a very apposite song for our times. Politically charged lyrics and exquisite guitar from an absolute master. What's not to like?

Game of the Month/Year - February 2023

It's been a long break since the last Game of the Month (probably because no KCC member has actually played a decent game!), but we're back with an absolute wowzer, which deserves to be a Game of the Year, not just a Game of the Month.

Now, those of you who regularly peruse the chess news pages of various websites may have spotted that a rather spectacular game from the Meltwater Champions Tour Final between Super-GMs Duda and Giri was voted Game of the Year in 2022 on chess.com. It was a rather exciting encounter, that's for sure, as you can see below.

Absolutely brilliant stuff, but even though KCC operates at a slightly less exalted level than this, the odd moment of genius can still suddenly erupt from nowhere to enrich the game of chess and weave another stitch into its rich historical tapestry. And that is what happened on December 22nd, 2022 at The Ale Rooms in Kenilworth, when - on the last Thursday gathering of the year - Paul unleashed a game of such ferocity that I reckon it blew his hapless opponent (Joshua), in the words of Warren Zevon, "from there to Johannesburg". Or possibly Maidstone or Manchester. But definitely a long way from Kenilworth!

As Paul so modestly says in his comment, " A pleasing finish".  Understatement or what?!

I can only assume that the voters on chess.com had not seen this game, because if they had it would surely have given Jan Krzysztof a good run for his money in the Game of the Year poll. It's not only Super-GMs who can sacrifice a rook and a queen, you know. The KCC blog might just have to concede to chess.com as regards the number of visitors but there is nothing to chose between the two as regards  the prestige of their respective GotY awards! It's a bit like the Oscars and the BAFTAs, I reckon.

What a shame that we so seldom get a chance to see Paul produce this sort of chessboard magic in a Kenilworth team. If he can do this in a 3 mins + 2 secs Blitz game, what might he produce given a whole 80 minutes + 10 secs??

I've already telegraphed this week's song, and here it is. The story of "Norway's bravest son", who rather surprisingly turns out to be called Roland and not Magnus!

Another Sensational Debut!

It would seem I have been appointed Roy's personal website serf, as yet again I have been entrusted with the task of posting his report of the latest D team match. But never mind that, as once again I have excellent news to impart, as three KCC juniors (plus the young at heart Harry) put on another terrific show to hold Division 3 league leaders Shirley C - a very experienced team - to a 2-2 draw.

So over to Roy for a blow by blow account:-

Zac, on board three, was first in with a result. He was black, playing league veteran Frank Jiminez, with an opening I could not follow. Zac won a knight for pawn but had a terrible structure - double isolated pawns and an all over the place position. Sadly, buoyed up with youthful enthusiasm, Zac failed to consolidate and went on to lose.Next in came NINE year old Lionel. Yes NINE! As White he played on bottom board against the vastly experienced John Asbury, deploying a French to devastating effect. Noticing weaknesses in his opponents kingside Lionel was like a rat up a drainpipe in their exploitation. As John confirmed after the match, this was a case not so much of John losing but of Lionel winning!  Paul, spectating the latest league debut of one of his CCA students, was able to draw a very interesting parallel with his own junior chess experience on the CCA Facebook page.

On board two, White, in what I  was informed was a 'Fried Liver', I thought (almost certainly wrongly) that Katya was outplaying her opponent, Chris Pitt. In the end, Katya had to settle for a draw.  Finally, playing Black on top board, Harry was confronted by the King's Gambit - against Fred Dickson. Struggle, struggle, struggle. Very tight it seemed to me. I think Harry got a slight edge but not enough for more than a draw, and so the match was drawn. Vastly out experienced and significantly out graded - yet again!

Without wishing to down play the rest of the team, once again it was a VERY junior, in this case Lionel, who put in the star performance of the evening on his first outing in adult league chess. Watch this space!

I can only echo Roy's words. Coming so soon after Gregory's winning debut for KCC, Lionel's win was another landmark for the club. I will have to check the record books to see how old Jude and Billy were when they won their first games for Kenilworth. So, my work here is done ....... except that I have to choose this week's song, of course. Taking the word young as my inspiration, the obvious choice would have been Mott The Hoople's "All the Young Dudes. But I don't like it. Then I thought of "Young Hearts Run Free" by Candi Staton, but it's a bit off topic. And then it came to me. Let's take our inspiration from all these tremendous young players we have at KCC. Let's try to stay "Forever Young"!

(BTW, in another breakthrough for KCC, I believe this may well have been the first post ever written by someone with Covid. But that's KCC for you- always going the extra mile!)

Excruciating

Me at about 10.15 last night.

Me at about 10.30 last night.

Yes, it was a traumatic evening, and no mistake. We were 1.5-0.5 up on Banbury A and cruising towards an 8th consecutive Leamington League win, when everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. First Joshua had a brain fade and came up with the worst piece of calculation since the designers of the Titanic claimed their ship was unsinkable.  In a position with just a knight and h pawn each, Paul Rowan made a token final effort to win and attacked Joshua's knight, Instead of simply moving it, when he would have been 99% likely to get a chance to sacrifice it for the last White pawn, Joshua thought he could advance his king immediately to secure the same result. Wrong! The knight did indeed get taken, but he had overlooked that on the next move White had a rather obvious king move that ensured the White pawn did not fall off the board. Disaster.

But so what? Instead of 3-1 we will win 2.5-1.5, as Mike is 2 pawns and three minutes up on Nathan Manley, who is down to his last few seconds. For some reason Mike continues to write his moves down, which is always a bad sign. And then it just goes downhill. Mike goes all passive and instead of winning easily, his pawns start to drop off. By the time the queens and bishops have been removed, the two extra queenside pawns have gone, and the last survivor, a once proud warrior on c6, is destined to go the same way. In the knight ending Mike disintegrates and after Nathan fails to notice he can just take Mike's knight for nothing, there is a pawn race in which Mike is one move too late. Black is winning, but executes it incorrectly, and for one brief moment its a draw. But the moment passes, and Black wins. We have lost the match.

I am speechless. Though, in fact, I'm not and say some things that are not in keeping with my normally encouraging and collegiate style of captaincy. Apologies, chaps.  But, really .......... what were you both thinking??

So our 100% record is shot to pieces, and our apparent stroll towards the title is now far less straightforward. Time to regroup and go again.

With future generations of KCC historians in mind, I should just complete the picture by mentioning that Andrew P drew on Board 2 against Gary Jackson and I won against Danut Joian on Board 1. But, and I never thought I'd hear myself saying this, I would rather I had lost and the team won. I've become such a softy in my old age.

I think I can safely say that this was the club's worst night in the Leamington League since the infamous match away to Stratford on April 3, 2014. That ultimately ended happily, as we still won the league title by 4 points, so lets all just keep our fingers crossed that history repeats itself. At least last night we didn't have to experience a rather strained car journey together back to Kenilworth!

Instead of music, I need some soothing images this week. How about a natural wonder, in the shape of a mesmeric starling murmuration?  And for those of a Bill Oddie bent, you can often see a rather smaller murmuration above the unlikely setting of the centre of Dunchurch.

But obviously, all those Byrds have prompted me to include a song after all. Well, I'd hate to disappoint you all, pop pickers!

KCC Author's Kenilworth Book Signing - February 11th

Local children’s author and Kenilworth  Chess Club member, Ed Goodwin, has a book signing at Kenilworth Books in Talisman Square on 11th February (10:30 to 13:30) for his new children’s book, "Amazing Adventures in Time".

Ed will also have some copies of his first book "Journey to the Moon and other stories" for sale at a special price. I'm sure he'd love to see some familiar KCC faces amongst the milling throng. So if you have children or grandchildren of the right age, or fancy a bit of light-hearted amusement for yourself, why not go along to Ed's book signing and treat yourself to a copy. Or two!

Ed with his two granddaughters - the heroines of the story

Exam Time

The last two Tuesdays have seen us in Coventry League Division 1 action against Warwick University's top two teams. We definitely didn't come away from these two encounters with First Class Honours, but I guess we just about scraped a 2.2. Not all bad, though, considering we had to play both matches without Jude.

First up were Warwick Uni B, who we just about despatched by the minimum score of 2.5-1.5. In the KCC archives, this match will chiefly be remembered for the brutally successful Board 1 debut of (possibly) our first ever Spanish member, Javier Valdepenas. Within about 10 moves he was a rook up, and the game was already effectively over.  A very fast start to what I hope will be an enjoyable Kenilworth playing career. Mike doubled our lead after a strange game, where both queens ended up on very weird squares - Mike's on g2 (where it went via b3, c2, f5 and h3 - and Black's on h6. Mike annexed Black's IQP and invaded on the 8th rank for a decisive win.  So far, so straightforward, but on the two remaining boards, matters were anything but simple. 

First, Ben managed to lose. He seemed to be doing well immediately out of the opening, but then it all went pear shaped. His queen side pieces got stuck and his king started to look very lonely on the king side. When he had to play Rh8 to stop White playing Rh7 mate it was clear he wasn't hanging on much longer. Which was what I was doing on Board 2, against a ludicrously under-rated player sporting the delightful name of F.Roth. His play was anything but superficial, and after winning a pawn by seeing more than me, he engineered a very favourable queen and minor piece ending. Under clock pressure I went totally haywire and allowed a passed pawn to queen - only being able to eliminate it by giving up a piece by a massive stroke of luck. When the queens were immediately swapped off, I had four pawns against a bishop and three. It was hopelessly lost and for several moves in a row, White just had to give a check and the game would have ben over. But he didn't, and with me now ahead on the clock, and the match being played without any increment, I very luckily established a position where I could force off the last White pawn. So, a draw, you say? Well. yes ....... except that by now White had only 4 seconds on his clock, while I had a minute or so. He could not physically have eliminated both my remaining pawns in the time available, let alone queened and mated me, but .......... I really couldn't bring myself to do it, and offered a draw to win the match. Am I going soft in my old age? Doing the decent thing cost me 7 rating points, but at least I can live with myself.

This week the opposition ratcheted up a notch, as we faced the University A team, and they chose this week to turn out there strongest team of the season so far. We had the same four players back in action, but there was to be no happy result this time around. Javier was again first to finish, but not in a good way, as he was outplayed by Viktor Stoyanov in a Spanish - ironic or what?? I followed suit, losing against A. Cont after an interesting game where I was fine or better until very near the end. Even after dropping a pawn I should have held easily, but time trouble derailed me and I blundered fatally in what had already become a lost position.

Ben had a strange game on Board 4 against Tom Brown in which absolutely no pawns were exchanged. And with all the heavy pieces and two sets of minor pieces still on, the board was very crowded, and totally blocked, when a draw was agreed. Which Mike took as the signal to offer another draw to Ivan Nikolov in a very interesting position, which might have been winning for him. He was an exchange down, but had a massive passed pawn on c7 and a firmly entrenched knight on d5. Black certainly wasn't doing anything but hanging on, but any win for Mike was far from straightforward.

Bizarrely, this heavy defeat took us back to the top of the table, since Nuneaton A didn't play, and our 1 game point put us half a game point ahead of them. But we have played a game more. And University A are back in the title reckoning, too. The Uni A - Nuneaton A match on February 28th will be pivotal. We have to hope that Uni A will field an equally strong team in  that match as they did against us.

Apropos of feeling a bit sore about last night's result, I should probably throw in a bit more misery by mentioning a heavy home defeat for the C team in the Leamington League against Olton B on Monday, which leaves them rooted to the bottom of the Division 2 table. Time for an injection of youth into the team, I think!

We stay with the academic theme for this week's musical number. "Two degrees in bebop, a PhD in swing; He's a master of rhythm, he's a rock and roll king." Yes, once again, it's the brilliant Little Feat.