Ending With a Bang

This is the way the season ends - not with a whimper but a bang. (T.S Page, The Hollow Chess Men, 2023)

The league season came to an end for KCC last night, as the A team played the club's final fixture against Stratford A. We had long wrapped up the Division 1 title, and Stratford were already confirmed to finish third, so there was precisely zero resting on the outcome of the match - quite a contrast from the nail-biting tension of the D team's final match the night before. But thankfully, the team found sufficient personal motivation to ensure that we ended with a strong performance. No whimpering here!

This was actually my first visit to Stratford's latest venue at Foundation House in Masons Road - and also my last, as we were informed that the building is to be demolished!

Despite losing Jude to another dose of covid, we still had a strong team out, and it was great to be able to replace him with Billy, who was making his Division 1, and A team, debut at the age of 11 years and 6 months! I wasn't sure, but Paul has checked the details and it transpires that Billy narrowly missed taking Jude's record as the youngest ever A team player/winner. Jude was just 11 years and 5 months when he made a winning debut against Banbury in October 2021.  One record Billy certainly does hold, though, is as the youngest ever debutant and winner for any KCC team. He beat Simon Payne of Stratford in December 2018 two months after turning seven years old! (And also two months after his debut against another Stratford player, Adrian Grimes.) After the D team's exploits and the sensational performances of Jude and Billy I am suddenly feeling very old indeed.

Not at all surprisingly given his normal speed of play, Billy was the first to finish, though in fact this was a very measured and controlled effort with Black against former Kenilworth player, Richard Dobedoe. Impressive stuff, which finished with Billy's queen invading decisively to get us off to a flying start. Javi finished next after a strange game against Richard McNally on Board 1. As usual, Richard was hell bent on sacrificing something to get at his opponent's king, but it looked to me as though he had gone too far this time, by investing a whole rook. I expected Javi to shut things down and win quickly, but it didn't happen, and somehow Richard was able to force a draw.

I should have been the first to finish, as I got an overwhelming position against David Gardiner's wide open king in no time at all, but I missed several chances to win a whole piece, and ended up having only an extra pawn. Rather luckily I then won a second, and even the prospect of opposite bishops didn't seem so awful. But, in fact, two rooks each stayed on the board and from nowhere I managed (with a little help) to set up an unstoppable mate threat to clinch the match victory.

Though by this time, the result was not in doubt, as Andy had finally converted his nagging pressure into something very concrete, and was a piece up in a bishop ending - well, he had a bishop, but Sam Cotterill didn't!

After our very unconvincing effort against Leamington last week, this was a much better way to sign off after a record breaking season, in which we have won 13 out of 14 matches and finished 9 points clear of second placed Olton A. This even eclipsed our efforts of last season when we scored 18 pts from a possible 20, though in 2021-22 we went unbeaten, so that was also no mean achievement. 

Its getting harder and harder to think of relevant songs to accompany these reports, so sometimes I just have to choose a personal favourite. Like this!

 

One of the greatest songs ever. Almost makes me want to be a Londoner. Though it doesn't make me want to play the London System.

A Night to Remember

No, I'm not talking about this:-

Or this:-

What I'm talking about is Monday April 24th, when Kenilworth D team - average age about 15 - scored a dramatic, last second win over Division 3 leaders Daventry A to vault themselves into first place and secure the league title. For those who were there - and there were plenty of supporters present - it was truly a night to remember.

And talk about triumph out of adversity. First, our intended top board for the match, Harry, had to cry off at about the 9th hour, and then Katya, who moved up to board one in his place, suffered an agonising defeat against the strong and very experienced Steve Willets, after declining a draw offer. With Daventry going in to the match one point ahead of us, it meant they only needed a draw, so to go 1 point up with just three boards left in play put them very much in the driving seat. Two draws or one win would do it for Daventry, so we had almost zero margin for accidents.

But cometh the hour cometh the KCC heroes. Keatan and George were both a pawn up for much of the evening, but neither had any quick path to victory. Thankfully, Keatan ignored the move suggestion I made to Bernard, which I thought just trapped his opponent's queen, as it actually involved Keatan putting a rook en prise. Just as well I was not playing!! Unlike me, both our chaps displayed nerves of steel and played super-precise chess to simplify the positions and convert their extra material in excellently played endings, finishing almost simultaneously. So at 2-1 up, we had a chance - but it was a very remote chance, as Dhairya had fallen into a knight fork in the middle game which cost him an exchange, and while he had managed to drum up some counterplay, Andy Johnson seemed to have defended everything and be well on the way to victory, especially with Dhairya way behind on the clock. I couldn't bear to look and adjourned to the Committee Room, where the B team (average age about 75!) were slowly sinking to defeat as Olton A looked to secure a second place finish in Division 1.

But just as I screwed up the courage to return to the D team match there was an outbreak of applause and it transpired that Dhairya had managed to hold a lost ending of rook and a pawn v bishop and b pawn, when Andy could find nothing better than liquidating to king and a pawn against king. Cue bedlam and massive relief all round. What an incredible display of fighting chess from all four of our players, and what a massive credit they were to themselves and to the club. So unbelievably we find ourselves, prospectively, with two teams in Division 1 and 2 teams in Division 2 next season. We will certainly need another team to balance out such a concentration of activity in the top two divisions.

So, that's three trophies for the club this season, with two Leamington League cup finals (open and U-1600) still ahead of us. Which is more than enough to justify a celebration meal, I think. Mr Social Secretary you are hereby placed on notice!

Massive congratulations are due to Roy for his inspirational, selfless and enthusiastic captaincy and also, of course, to Paul for his brilliant coaching and support of so many of our exceptional junior talents. 

This success, coming as it did in virtually the last minute of the whole season, when all seemed lost, did kind of remind me of another rather exciting moment that you might recall .....

....... which also went down to the wire!

We Are Family

Those sports nerds amongst you might remember the end of the 1985 Division 1 relegation battle. (For clarification, we are talking football here, not the Leamington & District Chess League! And yes, it was called Division 1 in those pre-Premiership days.) Coventry City had to win their last three matches to stay up and relegate Norwich in their place. With 2 wins achieved over Stoke and Luton, it all came down to a Sunday morning showdown against already-crowned champions Everton - unimaginable now, I know! Well, it was strongly rumoured that the Everton players had been celebrating their title rather vigourously, and come the final match they didn't quite perform as champions should.

The parallels with the Leamington A v Kenilworth A match last night were striking We went into the match 7 points clear at the top of the table, and with the title long since wrapped up. But Leamington were fighting for their lives at the foot of the table, and had picked up three points from their previous two matches against Stratford and Shirley which now put them just one point behind the 7th placed team ......... Who just happened to be our B team. So there was an added twist, as a Kenilworth A win would definitely save Kenilworth B, while a draw or - God forbid - a win for Leamington would see them overtake us ahead of the B team's tough last match against Olton A.

But what could go wrong for the B team? The A team had won 11 of its 12 matches, scoring at least 3 points in all those victories, and in the pre-Christmas meeting between the two teams had despatched Leamington A 4-0. Moreover, we had a strong team deployed for the occasion, and as far as I know there had been no riotous and prolonged celebrations of our title triumph, so it looked like a formality for the A team to get the required win. I imagine you're already guessing by now that things didn't necessarily go to script. Correct!

To relieve any anxieties, though, I will say straightaway that we did indeed win the match, albeit by an unconvincing 2.5-1.5 scoreline. But behind that there was a lot of drama. It was a good job that Ben was not in attendance to monitor the B team's survival prospects, as the tension would probably have got too much for him at times.

Things looked more or less OK to begin with. On Board 1, Javi had kept his extra pawn against Tom Darling's inevitable Elephant Gambit, but Josh had a ropey position against Ola Olaleye on Board 4. Andrew was equal against Ben Egid's Stonewall Dutch on Board 3, while on 2 I had a very double edged game against a new Leamington player, Mohammed Ben-Rashed.

Then the inevitable happened, and the games got too difficult for the players. Josh found a cheapo and Ola rather unnecessarily gave up an exchange, hoping his passed queenside pawns would compensate. Maybe they should have, but in practice they didn't and Josh crashed through with his rooks. so 1-0 to us. And I had played rather well, though I say so myself, and reached a completely won position. All under control.

No!!

Time trouble got to me and I missed a number of winning moves and finally had to accept a draw, and things had gone decidedly pear shaped on the other two boards as well! Josh assures me that Andrew was lost at some point in a double rook and bishop ending, and then compounded the situation by turning down a draw offer. (BTW, I seem to recall that Andrew's opponent once turned down a draw offer from the late Phil Holt in a Leamington-Olton match and went on to lose. If he had accepted, Kenilworth would have won another Division 1 title!) But a draw was then reoffered by Andrew soon afterwards and thankfully accepted. But things had also gone horribly wrong on top board and after being temporarily two pawns up, Javi somehow then lost 4 pawns to end up 2 pawns down in a rook ending. Happily, though, Black's extra pawns were f and h, and Javi's technique was up to securing a relatively easy draw to clinch the match. So thank goodness for Josh, as I would have been mortified if my inability to win from +6 had cost the B team their Division 1 place.

Incidentally, this is the second time I can remember winning our final game to relegate Leamington. The previous occasion was in 2014, when once again we had already won the Division 1 title. By winning this game, we relegated Leamington and saved Banbury B - who repaid us one year later by defaulting against Olton A to help them on the way to the title at our expense. (My memory may be going, but I still have total recall of all those who have done the dirty on us in the past!)

Some people come and go, but there are others you can never get rid of! Page, Pink and Wood all still going (strong?) 

Commiserations, then, to Leamington who had a more than decent team last night and may feel slightly hard done by, but with our B team likely to be pretty strong next season, there's no way it should be playing in Division 2.

And its also worth mentioning that on the same night, our D team were in Division 3 action against Stratford B and chalked up another win (2.5-1.5) to put themselves top of the table and set up a promotion/title decider against Daventry A next week. I hardly need to say that it was our juniors who were the heroes again - Keatan and George both winning - and the slightly more senior Patrick adding the extra half a point.

The A team did the B team a favour and the D team won, so only the C team was left out of last night's display of club unity and togetherness. But we love them, too! Cue this week's song.

Another Cup Final for KCC!

Once again we are indebted to our roving reporter/non-playing captain Roy Watson, for a blow by blow account of last night's U-1600 Cup Semi-Final match, between Kenilworth and Shirley. 

This was the semi-final!  Us at home. I have to be upfront and confess my grasp of the games was perhaps not entirely sound so I do apologise to our players if I have assessed their games inadequately. By the time all four games had reached the early middle game I could not really tell what was happening but my feeling was that Shirley had a slight edge overall.

Next time I came in to watch Steph on board four (as White, playing Roger Ball) was a couple of pawns down (I think four v six) and with a knight v bishop. Sadly, Steph missed a simple fork winning the bishop and almost certainly the game. 0-1.

At this stage Harry's position (board one, Black, against John Asbury) was not good but holdable, Keatan (board two, White, against David Cotterell) was definitely struggling but relative newcomer George (board three, Black, against Kim Gilbert) was doing well.

In the last few minutes of the match Harry's opponent blundered a rook and resigned, (1-1) George was three pawns up and won (2-1) and Keatan also manage to pull one out of the hat (3-1). It seems that Keatan's opponent spent a lot of time thinking (and in my experience that is always a recipe for disaster in chess!) in what seemed to me a winning position and fell a long way behind on time and indeed lost on time!

Well done lads and lasses, and Kenilworth will now play Daventry in the final of the U-1600 Cup at Olton on Tuesday May 16th, when we will also be taking on Shirley in the Open KO Cup Final. Regrettably our U-8750 team failed to make it past round 1, having mounted no sort of defence of the Cup it won so dramatically last season, so we haven't matched our 2022 feat of getting a team to each of the 3 cup finals.