Leamington League Division 1 Winners 2023 Leamington League Division 3 Winners 2023 Leamington League Knock Out Cup Winners 2023 Leamington League U-1600 Cup Winners 2023 Coventry League Division 1 Winners 2023 Runner-Up - ECF Website of the Year 2018
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
