Leamington League Division 1 Winners and Runners-Up 2024 Leamington League Knock Out Cup Winners 2024 Leamington League U-8750 Cup Winners 2024 Leamington League U-1600 Cup Winners 2024 Runner-Up - ECF Website of the Year 2018
Tuesday night's match for the E team away against Stratford B was of historical significance. With Deema and Steph in the line up, this was the first time in the history of Kenilworth CC that two women have played together in the same match.
Unfortunately, the match result did not reflect this auspicious occasion. The first blunder of the night was committed by me as I had communicated to the team that the venue was the Methodist church hall in the Old Town, as it was last year. When I arrived with Steph, we found only a yoga class in progress. As it became apparent that no-one would be there for chess, we checked the Stratford CC website to find the correct venue, Venture House. We were able to contact Deema to let her know, but could not reach Roy. We waited until 7:30 to see if he would arrive, but then we gave up and headed to Venture House, to find that Roy was already there.
Very sportingly, Stratford waited for us to arrive before starting the match. We were up against a very strong team, currently top of Division 3, and with an average rating 200 points higher than ours. I was not able to follow the other games, but in my own I thought I was in a reasonable position. The engine evaluation later showed that I had made a mistake, and my opponent was +2. But he was in serious time trouble, and with only around 20 seconds left on his clock, he blundered a rook, and then resigned immediately afterwards.
The final score was 3-1 to Stratford, but against such strong opposition I was not expecting much from this match. We reach the halfway point of the season in mid-table, with a record of W3, D1, L3.
One reader of this blog has pointed out that the photo in my last post was not the clearest of images. (So just to reiterate it showed that the C and D team are first and second in Division 2!!!) In part to try and redeem my (non-existent) reputation as a photographer, here are three snaps from last weekend, when I was at the London Chess Classic at Arsenal's Emirates stadium.
First up, what a terrific name for a hairdressers! GRAND MASTER was near where I was staying. (Which sadly, despite the advertisement, was not as close to the stadium as suggested.) I ended up doing a lot of walking and was sorely tempted to pop in for a haircut, but didn't have time.
So to the second image in our trilogy.
This is a picture from inside the stadium of the pink and yellow lights, nurturing the grass, prior to Arsenal's game against Manchester United. As a Man Utd fan, this is certainly prettier than anything I saw in the subsequent match!
I have to begrudgingly admit that the Emirates is truly a modern-day Cathedral. It was somewhat surreal to see the place packed out with chess players. As one security guard put it to me, the clientele was less inebriated than the staff are used to, but own a lot more carrier bags!
So finally, how about a picture of some actual chess?
This is the area where the rapid and blitz evens took place. I was lucky enough to interview Natasha Regan and Matthew Ball on their excellent new book - Zwischenzug! and you'll be able to see the interview and a standard review in the December edition of the ECF's ChessMoves.
You'll be relieved to hear that I'm not going to give you a blow by blow account of all 32 games I played over the weekend, across 2 rapid and 2 tournaments. The summary would be, Blitz is becoming my number one vice. I'm just not fast/ co-ordinated enough to play it well OTB - but I do enjoy it! The rapid events went better, albeit my first round opponent on the Saturday was a nine year old girl who was clutching a teddy bear. I did win, but however much us chess players see ourselves as warriors, even I couldn't find much to celebrate there. Having said that, I doubt she'll have much sympathy when two years from now she can most likely destroy me!
I always enjoy these big national events and would encourage all our members to look out for future opportunities. Whatever your level, they are always a lot of fun. The next big one to think about is the British in the Summer. (I have a good inside tip that it's going to be in Liverpool.) I'll be playing in the British Seniors for the first time. I'm figuring that means it's unlikely any of my opponents will be clutching a teddy bear.
Either way, I'll try and post some photos in due course... If you are out and about at anything vaguely to do with chess (and this post certainly hits the criteria of being vague) do share it on here!
As Harry pointed out to me when we were in the Bar at Shirley last night, following the C team's 2.5 - 1.5 victory against Shirley B.... Kenilworth C and D are now first and second in Division 2. We've even got the picture to prove it!
This has not been the easiest of seasons for all sorts of reasons. Yet while we are continually having to re-jig our teams, and we know eligibility issues will make this even more challenging in the second half of the campaign, at the Board we continue to put it together. It has made me reflect that for all our difficulties, we still have considerable strength and depth, and a roster that would be the envy of many a club.
I cannot tell you as much about the games last night as I would like, for the simple reason that I spent most of the evening in my seat struggling with a very difficult position, but we'll get on to that in a moment...
On Board 1, Andy Ward unfortunately went wrong against Darren Whitmore. These things happen, but it left us 1-0 down.
Harry was losing, I was losing, but Rhys was winning and swiftly turned down Dave Thomas's offer of a draw. None of the games ultimately ended as might have been predicted at the halfway point in the proceedings.
I'm not sure exactly what happened in Harry's game on Board 2, but Keith Ingram perhaps overreached and Harry's resilience paid off - somehow we were back to 1-1.
My position on Board 4 had been excruciating all night. Owen Adams is new to OTB chess but is 2100 on chess.com and has been doing very well in quicker games in the Shirley club. He was much better out of the opening, and I was desperately trying to find some space to ward off a kingside attack. By a miracle, I managed to find an OK defence and to gradually untangle things. We landed in an endgame in which I had two knights vs two bishops (and 5 pawns each.) I had 3 minutes to Owen's 10, but this was probably where my experience showed. I would say I have felt every emotion it is possible to feel at a chessboard except for rustiness (e.g. 32 Blitz and Rapid games last weekend at the London Chess Classic) and I just held my nerve better. I got the knights working more effectively than Owen's Bishop's, found a couple of tactics and picked up a Bishop and a pawn to bring home an unlikely point. I have no doubt that Owen will do really well going forward, but I was delighted to put us 2-1 up!
Somewhere along the line Rhys had lost his advantage against Dave, and eventually ended up playing with just a knight against Dave's two pawns. Fortunately there was no way for Dave to win and they ended up with seconds left on their clocks and just the two kings left on the board, after what was a highly entertaining game. No one could accuse them of not trying!
So a very satisfactory evening. Both the C and D team have one more game before Christmas. Here's hoping we can keep on setting the pace!
Its not only Bernard Charnley who has headed off for pastures new in the last few weeks, as we've also suffered a second blow by losing club legend Joshua, who has gone in the completely opposite direction to Somerset-bound Bernard and headed off to Manchester. Which reminds me of a song!
Of course, this is the second time that Josh has done exactly this, though he returned fairly quickly the first time and we've got to hope that history repeats itself. Though one thing which didn't get repeated was a farewell dinner in his honour. Maybe that's because he didn't so much leave as disappear into thin air, with only a couple of people entrusted with the news of his departure. Typical. As our B team captain, Webmaster, loyal and committed player, Thursday night regular(-ish) and all round interesting and entertaining guy he was a linchpin of the club. He remains as our (remote) Webmaster but his absence does leave a large void in the club. Like Bernard, he was very much his own man and its sad to say goodbye to two such independent personalities in such quick succession. That almost his last act as B team captain was to play his team in an illegal board order against Shirley A and transform a 3.5-0.5 win into a 0-4 loss was an unfortunate way to say goodbye, but we'll forgive him one administrative cock-up after his great contribution to the club over many years. (Though, of course, we'll never let him forget it!)
His first appearance for KCC was in Division 2 for the B team in December 2012, since which time he has made 123 competitive appearances for the club, chalking up some terrific performances along the way - and taking nearly 2 years to lose his first game! The complete record looks like this:-
2012-13 P3 W3 D0 L0
2013-14 P16 W13 D3 L0 (Player of the Year! - and Stanley Gibbins Trophy winner!)
2014-15 P16 W9 D3 L4
2015-16 P10 W7 D1 L2
2018-19 P16 W13 D3 L0 (Player of the Year again!)
2019-20 P13 W9 D3 L1
2021-22 P13 W7 D3 L3
2022-23 P15 W9 D3 L3
2023-24 P17 W8 D3 L6
2024-25 P4 W4 D0 L0
To have gone undefeated through 2 full seasons (plus two more partial seasons) is one hell of an achievement - and he didn't do it by playing stodgy chess, as the win percentages show only too clearly. Indeed, playing for a draw was absolute anathema to him, as was playing long lines of theory. On Boards 3 or 4 in the A team he was basically a points machine. The two times he won the club Player of the Year trophy he scored a fantastic 90+%, and he was top scorer in the whole Leamington League in 2013-14, winning the Stanley Gibbins Trophy. And he'd made rather a good start to the current season, too!
Joshua had a wide range of idiosyncratic offbeat openings that seemed to serve him rather well in practice (1 Nc3 anyone?), however dubious they may be in theory. I recall with great clarity our match away against Banbury B in 2014 when we needed a draw to clinch our first Division One title for 26 years and he turned down a draw offer that would have secured the championship! I was apoplectic, but thankfully the night had a happy ending as we eventually won 3-5-0.5 anyway, though Josh was himself unable to annex the full point, try as he might.
Of course, we can't overlook his split loyalties, as he played for Coventry in the Coventry League and never worried too much about turning out against us, even playing - and beating! - Javier in the final match of the 2022-23 season when we needed a draw or win to secure our first ever title. Luckily for future good relations with Joshua, Jude and Mike won that night to win us the title anyway!
With me saying all these nice things about him, this is looking far too much like an obituary for my taste, so lets finish by bringing a touch of harsh reality to proceedings. I have played Joshua hundreds of times at club nights and online, while in standard play over the board games we have had 8 encounters, of which 2 were Kenilworth v Coventry encounters (2-0 to me and KCC!!). Surprisingly, the majority of our meetings were in Coventry A v Coventry B matches (from that long gone age when we didn't have a Coventry League team) and I remember one of them especially fondly as for once it saw a total massacre of one of his typically dodgy openings. If this were an obituary I would have had to include a nice Pink victory, but as we have established its not, I don't feel at all embarrassed about sharing this crushing win. Or in mentioning that our overall score stands at 6.5-1.5 to me (5 wins and 3 draws).
Now, if I knew any songs by Pink I woujld include one here, but as I don't it will have to be another random choice by me to mark the end of KCC's second Pink period. At least I can be very confident that Josh - as a confirmed Grobster in his approach to the chess battle - would totally subscribe to the sentiment of the title. You cannot win, if you do not play!
Thanks to Joshua for everything he has done for the club over the last decade plus and hopefully he will be reunited with KCC in the not too distant future. In the meantime, best wishes to him for his latest northern interlude!
Kenilworth D were at Home to Leamington B on a very cold and rainy Monday night. We ended up 2-2, but that scarcely tells the story of what was a dramatic match.
Proceedings started with us being in the somewhat unorthodox position of having five players in the house. Roy Watson thought there was another game on, but when he found out there wasn't, he stayed for the evening. It was lovely to see Roy and we all appreciated his support and company.
So first to the rook. I was white on Board 2 against Joshua Simpson when we reached the position below.
I suspect if I had been playing 3 minute chess on Lichess, I would have played Rxf7 in a heartbeat and seen what happened. But in a League game, you need to be sure it actually works, or you can end up looking rather foolish. I probably broke my record for my longest ever think (certainly in a 3 hour game) and spent 45 minutes looking at the variations. At the end of which, I was convinced it worked. I still needed to give myself a pep-talk that I couldn't really leave the venue at peace with myself if I didn't play it. So I did! There really is no defence - and Fritz scores white as +7! A few minutes later we were 1-0 up and I was very happy!
Now to the pawn. On Board 3, Bernard Rogers found himself in a fantastic position against Alex Kagkalis. His pieces and pawns were completely suffocating Alex, and it seemed only a matter of time until Bernard broke through and either queened a super-strong passed pawn or cleaned up enough material to make the victory inevitable one way or another. Unfortunately, Bernard hesitated, ran very low on time and missed a couple of chances. This allowed Alex to wriggle free and bring home an unlikely point. Bernard has been unlucky of late, frequently getting into great positions and not converting. But as they say in football, if a striker keeps getting into the box, the goals will follow. It's clearly only a matter of time until Bernard starts securing the results his early game dominance has deserved.
On Board 4, Dan Bayliss was eventually squeezed out, following a good game against Tom Cockell. A slight weakness in Dan's pawn structure and marginally less active pieces were enough to keep Tom plugging away to good effect. An interesting game, but unfortunately we were now 2-1 down.
Finally to the Bishop, which proved decisive in Paul Badger's Board 1 game against Chris Ward. There seemed to be no prospect of Paul securing more than a draw (and indeed Paul had offered one back when Bernard seemed to be winning.) However, at the death, Chris missed a tactic... Paul found a Bishop check which forced a back-rank mate, to give us a share of the spoils after all!
A very lively night, with lots of twists and turns. After which we put all the pieces back into their bags. The rooks, bishops, pawns and all the rest of them, inanimate objects once more. Doubtless waiting for their next opportunity to add further chapters to their stories.
Back-to-back away matches at Shirley saw impressive
victories for the first team. Last Thursday, in the KO Open Cup we won 4½ – ½
(5 board match) and last night in the league, a 4-0 sweep.
2 out of 2 for Keatan (the machine), Bruce and myself. 1 out
of 1 for Paul and 1½ out of 2 for Javier against 2100+
opposition.
Javier won the interim captain’s best game prize for his
win against Phillip Purcell. A kingside attack against the dragon was well
defended by Phillip, but Javier pivoted decisively to infiltrate on the
queenside. It was wonderful to see and sublimely played. Chess can be a
beautiful. Gelfand would be proud.
As most of you will already know, Bernard C is heading off for pastures new in deepest Somerset and his departure is now imminent. He has been a great presence in KCC over the last ten years and we will all be very sad to see him go. I am so pleased I was able to help smooth his departure from the club by gifting him a "going-away point" in this season's Ken A v Ken B match!
The records show that Bernard's first game (a win!) for the club was in February 2015, since which time he has amassed the following stats in club matches, playing exclusively in Divisions 1 and 2, except for a solitary Div 3 appearance in his debut season:-
A very acceptable +12 score (57.6%). Initially we had to share Bernard with Coventry, but in more recent years he played exclusively for Kenilworth and so the match appearances increased markedly. But there is very much more to Bernard than chess, as he is a highly accomplished artist who had his own one man exhibition at Rugby Art Gallery in 2018 and something of an all-round independent and creative thinker and iconoclast who always had an interesting and wry take on any topic which came up at Thursday social chess nights. He has also been a big supporter of the Coventry Chess Academy. For those who need a reminder of his artistic vision (and I warn you - it can be quite disturbing! Think dystopia and multiply by a large number!!) why not revisit this review I posted of his Rugby exhibition.
Bernard has penned a few words of his own on his association with Kenilworth Chess Club and asked me to share them with everyone, so here is what he has written:-
Dear Kenilworth Club members, As some of you know, I’ve been in the process of moving home and that is now, all things being well, completing in a couple of weeks. While I will be nearer family with this move (Frome nestles in the pastoral climes of Somerset), there are many things I will miss and membership of Kenilworth Chess Club is one of them.
Apart from the great friendships made during my time as a member, I simply want to say a few words about those in the club who gave and or presently give of their time to allow players like myself enjoy the pleasure and (a bit too often) pain of having a chess scrap every one or two weeks. In this respect, without doubt, standing on a pedestal of honour should be Bernard (no no not me, the other one)) Rogers and Mark Page. I’ve always been impressed by their double act with Bernard R the ever resourceful backroom manager, especially securing our various hangouts on a Thursday, with Mark flying the flag upfront with a fine blend of wit, creativity (think blog) and all round leadership of the gang. It’s a dynamic duo that has seen a brilliant growth in membership and playing strength. The alchemy with that other bit of magic down the road, the Coventry Academy led by Paul (Lam), has added a phalanx of strong juniors battling on the club’s behalf as well.
The roll of honour, of course, extends to those members who take on the, let’s face it, ongoing headache of team captain, subjecting themselves to recalcitrant late arrivers, non-turnerruppers, rebellious clocks, dubious claims and occasional, always good for gossip, fallouts. So thanks as well to those I have had the pleasure to know such as Mark, Josh, Ben and Harry.
I will be returning now and again to Coventry and if the stars align, drop in to a Thursday session. In the meantime, its farewell and best wishes to all!
Bernard Charnley
The only good thing about Bernard's departure is that we now revert to having just the one Bernard in KCC, so the opportunities for rib-tickling/trouser-dropping Brian Rix-like misunderstandings and confusions have been eliminated.
Clearly Bernard demands a special farewell song. Something which encompasses his creative and independent side. I hope he's not disappointed with my choice!
On Monday,
the A team entertained Stratford. Javier was black on 1 against the dangerous
Ben Larkin, but after 5 minutes of play, and 20 moves of theory, a draw was
agreed and Stratford’s main threat neutralized. A good start to the match.
Next to
finish was Keatan on 4. His opponent sacked a piece for a kingside attack but
Keatan cooly neutralized the threats, swapped queens and easily converted the
full point.
I was next
to finish and managed to win my first game of the season by boring Richard McNally
to death. So, match secured with just David on 3 still in play.
David
pressured Richard Dobedoe’s English style setup and won a pawn, but Richard
played well and fought back. With both players short of time and the game
chances swinging move by move, a draw was agreed.
3-1
winners, hopefully the start of a much needed march.
The D team was at Olton last night, with a new look line-up. Bernard Rogers has now taken over from me as the captain, so I can lead the C team, and Daniel Bayliss got a late call-up to make his D team debut.
At 7.45 I was the only Kenilworth player in the building, and getting a little nervous, but bad traffic was the culprit. Soon afterwards we had a full team and proceedings got underway.
Bernard was the first to finish, with a pretty quick, very solid looking draw. The other three games were more dramatic. On Board 2, I was up against Trevor Holt. I was in a terrific position out of the opening and despite then making several sub-optimal choices, landed in a relatively routine endgame two pawns up. Somehow I drifted into time trouble, and was conspiring to make it harder than it should have been. However, Trevor unfortunately missed that he was in check, and the only legal move he could replace his illegal move with, lost instantly and he resigned. I would much prefer that this hadn't happened, and having looked at the game briefly this morning, I was still clearly winning. But the rules are the rules, and certainly on the couple of occasions when I've made the same mistake, my opponents have had no hesitation in enforcing touch-move. So we were up 1.5 - 0.5.
On Boards 1 and 4 respectively, Paul and Daniel were both a pawn down, but their prospects looked very different to me. Daniel had a nice tactic to win back his pawn, after which his opponent Kacper Durkarczyk had to contend with a a terrible pawn structure in a double rook and pawn endgame. Daniel played with real fluency, getting his rooks on just the right squares. He then used a pawn lever to excellent effect to break through. A very good debut win, which put us over the line at 2.5 - 0.5!
On Board 1, I really feared for Paul. There was no way for him to get back to material equality, but queen and pawn endgames are always tricky. Paul showed a great deal of imagination in sacrificing more material to open up more lines for his queen. It was pretty high-stakes stuff and made for a nail-biting watch, but Paul had judged the position brilliantly and Rob Reynolds could not escape a perpetual check. A draw ensued.
So 3-1 and a second victory in a row for the team, which has moved us up to 4th in the table. Planning all our teams this season remains a complex task. So, I did just want to echo Bernard's previous plea to some of our less frequent players, to help us out where they can, and to ask that everyone responds promptly to availability asks. A lot of work is going into our selection processes, and everyone can help to make this a little easier...
I would much rather things had landed more happily on the other side of the Atlantic, but at least it was a good night in Olton.
Last night the C team played Rugby A, back at the Abbey Club, 2 weeks on from the D team's victory against them on the road.
This was my first match as C team captain, and we showed only one change from the previous D team line up, with Andy Ward in on one, and Paul, Dhairya and me all dropping down a board. This wasn't a case of me doing an Eric Ten Hag and simply picking the players I had worked with before (with the same risks to my long-term employment prospects!?!). More the vagaries of availability on the night and the challenges we face in managing our squads. On the one hand, we were stronger than the D team which had run out 3.5- 0.5 winners. Yet on the other, Rugby (who were unchanged from that encounter) do possess two 1900+ players, so nothing could be taken for granted. Hence, we were delighted to match the D team result with another 3.5 - 0.5 win!
My own game against Christopher Badley on Board 4 was not one for the album. I was better out of the opening, but struggled to pick up the pace, and eventually found myself in time-trouble. For whatever reason, I was reluctant to play my breakout move as everything looked very double-edged. My hesitation did nothing to help my position. Christopher played the middle phase of the game very well, and despite the good coaching advice I had received from Paul Lam about minimising the risks and making things routine against weaker players, I ended up in a tactical melee that would not have looked out of place in a casino. Christopher had some good chances, but fortunately I was able to find the right tactic to eventually bring home the point. Later in the bar, the two of us enjoyed analysing it with Paul Badger and Phil Wood - one of those games that shows how rich chess really is in terms of the sheer number of possibilities to contemplate. I now just have to brace myself to plug it into Fritz to see how inaccurate we probably both were!
Unfortunately, my battle with the clock meant that I saw nothing of either Paul or Dhairya's games, but both pulled off excellent wins against Patrick Reid and Dave Riley respectively, which meant that we were 3-0 up with the match won! Irrespective of our challenges with player numbers this season, we are truly blessed to have the depth that we do.
We all gathered to watch the end of Andy's Board 1 game against the super-strong Paul Colburn. Andy was grappling to contain Paul's passed pawn, and when he had a 4 minute think which left him a minute on the clock to Paul's five, I feared the worst. However, it transpired that Andy had worked things out brilliantly. Ultimately Paul's pawn was prevented from reaching the 8th rank by a series of very skilful moves on Andy's part, and a draw ensued.
So a terrific result for the team. For all our talk of just making it through this season, whisper it, but we are second in the table with games in hand... We now have a few weeks off, before games against Olton, top of the table Shirley and Solihull to look forward to this side of Christmas. Here's hoping we build on tonight with some future festive cheer!
And first place in the worst pun of the year competition for me!
Though as pointed out to me by my old friend John Saunders (which has necessitated this update!), my pun is very close to being plagiarism given this offering from the splendidly batty Mrs Doyle!
But its Billy whose performance needs to get star billing here as he recently won the U-12 Terafinal (that's the Grand Final to you and me!) of the mammoth UK Schools Chess Challenge - at the rather prestigious venue of Blenheim Palace, no less. After fighting through Megafinals and Gigafinals, it was just 60 juniors left by the time of the Terafinals, split into 5 age groups playing 12 player all play all tournaments to decide the champions.
The U-12 Terafinal Crosstable - Billy wins by a whole point!
In achieving this great triumph Billy is following in the footsteps of Jude who was a Terafinal winner himself a couple of years ago, and who finished a close up 4th in the U-14 tournament this time around.
The U-14 Terafinal Results
And while two KCC winners at the highest possible junior level is quite something, its even more a case of hats off to Paul, who has coached three Terafinal winners, with Birmingham's Elis Dicen also successful in a previous year. Remarkable stuff which confirms what a Golden Age this is for junior chess in Warwickshire. (And the county's "old timers" aren't doing too badly either, as 30-something Ameet Ghasi just got his third GM norm and with the rating requirement already achieved will soon be confirmed as Warwickshire's third GM, after Tony Miles and Keith Arkell.)
Billy Receiving the Terafinal Trophy from WFM Sarah Longson, UKSCC Supremo. Thanks to our Social Media Correspondent Bernard Rogers for spotting this Instagram post
By the way, is it just me, or has anybody else noticed a passing resemblance between Billy and Uzbeki Olympiad winner, GM Javokhir Sindarov? Alright, its just me.
A triumph like this deserves a top quality piece of music. One of the greatest pop songs of all time seems appropriate. Apologies if I've used this before, but you really can never hear this brilliant song too often.
Just when you'd given up hope of ever seeing another of these articles, along comes a fresh instalment - just the 15 months since the previous one. (Which itself saw a wait of 27 months for publication!) But its a story that must be seen through to its end - as Magnus (not Carlsen, but Magnusson!) used to say, "I've started so I'll finish."
Part 15 of our epic saga took us up to the 2006 AGM, since which time the two most recent articles have been concerned with filling in some previous gaps after new information came to light. Our story starts again at the 2006 AGM, but only to touch upon financial matters, as I now have a copy of the accounts. These show that we had made a surplus of £43.37 in 2005/6, stemming the hemorrhaging of the previous year. As a consequence we were sitting on a tidy accumulated fund of £309.42 - all of which, interestingly, was in our building society account. There has never been a club account since I have had anything to do with the financial administration, but maybe we will find out just what caused this change of policy amongst the new papers?
September 2006 - There is a big turnout (apologies from Tom Swallow, Rob Olley, Paul Lam and Len Krombeen, with all other members present) for the team formation meeting, where there is some bombshell news - 2 strong players have joined the club since the AGM and we may be over subscribed with "only" 4 teams entered in the League. Chris, supported by Geoff King, proposed that we should try to secure the admission of a fifth team, but when this was put to the vote, it was rejected by 6-2. Instead we would accommodate the new players by forming squads for each team as follows:-
A team - Phil Pelton, Bernard Rogers, Carl Pickering (Captain), Mike Johnson, Phil Wood B Team - Paul Mills, Len Krombeen (Captain), Rod Webb (part-time), Nigel Morris, John Skinner, Nick Mottram (part-time) C team - Roy Watson, Rob Olley (part-time), Chris Aldridge (Captain), Geoff King, Bruce Holland D team - Tony King, Tony Pickering, Mike Whatson, Frank Holmes (Captain), Steve Payne (part-time)
I can imagine that Phil Pelton was one of the newcomers, but its a mystery to me as to who the other new arrival at that time might have been. Any ideas?
April 2007 - The AGM is to be held on April 28, though in his advance notice of the agenda, the Secretary (B. Rogers, Esq) decides no-one needs to know the venue of the meeting. He must have been watching Field of Dreams on video. "If you don't tell them, they will come anyway. Even when you tell them the wrong date." Because the AGM is actually on April 26, but what's a couple of days between friends?! Apologies were received from Geoff King, Tony King, Len Krombeen, Carl Pickering, Dave Shurrock and John Skinner, while paul Lam, Rob Olley and Phil Pelton were "absent without apology!"
The Chairman's report (presented in absentia) recorded that the A team had finished 8th in Division 1 (this sounds perilously close to last!); the B team 4th in Division 2; the C team 7th in Division 3 and the D team 4th in Division 4.Not much to celebrate there, while the 3 cup teams were all eliminated in Round 1. Thankfully there were some individual successes to report. Carl and Phil contested the final of the League Individual Championship (Carl victorious after a replay), while Carl had also won the Coventry League Individual Championship (not that this had anything to do with Kenilworth!) for a splendid double triumph. He then made it 3/3 by winning the club's own Tilley Trophy, while Nigel Morris won the Soesan Trophy and Mike Whatson the Kenilworth Trophy (of which I have never heard - before or since!)
Perhaps embarrassed by his massively misleading AGM notice, the Secretary did not give a report. (If I had adopted a similar policy, recent AGM's could have been over in about 10 minutes!) Thankfully the Treasurer did not follow this example and tabled accounts which showed a massive surplus of £139.50, and net assets of £451.42. Despite this, it was proposed that subs should be increased to £20 to enable the purchase of digital clocks and this was agreed by 7-4.
Phil Wood was elected as the new Club Chairman, while Bernard, Roy and Tony Pickering remained in situ as, respectively, Secretary, Treasurer and Competitions' Secretary.
It then all gets very confusing, as our entry of League teams is apparently dependent upon what night of the week we play. Someone proposed that we revert to Thursdays for the majority of the matches, using the downstairs room. (Where??) But if needed the A team could play upstairs on Wednesdays. (Sounds like the British Legion Club to me.) We would beg/request that our A team stayed in Division 1, with the B team in Div 2, C and D in Div 3 and E in Div 4. Captains would be, Phil W, Mike J, Len K, Roy W and Mike W. In a display of massive hubris it was also decided to play in all 3 KO Cups, with 2 teams in the U-100 tournament.
Frank Holmes proposed that we should give £50 to Kenilworth Cricket Club for their Fire Appeal. On a vote of 6-4 this was agreed. (I reckon I would have voted against!) They subsequently sent us a letter of thanks. Frank also offered to try and keep the Club website (who knew we had one?) up to date. Wonder how that went?
September 2007 - The Team Formation meeting is attended by all members of the club, except Tom Swallow who sent his apologies. We are up to 5 teams as follows:-
A team - Paul Lam (when available), Phil Pelton, Carl Pickering, Bernard Rogers, Phil Wood (Captain) B Team - Nigel Morris, Dave Shurrock, Mike Johnson (Captain), Rod Webb, Paul Mills (reserve) C team - Len Krombeen (Captain), Nick Mottram, Roy Watson, Chris Aldridge (reserve - and E team reserve - try doing that under the current rules and you'd be well and truly hauled over the coals!!) D team - Geoff King, Frank Holmes (part of season only), Bruce Holland, Mike Whatson (Captain) E team - Tony King (Captain), Cathy Raison, Steve Payne, Michael Oldfinch, Chris Aldridge
Cup Captains were to be Carl, Bernard, Chris and Mike.
May 2008 - Its that time of the year again, and once more the Secretary decides to keep members guessing about the AGM venue. But at least he gives them the right date this year! No less than 16 members are present (Messrs Aldridge, Holland, Johnson, King T, Krombeen, Morris, Mottram, Payne, Pickering C and T, Rogers, Shurrock, Swallow, Watson, Webb, Whatson, Wood. Apologies were sent by Messrs Skinner, Pelton and Holmes. Regrettably Frank Holmes will be unable to play in the coming season due to ill health, which has also defeated his ambitions to maintain the club website.
The Chairman reported on the Club's League performances, but these were considered too sensitive to be recorded for posterity. However, the club won the U-625 cup, while the two U-100 Cup teams each managed a win before losing in Round 2. Shame on the Open KO tem, though, who withdrew without playing.
Once again the Secretary reported nothing. Nada. Zilch. Rien. One wonders what we were paying him for?
Whereas Treasurer Roy is right on top of his administrative brief and tables the Accounts which show a massive loss of £286.10 and total expenditure of a scarcely credible £667.22. Looks like we had a Labour man in charge of the finances!! We would have broken almost exactly even, though, if we hadn't invested in digital clocks and random donations to organisations with massively greater financial resources than ourselves. Assets are down to £149.67 and we still have a building society account. Fees are to remain at £20 pa, with no charge for juniors.
August 2008 - The British Legion Club confirms our booking of the (upstairs) Concert Room for every Wednesday from September to April. This doesn't seem significant in its own right, but as will become clear in Part 19 - because yes, there's still more to come! - the seeds of a club crisis have been sown. Stand by for more revelations ........ sometime in the future!
No real need for any music to accompany this article, but for anyone who, like me, is being massively annoyed by a current Compare the Market ad on TV it can't hurt to set the record straight and hear the original - and wow, what a spectacular performance this is. You could only get a show like this in Vegas! But you'll have to be patient - the song itself doesn't start till several minutes in!
We were at Rugby last night, in sombre circumstances, following the untimely death of Rugby's Club Secretary Malcolm Harding. Malcolm did so much for chess in this area, both at club level, and to support the Coventry League. He will be missed by many. On behalf of all connected with Kenilworth Chess Club, I wanted to share our condolences. Malcolm and his family and friends are very much in our thoughts. Life really is precious and to be cherished.
At the Board, we were certainly a team in need of a win, and after previous nights of frustration this was one where everything clicked. Dylan led the way brilliantly against Chris Badley on Board 4. Dylan picked up the exchange and liquidated a 2 rook v rook and bishop endgame with ruthless efficiency, giving the material back in exchange for an unstoppable passed pawn. Thus putting us 1-0 up and getting his just rewards, after several previous good games where he might have got more. A terrific first Division 2 point for Dylan - I have no doubt that many more will follow!
Dhairya was on Board 2 against Patrick Reed, who must be glad to now see the back of Kenilworth players for a bit, having lost to me in the Birmingham Rapidplay the day before. Another excellent game from a Kenilworth junior. Dhairya played really well, and created a beautiful mating net in a heavy piece endgame, to put us 2-0 up. With players like Dhairya and Dylan in our ranks, the future looks very positive for the club.
I was on Board 3 against Dave Riley. Usually I would be happy to have White. However, having scored 3/3 with Black and 0.5/4 with White at the forementioned Rapidplay, I was in two minds as to whether to change up my openings. Ultimately I elected to "stick," and as ever against Dave a wildly complicated affair ensued. Fritz unsurprisingly notes we could both have played better, but I always felt I had a slight edge. Eventually a raging kingside attack translated into a more prosaic ending where I was up the exchange but very short of time. However, a knight is never much of a match for a rook in these circumstances, and the final moves proved to be comfortable enough. So 3-0!
Paul was up against the very strong Paul Colburn on Board 1. Down a pawn and down on the clock, I feared the worst. However, our Paul played terrifically and with lots of energy to completely neutralise Colburn's advantage and a draw was agreed.
3.5 - 0.5 is always a great result, and especially so given we were the lower rated team. I'm now stepping back from D team captaincy duties, to captain the C team. However, I'm still hoping to play in the team's future fixtures, so more posts on our exploits will follow!
Well, if matches against Coventry on successive nights of the week don't warrant a bit of Phillip Larkin, I don't know what does. Even if both games left me feeling about as cheerful as the the curmudgeonly "Bard of Coventry".
On Monday things seemed to be going exceptionally well, when the D team played Coventry A, in the Leamington League. I was up the exchange on Board 3 against Tom Stamper and Bernard had a dream of a position against Mike Johnson on Board 4. However, at the hour mark, with his rooks menacingly poised on the seventh rank, a monster passed pawn, and threats all over the board, something went horribly wrong for Bernard. He thought he saw a mate, missed Mike's defence, and in a heartbeat a certain point became a defeat. We've all been there. It's part of being a chess player. But it was painful to watch. It just shows however good a position appears, nothing can be taken for granted. Still, Bernard will bounce back!
Moments later Paul lost to the very strong Maung Latt. I didn't see any of the game, yet the reality was we were 2-0 down by about 8.45. When Rhys's game against Ed Goodwin on Board 2 petered out into a draw around 9.00, the match was lost.
My game while now pointless in terms of the match, turned into a real roller-coaster. I missed a win, went wrong and ended up with rook and 2 v knight and bishop. Fortunately for me, Tom also was not as a accurate as he could have been, and I somehow managed to swing back from close to lost to winning again. In the dying seconds (literally) Tom found a good defence and we ended proceedings with just the two kings left on the board. So a 1 - 3 defeat...
So, on to Tuesday. I'm looking after the Coventry League team while Mark is convalescing, and I know how much everyone involved on both sides over the two nights (and of course our whole club) is wishing Mark well. He truly is one of us and we all stand with him and look forward to welcoming him back to the board when he is better.
Unfortunately last night's Coventry match turned into a total farce. At 7.30 Mike and Ben Larkin kicked off on Board 2, but we were waiting for a full compliment of players to arrive. At which point, Coventry realised that their Board 1 was unlikely to appear for the brilliant reason that no one had told him about the game. Terrible organisation on Coventry's part. Much debate ensued about whether Coventry should default on Board 1 or Board 4. We felt it was more sporting to default on 4, however, I did respect the fact that Ed did not want to play himself above Jonathan.
Unfortunately, this meant that Keatan did not get a game, and I want to thank both him and Nash for their patience and understanding and to apologise for a wasted evening. Having played so late the previous night, I somehow found the conversations around the Coventry Board order a bit draining, so by the time I eventually sat down to play I wasn't feeling great, but there we have it.
Ultimately we started 1-0 up. Mike and Jonathan played out an interesting draw. My second game in 24 hours against Tom was a slower burn than the previous night's but ended in another blitz shoot-out. I'd successfully defended a slightly weak IQP all night, and with a level position and two minutes each left on the clocks, fully expected Tom to accept a draw, particularly given in my view Coventry should have forfeited on Board 4 rather than Board 1. But Tom opted to play it out, as of course was his prerogative, and I succumbed in the final less than cheering moments of the game. Fortunately Paul played brilliantly against Ed Goodwin, and won a superb rook and pawn ending which he played with great aplomb to bring home the full point and to give us a 2.5 - 1.5 victory.
Given we won the match, I won't take issue with the Coventry decision not to play on Board 1 with the League, but will note that when team's are as poorly organised as this, it does take a lot of the fun out of the night for all involved.
So a win and a loss. Some brilliant games (especially Paul's win.) Some real nail-biters (both my games with Tom) and some more painful encounters (particularly Bernard's game against Mike.) On a good day chess is amazing and brilliant. On a bad night, there is a tendency to feel like Larkin who wrote:
"Morning, noon & bloody night
Seven sodding days a week
I slave at filthy WORK
that might
Be done by any book-drunk freak
This goes on until I kick the bucket"
(I've left off Larkin's final line. This being a family friendly publication and all that, but do look it up, for a full sense of how a chess-player feels after a bad loss.)
Still, all chess players know there will always be other nights to look forward too, when things will go better. Those moments when the black and white pieces resonate and connect with us, which is much like the feeling you get, when you happen on the place where you were born.
After a couple of false starts (one postponement and one forfeiture), Kenilworth E's season finally got underway on 30th September with a match against Stratford C.
The team line-up was Dan, making his competitive debut in England, Gregory, Roy and Steph.
Gregory was the first to finish. He opened with a London, and soon had a knight, a rook, and a bishop bearing down on the c7 square. His opponent left his queen en pris as he castled queenside, but Gregory didn't waste any time in capturing it. Instead he went in for the kill, with his other knight and queen joining the attack, and checkmate following in only 19 moves. Gregory remains unbeaten whilst playing for Kenilworth.
On board 4, Steph was playing white. Her opponent blundered a bishop on move 5. A menacing attack followed, with queen and knight combining to threaten a fork of rook and king. In attempting to avoid the fork, Black allowed Steph to capture the rook with her queen. A few moves later, Black blundered his second rook. He decided to play on, but Steph easily completed a checkmate in 24 moves.
After his match, Roy, playing black, said that he had messed up the opening, but he got back into the game, and was a knight up in exchange for two pawns. As the pieces were swapped off, the endgame came down to White having a and b pawns versus Roy's knight and a b pawn. There was no way through for either player to promote their pawns, so a draw was agreed.
Dan, playing black on board one, was last to finish. For most of the game, he had a bishop stuck on g7 behind his pawn on f6, and after the heavy pieces had been exchanged, he was left with the bishop against White's knight. Dan had a 3-2 pawn majority on the kingside, and White had a 2-1 majority on the other side. Once his bishop was activated, it landed on a central square, paralysing the knight. With less than a minute on the clock, Dan was able to advance his kingside pawns while his opponent's king was stuck defending the queenside. His opponent resigned, and a 3.5 - 0.5 victory was completed.
Including the forfeited game, it is two wins in two, and as it stands we are top of Division 3.
Following a day in which the rain lashed down on Kenilworth, we gathered in the glooming for our match against Shirley B. It is fair to say that this was not an evening where I can honestly declare that it proved to be darkest just before the dawn, so I will keep this match report brief.
On Board 4, Bernard Rogers seemed to have a devastating early kingside attack against Gordon Christie. I wasn't exactly analysing it, but I assumed we were on for a quick point. To his credit, Gordon defended with a lot of skill and somehow Bernard's attack blew itself out, after which Gordon was completely won. So 0-1.
Incredibly, on Board 2 a similar pattern appeared to play out in Rhys's game against Keith Ingram. I suspect this one was always a bit more double-edged, but both players had contributed to a very violent heavy piece position. Ultimately Keith prevailed to make it 0-2.
On Board 3, I had another in a series of very interesting games with Dave Thomas. I didn't get the opening right and was down a pawn, but somehow managed to get a lot of play, and eventually ended up in an endgame a pawn up which I assumed (as did Dave) would be a win. The reality was that it was very difficult. One of those positions where if Dave just sat (which he did) there were real risks that me committing might actually give Dave the win. Having turned down an earlier draw, following a repetition I just couldn't find a way through, so split the point with a few minutes left on my clock. I suspect a GM would have won it, but when we analysed with others in the bar afterwards, it still wasn't obvious. Given I had been behind out of the gate, it was certainly a half point I would have been much happier with earlier in the proceedings.
Ultimately, it made no difference. Paul and Darren Whitmore played a really good game that went to the wire, but unfortunately for us, Darren just edged it to wrap up a comprehensive win for Shirley.
As I said to Paul afterwards, the margins in chess are always very fine. There wasn't much between the teams on paper and on another night we might have done better. Still all credit to Shirley - they deserved their victory and a few of us had a nice drink and a catch up in the bar afterwards.
For Kenilworth, we've had a somewhat disappointing start to the season, but these things happen. There are plenty of matches still to play. I have no doubt that brighter days are ahead!
News from the B team's intrepid visit to Stratford-upon-Avon
or, to be more precise, an industrial estate just outside Starford-Upon-Avon. I
knew it wasn’t a good sign when my phone told me to get off the train at
Stratford-Upon-Avon Parkway, not the nice train station in the town itself.
The first game to finish was Keatan, who had what looked
like a very aggressive game as white against Ben Larkin, with an open Sicilian
in which Keatan had pushed both b4 and c4. However, just as things were about
to get interesting, Ben offered a draw which Keaton, correctly for the match situation,
agreed to. An excellent result, if a little anti-climactic as a game.
My game against Richard McNally did at least end in a
decisive result, if the game itself was quite a few levels less exciting. As
black, and playing my standard d6 f5 line, we reached the following position in
which, true to his style, Richard has just lunged forward with f4:
Fortunately for me, it appears that, despite how many
possible ways it could go wrong, I can just take this pawn with my bishop and
be a pawn up. Even with the multiple ways white can recapture, and the 3 different
queen checks he can throw in at different points, nothing works, and I ended up
a pawn up in a rook and knight endgame. The conversion went reasonably smoothly,
and we were a point up.
For those keeping score (primarily Mark, who does love
quoting my many failures with this line) that puts me at 2/2 for the season. I
will unfortunately have white in the next game, so will need to work on some
transpositions to get back to the correct starting position.
This is the point in the evening when my very knowledge
starts to run out, as I left to catch as train. Both Mike (some c4, g5 Maroczy
bind stuff as white) and Bernard (a modern Benoni as black) seemed to have very
solid and approximately level positions, so as I left the stereotype function in
my brain assumed that both might well end as draws.
Of course, as we all know, stereotyping is a dangerous thing
to do in life, so I shall just report that both games did indeed end as draws. That
left us with a 2.5-1.5 win overall, a welcome reminder of our favourite score from
last season. Also, a rare occasion where I can take credit for the team’s win,
not blame when things go wrong.
In other (Kenilworth A) news, it is good to see my planting
of Andrew Paterson as a B team agent in that team is working as planned. Sadly,
a loss for Andy meant the A team could only draw 2-2 with Banbury, meaning that
we are currently 3 points clear of our own A team. Long it may it continue, say
I and Andy.
Following the excitement of last week's A v B match, on Monday the C and D teams battled it out, in a contest that proved to be every bit as dramatic. These intra-club affairs always take a fair amount of organisation, and myself, Harry, and Mark had spent quite a while sorting the line-ups. With Mike, Michal, Andy and Bernard Rogers all unavailable, Dhairya and Paul Badger both stepped up to represent the C team. I was delighted that Phil came out of retirement to help the D team, and we were also delighted to call Dylan up again.
Bernard Charnley was the only one of the eight of us, who also played in the A v B match. It speaks both to the strength and depth we have in the club (and the excellence of Rhys, who made a welcome return to the club on Board 1 for the D team) that having won his match against the A team, Bernard would be defeated by his D team opponent. Rhys and Bernard were actually the first to finish. I didn't see as much of this one as I would have liked, but Rhys appeared to pick up a pawn and then played with a lot of control and skill to bring home the full point. A terrific effort, and we are so pleased to have him as a part of our squad for the season ahead.
Dhairya finished moments later with a good win against Phil on Board 3. Dhairya broke through very convincingly on the kingside, and while Phil had castled queenside, Dhairya's pieces found more than enough material to feast on. A very good game, as Dhairya bounced back in style from his Banbury reversal. I guess with myself and Dhairya both having played 21 rated games over the weekend at the Warwickshire Rapid and Blitz the pair of us were well practised!
With the match at 1-1, I would not have wanted to wager a penny on the final outcome. I was playing against Harry in the battle of the captains on Board 2. Very early in the game, Harry missed a trick and I picked up the exchange. However, as we agreed afterwards, I should have spent more time thinking about whether this was really the best approach. I ended up behind in development, and my reluctance to castle due to Harry's light square pressure on the a8 - h1 diagonal simply gave me other problems to deal with. In truth, a game that I thought I was winning comfortably at 7.45 became harder and harder over the next couple of hours, as Harry's pieces swarmed and his bishop pair combined well with his knight and queen. We both missed chances, but ultimately, when well below 5 minutes on my clock, I managed to find a resource that turned the tables and gave me a mating attack. Neither of us will see this as being amongst our finest games, but for all its rawness and imperfections, it was a pretty exhilarating way to spend the evening!
My win guaranteed that at 2-1 the D team were at least good for a point. On Board 4, Dylan was playing a terrific game against Paul. While down a pawn, Paul had doubled pawns to contend with as well as a formidable looking passed pawn. Frankly, I thought Dylan was winning at this point, but it was all very complicated and I might be wrong. Either way, it just shows how well Dylan is developing that he was giving Paul such a strong game. Both players queened, but neither new monarch survived. At the death, heartbreakingly for Dylan, he missed a chance to force a draw with a king move, instead pushing his a pawn which proved to be the losing blow. A shame, but it doesn't detract from how well Dylan had played, and for that reason I'm giving him my player of the night award.
So 2 - 2, which felt like a very fair result. Both teams are in good shape for the season ahead. I'll try not to think about the fact that we have to do it all again in January - at least for a little while!
Arriving in Banbury at around 7.15 last night, I was confronted by a scene that I never thought I would witness in these parts. The club was open, the lights were on, all the boards were set up, and indeed 7 of the match participants were already assembled. Having done a doubletake and realised that this was indeed reality, the too-good-to-be-true principle kicked in. Firstly, I realised that I had forgotten my glasses. The vagaries of age mean that I now need one pair for driving and one for closer work. Until last year my sight meant that my driving glasses were the ones I played chess with, but thanks to a change of prescription they no longer are. I resigned myself to a night of squinting somewhat hopefully at the pieces. (Given what happened, one theory I am considering is whether looking at the chessmen too much is where I have hitherto been going wrong.) Secondly, which did not seem like so much of an issue in the beginning but would become more of one later, Paul Rowan was missing from the Banbury team.
We got underway promptly, with Dylan who was making his debut on Board 4 lacking an opponent. Dylan had a great season last year and we are looking forward to him playing a part as one of our key reserves in this campaign. Dylan waited patiently, while Mal (who I was playing on Board 3, for our 5th game in two seasons) made increasingly frantic, unanswered calls to Paul. Eventually we agreed that Banbury could make a substitution. Sadly this is where home advantage can tell, as Banbury had the equally strong Arran Grundy in the house, who stepped in. Obviously Paul then turned up a few minutes later, but that's by the by.
At the board, my own game started really well. I got strong initiative out of the opening, and gave Mal the unpalatable choice between allowing a super strong attack or tripling his pawns. He went for the tripled pawns, but I felt at this point that I was strategically won. I set about applying some of the lessons I have picked up from Paul Lam (with huge thanks!) over the summer, in terms of keeping the position completely under control and gradually turning the screw.
However, when I surveyed the other games, things were looking less promising. Gary Jackson seemed to be edging a complicated game against Paul on Board 1. Nathan Manley appeared to have tied Dhairya completely in knots, on 2, with Dhairya's pieces mainly rearranged on the back-rank. On Board 4 Arran had got the better of the opening and looked like he had a monster pawn break on the queenside, and the exchange.
Dylan played really well to hold Arran at bay for a while, but the end looked inevitable, and the Banbury supersub had put them 1-0 up. Dhairya lost moments later. Not his best evening, but Nathan is a strong player and we know what Dhairya can do, so doubtless a good learning experience. So many times last season, we were bailed out by our juniors (especially Dhairya and Keatan), but now myself and Paul had to do the job.
Mine was the much easier task. My position was just a joy, to the point that I wondered if this, along with the (briefly) seemless start to the evening was all but a dream. I brought myself back to reality by missing my best move as our clocks ran down, but it made no difference. I broke through with my rooks, and Mal resigned when I was one move from mate. I always have great games with Mal, but this was my best effort for quite sometime. Having thrown away six months of rating gains during one weekend at the British, I can start rebuilding once again!
Paul battled valiantly against Gary. It was very complicated and I did not see all the detail, but Gary ultimately brough home the point. So a 1-3 loss on the road, but we were up against a strong team, who certainly deserved their win on the night.
We now go on to the C v D match up next week. One thing is for sure. The chess season is back! We will have plenty more opportunities in the weeks and months ahead.
Though at least there's not "A man with a gun over there, Telling me I got to beware."
You couldn't tell from the traditional pre-match photo of the Kenilworth A v Kenilworth B season-opener that witchcraft and sorcery were in the air, but Monday evening's subsequent events proved conclusively that strange forces were at work.
Kenilworth A (left; front to back) - Mark Page, Billy Fellowes, Andrew Paterson, Jude Shearsby v Kenilworth B (right, front to back) - Bernard Charnley, Joshua Pink, Ketan Patel, Bruce Baer
Now we always like these matches to be competitive, so both teams were at as full strength as possible on the night, and it wouldn't be ridiculous that the ratings for each board would have pointed to a score of about 3-1 to the A team - when everyone could have gone home happy, feeling God was in his heaven and all was well with the world. The one relatively risky board for the A team looked to be Board 2, where Andrew had to face up to a still rapidly improving Keatan, who is full of ambition and thirsting for blood every time he sits down at the board.
The match was set up almost perfectly as a contest between Youth and Experience, except that there was also a Dinosaurs Board where Bernard and I faced each other. I was confident, because we had more Youth than the B team but ......... dear, oh dear!
The B team struck immediately in decisive fashion, where Keatan - in line with my very worst fears - simply demolished Andrew with a very deep piece of opening prep. One automatic move from Andrew and he was in a desperate, virtually losing position, after no time at all. He shouldn't feel too bad as plenty of strong players - GMs even - have walked into the same position and gone down to defeat. It really is a great line for White, so naturally I'm not going to reveal it!
Still, this was surely just a minor set-back, as Jude was already giving Bruce's kingside a real pounding, but a timely exchange sac (or was it just lost, I don't know?!) that yielded bishop and pawn for the rook, was enough to turn the tables, and in the final position Black had the luxury of a perpetual attack on a White rook, or playing on. With only 2 minutes against Jude's 50, Bruce erred on the side of caution, and took the draw.
Which meant the pressure was on, as Billy and I both had to win to secure the match victory. Billy initially seemed to be better against one of Joshua's regular, unorthodox openings, that he is just about the only person in the world to play. Given he scored 1/5 when using it at a recent British Rapidplay, it seems fair to say its not an entirely solid Black defence! But, of course, even against someone of Billy's monstrous strength, Joshua eventually got in a counter blow by rushing his d pawn down the board and getting a rook to the seventh rank. Billy had to be careful and to make matters worse, he was on the increment from a very early stage of the game (why?? - it was only Joshua!!). Somehow he navigated his way to a totally drawn position of rook and 1 pawn each. Joshua's pawn had whizzed down to a2, but Billy's rook was perfectly placed to sac itself when his own advanced g pawn would in turn force Black to give his rook up. But then - horror of horrors. Completely inexplicably, Billy played an instantly losing move when he had a very simple drawing sequence. If even I saw it while still in play on my own board it must have been simple. Joshua could scarcely believe his luck and proved quite quickly that he knew how to win with queen against g pawn.
So that was that, the match was gone and my game against Bernard was irrelevant. Except to the pair of us. The position was fairly level for the most part, though I missed a really good pawn sac in the middle game which would have put me right in the driver's seat. We swapped off a lot of pieces and were left with queen and knight each. My only hope was that Bernard had an isolated g pawn in front of a rather naked king, but against that his pawn structure was better than mine, and his knight was threatening to get quite jumpy against my own king. I was miles behind on the clock, but Bernard started thinking (always a mistake!) and soon I had won the g pawn and followed up by winning another on the queenside, leaving me with h, g and a pawns against a solitary a pawn. The knights were exchanged and I thought my connected passers would just waltz down the board and win the game. But I was kidding myself, as I soon pushed the wrong pawn and gave Bernard a perpetual check. Rather than accept that, though, and make a king move and take the draw, I just sat in my chair and let my time run down until I suddenly saw I had one second on the clock. This proved insufficient time to make a move and press the clock, and so I managed to lose despite being 2 pawns up. Criminal and tragic at the same time.
Which meant that the final score was Kenilworth B 3.5 - Kenilworth A 0.5. I didn't see that coming!
Well played the B team - and especially Keatan for the game of the night - but it did require a whiff of brimstone and magic dust in the air to produce such an unnatural match result. Let's hope normal service can be resumed as soon as possible!
Great news, if you haven't heard already, but Paul has just won the 2024 ECF Award for Contribution to Junior Chess. This is a massively deserved accolade for both Paul and the Coventry Chess Academy, which he has been running so brilliantly for a scarcely believable 11 years.
Thanks are due to Bernard C and Roy for preparing the submission, and I'm pleased to say that my Seconder's Statement at least did not derail the application! You can read the citation here. Paul is far too modest and self effacing to broadcast his achievement, but he should be extremely proud of this award, which also reflects splendidly on the likes of other KCC members Bernard, Roy, and Andy Ward who have been steadfast supporters of the CCA since its inception.
And with Paul being the man who introduced the very stylish Basque beret to Kenilworth, this seems like quite an appropriate choice of song to kick off the new season's musical contribution!
Following the closure of our most recent Thursday evening home, The Gauntlet, KCC successfully held its first on-line club night since covid-times last week, at which Jude was apparently in imperious form, demolishing virtually all comers as a warm up for his tilt at the British Championships. Full credit to Keatan, though, for depriving him of a 100% score with a crucial victory.
We will again be meeting on line this Thursday (August 1st), but from August 8th, we will resume meeting in person - at the Abbey Club, which is, of course, already our home match venue. This can only be a temporary arrangement, however, as we will not be able to continue on Thursdays once the snooker season re-starts. Rest assured, though, that our Chairman is working night and day (alright, that's a bit of an exaggeration!) to find us a suitable permanent venue for our club nights after the recent unlucky turns of events we have experienced.
Any developments will be circulated immediately to all club members and also be posted here for the benefit of prospective new members.
A note for everyone who attends or plans to attend our Thusday evening sessions, courtesy of our esteemed club chairman:
"As many members will have heard by now, the Gauntlet pub where we having been playing for the last few weeks is to close this Sunday.
The pub chain who own the building are apparently in talks with several interested parties about taking on a new Lease but nothing has yet been agreed.
Mark and I have decided that rather than seek an alternative venue at this stage, we will await developments to see if the Gauntlet does reopen and if so, whether we can continue to play there. We have considered other options but at present, we would prefer to continue at the Gauntlet.
For the interim period, we have decided to revert to online play as happened during Covid. There is already an established Kenilworth club on the Lichess website where many of you will already be members. In addition we use a program called Discord which enables us to talk amongst the members present on the site. Josh set this up for us at the start of the Pandemic and has kindly agreed to issue guidance as to how to join. The intention is that we will meet online on Thursday evenings from 7.30 until we can play in person again, be it at the Gauntlet or if necessary elsewhere."
Hopefully we will all be back up and running in a few weeks, but if anyone does plan to join us online on Thursdays in the interim, just send me an email (imscar1986@gmail.com) and I can send you the necessary information.
Well, that's the only conclusion I can come to after yesterday's events in Round 6 of the Norway Chess tournament being held in Stavanger. There simply isn't any other possible explanation. As the Iron lady said, "There is no alternative."
You only have to go back to the post of April 3rd to find the key piece of evidence. The report of the A team's win over Stratford A (which clinched our fourth successive LDCL Division 1 title) contained the beautiful queen sacrifice finish which Billy pulled off against Richard Dobedoe. If you can't remember what happened, here it is again, in all its glory.
Well, knock me down with a feather, but what happened yesterday in Norway but this. World number 1 Magnus Carlsen used Billy's exact motif to deliver checkmate against current - but clearly ailing - world Champion, Ding Liren.
So I think I'm on safe ground in being pretty confident that Magnus must be a KCC Blog reader, because there is simply no other way he could ever have come up with such a great idea if he wasn't copying Billy
Anyway, now we've established exactly where Magnus gets his best ideas from, it can only be a matter of time before we see some of Joshua's bizarre opening systems appear in his repertoire. And I expect he'll soon be fianchettoing his knights, too!!
Meanwhile here's an old favourite (though not with me, I can't stand the song!), but this post has clearly shown that its not only the history book on the shelf which is always repeating itself!
After 19 months at The Ale Rooms, during which time the available furniture inexorably reduced till it was almost a case of standing room only, KCC's Thursday evening club nights have returned to our former home, The Gauntlet. Our first stay at the Gauntlet ran from June 2017 to October 2022 and spanned the 15 month Covid-lockdown period.
Home sweet home! Again!!
It doesn't seem to have changed a lot from what I could see based on our first night back last week, which rather unfortunately coincided with one of the infrequent Kenilworth Runners' social meetings. As a result we were confined to the dark side of the moon, I mean room, but we hope to be back on the sunny side of the street, I mean room, next week.
There's a lot of rubbish talked about "You can't go home" or "You can't go back", but we can and we have! Fingers crossed for a long stay, though in the modern world of the hospitality industry, that might be a tad optimistic. You never know. Anyway, enjoy this week's song. Very appropriate, I thought.
It wasn't quite like Oscars Night at the AGM last week (not a red carpet in sight, for a start) but in our little world the crowning of the two KCC stars for the 2023-24 season was just as exciting and important. Two new, richly deserving winners added their names to the roll of honour of previous illustrious winners.
The newly crowned Player of the Year is Paul Badger - making Paul the third successive winner of this award (after Hector and Harry) in their debut competitive season for the club.
Paul - one of the very few club members able to look the Chairman in the eye! - receives the historic Tilley Trophy from Bernard, as KCC Player of the Year
Final standings:-
1 Paul B 9/11 (81.8%)
2 Javier 18/23 (78.3%)
3 Bruce 17/22 (77.3%)
And a record was set in the Clubman (Clubperson!) of the Year award, which went to the youngest ever recipient, Keatan, for his outstanding contribution to the club - both competitively (4th in the PotY competition; played in 4 of our 5 LDCL teams; match winning hero in the U8750 Cup Final; played in both our Coventry League and Cup teams) and socially (regular on Thursday evenings, despite rather pressing alternative demands on his time - good luck with the exams!!).
Keatan receives the shinier and larger (but less historic!) Clubman of the Year Cup from the Chairman
Details that will be spoken of in hushed tones for years to come, as this was where and when history was made. For the second time in three years we got all three of our Leamington League Cup teams through to Finals night. In 2022 we managed to lift the Open and U8750 Cups, while last year we "only" made the final of the Open and U1600 competitions but in winning both we again picked up to two out of three trophies. In 2024, KCC was again trying to go one better and win all three cups in the same season, for the first time ever. This was a feat which had been performed only once this century (by Banbury in 2015), so clearly this is no everyday happening. How did it go? Let me tell you!
Step One - Kenilworth 3.5 - 0.5 Daventry (U1600 Cup Final)
The Kenilworth team comprised three juniors - Dylan, Lionel and Gregory - and a (very!) senior - Roy. The Daventry team unfortunately comprised only three players in total, which meant a wasted journey for Lionel and an extra hour wait before he could claim the win - a great shame as this is clearly the only time he will ever be eligible for this competition, given his tremendous recent form and rocketing rating. 1-0 soon became 2-0, as Dylan scored an absolutely crushing win on Board 1 (with the Black pieces) after forking his opponent's king and queen in double quick time. This actually meant we had already won the cup, as even two losses would have left us winning on tie break (board elimination), but our boys were not having any of that, and after Roy secured a steady draw on Board 2, Gregory rounded things off with another win to give us a decisive victory.
The U1600 Cup Heroes: Back (l-r); Patrick (non-playing Captain), Roy and Dylan. Front (l-r); Lionel and Gregory
Step Two - Kenilworth 3.5 - 1.5 Stratford (Open KO Cup Final)
A fourth consecutive triumph (and 6 of the last 7!) for Kenilworth, and a third consecutive League and Cup double in the process. But it was not plain sailing by any stretch of the imagination. Javi drew quickly and efficiently on Board 1 against Ben Larkin, but it was all to play for on the other boards. I was especially nervous about Joshua's position (for virtually the whole evening!) though he has subsequently assured me the engine never thought he stood worse. I can only assume the engine in question was PinkFish, and is programmed to be biased in favour of Joshua-style dubious positions! Jude was actually second to finish, defeating Richard McNally for the second time in a few weeks, before Joshua - inevitably - took us to the verge of victory by beating Richard Dobedoe. The victory celebrations had to put on hold when Bruce, uncharacteristically, went down disastrously against David Gardiner in a queen ending where one side had a lot more pawns than the other, but victory was confirmed when after a very measured game Andrew's steadily growing control translated into decisive material gains against Sam Cotterill.
The Open KO Cup Heroes - (l-r) Bruce, Andrew, Javier, Joshua and Jude
Step Three - Kenilworth 2.5 - 2.5 Olton (U8750 Cup Final) - Kenilworth win on tie break!
So two down, one to go, but things were not going according to plan in the U8750 final. Dhairya had got us off to a flying start with a brutal kingside attack against Andy Cottom which only ended when checkmate was delivered and when Paul drew against Rob Reynolds everything in the garden looked rosy. But then Solomon and Ben both fell to defeat (against Richard Evans and Richard Liszewski, respectively), which left us facing defeat. But there was still hope - if Keatan could win on Board 1, he would tie the scores at 2.5-2.5, and we would win on board elimination. But he faced no easy task, as Black against the very experienced Richard Reynolds (how about that - Olton had three Richards in their team!?) . The position was very complicated and Richard sacrificed an exchange, although it wasn't at all clear to me that it was good. And indeed Keatan, despite severe time pressure, then played excellently to invade with his rook and dominate White's remaining minor piece. A rampant passed a pawn then won that minor piece and with it the game - and the Cup. A tremendously composed and mature win from Keatan, in highly pressurised circumstances.
The U8750 Cup Heroes:- (l-r) Solomon, Paul, Keatan, Ben (Captain) and Dhairya
And so the season ended in an unprecedented blaze of glory. It was particularly gratifying to see all 6 of our junior players winning on the night. (Watch out KCC oldies - they're coming for you!) Congratulations to all the members of our three victorious teams - though I like to kid myself that non-playing captains and spectators also deserve a share of the glory - as Milton nearly wrote several centuries ago, "they also serve, who only stand and watch!"
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