Back to Back C Team Wins!

 Last night Kenilworth C played Leamington A for the first time since the Division 2 promotion decider a couple of years ago. On that occasion Leamington secured promotion to Division 1 with a narrow victory. We then followed Leamington up to the top League by winning Division 2 the following season. With this now a Division 1 fixture, Kenilworth C returned the favour after that fateful previous encounter, with a narrow win (despite being outgraded.) For once the proceedings were slightly more comfortable than the 2.5 - 1.5 score line suggested.

Dhairya got us off to a terrific start on Board 2 against Ben Egid.  Ben walked into a well-known opening trap minutes into the proceedings. Dhairya pocketed considerable material, and while Ben tried everything to complicate the position, Dhairya proceeded to completely outplay him. I was so impressed by Dhairya's calmness and his accuracy. To see another of our juniors performing so well on a high board in Division 1 is a real cause for celebration. Dhairya's chess is getting better and better and he is such an asset to the team.

Paul was next to finish on Board 1, unfortunately losing to Tom Darling after a Smith-Morra Gambit generated its usual complexities. I must admit, I did not see much of this, but I'm sure it would have been a good battle.

So 1-1, but I was winning on Board 3 against Joshua Simpson (of which more later) and I thought Dan looked very solid against Chris Ward on four. 

Dan keeps conjuring up the points and this proved to be no exception. In a quietish position he set up various tactical threats and ultimately found a fork to win a piece. In a very similar vein to Dhairya, Dan did not look back, and brought home the full point for another fantastic victory. I've written it before, but Dan is another player who is developing at a rate of knots, and making such a difference to the club.

My own night was somewhat bizarre. With a day job in a UK-US Business, it's not unusual for me to sometimes be on calls with the US in the evening, but I plan rigorously to ensure it doesn't cut across chess nights. Until yesterday, when at 6.40 I was told our US President (not that one) wanted to talk to me at 7.00. I sprinted across to Kenilworth and started the call sat in my car in the pitch-black car park. Eventually I moved inside to at least let the players know I was there. Eventually I managed to extract myself at 7.35 and Joshua very sportingly hadn't started the clocks.

I still have a job, but I don't think it was the best preparation. I started sluggishly and Joshua missed a good chance in the opening. I eased myself back into the game, set up a nice kingside attack and picked up a pawn.  As usual this all left me very short of time. I thought simplifying was the best way to go, but Joshua's passed pawn and bishop proved to be good compensation against my knight and extra pawn. I'm sure a computer would have found a win for me, but with seconds left on my clock (and conscious that a draw was all we needed to win the match) I split the point. It's not the first time this season that I've not managed to convert, but if you keep getting into decent positions, I know from experience that you are probably doing OK...

Last season we celebrated when the C team beat other clubs B teams. We can now add Leamington A to Olton A as C team scalps. Our priority remains to get enough points to stay up. I'm sure we can do it and yesterday was another good step...

Billy, Please Do Be a Hero

24 hours before our latest Coventry League match, against Nuneaton A, Billy wasn't even in the team (and had never played a single game in this League!), but with Keatan having to drop out there was a large hole on Board 1 that he thankfully stepped in to fill. And what an inspired piece of captaincy that turned out to be by yours truly, as Billy got the sole decisive result of the evening and steered us to a 2.5-1.5 win which - quite by chance - sent us to the top of the table on maximum points after 2 matches.

But for much of the evening I was fearing the worst, as an enterprising pawn sac in the opening by Phil Briggs seemed to put Billy in considerable trouble, and when Phil's rook crashed in on g7 and a Black rook was simultaneously hanging on a8 it looked like curtains for the youngest of our Candidate Masters. But what do I know? Billy somehow rode out the storm and then pocketed a whole piece when Phil completely forgot about his loose bishop that had previously captured the loose rook on a8. So Billy had an extra piece and a centre pawn then yomped down the board to queen and end the game. Phew!

The remaining games all ended, almost simultaneously, in draws. Mike, on 3 against Colin Green and Ben, on 4 against Maurice Staples both seemed to be pushing for much of the evening, but couldn't get a decisive edge, while I was the one hanging on in a rook ending a pawn down against Paul Davies. But with all the pawns on the same side of the board, it wasn't too difficult for me to hold the draw.

We've now got a three week gap till our next match, but after just two weeks of action we are the only team in Division 1 with a 100% score. Not bad considering we've already used 7 different players and are not taking the competition too seriously!

No special reason for this week's song. Except that I like it and its a great video. Like a 5 minute episode of Miami Vice, but with a killer song! Can't think what took me so long to choose it.

Controversy and Drama as U8750 Team Beats Olton

We had a true battle of the heavy-weights in the U8750 KO Cup last night. Kenilworth are the defending champions with back to back victories to our name. Olton were the last non-Kenilworth team to win the trophy, three years ago. They also outgraded us, with a team weighing in at 8746 to our 8519... It is unlikely that we will face stronger opponents in this year's competition, but our 3.5 - 1.5 victory does not tell the full story of a match that went to the wire. 

We lined up with four of the five players who had taken part in every round of last year's triumph. Our grades have gone up, so that original five aren't an eligible team anymore. Yet with Dhariya away, I was spared any difficult selection decisions. Algirdas was our new recruit on Board 5 (and ended up being one of our heroes, as we will see later in this report.) 

Dylan got us off to a very solid start with a relatively quick draw against Rob Reynolds on Board 4. Rob does draw a lot, but I was very pleased to see Dylan split the point so comfortably with such an experienced opponent.

All the other games went deep into the night. I was the next to finish on Board 2 against Richard Liszewski, who as I've noted in a previous report, I have a terrible record against. Last night went pretty well in comparison to many of my previous experiences with Richard. It was a very active game, with Richard attacking on the Kingside, me on the Queenside. Completely engrossing, but eventually we cancelled each other out to make it 1-1.

At which point, looking around the other boards, it was clear how tough it was going to be. Paul looked to be a little better against Mike Hollier on Board 1. Dan was struggling against Richard Reynolds on Board 3, and Algirdas didn't look like he had much against Warren Archibold  (and Algirdas was also playing on vapours timewise.)

As so often happens, things seemed to swing in those final twenty minutes. Paul launched a crashing attack out of nowhere. I didn't see exactly what happened, but he gave up material to drag Mike's king up the board. Suddenly, it seemed obvious he was winning, but I wouldn't have bet my house on it either. (Paul told me afterwards that he hadn't been totally confident, but his attacking instincts proved to be correct, as Mike's king fell deeper into a mating net.) A terrific win and Paul's two victories against Olton in a week have been integral to Kenilworth's improving fortunes.

All of which meant we were 2-1 up and with the win on Board 1, needed only half a point from the two remaining games. I thought Dan was completely finished in an impossible knight ending (more on this later) so the attention turned to Algirdas, who was starting to outplay Warren. The huge gulf between them on the clock narrowed to almost nothing as Algirdas marched his queenside pawns down the board. There might have been a mating chance in there somewhere, but no matter, as Algirdas's approach had conjured up an overwhelming position - and this was where the controversy started...

Deep in trouble on the board, Warren proceeded to run out of time. Unfortunately, Algirdas was so engrossed in his winning plans that he did not notice. A few moves later, Algirdas made an illegal move - at which point Rob and Warren asked for 2 minutes to be added to Warren's clock. I would welcome thoughts on this request.... In my view Warren had been out of time for a while and had clearly lost. Algirdas might not have pointed out that Warren's clock had run out previously, but clearly noticed it when the request for the extra two minutes was made. 

I thought Algirdas was still winning easily on the board and we agreed to give Warren the extra two minutes, but I did say to Rob and Warren that we reserved the right to appeal. As it turned out, Warren's position was so difficult that it made no difference, and he managed to almost immediately drop a rook and then run out of time (despite the extra two minutes.) This time Algirdas pointed it out instantly and we had won the match! Ultimately, it was a victory earned at the board and a great debut for Algirdas in the U8750 team. [Postscript on this - I had an affable chat with Rob and Warren in the Bar afterwards, and there were no hard feelings, but I said would seek guidance as to what should have happened, purely for future reference.]

Meanwhile, on Board 3, Dan was doing the impossible. He had somehow held together an exceptionally difficult knight and pawn endgame with immense skill. Somehow Richard had allowed his king and knight to be pulled to the queenside, with Dan only having to defend against pawns on the kingside. Remarkably, what had appeared to be a certain defeat was now a draw. A fantastic tribute to Dan's resilience under pressure and his growing prowess! Another very impressive performance.

So, an unbeaten start, as we aim for a hat-trick of titles. With the five who played tonight, plus Dhairya in the squad, I think we've got a really good chance. We will certainly give it our best shot...

Not a Draw in Sight

A rather delayed report of this week's match activity, which spread across two leagues, over two nights, with 8 games played - and all of them decisive. Who said chess is basically a draw? Not in Kenilworth, it isn't.

Monday night saw the first ever Kenilworth - Warwick University match in the Leamington League, but shelve any thoughts that this was a unique occasion, as there will be five more such encounters this season, plus four in the Coventry League for good measure. The series didn't get off to the perfect start, as Kenilworth A dropped it's first point of the season in a 2-2 draw. Our opponents came with a pretty useful team, but I was hoping we would pack enough of a punch to claim the victory, as we had deployed our strongest line-up so far this season and had a ratings edge on every board - slight on Boards 1 and 3, but substantial on 2 and 4.

I finished first, beating David Cebolla on Board 4 after he mistakenly gave up two pieces for a rook and pawn, and then immediately made a catastrophic oversight which led to the loss of his queen.  Not long after, Javier marked his first outing of the season by beating Magnus Borissow, making use of his extra exchange after carefully neutralising the threat from Black's pair of bishops. So two White games, and two White wins. Unfortunately that pattern continued for the rest of the match!

On Board 3, David had got himself into terrible trouble in the opening and was fighting a rearguard action to try and hold off a big attack on his highly vulnerable king. Eventually he had to give up his queen for two bishops, subsequently picking up an exchange to leave him with a pair of rooks and a bishop against queen and rook. The position may have been holdable, but David's king was very exposed and he had almost zero time. 10 seconds doesn't go very far in such circumstances and the inevitable loss duly arrived. Which left the match outcome depending on Jude's heavyweight Board 1 encounter with CM Edward Jackson. (No relation to IM James, who Jude had beaten a week earlier to heroically win our KO Cup tie against Banbury.) Jude sacked a pawn very early on to get an open g file against the White king and in a complex middle game had plenty of compensation - at the point where Jude's score sheet became indecipherable, the engine was giving him a clear edge. But when I returned to witness the final moments, things had changed horribly, and Jude was now 3 pawns down. although he made life very difficult for his opponent with two bishops and a rook. But pieces kept getting exchanged and when Black's last pawn disappeared the game was up and the match was drawn.

24 hours later it was another first, as we welcomed Daventry on their first ever Coventry League visit to Kenilworth, for what was their Division 1 debut. We had a sizeable rating edge on all 4 boards, and the match ended in a 3-1 win for us. I left after about 90 minutes (I was only present in my dogsbody role of setting everything up) knowing that we would soon be 1-0 up, as Phil - on his much anticipated return to the team - was material up with a dominant position against Abbie Stevens. Of course, the inevitable happened and Phil somehow contrived to lose - I need to give up making these predictions when I am a spectator as I keep getting them hopelessly wrong. But thankfully, the other games all went our way. Keatan won a rather wild game on Board 1, while Mike played very correct and sensible chess to bring home another point on Board 2. After pressing for most of the evening, Paul eventually found a rook sacrifice to secure a decisive advantage and clinch a solid victory. But 4-0 would have been much nicer!

So no shortage of blood and thunder in the two matches, and all 8 games being decisive. After a 4-0 win for White on Monday, Black cut back the deficit on Tuesday by winning 3-1.

No logical reason for this week's song, except that I went to see a Billy Joel tribute act last week and I guess he's at the top of my current musical memories. Plenty of cracking tunes to choose from, and here's the one you lucky readers get to hear now. I recommend putting the subtitles on or you'll likely miss half the lyrics!

The Famous Five

"You can't possibly do anything if you think you can't. But you can do impossible things sometimes if you think you can." 

Enid Blyton

Future Kenilworth chess historians will look back at this week as one in which we achieved things that might once have seemed impossible. As Mark wrote in his blog yesterday, our Open team had a terrific win against Banbury in the Cup on Monday, led by Jude's Board 1 win against James Jackson. I still remember when Jude started. The idea way back then that he (or any other new starter) would one day be beating an International Master with Black would have seemed "impossible," but he did it - and of course this was far from his first IM scalp! A terrific achievement of which he, Paul, and everyone at the club is very proud.

On Tuesday night, Kenilworth C ratcheted up 2.5 points across four boards to beat Olton A in our Division 1 match. For many years, Olton were the League's juggernaut team winning title after title. If someone had told you not all that long ago that our C team would beat them in a Division 1 match, that too would have been seen as "impossible." But it's now in the books...

Olton are not quite as strong as they once were, but they are still formidable, and we were out graded on every board. It would take a statistician of Joshua's calibre to calculate the likelihood of four players coming out on top against 4 players who are higher graded than them (with significant differentials on three of the four boards.) Not "impossible," but far from easy. Which is what makes this achievement all the more special.

Added to the challenges, we had a lot of players unavailable and organising the team had been very difficult. Ultimately Mark's inspired suggestion that Michal might be available made all the difference...

Dan was back in the team against Richard Liszewski on Board 4, but couldn't quite replicate his heroics against Banbury. I personally always find Richard annoying to play against. Partly because he always yells "check" at the top of his voice, but mainly because we usually have a wild game that he wins. Dan's game had a familiar look to my watching eyes. Sharp, with chances for both sides and ultimately unsuccessful. Richard is undoubtedly a canny operator and late in the night his rook, queen and bishop combined to break through Dan's tough defences and put Olton ahead.

My game with Mike Hollier on Board 3 was the quietest of the evening. A lot of wood came off very quickly, but my early draw offer was declined. We played on for nearly the full three hours in a complicated rook and minor piece ending. Mike was slightly better for most of this, but over pressed and gave me the open "a" file for my rook, after which I had secured full equality and we split the point.

At the exact same moment, on Board 2, Paul Badger secured a fantastic win against Mark Cundy. An extremely tense game. Mark had been attacking with queen and knight on Paul's kingside, while Paul was pressing on the queenside (Mark having castled long.) Paul's bishop and queen were combining well with his rook on c8 to tighten his grip around the white king... I always thought Paul was better but it was one of those games that looked like it had the potential to go either way. Ultimately Paul held his nerve superbly to bring us level at 1.5 - 1.5.

We all gathered around Board 1 to watch the final moments of Michal's shoot-out with Alan Lloyd. This being the game where Olton had the biggest grading differential of them all... To my joy I saw that Michal was the exchange up, but there was a lot of play left. Eventually Michal gave back the exchange to put himself two pawns up. With opposite coloured bishops on the board, I felt (as did Michal) that Alan might still have played on. That said, it seemed as if Michal's excellent play all evening had taken the last drops of Alan's energy and Alan resigned to give us an "impossible" victory. A brilliant effort from Michal!

This will surely be remembered as the week in which Kenilworth teams' secured five famous points (2.5 in the Open Ko and 2.5 here) and two amazing wins!

I always said to the C team at the start of the season that our aim was to stay up this year. We might have had a difficult start, with not many of the breaks going our way before this week, but we've shown we've got the strength and depth to make the "impossible" happen. Warwick University (which will be tough) and Leamington await in the coming weeks. We're going to give this a really good go. If results do go our way, maybe we should even consider getting a dog...

Postscript - three votes of thanks...

 I did want to thank Paul Badger for suggesting The Famous Five theme for this piece and Mark again for thinking of Michal for this game. I also wanted to thank all the Kenilworth players who played in my online 50th birthday bash. It was a big deal for me and I really appreciate those who made the effort.

The Famous Two and a Half

In the Enid Blyton book series, the Famous Five were Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog. On Monday night, KCC got half way to replicating this well known group - despite having no women or canines in the team - when the Magnificent 2.5 (bad choice of phrase - now we seem to be missing 4.5 people!) somehow secured us victory over a very strong Banbury side in the first round of the Open KO Cup.

It's not easy writing a match report when you left the venue after only one hour of play, but as I'd just flown back from Croatia that morning after 9 successive days of chess, I was in no fit state to stay any longer. Thank goodness I did, as apparently it got rather tense at the end of the evening, and it might well have proved too much for me in my weakened condition!

I was very pessimistic when I went home, as I was already sure that Keatan was losing to Georgs Vikanis on Board 2, and Jude was faced with the most difficult task in Leamington League chess - Black against IM James Jackson on top board. With a tied match being decided by board elimination, starting on Board 5, we could already have been looking at having to win all the remaining 3 boards to avoid defeat. The good news was that Andrew (v Gary Jackson), Dave (v Tom Day) and Joshua (v Paul Rowan) all seemed to me to have some advantage. But none was remotely decisive and we clearly couldn't afford even a single accident, so it looked for all the world as though our run of five successive cup triumphs was going to end at the first hurdle.

But I was reckoning without the Kenilworth Famous Two and a Half!

As I discovered when I went online the following morning to read the inevitable news of our defeat. Except we hadn't lost. We had actually won - and on tie break, which had seemed an impossibility to me the night before. My reading of events was shown to be absolutely dreadful, since only one game - a win for Andrew on Board 3 - had turned out the way I expected. Far from winning on the bottom two boards, both Dave and Joshua had managed to lose and somehow Keatan, despite not being in the best of health, had bravely turned round his dreadful looking position to secure a draw.

However, the mathematically advanced amongst you will have worked out that this left us trailing 2.5-1.5, with only the top board game remaining. But there the result quite clear showed a win for Jude - yes, our new FM had beaten Banbury's long standing IM, in what was possibly the highest level game ever played in the Leamington League. And so by levelling the scores, Jude had secured victory for us on tie-break. Probably the most dramatic conclusion to a KCC match since Paul beat Phil Holt on Board 1 in the 2017 Cup Final (after Phil had turned down Paul's draw offer that would have won the Cup for Olton!) to secure a 2.5-2.5 draw and a Kenilworth win on tie break!

So there you have it - some new legends are born! The Kenilworth Famous Two and a Half, who won the day against all the odds. An amazing effort by our top three boards, who have all now officially been inducted to the KCC Pantheon of Heroes, spearheaded by Jude's brilliant win. It would be quite a blow if we didn't make it 6 Cup triumphs in a row after such an epic performance. We owe it to our Heroes!

No more heroes? Oh yes there are!