The Thrill of the Fight

Explain this if you can - on Tuesday night Kenilworth loses 1-3 to Warwick Uni B in the Coventry League. On Wednesday night Warwick Uni loses 1.5-2.5 to Kenilworth B in the Leamington League. Thankfully, I had nothing to do with the match on Tuesday, so there will not be a report on that particular encounter. Instead, I'll focus on the much happier event of the B team victory, which went down to the wire and was one of the most thrilling matches I've been involved in recently.

Mike (Bd 4) and I (Bd 2) were first to finish, almost simultaneously, and so in the wink of an eye the score went from 0-0 to 1.5-0.5 in our favour. Against Piotr Arp, Mike had to face a massive pawn storm heading for his king, but got counterplay on the queenside at the cost of an exchange. It was all pretty hair-raising stuff, as White then managed to set up a very nasty pin on the 8th rank, but thankfully Mike's queen jumped in to give perpetual check. I faced Ben Fearnhead for the third time this season - all with Black. In the previous two games he had sacked, first, a piece and a rook, and more recently three pieces against me. I, of course, had sacrificed nothing in return and had somehow (and most undeservedly) acquired 1.5 points from the two encounters. So I shouldn't really have been surprised when - out of nowhere - he sacked a knight for three pawns. I should have refuted the sac on the spot, but despite seeing the right move, I miscalculated the consequences and instead we ended up in a position where I had two bishops for a rook and pawn, plus one more rook each and a collection of pawns. But on the open board my bishops then caused instant mayhem. The White pawns started to fall off, and a final desperate move walked into the loss of an exchange and more pawns, forcing resignation.

But the match was anything but over, despite our healthy lead. Dave and Bruce were both having mega-fights which might have gone either way. Playing against correspondence chess Senior IM, Vitalii Mikhalchuk, Dave eventually won a pawn on Board 3 and it came down to rook and three v rook and two. The Black king got very active and things looked highly unclear, but a couple of crucial checks got Dave's king over to stop the last remaining Black pawn, and there was nothing to stop one of his own pawns from queening. Tremendous stuff, and some swift consolation for his agonising near-miss against IM James Jackson in a C team match on Monday.

Unfortunately, we didn't end on a high as Bruce went down on top board against Damirali Magzumov, despite being much better for most of the game. But the absence of any increment assumed massive significance, and after he'd missed the right set up against another somewhat dubious kingside pawn-storm he couldn't find a way to defend his pawns and his king as his clock ticked down. And to top it all, he managed to get lost both on the way to the match, and on the way home afterwards! Doesn't bode well for this weekend when he's playing in the Warwick Uni Open.

The B team stays in third place after this latest success, but now sits only one point behind Banbury A with a game in hand. However, both Stratford A and Warwick Uni are also in the fight for second place - and maybe first if our A team falter, though we have a reasonably healthy lead at the moment.

There's so much good music out there that its a struggle to make my regular selections. But since I just noticed that we've never had a song from Steely Dan, I think its time I remedied that omission.

Strange fact number 1 - the amazing lead guitarist is Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, who in later years became a major authority on missile defence systems!! Don't judge a book by its cover!

Playing Catch-Up

Its been so long since I wrote a match report that I've almost forgotten what I need to catch up on. But I think I'm currently running one B team and 2 Cov League fixtures in arrears.

Our bad run in the Coventry League continued a week ago, when a quick return fixture against Warwick University A resulted in a second 1-3 defeat, even though they gave us a chance by omitting their two top boards from the previous week. Truth be told, we were lucky to score any points at all, as I was more lost than  a penguin in the Sahara Desert against Ben Fearnhead who played a brilliant sacrificial game against me right up until he missed a further exchange sac (he was already 2 pieces down) which would have left me completely defenceless. Instead he played into a level-ish position, only to make a monumental blunder which allowed me to win. E|ven I was a bit embarrassed to take the full point. But take it I did. Keatan sacked two pawns in the opening on Board 1 but only got one of them back and lost in the ending. Mike seemed to be making all the running on Board 3, but allowed the queen side to open up for the Black major pieces which flooded into his position, before delivering a knockout blow on the kingside. Paul seemed to be worse out of the opening and could never get his game back on track, eventually being overpowered by an armada of White pieces. His opponent seemed to play a rather good game to me.

But despair not, because last night we managed to bounce back with a 3-1 win over Coventry A to notch our first points since Christmas. In truth it was like watching a mixed up version of a Kenilworth B v Kenilworth C match, as three of the Coventry team have played for us in the Leamington League this season!

Keatan kicked things off by beating Joshua with the White pieces on Board 1. How it happened I have no idea. Joshua had a knight firmly entrenched (or so it appeared to me) on d3 while Keatan had a big pawn on e6 supported by a mighty central knight. I thought that these respective advantages probably meant it was level, but that shows how much I know these days. Bruce, on board 2 v Dave, was playing a splendid and vigorous game (especially for one of his advancing years) and duly brought home the full point. Though again I failed to see the climax, though the rumour is that an exchange sac did the trick.

It was far from plain sailing to wrap up the match, though, as I played a very poor opening against Jonathan Fowler, and was soon clearly worse with White. However, he allowed me one chance to jump out and we ended up in a rook ending which should have been an easy hold for me. But I carelessly lost a pawn, which meant I had to suffer the tortures of the damned for 80+ moves before getting my half-point, though I think I was always holding on. The engine may beg to differ when I look more closely, though. Phil also looked to be in big trouble in the ending when Rhys got a queen and rook to the 8th rank menacing a rather exposed Black king and also targeting a very weak pawn on c6. It looked lost, but short of time Rhys couldn't find a mate or decisive breakthrough and exchanged off into a rook ending a pawn up. But he mistakenly pushed his passed c pawn one square too far and Phil was able to cut the White king off permanently and keep the passed pawn under control to secure another half point for us, making a final score of 3-1 to Kenilworth.

But hold your horses, because we're not finished yet! On Monday the A team lurched back into action for only the third time since Christmas. With our titled players all absent (Jude and Billy in the Isle of Wight and Javier "resting") we were not at super-strength, but we still packed too much of a punch for visitors Leamington A, chalking up a 4-0 win - some revenge, I suppose, for the poor B team who had gone down to a disastrous defeat against Leamington only a week or so earlier.

Mike was first to notch the full point, with a total rout on Board 4 - winning a whole rook after some very suspect opening play by Black. Nothing else happened for some time, but then Keatan won against Tom Darling on top board, defusing all of Tom's attacking ideas in a way that I have twice totally failed to do this season! This looked like a very good and controlled win to me. I then got a rather lucky win over Chris Ward after a rather tense game. he went wrong by falling into a trap. It looked like he was winning a piece but I had a counter combo that in fact netted me a pawn. But then (I went wrong and it should have been a draw - first in a double rook ending and then in a single rook ending. However, he let my king cross to the queenside and it proved impossible to stop the advance of my passed c pawn. The evening was rounded off by Andrew winning a very interesting game against Ben Egid. He had played almost single-mindedly against a bad Black light squared bishop and cashed in by sacking his own bishop for a mass of centre pawns - so that even when the Black bishop was the only one left on the board it was still bad, as it was powerless to stop the White pawns yomping down the board to success. A slightly flattering score-line, but most welcome nevertheless.

Right - on to the music. None of this A, B or C themed malarkey this time. Just some good old rock 'n roll! And another tribute to a recently departed great. RIP Bob Weir - rhythm/lead guitarist and vocalist and knock-out song writer with the Grateful Dead.  

PS And while I think to mention it, many congratulations to the D team, who gained an excellent 2-2 draw against Stratford B this week. It was great to welcome Steph back to the team and she and Patrick got impressive draws on Boards 2 and 3. Roy went down in a queen ending against the very experienced - and long time Stratford A player - Richard Dobedoe on top board (revenge for Richard's last appearance in these pages, which ended spectacularly, as you can see here) but the match was saved by Mark Senn on Board 4, who gained a massive win over Peter Stiff (conqueror of Phil many years ago in an infamous game which almost cost us the Division 1 title!) in only his second game of the season for us. Considering Dan has become ineligible for the D team and that Dylan was also missing, this was a tremendous effort against Stratford's second team. It also marked the first time since I've been a member of KCC that we were able to have two teams playing on the same night in the same room at a home venue. It certainly added to the entertainment and enjoyment, and given our recent change of circumstances I hope we'll be able to arrange mnore such occasions next season, rather than be trying to schedule only 1 match on any date.

B-igly C-alamity

Oh dear, oh dear. What have I gone and done? Only put (probably) a very big nail in the C team's coffin and set them on the road to relegation.

Our story begins over a week ago, when the B and C teams faced off in the third and final leg of the intra-Kenilworth mini-tournament that we are compelled to play due to having three teams in Division 1. It was obviously a more important match for the C team than the B team, but as usual Ben's team selection was compromised by non-availability and it was not at full strength. However, to counter-balance this, neither was the B team and the outcome was by no means a foregone conclusion.

I had played Ben in the Kenilworth A v Kenilworth B match one week earlier, but we found ourselves in opposition once again, this time on Board 1 in the B v C encounter. The game was fairly balanced until Ben gave me the two bishops to win a pawn. But he couldn't actually keep the pawn, and my unopposed dark squared bishop started to cause a few problems. Never mind, though, as I went wrong and gave away all my advantage. But Ben was getting into big time trouble and missed a chance to swap most of the pieces off to get a totally drawn position. I managed to get a rook into the kingside and take all Ben's pawns and he was then powerless to stop me queening.

By contrast, Mike seemed to have a very smooth win over Paul B on Board 2, but Phil's encounter with Dan on Board 3 looked like total chaos from beginning to end. Phil's king was wandering around in the centre but he had an extra pawn for his troubles, and when I next saw the game they were in a knight ending where Phil had about 3 extra pawns. He avoided any embarrassing forks and duly queened one of his pawns in a time scramble, but then bemused the watching crowd by failing to deliver an obvious mate in 1 by playing a random knight move - which was nevertheless good enough to compel resignation. This gave the B team a 3-0 lead, but some honour was restored when Dylan managed to win a totally drawn knight ending against Patrick. It came down to N+h pawn v N+ g and h pawns. Tragically for Patrick he rushed his attempt to liquidate all the pawns and gave his knight up too early. Dylan kept one pawn and with the aid of an extra knight this was sufficient to win the game. Very hard luck for Patrick after 3 hours of good play, but credit to Dylan for pressing for most of the night and still being alert enough to seize the opportunity that came his way.

So, 3-1 to the B team and no points for the C team.

Fast forward 7 days and it was now Kenilworth B v Leamington A. A crucial match for our C team, who led Leamington by 1 point at the foot of the table and were relying on the B team to do the decent thing and beat Leamington. Alas, we didn't. And in fact it was worse than that as we actually lost. And even worse than that was the fact that it was me who lost the match. Oh no!! Oh yes!!

I went down on top board against Tom Darling after seeing, but rejecting a very strong move (+3 to black) and instead choosing a losing variation where I had only considered a White knight jumping to d5 - when I would still have been better - and blanked the idea of it going to e4. Which won my queen. Oops.

And despite big rating advantages on every board we couldn't find even a single win to level the match. Andy B seemed to be powering to victory on the kingside against Joshua Simpson but the Black counter attack came just in time to force Andy to settle for perpetual check. On Board 3 Joshua played one of his pet/dubious openings as Black against Ben Egid and was doubtless rather relieved when a draw was offered, as his position looked pretty horrendous to me. I saw very little of Mike's game on Board 4 against Chris Ward, but Black never seemed to be in much trouble and another draw resulted.

A dagger to the heart of the C team, who now find themselves overtaken by Leamington A - trailing by a point and having played one match more. Its fair to say that the Leamington A v Kenilworth C match on March 3rd has become a must win fixture for us. Hmm - what's that saying? Oh yes - "now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party!"

In amongst all this angst and drama, its also appropriate to record here that the wheels have well and truly come off our quest for a second Coventry League title, following consecutive heavy defeats at the hands of Nuneaton A and Warwick University A. One person - no names, no pack drill - disgraced themselves by getting the match date confused and failing to turn up, which didn't help proceedings, while those who did were not able to score too many points. Admittedly against two rather strong teams. Keatan seemed especially unlucky against Warwick Uni's strong board 1 Edward Jackson (already a conqueror of Jude in the Leamington League this season) as he managed to drive the White king to g4, but unfortunately there was no mate. At least not for Keatan!! In the same match I was a pawn up but missed a beautiful win against Magnus Borissow and ended up allowing perpetual check. Our championship charge has been well and truly derailed.

But on to happier things. Its music time. This week I've worked with a B/C theme. (Well, when you get an idea you've got to keep running with it.) I drew the line at Bobby Crush, but I couldn't decide between two other options. So prepare for a double blast of BC music - from two very different artists. Well, music really is a very broad church!

A-wesome and B-fuddled

A slightly low key Kenilworth A v Kenilworth B encounter last night ended up as a 4-0 whitewash for the A team. As they say, be careful what you wish for, because when I was lamenting the absence of a clean sweep win for any of our teams this season, I didn't want it to occur when two of them were playing each other!

The A team, looking very much like the normal Kenilworth B team (with the exception of Andrew on Board 1), faced off against a B team looking very much like a cross between the C and D teams. Such is the price of a seemingly never-ending succession of fixtures - compounded by a C team match the following night. There's no doubt that nine teams in Division 1 is one too many - especially when we have 3 teams each playing 2 extra fixtures. Its no wonder a bit of chess fatigue sets in.

For once I scored the first point, beating Ben - who had been my nemesis in the summer quickplay club championship events - after he blundered on move 7. It immediately cost him a pawn, but his position was wrecked too, and the very best he could have done would have been to lose a second pawn. But he actually lost a piece and even I was able to wrap up proceedings without any major alarms after that. Mike followed just after, though I failed to see the end of his game against Patrick. Earlier on he looked to be building up a very strong position, with an extra pawn and a monstrous line up of pawns across the fourth rank leaving the Black army struggling for room.

But - as always seems to be the case - matters elsewhere were not so clear cut. Michal and Andrew were having a very tense encounter on Board 1, while Phil and Joshua were having a rather crazy game (who could have guessed?) on Board 3. On two occasions the player of the White pieces (Mr Wood!) was moved to utter a mild, but clearly audible, obscenity - first when he missed a knight fork that won a pawn, and secondly when he responded to a knight check by moving his bishop. As is well known, Phil is a master of the illegal move gambit, but this time Joshua spotted it - unlike Ben when he was playing for Leamington against us many years ago!!

Andrew turned down a draw offer, and soon after Michal lost the exchange, but with the position somewhat blocked it was not at all clear that Andrew's extra rook was better than Michal's extra knight. Meanwhile, Phil and Joshua had reached a bishop v knight ending where Black had an extra pawn but was on the verge of defeat with White threatening to get two widely separated passed pawns that couldn't have been stopped. Superficial (what other kind are we capable of?) analysis afterwards suggested it should have been a draw, but Phil made one wrong move and all of a sudden Joshua's extra pawn steamed down the board to force resignation. A very close run thing indeed, and if Phil had been a bit more match-fit he might well have taken a notable scalp.

Back on Board 1, Andrew cleverly rearranged his pieces and then broke the position open with a pawn push to c4. Pieces were exchanged and when the smoke cleared Black had a passed pawn on b2 and was about to get a rook to the back rank to force further material gains. So 0-1, and the A team had a clean sweep. This looked like a really tough and well played game by both players, with Michal giving a great account of himself on top board against such strong opposition.

Well, we now need some music to represent both A and B teams, so it has to be the Allman Brothers. Absolutely Brilliant. And two of the greatest ever rock guitarists - Duane Allman and Dickey Betts. A and B again, Spooky when you think about it!

B-arnstorming

A B-ig win for the B team this week, as the Holiday Inn welcomed its first non-Kenilworth visitors to our new match venue. And once again it was yours truly who got in the way of the club's first 4-0 win of the season!

Olton A came to town, but left empty handed after a 3.5-0.5 victory for the B team, which put them into second place in Division 1 - 1 point ahead of Warwick University, but 3 points behind Kenilworth A. I must say the league table makes pleasant reading at the moment - as long as you shield your eyes when looking towards the bottom teams, where the C team is in a life or death struggle to avoid relegation.

Joshua is a remarkable chess player. As I said to Ben, I can't work out if he's a strong weak player or a weak strong player. What he definitely isn't is either a strong strong player or a weak weak player. He was up to his old tricks again against Olton, totally bamboozling Mark Cundy on Board 2 and somehow transforming a worse/lost position into a crushing win - seemingly in less time than it takes to blink. As has been the case tens of times during his quite remarkable Kenilworth career, a probable loss became a win, as he worked his usual chessboard magic. He's an amazing points machine, but he would definitely have been burnt at the stake in an earlier age!

And things always looked pretty good for us elsewhere. Mike and myself were comfortable as Black while Ben was building up a good head of steam on Board 4 against Richard Liszewski. I finished first, eventually sharing the point with Alan Lloyd (who I have never beaten with the Black pieces) after a repetition in a level position - but not before I had blundered a pawn on two successive moves. Which Alan twice failed to notice!

I adjourned to the bar for a chat with Alan, and even before we returned the match had ended decisively in our favour with wins on both the remaining boards. Mike avoided Mike Hollier's attempt to block the position completely and managed to engineer a winning breakthrough, while Ben played an excellent game that consistently netted extra material while simultaneously attacking the Black king, before forcing resignation.

So a very efficient and convincing win (me apart, of course), which we can celebrate with another classic from the Byrds (had to be a B band, after all). Remember - they also serve, who only stand and mime!

A New Era!

A new era got under way last night, as KCC played its first match at The Holiday Inn, after 13, hugely successful, years at the Abbey Club. That's a long time - and indeed it is the only home match venue we have had since I joined the club. Our first outing in the plush new surroundings of the Jephson Room was a sort of test event for future encounters, as our C team hosted our A team in a match which pitted one team fighting to avoid relegation against another trying to stretch its lead at the top to 4 points. The eventual result, a 3-1 win for the A team, went the way of ratings, but the C team once again gave a very good account of itself and only slipped to defeat in the last minutes of the evening - and even had the satisfaction of scoring a splendid individual win on Board 3 in the last game to finish.

The new era begins (l to r):- Rhys, Paul, Andrew, Mike, Keatan, Billy, Dave, Ben

Dave had the unenviable task of taking on Billy with the black pieces on Board 1. When I got my first glimpse of the position about 45 minutes in, material was level, but Dave's king was looking rather lonely on d7, with all the heavy pieces and a couple of minor ones still on the board. I couldn't see any immediate way to exploit this, but then I'm not Billy. And it wasn't too long before Billy was able to report that he had become the first person ever to win a game at KCC's new venue. Probably not one of the bigger honours he will accumulate in his chess career - and, in fact, not even one of the bigger honours he's already achieved! But still worthy of a place in the history books.

The score stayed the same for quite some time, before Mike added to the A team account with a black pieces win on Board 4 against Paul B. Mike had jumped in on c2 with a knight early in the game to snaffle the White rook on a1, but Paul got a piece for it and was subsequently able to round up the stray knight to have two pieces for a rook - but crucially Mike had 2 extra pawns and they were beautifully connected, whereas Paul's pawns were scattered to the four winds. Mike's pawns duly started to yomp down the board, sweeping everything in their wake aside, and the defensive task proved impossible, with Paul eventually losing on time.

Keatan's game with Ben on Board 2 became very exciting as the clock ran down. Ben had largely blocked the queenside and the centre, but Keatan was the one pressing on the kingside, where he had the open g file to work with. Very cleverly he kept the tension in the position as Ben's time ebbed away and then rushed his own king from h8 over to the queenside gaining plenty of time in the process. The clock disparity spelled disaster for Ben who couldn't stop the Black pieces jumping in when the pressure on g2 became overwhelming , first winning an exchange and then mating the White king in the middle of the board. A very powerful attack by Keatan.

But the C team did not go home completely empty handed, as Rhys upset the form book against Andrew, finishing with the rather powerful move pawn from e3 to e2 checkmate! Earlier on I had thought Andrew was slowly building up a strong position, as he had more space and was pushing his kingside pawns up the board in a rather threatening manner. But Rhys kept his cool, and found a tactic which won White's e3 pawn, which was the cornerstone of his position, and left Andrew floundering for survival. The Black bishops were monsters and Andrew was playing on seconds. He somehow kept the game going, but when Rhys brought his king in to support his rook, bishop and advanced e pawn the end was night. An excellent game by Rhys and a well deserved win.

So much for the chess. Recently the world has seen the passing of another of my musical heroes, Joe Ely, who I saw live just the once, at The Mean Fiddler in Harlesden in around 1988. An absolute titan of Texan country music, rather serendipitously, he produced this great song, which also serves to commemorate our first ever winner at the Holiday Inn! Though I like to think that me and our Billy the Kid do get along!

RIP Joe. Thanks for the wonderful music.

2025 KCC Christmas Quiz - The Denouement!

Like the assembled Grandmasters, officials and spectators on Hyland Island, I imagine you have been on tenterhooks waiting for Inspector Hector, FIDE's top cop, to reveal the name of the dastardly murderer of the mega-wealthy chess sponsor, Mitch Rich. Unless, of course, you also cracked the case. In which case I hope it took you a bit longer than Patrick who had (correctly) solved the mystery within a couple of hours of me posting the quiz. Did I make it too easy, or is he just a born sleuth? But never mind more questions, its answers we're here for and its Inspector Hector who is about to provide them.

WHODIDIT?

A CHESS MURDER MYSTERY - SOLVED!

It was a motley group of chess-players and hangers on who had gathered in the tournament hall to learn the truth about the murder that had rocked the chess world. Some looked unconcerned, their consciences completely clear, but a few looked far more furtive and nervous. Especially the super-GM I had my eye on. He sat at the back, perhaps hoping to escape scrutiny - or maybe even to make a run for it if things went badly. Not that there would have been any way of escaping from the island, but I could do without any unnecessary drama. And in any case I had positioned the Kenilworth Chess Club cohort to cover the door. An unlikely bunch of heavies, but needs must, as my usual colleagues had been unable to join me to make the arrest. Sergeant Eaton was stuck in Nuneaton with Constable Keatan, completely beaten by the British weather. I would have to bring the killer to book on my own, but that was no problem as all the pieces of the jigsaw had fallen into place and it was now time to reveal the shocking truth.

"I checkmated the killer in 4 moves," I told the assembled crowd. "You all know about pattern recognition in chess, but maybe you need reminding that it works in other fields as well. That was how I knew where to look. This was a rhyme crime. Time after time. And it set off a chime. Move one - how did the killer get hold of the gun? In an auction - he bid it. Move two - what was the pseudonym he used on the dark web? isawt94. If a few more of you had been paying attention at school instead of studying the Najdorf Poisoned Pawn variation, you might have remembered the phrase attributed to Julius Caesar on the conquest of Britain. Veni, vidi, vici. I came I saw, I conquered. It was an easy piece of calculation for me to replace the English part of the pseudonym with the Latin original. And it was good of the killer to give us his birth year, too. He really shouldn't have left that en prise. Very careless. Move three - the killer committed the crime. You could say he did it. And move four - what did the killer do with the gun after the murder? That's right - he hid it. So there could only be one correct solution. Check and mate. Our killer is none other than Indian super-GM, Vidit. He bid it, he did it and he hid it. Now, if you know what's good for you, you'll come quietly."

And that's how I solved the case at Hyland Island and returned the chess world to normal. All in a day's work for Inspector Hector. I hope you followed the same clues I did. Especially as you had a big extra clue in the story title.

But I can't hang around here all day, I've got other cases to solve. First I'm off to Brazil, where Henrique Mecking was found unconscious on some decking after disturbing a brekkin. Then its on to St Petersburg where Peter Svidler has been attacked by a fiddler dressed as the Riddler and then Amsterdam where Loek Van Wely was turned to jelly after being hit in the belly while watching the telly. Possibly by the same man, a roofer, who attacked Daniil Yuffa with an oofer doofer and a loofah.

So I'll be on my way. Evening all."

DISCLAIMER

Once again, any resemblance to real chess players is solely due to them having delightfully rhymable names. There is no need for Interpol to follow up any of the cases I have fabricated!