B Minus

A 2-2 draw for the B team against Stratford A could often be considered a point gained, rather than a point lost, but last night was not really one of those occasions. Continuing a pattern which has become worryingly prevalent over the last couple of weeks, we failed to make the most of our substantial grading advantage on every board (averaging over 150 points) and had to rely on me - yes, it was that desperate! - to save the draw in the last game to finish.

Mike's game against Richard Dobedoe on Board 3 never seemed to get going. Maybe I looked away at the exciting moments, but its also possible there weren't any! So a fairly uneventful draw. It was much more exciting on Board 4, where Michal and his opponent Paul Budd were soon in a very unbalanced position, with Michal having a rook and 2 pawns for a bishop and knight. I was vaguely hopeful Michal might be better, but the next time I looked, the imbalance had become rook and 2 pawns for two bishops and Black looked to be doing fine. As must have been the case, since a draw was agreed soon after.

I was initially slightly worried about Josh's game against Carl Hibberd on Board 2, as Black appeared to have emerged better from the opening (some sort of Sveshnikov/Kalashnikov Sicilian) but on my next viewing I thought Josh's position had greatly improved and he seemed to be threatening quite a lot of Black pawns. However, I was either way off with my assessment, or something went wrong (both possibilities highly likely!) because further viewing revealed that Josh was a pawn down and looking likely to lose another one. I missed the climax to the game, but it didn't end well.

And it could easily have been curtains for us, as I was very nearly lost straight out of the opening against Richard McNally (just our 12th encounter!) when I found myself with almost no squares to put any of my pieces on. Thankfully, though, a couple of inaccuracies allowed me some breathing space, albeit at the cost of a pawn - but as White had tripled b pawns I wasn't too worried about the slight material deficit. But then Richard overlooked a knight fork from my only active piece and I won an exchange and messed up his pawns in the process. It should have been fairly straightforward, but of course it wasn't. We repeatedly traded inaccuracies, but eventually time trouble proved the deciding factor and Richard's king came under heavy fire in the middle of the board. Facing total disaster he lost on time and we'd saved the match.

The point gained put the B team onto the same points as Warwick University and Banbury A, but with a game in hand, so the push to secure another 1-2 finish for Kenilworth is still possible. Though with an away match at Banbury still to come, the bookies would not have us down as favourites, I suspect!

Music time and in keeping with my theme it has to be another B artist. (But not a B-lister, lets be clear about that!) I don't know how The Band have only managed 2 appearances on this website so far, but its high time we increased that number to 3. I love this song and I really love this live version from the film The Last Waltz. Hope you do, too.

Blip!

But what a big blip! Tuesday night's 1.5-2.5 reverse for the A team away at Olton put an end to our hopes of an unbeaten season and temporarily put a stop to any celebrations of a sixth successive Division 1 title. Except that it didn't really, because as Andrew had already worked out, even if we lost every remaining match 0-4, and Banbury won every remaining match 4-0, we would still win the title on game points. But all the same, you don't really feel much like celebrating after a chastening defeat, do you? And this was actually the A team's first defeat since September 2, 2024 when we famously got annihilated 3.5-0.5 by our B team! So our unbeaten run came to an end after 561 days.  And in fact you have to go back to October 16, 2023, when Banbury beat us 2.5-1.5, for the last time the A team lost against another club. Which I make 882 days. Almost as long as the Third Reich!

But enough of this tub-thumping, its the gory details of this week's loss you want to hear about, I'm sure. It really was a case of lightning from a clear blue sky, as we had a pretty useful team deployed (none of our titled players, though) and Olton have been having a tough season. But they raced into a 2-0 lead. Andrew lost against Mark Cundy on Board 2 after an absolutely insane game. After 15 moves Andrew was an exchange and two pawns up, but while his queen had decimated the White queenside and sat on a1supported by a black pawn on b2, his remaining pieces - 2 bishops and 2 rooks were all on their starting squares. I'm sure I remember reading something about developing your pieces in an old Fred Reinfeld book, but chess strategy has obviously moved on in the computer age! Apparently this crazy position was actually close to equal, but in practice there could only be one winner - and it wasn't Andrew!

That was fair enough, but what happened on Board 3 simply defied belief. Andy was hounding Mike Hollier all over the board, continually threatening to trap pieces or win the Black queen. But all he netted for his troubles was an extra doubled pawn which had also opened the g file towards his own king. He assures me the position was completely winning, as it certainly looked, but one careless move cost him the exchange and suddenly the Black heavy pieces swarmed in down that g file (I knew it looked risky!) with a winning attack. Total calamity. Instead of 1-1 and being in total charge, it was 0-2 and we were staring defeat in the face.

I at least managed to beat Richard Liszewski on Board 4 (yes, for once I wasn't the culprit!), finishing with a very nice (though I say so myself) queen sacrifice to win a rook, though I have to admit that Richard didn't help his cause with some very strange moves. And so it was down to Keatan, on Board 1 against Olton stalwart Alan Lloyd, to try and save the match. Watched by a rather large crowd of spectators the game ended up in a knight v bishop ending, where Alan had a more active king and an annoying passed pawn, but doubled f pawns which looked ripe for the picking. It was very difficult and both players were short of time. At times I thought Keatan was winning and at others I thought he was in difficulties, but despite lots of knight jumps and nearly moves he couldn't find a way to win any of the weak Black pawns and Alan managed to hold the draw and secure the win for Olton. And bring our record breaking run to an end. Rats! But many congratulations to Olton for a super strong team performance.

So after losing on the night, it didn't feel like we had really won the title. But thankfully the wait for final validation was only two days, because we had a very quick follow-up match (and thanks to Keatan, Andrew and Andy for playing two away matches in 3 nights) last night against our main rivals, Banbury A. I wasn't present, but on checking the LMS results page this morning I was delighted to see that our brave boys had returned from Oxfordshire with a 3-1 win, so that the title celebrations can truly start. In fact, I'm just about to kick things off with a glass of orange juice. Party!!! With any luck a first hand report of the match may grace this site in the next few days. There are 2 more A team matches left, plus a KO Cup campaign, while the B team has 4 matches left to try and claim the runner-up spot.

It seems strange to choose a downbeat song for this week's musical offering when we;'ve just won the league title again, but I can't ignore the fact that we lost Tuesday's match. And until last night, it had actually been a very bad week for the club, as the C team lost 0-4 to Warwick Uni on Monday, and the same night the U1600 cup team went out in the semi-final at Shirley. So I think something bluesy is entirely appropriate!

One Thousand and Thirty Eight

Not the mileage to this week's trip to Daventry for the final Coventry League match of the season (though it felt like it!), nor the combined age of our team (though it was probably close - see below), but rather the aggregate grading points advantage that we enjoyed over the home team. And rather embarrassingly it was not enough to eke out a win and from 2-0 down Daventry fought back to secure their first point of the season - in their final match. So while they were probably dancing in the streets of Daventry late into the night, I couldn't help but detect a pall of disappointment hanging over Kenilworth as we drove back into town.

As far as the league situation was concerned, neither this set-back, nor our recent loss against Division 1's second bottom team, Warwick University B, made the slightest difference, as we were guaranteed to finish third whether we took four points or none. Its been an almost unmitigated disaster since Christmas - when we led the league with a 100% score from 4 matches - with just one win and one draw from six further games. Warwick Uni A took home the title for the umpteenth time, but only 1 point clear of Nuneaton, who certainly gave them a good run for their money. Congratulations to both, who were clearly the strongest and most consistent teams in Division 1 this season.

We got off to a flyer on Wednesday night when I won quite quickly against my young opponent, James Brown, on Board 1. After a trendy, theoretical line in the Caro Kann we both played a couple of sub-optimal moves and I then sacked a knight for what I thought was a winning attack against his king. As indeed it turned out to be, as he played all the moves I expected and it ended with me winning the Black queen. But - you guessed it - the silicon monster spotted an inspired defence that neither of us saw, which would have held the position to a probable draw. Chess is a difficult game! And it was soon 2-0 to us as Phil got revenge for his earlier loss against Abbie Stevens on Board 4. After a rather strange opening where Abbie rather neglected her king safety, Phil forked a loose rook on a1 and a mate threat on f2, so that the Loose Piece did indeed have to Drop Off - LPDO! Phil wasn't the most efficient after that, but with an extra rook the win was never in doubt.

But there the good news ends. because despite being better on both the remaining boards, we managed to lose them both. Mike unfortunately not only missed a win, but then had a rush of blood to the head and sacked an exchange against Harvey Monroe on Board 2, only to find that when he won it back he would be a pawn down. Except that he then blundered and made it two pawns. And then he blundered a third pawn and despite some White inaccuracies in the rook ending, there was no way that 3 extra pawns weren't going to win.

It was even more tragic watching Paul lose on Board 3 against Andy Johnson. He was playing a very nice controlled game and won a pawn. But he started taking ages to play his moves and then allowed an onslaught against his slightly open king, when he just needed to regroup and defend for a couple of moves. Andy finished things off very nicely to deliver checkmate.

So two points that should have been ours went to Daventry and a probable 4-0 win became a 2-2 draw. Hey ho, that's the way the cookie sometimes crumbles.

Its only while writing this report, though, that it suddenly struck me that this was almost certainly the oldest Kenilworth team I have ever played in. I was - strange but actually true! - the youngest player in the team, which I seriously doubt has ever happened before. Not a good look for our demographic and our reputation as the home of young talent!!

I couldn't think of a song that referenced 1,038, so another number will have to step in and take its place. I bet you're all expecting The Proclaimers now, but you're wrong! 500 is such a mundane number compared to 20,000,000. And just for the hell of it, we'll double that up to 40,000,000 by having two versions of the song. As a nod to populism, we'll kick off with Robert Palmer and Jools Holland and then move on to the original by Lowell George of Little Feat. Both great, but when push comes to shove, I know which one I'm voting for!

Warwick Wanderers: Who'd be a Skipper?!

Wednesday night saw the A team travel to Warwick University, the only team to have taken points off us this season, and one of the few capable of catching us at the top of Division 1. An important game, to say the least!

In spite of the skipper’s excellent communication, featuring multiple emails outlining exactly where we were playing (the science building), both David and I still managed to turn up at the Students' Union. Who’d be a skipper! I eventually made it to the board 20 minutes late, with all the other games already in full swing.

Two things of note quickly became apparent: we outgraded Warwick by around 200 points on every board, and we were playing 90+0, so no increment.

First to finish was Javier, who looked to my eyes to have crushed his opponent from the off. His opponent was struggling with king safety, a problem he eventually solved, but only at the expense of everything else. An overwhelming win and a great start.

Keatan’s game on board two was much closer. He pushed consistently, with his opponent struggling but just managing to hold the balance. However, Keatan was relentless and clearly wasn’t settling for a draw. Eventually, the position distilled down to rook and pawn versus rook and pawn, theoretically a dead draw, but Keatan kept making life difficult. His opponent eventually cracked, and Keatan annexed the whole point.

I was next to finish. I eventually managed to equalise out of the opening and found myself in an unbalanced position, with kingside play in exchange for queenside weaknesses. My play eventually turned into an attack that practically played itself, crashing through much faster than the queenside counterplay. So, 3-0, and the match was secured.

Last to finish was David on board three. His play was as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar; at no point did his opponent have even a sliver of active play. David might have swapped off the queens a little early, but nonetheless found himself in a knight versus bishop endgame where his king was vastly superior and his 4-vs-3 kingside pawn majority was far more mobile. He quickly proved the knight was the better minor piece in the position, put his pawns on light squares, created a passed pawn, and relentlessly applied pressure. His opponent finally cracked while trying to force counterplay on the other wing, but David’s king and knight had absolute control. A few tactics later, and David had brought home the bacon.

All in all, one of the best team performances of the season, with all four boards never in trouble and showing some excellent fighting spirit.