The Kenilworth Half Hour

Quite an interesting night at Solihull on Wednesday. In what may be a first for the Leamington League, Kenilworth A's final league match of the season (completely unimportant) doubled up (with the addition of a fifth board) as the Open KO Cup semi-final (totally crucial). Fixture congestion for both teams prevented us finding an independent date for the Cup match, but a bit of inspired out of the box thinking (modesty precludes me from telling you it was my idea) and some much appreciated understanding from the league committee, allowed us to shoe-horn two matches into one night.

Despite a fairly ordinary league campaign, Solihull can put out a pretty strong team when all their players are available, so we needed a powerful quintet to repel the challenge. Thankfully we had exactly that, and ran out 4.5-0.5 winners of the cup match, and 3.5-0.5 winners over the top 4 boards for the league points.

As in seemingly all matches these days, it felt pretty tense and very much in the balance for the initial phase of the evening,  but as the clock approached 22.00 things turned decisively in our favour. When the going got tough, our guys got going! When England played a match against China in Liverpool in 2008 (6 rounds of 8 boards), the games kept swinging in China's favour (they won 28-20) during the fifth hour of play. To such an extent that this period was christened "The Chinese Hour". We're not quite in the same league as that Chinese team (Wang Yue, Ni Hua, Bu Xiangzhi, Hou Yifan etc), but - last night at least - we definitely mustered a "Kenilworth Half Hour".

The one person who didn't really contribute to this was Andrew, but only because he had already won after a very polished performance with the Black pieces against Ray Carpenter on Board 4. Not only did he win a pawn, but the extra pawn was passed and on f3 tying down the White pieces. A nifty rook manoeuvre won a second pawn to give connected passed g and f pawns, and while Ray was able to reach a minor piece ending and set up a blockade with his king and knight to prevent the further advance of these pawns, Andrew then started a king march towards the wide open White queen side pawns. In an impossible position Ray lost on time.

Earlier I had been initially optimistic about Javier's position on Board 2 against Andrew McCumiskey, especially as he won a clear centre pawn and doubled the White g pawns. But this had come at the cost of weakening his own kingside, so that he had to castle long. Andrew then uncorked a very nice knight sac which couldn't be taken, and when the combinational smoke cleared the extra pawn had gone and White looked to be pressing against some weak Black pawns. But Javier kept his cool - marching his king down to b3; installing a rook on c2 and threatening to break decisively in the centre with an e4 push that would have created a monster passed pawn on d4. Andrew could have kept some chances of holding the position if he had swapped a pair of rooks off, but failing to do this, Javier doubled rooks on the c file and suddenly - from almost nowhere - it was unstoppable mate! The Kenilworth Half-Hour was up and running!

And then the big match up on Board 1 between Jude and Don Mason also resolved itself after a very interesting, and pretty high level, encounter. Don played very actively and seemed to have an initiative, but Jude first shored up his position and then started jumping into some good squares with threats against some weak Black pawns. He eventually won a pawn and with his time about to expire Don couldn't find a way to continue and resigned. It was apparently not yet a completely won position for Jude, but with the extra pawn and extra time there could only have been one winner.

So that meant we were home and dry, with a 3-0 lead in both the league and cup matches. Keatan was pushing hard to chalk up another win against Akshath Shivakumar on Board 4 and tried everything possible to engineer a breakthrough in a knight ending, where he had just a slight space advantage in a near symmetrical position. But there was simply no way to create a passed pawn or infiltrate with the king or knight and he had to reluctantly agree to a draw.

This left Bruce in action against Julian Summerfield on Board 5, in a game which was something of a slow burner. But as the time control approached Bruce went for the jugular with a king side attack. His queen jumped in to the Black position and it became extremely difficult for Julian to hold the defence together. Despite terrible time pressure he managed to neutralise the direct attack, but only at the cost of a seemingly irrelevant (to me) pawn on a6. But in fact it was exceedingly relevant, because a couple of moves later a White pawn got to a7 and shortly after - once Bruce had made sure not to allow even a glimpse of a perpetual check escape - it cost Black a whole rook when it went one square further. Tense, hair raising stuff - but once again the Kenilworth Half Hour had worked its magic!

This double victory meant we finished 8 points clear of Warwick University in Division 1, for a sixth successive league title. Unfortunately the students finished the season - as I had suspected they would - by winning against Olton and Leamington on successive nights (by a score of 7.5-0.5!) to pip our B team to second place on game points. In the Cup, we will be going for a sixth successive victory against Leamington on finals night at Olton on May 12th. When Ben's u-8750 team will be attempting to make it three wins in a row.

It only remains to choose this week's musical offering. Something dynamic and upbeat, I think, to reflect my mood. And you can't get much more upbeat than this. Absolutely brilliant. Can music be any more uplifting and life affirming? Who wouldn't want to be a rock star after seeing this?!

History Maker!

History was made at the Holiday Inn on Monday night, when the latest graduate from Paul's Coventry Chess Academy made his debut for KCC in the D team match against Leamington C. At around 6 years and 10 months of age, Anish Bijibilla took the step into the world of adult league chess with supreme ease, wrapping up a win over a 1327 rated opponent in under an hour and becoming the youngest ever player to win a game for Kenilworth! (And at the other end of the age spectrum, a stalwart of the CCA, Roy, was contributing the other point to the team in a 2-2 draw. Perfect symmetry!)

Anish gets ready to make his first move for Kenilworth, with comparative veteran Gregory in the background!

So sorry Billy, your record as our youngest winner, which stood at just over 7 years of age and has lasted since December 2018 when you were successful against Stratford D in Division 4, has been broken. (Which presumably means Jude has been pushed down to number 3!) I would be very surprised if there has been a younger winner for any other club in the history of the Leamington League - and especially not in Division 3.

Anish has had a fantastic couple of weeks, first scoring 6/7 in the Minor section of the Birmingham Rapid Play (including a win over LDCL veteran Kim Gilbert of Shirley who was born in 1945! - how's that for an age difference?!) and then just last weekend making 3/5 at the Nottingham Minor (standard play) against players all rated over 1400. No wonder Paul thought that Anish was ready for a competitive debut in the league - and how right he was. 

On the April ECF rating list Anish is the second ranked U-7 in England for both standard play and rapid play, and third for blitz, and when the above results are taken into account that could well change. Its no wonder that he has been selected to play for England in the World Cadet U-8s in Georgia later in the year (where he will begiving away a year to most of his opponents). 

It is a great pleasure and privilege for us to have Anish playing for KCC and I'm sure we all hope he will have a long and enjoyable time with our club. And he's a really nice lad as well! So a big Kenilworth welcome to him and his dad Nanda, and the rest of the family, and best wishes for what promises to be a very exciting chess journey.

Down But Not Out

Kenilworth C went down 0-4 away to Solihull A last night, in our final league game of the season. We had already long since been relegated, and you might think this heavy defeat was a cause for further lament, but I don't see it like that. It was always going to be a challenge for our third team to take on rival first teams, and that all too often proved to be the case. 

Yet we'd earned our place in the top league on merit, by winning the Division 2 title in style last year. This season we struggled to always get our best team out, for a variety of completely understandable reasons. But I am immensely grateful to everyone who did play the games. There must have been times (like last night) when players turned out knowing that they were going to be heavily outgraded, but nobody hid and you can't ask for more than that. 

Albeit, we could perhaps have hoped that our own B team might have demonstrated some of the same enthusiasm they showed in beating us, instead of then losing limply to our relegation rivals a few days later, but that's chess. You can never quite predict what is going to happen, and ultimately when the clock starts it is every man (and woman) for themselves. The truth is we weren't quite good enough and there is no shame in that.

One of my most heart-breaking moments in football was when Man Utd lost the League title to Leeds in 1992. In their next game, which was then a dead rubber against Spurs, Man Utd won (3-1 I think.) The newspaper report said, it hurts now for Man Utd fans, but the future looks bright. A somewhat prescient comment to say the least! So many of the C team players have improved during the season and I really think we are in great shape for next year.

Rhys had a great game against Don last night. I didn't see much of Dan and Dylan's games, but the pair of them epitomise our growing strength in depth. The truth is I didn't see much of anything, as my own game was an unmitigated disaster. I walked into an opening trap and that was that. I said to Mark the other day that I am aiming to be much more philosophical about chess these days. So, while I can't quite say that I laughed, I'm not dwelling on it either. After all, when you've got the worst game you've ever played behind you, the only way is up, right?!? 

There are plenty more games to follow. Both for me personally, and for the C team next season. We will be back in Division 2 next year. Doubtless there will be more drama. Good days and bad days. New opportunities to chase down. One way or another, there is every reason to think that we will have a lot more to smile about. 

B-athos

Bathos (noun):- anti-climax

Well, thank goodness that's the end of the season for the B team and I can be done with all that B nonsense in the match report titles. Until next season, I imagine, when I find it hard to imagine I will have any better idea than to repeat my previous theme. But that can wait, because there is the little matter of last night's match to round-up first.

We went to Stratford (birthplace of the Bard, who was something of a master of deliberate bathos) seeking the one point which would secure second place in the table, but we returned home with none, and now have to wait for Warwick University to play their final two matches. If they win both they will overtake us. Its out of our hands now, so what will be, will be.

We were off to a flyer last night, when Richard McNally made a terrible blunder against me, and in a totally innocuous position walked into a deadly pin which should have cost the exchange and a pawn, but as played cost him his queen for a rook. When I returned the queen for an ending with two pieces against one, Richard resigned after just 80 minutes and 21 moves.

Things certainly looked bright elsewhere, because Mike was outplaying Carl Hibbard on Board 2 and Ben was at least equal on 3. Daniel was under some pressure on Board 4, but it didn't seem especially serious. But first Mike's game ended in a draw, as Carl just about held his position together without dropping any material, and then things started to go pear shaped on the other two boards. Tantalisingly we just needed a draw from the two games to clinch second spot, but it wasn't to be. For no obvious reason, Ben's position drifted depressingly into a lost rook and pawn ending against Alexander Roberts, when it looked like a nailed on draw and then disaster struck on Board 4.  Dan was under pressure on the clock, but it was his opponent, George Clifton, who made a massive oversight which gifted Dan a piece thanks to a back rank trick. But the clock situation proved decisive, and instead of pocketing a whole piece Dan missed the winning move and instead found himself mated about three moves later! Sic transit gloria mundi. Or something like that.

In the overall scheme of things it won't matter too much whether the B team finishes second or third, as this has still been a massively successful season for our second team. But it would be nicer to be second, don't you think?! So, a rather anticlimactic finish to the season after the peak performance last week against Banbury A. Hence the title of this report!

I think a shot of the blues is called for to reflect my subdued mood today. So it has to be the Allman Brothers again! 

B-looming B-rilliant

A great win for the B team away against a full strength Banbury A last Thursday, which completed a remarkable league double for the season. It hasn't quite wrapped up 2nd place for the B team, but its taken us right to the brink of a second 1-2 finish in the league.

And there was no question that we deserved the victory (I say we, because I was in the team!), as we never looked to be losing at any stage of the evening. Although the scoreboard got moving in the wrong direction to begin with. Andy repeated his recent trick of getting a winning position out of the opening, and then collapsing due to a tactical oversight. This time the beneficiary was Georgs Vikanis, as Andy's extra pawn became irrelevant when the Black heavy pieces invaded the White kingside in a distinctly vicious manner. But the accident on Board 3 was about to be balanced by a reverse slip-up on Board 2 which went very much in our favour. Joshua played a very enterprising opening against Tom Day, sacking an exchange for some very threatening looking connected pawns. Tom decided that discretion was the better part of valour and gave the exchange back to eliminate the connected pawns, and for some unfathomable reason Josh failed to take the fat, juicy White e pawn in return. So he was just a pawn down. But then the legendary Pink magic (or is it luck?) kicked in and the next thing you know, Tom has dropped a whole piece. Joshua's technique in winning with rook, knight and three against rook and three wasn't the best I've ever seen, but it was good enough in the end to queen the last remaining pawn and level the match scores.

And then we were in the driving seat when Mike, who has also been having a rocky time of things over the last few matches, played a very powerful game with the Black pieces to overcome Gary Jackson. Indeed, White looked almost totally busted straight out of the opening with his king wandering around in the centre and Black having very active pieces and a big central pawn. I missed the middlegame phase, but it eventually came down to a double rook ending with Mike a couple of pawns up and when he got a pawn to the seventh rank, Gary had to concede. Which put us 2-1 up, and in possession of at least one match point, with my game against IM James Jackson deciding whether we got both.

Now normally you'd bet long odds on that I would lose, but this was one of those nights (song clue there, by the way!) where I managed to avoid any blunders or major inaccuracies. James sacked a pawn in a line of the Spanish that was completely new to me, and got some play for it, but the engine says I was much better, even when I mistakenly simplified the position, leaving him with a rook and a pair of bishops against my rook, bishop and knight. I still had my extra pawn - passed! - though it was sat on a2, so had a long way to go before it became a factor in the game. I defended sensibly, but as time pressure grew, James started ramping up the pressure and managed to open the position for his two bishops and get himself a passed h pawn. But I defended quite well, and although I eventually lost all my advantage the position was never worse than equal - and I still had an extra pawn - as he also ran short of time. And then he prodded his passed pawn one square too far and with the aid of some elementary tactics I was suddenly completely winning. I suspected as much, but had too little time to calculate things. I saw a way to eliminate all the Black pawns and draw and just headed for the safe solution to win the match.

A brilliant win for the B team, then. One point at Stratford in our final match of the season will seal second place, as Warwick University could still overtake us on game points if they win their last two matches. But its third place as a minimum for the B team, after a splendid season.

So did you guess the song?  Not that it matters, coz' here it is anyway!

Anything A Can Do, B Can Do Better - B Can Do Anything Better Than A!

Well, maybe not anything. Like winning the League. But when it comes to beating Olton A, then its definitely the B team that takes the biscuit!  Because after the A team's rather unfortunate accident away at Olton a couple of weeks back, the B team hardly broke sweat in chalking up a 3-1 win against exactly the same Olton A team last Tuesday.

Bruce "Bruiser" Baer was particularly brutal, winning a whole piece in broad daylight with Black against Mark Cundy, and forcing resignation shortly afterwards. I imagine he was back home in plenty of time to watch the 9 o'clock news. Especially as its not on till 10 o'clock these days. Andy had been the chief culprit in the A team's loss, frittering away a totally won position against Mike Hollier, but he made no mistake when offered the chance of revenge. Once again he got a won position surprisingly quickly (two pieces for a rook) and this time he made the advantage count. Although Mike managed to check Andy's king around the board for a few moves, by this stage he was a whole 2 pieces down and as soon as the checks stopped it was game over.

I then made it 3-0 on the night in rather strange circumstances. Believe it or not, I actually played a rather good game against Alan Lloyd on top board, after Alan had blundered a pawn in the opening. In order to break a mini-blockade, I correctly sacrificed the exchange, but gained a second pawn in the process. And one of them was a monster passed pawn on b6 that was straining at the leash to get to b7 and b8. Alan defended as well as he could, but he was completely lost ....... when I allowed him the chance to return the exchange and enter a king and pawn ending a pawn down which, as far as I can tell, would have been a draw. But - just like me! - he didn't notice this possibility and instead resigned. Ultimately a lucky point for me, but I felt I deserved it. And as I'm writing the match report, that's the opinion that counts! Unfortunately, we couldn't make it 4-0, as Mike went horribly wrong against Richard Liszewski in what looked like a favourable position and managed to lose his queen for a rook. Quite a few fairly pointless moves later the inevitable happened and Mike was forced to resign.

With Banbury A winning on the same night, its still all to play for in the fight for second place in Division 1, and next week's direct encounter between the two teams may well decide the final outcome - though the B team does have one more match after that, away at Stratford.

This week's song was somewhat telegraphed by the title, so no prizes for guessing we're taking a trip to the golden age of the Hollywood musical. Not our normal cup of tea, but I like to cater for all tastes!