Leamington League Division 1 Winners 2025 Leamington League Division 2 Winners 2025 Leamington League Open Knock Out Cup Winners 2025 Leamington League U-8750 Cup Winners 2025 Runner-Up - ECF Website of the Year 2018
A Wednesday evening in early May can mean only one thing - its the Leamington league Blitz Championship. This has been turned into something of a Kenilworth benefit event in recent seasons, largely due to Javier's total dominance - he won in each of the three years he played (2023-25), sharing the title in the middle year with Bruce. Additionally, Bernard and Keatan have won the second rating section in the last two years.
But come 2026 and where are these titans? Not in Solihull, that's for sure! (I'm not going to let the fact that Bruce was there spoil a good line. And we could always say he isn't one of the titans, anyway!) So it was very much a reduced and weakened Kenilworth contingent who turned up to do battle. But this could hardly be described as a vintage year for the event - numbers were down with just 24 players and Kenilworth still managed to provide seeds 2, 3 and 6 (me, Bruce and Rhys) plus Ben as number 12, after his blitz rating has been shredded by too many encounters with ferocious juniors.
But its not where you start that matters - its where you finish. And after 9 rounds of hectic competition the cup was returning home again to Kenilworth as I romped to victory (not a phrase which has been used many times) with 8.5 pts to finish 2 points clear of Jon Griffiths (Leamington) and top seed Andrew McCumiskey (Solihull). Bruce finished fourth on 6 pts and somehow qualified for a prize which was only 40p less than I got for winning. Someone will have to explain how that works to me sometime! Rhys was 6th (5.5 pts) and Ben 12th (5 pts), which meant that we all finished almost exactly in line with our starting rank.
A triumph for the oldies - 71 year old beats 65 year old beats 60 year old beats 60 year old!
This is my third triumph in this event, though I suspect I had to play a lot better to win the other two times, when the entry list was undoubtedly stronger. But at my time of life I'll take whatever I can get. I am now tied with Javier as the winning most Kenilworth player, though as one of his victories was shared, I should edge first place on tie break! We'll gloss over the fact that his 3 wins have come from only 3 attempts, whereas mine have come from at least 20, with the other winning years in 2010 and 2018. So I can expect to win again in 2034 to keep the sequence going! (For those interested, the only other Kenilworth winners have been Bernard (1988) and Carl Pickering (2008)).
Before anyone asks, the quality of the games was what you might expect for Blitz between not very good players! I was under pressure from Bruce and lost the exchange, before the clock got the better of him and he allowed my heavy pieces onto his back rank to deliver mate. And against Rhys I completely missed the fact that he was threatening Qxf2 check, and it was only by luck it wasn't terminal. Fortunately I avoided Ben, as he gave me a right going over in the Club Championship last summer!
I'm not proud - I don't mind that I only won because Javier decided not to play. I know I was a substitute for another guy. Cue the music!!
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.
Though this report is a bit belated, I couldn't let last weekend's Warwickshire Rapid and Blitz Championships pass without recording the fact that KCC has another Warwickshire Champion! Billy put up a dazzling performance to take first place in Sunday's Blitz event, conceding just a single draw to Finlay Bowcott-Terry, and ending up with 13.5/14 after 7 double rounds. This put him 1.5 points clear of the field, which was dominated by young Warwickshire players. Billy, who recorded a massive TPR of 2416, follows Javier, who won in 2023, as a recent KCC holder of this title.
And it was so nearly a double triumph for our young Candidate Master, as he was just edged out of first place in Saturday's Rapid event, where his unbeaten 6/7 saw him finish second to Finlay Bowcott-Terry. After a draw between the two of them, the title was decided when Billy dropped half a point to the experienced South Birmingham player Cory Hazlehurst in Round 6. Which meant he "only" posted a rapid TPR of 2350. These are numbers most of us can only dream about!
A truly astonishing weekend then for Billy, going undefeated over 21 games, and conceding just 3 draws! I'm afraid chess really is a young person's game. Which isn't particularly good news for me on the eve of playing in the European Seniors Championships!!
This performance definitely deserves a song. If only we could all have chess days like Billy.
I knew it; I just knew it. Despite going into the third and final leg of the inaugural KCC Speed Chess Championship with a commanding lead, the tournament format (best 2 scores to count) meant that unless I got at least 6.5/7, Javi would overtake me if he reached this score. I thought that meant I would have to at least draw with him in our individual encounter to stand any chance, and I wasn't particularly hopeful. But I needn't have worried, as I played so dreadfully in Leg 3 that I never even got to play him! My hopes instead were - short of a major surprise result, all riding on Billy, a late entry and making his only appearance in the Championships, to take down the Man from La Mancha and secure the life changing first prize of £25 (twice what I won at the British Seniors Championship!) for me. Unfortunately for me, the Billy-Javi game ended in a draw, and with both winning every other game they tied for first place on the night.
There were some excellent performances on the night, with especially notable results for Algis and Patrick (who both wiped the floor with me!) However, this wasn't enough to take them past Ben in the race for the U-1750 rating prize (another £25), even though he was unable to improve on his score from the first two legs. Though he did manage to draw with me again, to take his score to 2/3 as we played in every leg - all I needed was a half point more from either of the first two games and I'd have been the champ, so as well as winning his section, he also turned out to be the Kingmaker!
So the final Club Speed Championship Leaderboard/Points were:-
1 Javi 12.5 2 Mark 12.3 3 Keatan 10.1 4 Mike 8.9 5 Ben 8.7 (and the U1750 Rating Prize) 6 Dave 8.2 7 Algis 8.0 (2nd U1750) 8 Dylan 7.0 (3rd U1750)
So many congratulations to Javi and Ben for their successes, and commiserations to those who were just pipped at the post - ie me!!
Do you think that was Spanish enough to commemorate Javi's victory??
In total, we had 18 participants who played in at least 1 of the three events - well over half the club's total membership - so this must be judged a major success and a triumph for Ben, who both created and organised the event - and then went and won his section as well! (Not forgetting the massive contribution of Gregory in his Chief Arbiter and Swiss-Manager supremo roles.) In fact it was such a success, we may well do something similar at Christmas, though that may have to be a one-off due to time constraints. Maybe we could get all our titled players to turn out for that?!
Clearly the most appropriate video to accompany this report would have been Yvonne Fair singing "It Should Have Been Me", but I've used that before (when I was also pipped at the post in something else!), so I won't bother trying to be relevant. Instead, I'll just delve into YouTube and pull out a random musical tour de force. Wonder what it will be?
What a suprise - Jackson Browne! Who could ever have guessed? And bonus appearances by Bonnie Raitt on vocals, Bruce Hornsby on piano and - of course - the wonderful David Lindley on steel guitar. Just magical. Wish I'd been there.
Well, my plan to file some regular reports from the front line in Liverpool clearly didn't work too well. what with sight-seeing, playing and then eating and drinking there simply wasn't enough time left for me to slave over a hot lap-top and keep you stay-at-homes up to date with how our brave lads were getting on. But - better late than never - I can at least provide a round up of how the KCC battalion ultimately fared.
Star billing has to go to our two junior sensations, Jude and Billy, who both performed admirably in the Championship event, both eventually finishing on 4.5/9 after a last round draw between themselves. Not the pairing either would have wanted to finish on, but at least no-one went home a loser! Jude's high point was obviously the win over IM Brandon Clarke which took him above 2300 and qualified him for the FM title, while Billy had an excellent event too, and gained 62 rating points. And it could have been even more as he had both IM Andrew Ledger and GM Nigel Davies on the edge of defeat. Crucially, he was unbeaten in the last three rounds when borrowing a pen from me! Between them, Jude and Billy only played 3 non-titled players across 18 games, which illustrates what a strong event this was. Excellent results and performances at such a young age.
Bruce was in the running for a high placing in the 50+ event, but a last round loss - when a win would have placed him clear third - sent him down the table to 9th=, but with a hefty rating gain. Ben made his debut in Seniors' chess in this event and finished 26th= from a starting rank of 41 and also gained rating points, as he did with his excellent 4th= finish in the U1900 morning tournament. (Which netted him £20, to boot!) Ed and I flew the flag for KCC in the 65+ event where, from 81 starters I finished 4th= (winning £12.50 - its big money at the British Champs!) and Ed was 44th= - in both cases well above our starting ranks. Finally, as far as proper chess is concerned, Keatan found it hard going in the Major Open but still scored above 50% in his unsuccessful bid to qualify for the 2026 British Championships. Which, if you haven't already heard, will be held at Warwick University - so no excuses for not playing next year! I guess I should also mention the Blitz and Rapid events, but only because Joshua managed to finish 3rd= in the U-2000 rapidplay event and take home £18.50, which must have more than paid for his day return from Manchester!
And I can't let the event pass by without mentioning that the recent slayer of KCC at our 50th anniversary simultaneous display, GM Mickey Adams, collected a 9th British Championship title to go with his recent English Championship success. What a player - not bad for a 53 year old! And he fully deserved to see his image up in lights on an enormous billboard opposite the playing hall. Don't think I've seen chess get such large scale promotion before.
Disappointing that none of KCC's finest managed to make it onto the advert along with Gawain, Mickey and Nikita!
Liverpool proved to be a very interesting host city - plenty to see and do and no shortage of accommodation, food and beverage options. Especially the last named! And what a venue we played in - Warwick University will do well to find anywhere on campus as impressive as this!
The grade 1 listed St George's Hall
Which was equally impressive inside!
Slightly larger than the Abbey Club!
Although it has to be said that the tradesmen's entrance the chess players had to use was slightly less imposing.
The way in looked like the entry to some public toilets. And not very nice ones at that!
Liverpool, famously, has two cathedrals which stare at each other from either end of the marvellously appropriate Hope Street.
The truly monumental Anglican Cathedral, seen from the steps of the Catholic Cathedral, half a mile away. It is the longest and fifth largest cathedral in the world. But definitely not the most beautiful.
The RC Cathedral, designed by Coventry kid Sir Frederick Gibberd - also famous as the architect of Didcot Power Station and Harlow New Town!
When I wasn't busy preparing for my battles on the chessboard (ie most of the time) I took advantage of the free mornings to visit some landmark sites associated with several of Liverpool's most famous sons and daughters.
Who lived in a house like this? John Lennon!
So no prizes for guessing this was the childhood home of Paul McCartney
Surprise, surprise! It's Cilla again.
And another surprise - who knew that the 100 Another Place statues by Antony Gormley on Crosby beach were actually modelled on the most famous of all Liverpool icons - the Diddymen?!
To avoid any confusion, please note that I am on the left.
After this bumper pictorial city tour (aren't you relieved there was no photography allowed in the Beatles's former homes?!) you'd think I'd have no energy left for a musical contribution as well. But you'd be wrong. How could I miss the opportunity to present one of Liverpool's most celebrated musical acts singing about an ancestor of a KCC legend? Answer - I couldn't!
Fantastic news from the British Championships at Liverpool, where yesterday Jude had a tremendous win over the very strong IM Brandon Clarke (for the second time in a month, both with Black), finishing with a brilliant rook sac. You can play through the game here. After this win, Jude's live ELO rating has gone over 2300, which means he has qualified to become a Fide Master. This makes him only the second KCC player ever to become an FM, after Adam Collinson, though I'm pretty sure Adam didn't reach this milestone at the age of just 15!! Many congratulations from everyone at the club, Jude. Your success is absolutely brilliant.
It was very nearly an even more special day, as Billy was on the verge of taking down another IM, Andrew Ledger, but somehow the more experienced player saved a desperate looking rook ending and prevented an IM-bashing double by KCC juniors. So after 4 rounds of the Championships, Jude has a fantastic 3 pts with Billy on a more than respectable 2 pts. Today its another very tough pairing for Jude, against Ukrainian IM Svyatoslav Bazakutsa, while Billy plays FM Stephen Dishman. Good luck to them both, and indeed to all KCC participants. Which includes myself, of course!
It was the second instalment of the inaugural Kenilworth Speed Chess Championships last night, and ten intrepid players assembled to contest a five round rapid chess Swiss with a time limit of 10'+5".
Fresh from my surprise joint first place in leg 1, I found myself as clear top seed this time around, mainly thanks to everyone else having either ridiculously low rapid ratings (yes Keatan, that means you!) or no rapid rating at all. In the absence of our Swiss Manager supremo, Gregory, tournament organiser Ben had to revert to the tried and trusted analogue method of pen, scraps of paper and trial and error to make the pairings, but despite the distractions of also playing in the event, he coped admirably with the pressure and kept the show on the road.
Round 1
Mark 1 – 0 Bernard Ben 0.5 – 0.5 Mike Dave 1 v 0 Rhys Keatan 1 v 0 Algis Patrick 0 v 1 Paul B
Round 2
Paul B 0 – 1 Mark Mike 1 – 0 Patrick Keatan 1 – 0 Dave Bernard 1 – 0 Ben Rhys 1 – 0 Algis
Round 3
Mark 1 v 0 Keatan Dave 0 v 1 Mike Paul B 0.5 – 0.5 Bernard Ben 1 – 0 Rhys Algis 1 – 0 Patrick
Round 4
Mike 0 v 1 Mark Dave 1 – 0 Algis Bernard 0 – 1 Keatan Ben 1 – 0 Paul B Patrick 0 – 1 Rhys
Round 5
Mark 0.5 – 0.5 Ben Mike 1 – 0 Rhys Patrick 0 – 1 Dave Paul B 0 -1 Keatan Algis 0 – 1 Bernard
At the end of the evening I had just about managed to justify my number 1 seeding, finishing on 4.5/5, ahead of Keatan the rating bandit on 4. The full standings were:-
1 Mark 4.5 2 Keatan 4 3 Mike 3.5 4= Ben and Dave 3 6 Bernard 2.5 7 Rhys 2 8 Paul B 1.5 9 Algis 1 10 Patrick 0
The tournament was very hard fought, with the 5 rounds not concluding until around 10.30, and many games lasting close to 30 minutes. I almost lost count of the number of drawn out queen endings I had to play!
For the second successive event, I got to the final round with a 100% score (after a very lucky Rd 4 win over Mike) but - just like last time - I found Ben a very difficult opponent. At least this time I didn't lose, which was just as well, as Keatan won his last round encounter against Paul and would have tied if Ben had done the double over me. I don't know what it is about Ben's play, but he's got me totally psyched out now!
The even bigger storm referenced in the title of this article could be either Leg 3 of the KCC Speed Championship (which will be another Blitz event on August 28th) or the imminent British Championships which are about to start in Liverpool. KCC's 2 junior CMs are both in action in the Championship proper (but with starting ranks of 43 (Jude) and 72 (Billy) you can tell this is a monstrously strong event. Keatan is flying the KCC flag in the Major Open, where he is seeded 17th (of 137!) aiming for one of the 10 qualifying places available for the 2026 British Championship. Ben makes his debut in the 50+ Championships (seeded 41) where he is joined by Bruce (start rank 24). Of course, Ben is also playing in a morning tournament as well, and a couple of Blitz evenings. Good luck to him I say, but count me out of such an intensive schedule - I've got sight-seeing, eating, drinking and sleeping to take care of! Keatan, Bruce and - surprise, surprise - Joshua will also be blitzing two of their evenings away. Madness, sheer madness!
Well, why not? It is Liverpool we're going to!
Ed (seeded 60) and myself (21) are the two KCC representatives in the 65+ event. The chances of me repeating my shock joint first in 2019 are consequently very low.
So we haven't quite been able to match the even larger turnout we had in Torquay back in 2019, but its still a respectable showing. Good luck to all and who knows, there may even be a report or two of proceedings posted here.
Now, we've had this song before (no idea if it was this same video), but it would be careless of me not to continue the theme. So here goes.
It was 29 degrees centigrade in Kenilworth yesterday, as the first of three legs of the new Kenilworth Quickplay Championship got underway. Inside the Holiday Inn, though, it was decidedly parky, as the air conditioning was seemingly turned up to 11 and frostbite, rather than heatstroke, was the more likely affliction for the 12 players who contested a 7 round (slow) Blitz (5" + 2'). There should have been 14 players but Rhys (unwell) and Joshua (who knows!?) were late withdrawals. But all twelve starters would surely agree with Little Feat that "it was freezing cold in that hotel!" Great version here, with Bonnie Raitt on guest vocals.
The tournament was only able to function smoothly thanks to Gregory, our 14 year old National Arbiter, who was able to set things up on Swiss Manager and handle the pairings, results and grading functions with an ease which made both Ben and I very embarrassed after our own pathetic attempts to master the software!
Javi started off as hot favourite, but something went very wrong in Round 2 when he contrived to lose on time against me, in a probably winning endgame - though as he pointed out to me afterwards, I had missed the one move win of a piece earlier! This put me, Mike and Dave in the early lead but somehow I then just kept on winning, getting myself to 6/6. Before the last round, Javi had recovered to lie in second place on 5 pts, with Dhairya and Ben back in a tie for third on 3.5.
The last round pairing had me as Black against Ben, and all I needed for victory was a draw, but as this is a three leg event, with the best 2 results on game points counting, I decided that it was more important to go for broke rather than try and wimp out with a draw. (Which Ben may not have accepted, of course!) You can all guess what happened next. Ben played a monster game and took several of my pawns before annexing a piece and then delivering mate. Brutal!
Of course, Javi then won his Round 7 encounter with Dhairya to catch me on 6 points. Ben's demolition job on me meant he finished in clear third place on 4.5. But this is just the first of three events, so there's plenty of twists that might happen yet - and the tournament winner might even not have played a single game yet! Who knows who might turn up for events 2 (Rapid) and 3 (another Blitz)? BTW you can play one of these events without being a member of the ECF, but you won't be allowed to play in a second without at least Bronze membership.
So the future dates for your diary are July 31st for leg 2 and August 28th for the potentially decisive leg 3. By the way, there will be a prize of £25 to the overall winner, and £25 to the best placed player under ...... a rating yet to be decided by Ben. Though on the evidence of yesterday's field, the rating cap will possibly be in the vicinity of 1700. Anyway, no need to panic yet as Ben will be in touch with everyone to take entries before each of the two remaining legs. In the meantime I will enjoy my position as joint leader while it lasts - which will be until July 31st!
It was a great day for the club yesterday, when we hosted a simultaneous display from England's legendary Super GM and 8 time British Champion, Mickey Adams. Well, it was a great day in every respect except the score, as Mickey turned on the turbo chargers to leave us losers by a score of 28.5-0.5! Massive congratulations to Andy Ward for preventing the clean sweep and retaining just a bit of dignity for the club! In the end there were 22 KCC participants, as Dhairya was unable to get to the venue in time from a football match, plus 7 of Paul's most promising students from the Coventry Chess Academy, who we were delighted to invite to join us. With none older than 11, and three of them only 5 (yes, 5!!) it was something of a baptism of fire to be playing a man once ranked 4th in the world - behind only present/future World Champions Kasparov, Kramnik and Anand! - but they all did themselves and the CCA proud with both their play and their behaviour.
And, as you can tell from the score, it was no better for the older and more experienced KCC contingent. We had managed to bring in 2 of our big guns, Jude and Javier, to fill the top boards and - surely - put us on the scoreboard, but regrettably these were 2 big guns who were only able to fire blanks and were readily put away by the GM. Andy B dropped a pawn early on Board 3 and despite determined play inevitably went down to defeat. I thought I was doing rather well (+1.8 at one point!!) but got well outplayed at the critical moment and ended up in a mating net where my extra piece was not much consolation. On Board 5 Keatan got into a big tactical melee which looked quite promising, but Mickey had seen a bit further and when the fireworks finished he was a pawn ahead and inevitably winning.
I failed to see much of anybody else's games, and while I have collected all/most of the score sheets, I haven't had a chance to play through them yet. (Watch this space - I'm sure that some of the games will feature on the Blog in due course.) At the very end it was only Mike and Algis left, but Mike was powerless to stop Mickey promoting to a second queen, while Algis - the last man sitting - had to concede as a central pawn push destroyed his position and won material.
So full marks and maximum kudos to Andy who, together with Ilyas from the CCA juniors, won a best game prize, selected by Mickey, and each received a signed copy of his ECF Book of the Year, Think Like a Super Grand Master. (Shame none of us read this before the simul!) Naturally, you will want to see how you go about drawing against a Super GM, so here's the game. The Lichess Stockfish tells me that Mickey played at 94% accuracy and Andy at 95%! Impressive or what?!
Just like Julius Caesar, Mickey would be well entitled to say, "Veni! Vidi! Vici!". So many congratulations to our visiting GM, who was a very friendly and engaging guest - and a frighteningly strong chess player. If Jude, Billy or Keatan can't win the English Championship in Kenilworth in July, I hope its Mickey who can regain the crown he last won in 2023 and only relinquished to Gawain Jones in a play off last year. I should have asked him what piece of music he would like to accompany this article, but as I didn't he'll have to make do with my choice. Looking at the results list it seems to me that there was indeed, from a KCC perspective, "too much blood on the page" (and also "on the Page!"), so I'll let The Gaslight Anthem play us out, in what is only their second ever appearance here.
At last week's Leamington League AGM it was raining, not men, but silverware and trophies on KCC. As well as 4 team awards, there were also 3 individual prizes. And just to prove it, here is a picture of them all together for what is probably the only time.
3 humans: (l-r) Andy Ward, Ben Graff, Mark Page 7 trophies: Back (l-r) Division 2, Division 1 Front (l-r) Best Game (Andy W), U8750 Cup, Open KO Cup, Blitz Champion (Javier), Blitz Intermediate (Keatan)
By the way, you can replay Andy's splendid prize winning game (as judged by National Master Don Mason) here.
Now I bet you all thought you'd guessed what the song would be from the very first line of this report - and that was, indeed, my intention. But my super-new video list has now told me that I've used it before. So hurriedly I've had to go to Plan B. Very tenuous, but its the best I could come up with at short notice. It's got the word silver in, so that will have to do! (The alternatives were David Soul or David Essex who just don't cut it as far as I'm concerned!) Probably a bit too country for some of you, but we're here to cater for all tastes. The rock 'n roll will surely be back next time!
A nice rendition by Poco, but even better, in my opinion, is the original by Gram Parsons. But why don't you decide?
As far as I can tell, the first music video to appear on the KCC website appeared on December 20, 2017. It was Tina Turner singing "We don't need another hero". But don't bother going back to try and find it, as the video has subsequently been deleted from YouTube, so no longer appears on our Blog. Little did I realise, when I first discovered how to embed videos into a web post, that the selection of music would become such a big part of the KCC Blog. My semi-scientific research (scrolling back for what seemed like ever through 7.5 years of posts) has revealed that there have in total been some 101 different artists featured across a total of 160 music videos.
You won't be surprised to learn that Bruce tops the table of most appearances. The Top 10 currently looks like this.
Bruce Springsteen 14* Jackson Browne 9 Bob Dylan 8 Little Feat 5 The Kinks 4 The Allman Brothers 3 Buffalo Springfield3 The Byrds 3 Mark Knopfler 3**
The Grateful Dead 3
* Plus 1 with Southside Johnny
** Plus 2 with Dire Straits
There are a further 14 artistes with 2 contributions, and 77 with a single appearance.
The Club Organiser has clearly been progressively losing his marbles, as several songs have appeared more than once by accident - though on a couple of occasions it has been done deliberately, most recently with Fairground Attraction's Perfect, in honour of a second 100% score by Javier at the LDCL Blitz Championships. Going Home, the theme from Local Hero, appeared 3 times in the same post (deliberately!) and Running on Empty by Jackson Browne has also featured 3 times though two of these have now disappeared, having been removed from YouTube. Now I have a list of all the videos, such accidental repetition shouldn't happen again. As long as I keep the list up to date, of course!
In my opinion the weirdest song to appear (so far!) was Charles Jolly's rendition of The Laughing Policeman, though if you want to hear it again you'll have to track it down yourselves as the Blog search function doesn't reference embedded videos. But also pretty weird was John Cage's 4'33" of absolute silence. Still, I prefer this to any of the contributions by Abba or Queen. Not my favourite groups!
Despite being of a certain age myself, I'm pleased to see that the Beatles and Rolling Stones have only managed one appearance each, with their combined score being beaten by both the Kinks and The Byrds, the two best 60's pop bands in my opinion.
But the most astonishing discovery I made going through the Blog's musical history is that one song - which should really have been the first ever - has never made an appearance. Until today. I could have included the live version recently witnessed by the Chairman and Club Organiser in Manchester, but that's an amateur production with very dodgy sound and this song deserves better. Much better. So wrap your ears around this. If its not the greatest rock song ever written, it must be pretty damn close! What a great way to start the second 160 KCC music videos.
This must be a first for the KCC blog - a double tournament report written by someone who wasn't present - let alone playing - at either of them. But thanks to the wonders of modern technology, it almost felt like I was actually there.
At least that's the case as far as the main event of this weekend - the British Rapidplay Championship at Peterborough - was concerned, as there were up to 93 boards transmitted live in each round. With so many KCC players in action, not to mention those from my 4NCL team, Warwickshire Select, it was almost impossible to keep up with everything that was happening. But when the chaos ended, after 11 rounds of 15 mins + 10 secs slugfests spread over 2 days, it was possible to take a deep breath and see how our six brave warriors/gluttons for punishment (delete as applicable!) had acquitted themselves. Pretty well, it's fair to say!
The KCC contingent was, in start rank order:-
28 Jude 37 Billy 82 Bruce B 109 Keatan 115 Andy W
124 Ben
And they finished like this, in a field of 217 players:-
33 Billy 7 pts/TPR 2161 44 Bruce 7 pts/TPR 2016 71 Jude 6 pts/TPR 2171 90 Ben 6 pts/TPR 1785 123 Keatan 5 pts/TPR 1820
125 Andy 5 pts/ TPR 1906
The final scores hide the full drama, though, because - as the Tournament Performance Ratings reveal - Jude and Billy played many of their games on very high boards, while Bruce (to pluck a name at random!) spent much of his time grovelling on the mid/lower boards before producing a storming finish on Sunday, when he scored 4/5, culminating in a last round victory over Jude which massively affected the KCC mini-league table. In fact, Jude seemed to run out of steam completely at the end, losing the last three rounds having climbed to a very exciting 9th= after 8 rounds.
There were some titled scalps claimed by the KCC contingent along the way - Jude beating Italian FM Lorenzo Fava and pride of place going to Andy for a win over IM Neil Bradbury. Both Keatan (Round 1) and Billy (Round 3) got to play on top board against number 1 seed, GM Gawain Jones (just the 2797 RP rating!), while Jude faced off against GMs Gormally and Kovchan.
So no prizes or titles to be reported from Peterborough, but we do have a Kenilworth triumph to celebrate, as I've left the best news till last. Because in the rather calmer waters of the Warwick University Rapidplay on Saturday, Javier produced a storming performance to win the Open with 6.5/7 - conceding only a draw to top seed, Australian FM Sam Chow (rated 2483!) - who thankfully doesn't bother turning out for Warwick Uni in the Coventry League. Javi imperiously swept all other opposition aside to secure the £160 1st prize and post a massive TPR of 2452, virtually 300 points over his own rapidplay rating. After threatening to play in this event myself, I'm glad I decided to give it a miss and avoid being run over by a Spanish express train! On a weekend where there was "muchos rapidplay" played "muy rapido", Javi takes the prize for being "mas poderoso"!
And to round off this speed chess episode, let's play ourselves out with a suitably themed song!
Which even by my standards is an oblique way of introducing the subject of TITLES!
And this we definitely need to do, as it will probably surprise you to learn that we now have 5 - soon to be 6 - over the board titled players at KCC, (holding 7 titles between them) which is pretty amazing for a club/town of our size. It may also surprise you when I reveal that its quite probable that you, dear reader, could join this illustrious band, albeit that for most of us this would have to be at the lower end of the title spectrum! Because, in its infinite wisdom, the ECF sometime ago introduced a whole raft of titles that cover almost all levels of over the board playing standards. (And anyone suggesting that this was a money generating exercise by the ECF should be ashamed of themselves for being so cynical.)
Starting at the bottom, we have the title of English Chess Maestro, which requires holding a rating of 1400+ as an average for a 12 months' period (minimum 30 games). And the payment of £5. There are currently 42 of these by my count (from the ECF website), and before you say that this is a pretty meaningless title I should point out that it was awarded in February 2016 to Shreyas Royal - now a Grand Master! But KCC doesn't have any ECMs, as our illustrious members have higher aspirations.
The next rung on the ladder is the English Team Maestro, which requires holding a rating of 1600+ as an average for a 12 months period (minimum 30 games). And the payment of £5, of course. I count 53 ETMs, but once again KCC comes up blank in this category. Though future GM Shreyas Royal (Feb 2017) makes another appearance in this list!
Continuing up the ladder we reach English Club Master, which requires holding a rating of 1800+ as an average for a 12 months period (minimum 30 games). And the payment of £5, of course. There are 86 ECMs, and finally we find a KCC name on the list - Paul B (and his daughter Jo, who came along to a recent club night), though I fear he acquired his title well before he joined us. Surprisingly this title eluded Shreyas Royal, but there is an even more impressive name on the roll of honour, three times British Champion, GM Gawain Jones! (Who, as I type this article, Keatan is just about to play in Round 1 of the British Rapidplay Championship. I am sure he will acquit himself with more credit than I did when I played Gawain in Round 1 of the King's Place Rapidplay Tournament many years ago and lost in under 20 moves with White!) Other interesting names on the ECM list include 3 times British Women's Champion Dinah Norman and former Egghead (and ECF President, I think) C.J. de Mooi.
Rather confusingly, the next ECF category is also ECM, though in this case it stands for English County Master, which requires holding a rating of 2000+ as an average for a 12 months period (minimum 30 games). And the payment this time of £10, reflecting the fact that we ae now moving into the higher reaches of the grading list. There are 61 of these ECMs, and while there are no KCC members amongst them, I have spotted two former team mates of mine at Mitcham Chess Club and 2 current team mates of Bruce B at Central Birmingham.
And still we ascend the ladder, now reaching the title of English Regional Master (ERM, but not to be confused with the Exchange Rate Mechanism, that economists of a certain age will recall), which requires holding a rating of 2100+ as an average for a 12 months period (minimum 30 games). And the payment of £10. There are 58 members of this club, including Andy B and Mike as KCC representatives, though the strongest player of the ERM group is future IM Tom Rendle. I could claim this title, but modesty - and my desire to hang onto a tenner - forbids me from applying.
I expect that a little bit of research and the payment of a further tenner might well see that Andy could claim the next, and highest, ECF awarded title - and one that is really worth having, as it enables you to play in the chess.com Titled Tuesday tournaments with the world's strongest players - that of National Master (NM). As I'm sure that he must have reached the qualification standard in his prime. Which was obviously long before he played for us! The NM requirement is for a rating of 2200+ as an average for a 12 months period (minimum 30 games). And the payment of £10. Which demands a really impressive level of play. And I speak as someone who has never achieved an ECF rating of 2200 for even 1 day, let alone 12 months!
But never mind, as KCC has no less than 2 National Masters anyway! Both Paul L and Jude got awarded the title on June 17, 2024 - in Paul's case the achievement relating to performances several (where several is quite a large number!) years earlier. I guess I was too occupied with other things to celebrate this achievement at the time, so apologies to our two NMs for the late acknowledgement of their richly deserved titles.
But it doesn't end there, as we also have the much grander stage of the world arena to consider, in the form of titles awarded by FIDE. The first step on the road to becoming a GM is to attain an ELO rating of 2200, which is the qualification level for becoming a Candidate Master. Jude reached this milestone in December 2024, when he posted his - to date - peak rating of 2249. Talk about clearing the required height with ease! But what reminded me that this subject needed to be reported on the blog is that he will soon be joined in this elite company by a second KCC member - and its another highly talented graduate of Paul's Coventry Chess Academy - who has reached the 2200+ rating requirement. These kids! Honestly!! So step forward Billy, after a brilliant performance at last month's Isle of Wight Open, where he gained over 100 ELO points and now finds himself in possession of a FIDE rating of 2203. And an ECF rating, by the way, of 2268, which is just one point below Jude!!
Sorry Javi, but at 2265 you are now only the third highest rated player in the club! Its quite unbelievable that we have 3 players rated over 2260. (That's never happened before in KCC history.) Though they have never all played in the same Kenilworth team!
Something upbeat is required to celebrate the latest addition to the KCC title holders club. This will do nicely, I think.
We're getting very close to the end of our meander through the first 35 years or so of the club's history. In fact, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Unless its a train coming straight towards me. Either way, this interminable saga is almost complete.
April 2009 - The Club Secretary sends out (on April 1st of all dates - I'm saying nothing) notice of the forthcoming AGM and things are serious enough that as well as an agenda he also includes a separate letter describing the difficulties of the Thursday social chess nights. Attendance is down to only 4 or 5 people on some weeks, possibly due to the fact that our home match night is Wednesday and not so many people are eager to spend two successive nights at the Royal British Legion Club. The Secretary also raises the prospect of a return to the Sports and Social Club and urges members to think of new ways to promote the club, as there have been few newcomers to KCC in recent years. I should just like to mention that in keeping with the general level of administrative excellence which has characterised the club in recent years, the Secretary once again fails to specify the AGM venue, presumably relying on osmosis or something similar to inform the membership of this minor detail.
May 2009 - The AGM is held on May 7th in the unspecified and unrecorded venue. Fifteen people somehow turn up, including many familiar names (Aldridge, Holland, Johnson, King, Krombeen, Morris, Payne, Pickering (T), Rogers, Shurrock, Watson, Whatson, Webb and Wood) and an unfamiliar one (A. Riddoch). Apologies were received from Messrs Pickering (C) and Pelton, but P. Mills, N. Mottram and K. Raison are absent without apology. (I think I should reinstate this system of naming and shaming in any future AGM Minutes I might pen.)
The Chairman was able to tell the AGM that this had been the club's most successful season for many years. With 5 teams, we were the largest club in the LDCL, and all teams finished in the top half of their divisions. Star turn was the C team, who won Division 3 by 6(!!) points, while the D team came 1st= in Division 4 ..... with the E team, who they shaded on game points! And Mike Johnson won the league individual competition, beating Dave Shurrock in the final. The Secretary, predictably, had nothing to report yet again, while the Treasurer followed suit and failed to produce any accounts. Even though the only items of expenditure had been £170 on League fees and £40 of catering for the League Jamboree. He effectively asked the meeting to believe him when he said sufficient revenue had been collected to cover these costs and subs were left unchanged. All post-holders were re-elected for the coming season, meaning we would once again field 5 teams - but the all conquering C team would remain in Division 3.
Finally the meeting arrived at the contentious issue of venue. In an uncanny foreshadowing of future years, Mike Johnson said that some members would never turn up at club nights, whatever the day of the week or venue. Roy proposed that the Committee be mandated to look at alternative venues and decide upon the best choice, but the rank and file was having none of this elitism and rejected the idea. Ever the diplomat, Mike Johnson instead successfully proposed that the Committee should indeed investigate possible venues and recommend its preference for consideration by the membership at the EGM/Team Formation Meeting before the start of the 2009-10 season. Under AOB it was reported that the club's equipment was not in great shape, and Bruce H and Chris agreed to take an inventory and make recommendations for any additional requirements.
And so the meeting closed at 10.50, with no-one any the wiser as to where they would be playing next season!
August 2009 - The EGM (18 people in attendance!) decides upon the team composition for the coming season (naming 17 players and 2 reserves), but of the much anticipated venue recommendation there is no mention. So maybe everything in the garden is rosy, after all? ............... No!!
April 2010 - Bernard writes to the membership. The club faces a serious crisis - we are being evicted by the Royal British Legion from the upstairs concert room, as it has been let (for a whole 52 weeks) to two separate aerobics classes at £20 a night. The Club Secretary told them we were rather disappointed that this had been decided without any contact with KCC, for which they apologised, but he admits it is a moot point as there was no way we would have matched this rent. The Secretary further reports that club night attendances have been very disappointing, and the small spend by KCC members has doubtless encouraged the RBL to seek alternative business. The Sports and Social Club is still available, though the room is extremely untidy and Bernard thinks this would be a retrograde step.
After canvassing member sentiment the Secretary reports that the ambiance of the RBL is much preferred for club nights over KSSC, and hopefully we could continue there on Thursday nights with no charge. But what to do about a match venue?? The AGM on April 22nd will be crucial - and everyone is urged to attend in our hour of need. However, despite the crisis and the need for a firm hand on the tiller, both the Chairman and Secretary have tendered their resignation and it will be up to some other poor saps to come in and save the club. (Alright, the letter doesn't phrase it quite like this, but I'm reading between the lines, OK?!)
May 2010 - For some reason the AGM has been delayed by 2 weeks and takes place on May 6th. The tension is palpable - there is a very real possibility that the club will collapse. But the membership have responded to the Secretary's exhortations and turn out in force - 18 present! The meeting agrees (by 14-0 with 3 abstentions) that the Committee will approach the RBL to try and secure a match venue on either Monday or Tuesday nights. Though this will significantly increase our costs. As a consequence the Treasurer proposed that club subs should increase to £60 pa. And this earth-shattering proposal was accepted.
Off the board issues may well have affected the club's performance in the 2009-10 season, as the Chairman reported an almost universally dismal playing record. Our 5 teams had not distinguished themselves - the A and E teams had both finished last; the D team 8th of 10; the C team 7th of 10 (what happened to the previous season's all conquering performance?); and the B team 3rd of 7. Remarkably, though, the club had won the Open KO Cup, beating Stratford in the final. How on earth did that happen?
Its a complete new management board at KCC, since Roy also stands down as Treasurer. The new powers in the land are Bruce (Chairman), Mike Johnson (Secretary) and Chris (Treasurer), while Carl takes over from Phil as A team captain. As well as standing down from their KCC posts it transpires that Bernard and Phil have also had enough of being League Chairman and Secretary respectively.
The AGM ends with the Team Formation Meeting being arranged for September 2nd (but where will it be??), and Bruce makes an unbelievably generous offer to buy dinner for everyone beforehand. Is the current Chairman reading this?! And finally the new Secretary urges everybody in the club to get an e-mail address. Welcome to the 21st century!
May 2011 - And - frustratingly - this is where the available Archives run out. The only other document between the 2010 and 2014 AGM's is a hand written set of accounts for the 2010-11 season. (Which record a loss of £238.58 due to a large expenditure on ten clocks, leaving a balance of just £121.42, but things could have been much worse as we had received a donation of 18 sets and boards to the value of £257.88. As the identity of the donor was not disclosed I shall respect the apparent wish for anonymity, even though I know who it was!)
So this means that there is currently no record to hand of how the venue crisis was resolved. What I do know is that the KCC match night pretty soon became a Monday, and the venue remained at the RBL until 2013. At some point, and possibly immediately, the Thursday club night venue moved to the Royal Oak, which was its location when I first started attending sometime round 2012.
KCC records resume in 2014, but given that I have written them since then, these can hardly count as coming from the archives. Which means that - for now - the journey through KCC's glorious history has ended. But it would be nice to think that the missing three years might be filled in sometime in the future. With Bruce having been Chairman, there's every chance the record keeping was maintained, and so maybe those missing documents will come to light and enable this series to end on a nice round number. But as it is, we are stuck on 19. Which makes the choice of song very easy indeed!
“I love Liverpool, the city. It’s actually great, I had a great time. God, it’s changed. The whole river front has changed and there’s loads of nice tapas restaurants. We found this amazing Chinese restaurant, too, which was right by where I was living, which was great.”
Samuel L Jackson
Well that's a recommendation and a half from a famous movie star. This summer, Liverpool is also going to have a bit of chess on offer, as the British Championships are in town. Check out the link for full details.
https://www.britishchesschampionships.co.uk/
Essentially proceedings will run from the 31st July to the 10th August, and there are stacks of tournaments at various speeds and durations. In addition to a host of opportunities to play in simuls and the like. I'm going to be competing in the over-50s (even though for the record I'm not quite 50 yet!), a morning weekday event, and a couple of Blitz tournaments, so will be there for most of it.
In recent years we've had lots of Kenilworth players at the British. I well remember some very good times and nice team meals in Torquay. Do think about playing if you can, and let me know if you are going to be about. I'd be delighted to fix up a club social for those of us who are on the road!
These are links to a BBC and Liverpool Echo article which also give a few more details: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy08p1e50q8o
Just to also state, I will be wearing a Manchester United badge on the inside of my lapel at all times, where it can't be seen. Thus making a point while avoiding the risk of getting beaten up, or more likely being laughed at.
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!
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!
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.
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