Game of the Month - July, 2026

Its been rather a long time (no need to be any more specific than that, thank you) since our last Game of the Month, but we're back with a bang, in the shape of a pair of tremendous wins by Jude against the mega-strong IM Brandon Clarke.

Jude had to take a bit of a sabbatical from chess in the first part of the year, due to the looming spectre of GCSE exams, but he has returned to the competitive arena with a series of tremendous results in recent weeks. First there was a 2nd= finish at the South Wales International, where he had an excellent win over GM Peter Wells, and then he actually managed to gain some more rating points as the lowest ranked player in the monstrously strong (Mickey Adams could only manage 50%!) Wood Green Invitational, all play all. But it seems as though he was just warming up in these two events, as he then racked up a superb 4th= placing at the Sussex University Masters which finished yesterday. This included draws against GMs Williams and Kovchan (and a very near miss of a whole point against GM Kjartansson) and wins over an IM and two FMs for a rating performance of 2424, just missing an IM norm! He's definitely redicovered his mojo - just in time for the British Championships.

There were some very impressive games I could have selected from these recent efforts, but instead I've gone back to last year for two splendid, but very contrasting, victories with the Black pieces. The first is ultra impressive, as he sacs a piece for a big kingside attack and then keeps the pressure right through to the end of the game when Brandon sportingly allowed Jude to finish with mate on the board. The second was very significant, as it was the game that got Jude over 2300 ELO and so secured his FM title. Brandon looked set to get his revenge for the earlier game, but Jude defended like a demon, rode his luck and then jumped out to deliver a crushing counter attack (boom!!), which culminated with him twice sacrificing his rook to force either checkmate or the win of the White queen.

This is chess from a much higher plane than most of us can even dream of. Hope you enjoy playing through the games as much as I have.

Game of the Month - April 2025 (#2!)

Well, this is a first. Two Games of the Month in the same month, when we're typically lucky to get two in a year. But what can you do when one's inbox over-floweth with splendid offerings?

One of the big plusses for the club this season, when people were dropping like flies or heading for the hills, was the return to regular action of Andy Ward. While this further complicates matters by having 3 Andrews/Andys to differentiate, its a small price to play for the return of a strong player who has played a massive part in the C team's promotion challenge. Our game, though, somes from a recent Division 1 match against Olton A, when a somewhat under-strength Kenilworth B managed to win despite only turning up with 3 players! This was one of the decisive games that saw us overcome our numerical deficiency and secure a third place league position. Not quite matching last season's 2nd place finish for the B team, but probably an even better effort in view of our loss of players for much of the season. I don't suppose those of us in the A team will ever be allowed to forget that we managed to score just a single match point against the B team this season, and suffered our biggest drubbing (0.5-3.5) for many a year in the first encounter.

But back to the Game of the Month, and here - with Andy's own comments - is Andy's excellent victory over Richard Liszewski, who must be sick of the sight of Kenilworth players, having also lost to Bruce and myself earlier in the season. Here Black gets slowly strangled as Andy takes full advantage of some rather passive play by Richard, which ends up with Black having the worst pair of rooks you could ever see, and his light squared bishop is not much better. At the end, Andy is only a pawn up, but the Black rooks and king are so badly placed that it is impossible to avoid massive material loss. This was a very smooth and well controlled game by Andy. Black never seemed to have a chance!

Game of the Month - April 2025

I'm as surprised as you, but its time for another Game of the Month article. These generally come around with as similar frequency to Halley's Comet, as it takes something special to prompt me into action. and we have something special here as it features a splendid win by Dan, playing for Kenilworth D in a recent Division 2 match against Leamington B. Dan has been in splendid form for the club this season, which is essentially his first playing league chess in the Northern Hemisphere! So far he has scored a very impressive 9.5/13 across his D, E and U8750 Cup appearances, and has also found the time to play quite a few games for Coventry in the Coventry League. (For which we forgive him!)

The Game of the Month sees Dan despatching the much higher rated (+281 points) Chris Ward (but no, not the English GM of the same name!) in impressive fashion. Chris goes into the record books as the highest rated player that Dan has beaten in an over the board standard play game - at least for now! We can reliably expect even better things to come from Dan in the future. The game features what must be one of the queickest wins of a queen I have ever seen, followed by a suitably violent and brutal king hunt that drives the White king up the board, where it perishes when faced with the choice of being mated on a4 or a6.



A splendid game by Dan which deserves to be accompanied by a song. Something Antipodean is called for, I think. And they don't come more Antipodean than this!

Game of the Month - December 2023

I'm thinking of re-titling this series to Game of the Year, so infrequent have they become, but who knows - maybe my new year's resolution for 2024 will be to be more diligent in continuing these articles?  (Hint: it won't be!) Once again, to make up for the long interval between instalments (by which time I've forgotten how to get the game viewer to work, and have to relearn it all over again), there are two games for your entertainment. And mighty good games they are two, as a pair of International Masters get put to the sword by two of Kenilworth's finest - with just the eight and a half years between the two games. Neither played for KCC teams unfortunately, but Warwickshire Select will do just fine for me, given I captain that lot too!

Besides the result and the quality of the opposition, what these two games have in common to my eyes is that they are both played entirely on the front foot, with a total refusal to take a step backwards - despite the strength of the opposition. I just hope a little of this single-minded focus and aggression can rub off on me!

Anyway, here are two tremendous games gthat reflect bgreat credit on both victors. And while we are all only too well aware of Jude's prowess, its good to be reminded that Paul was also a pretty useful player once upon a time! Will we ever see those days again, I wonder?!

Game of the Month - June 2023

Yes, we're back! After a by now traditional long break between instalments, GOTM returns. And what a good one we've got for you this time. And it's remarkably recent as well, having been played on April 16th at the British Rapidplay Championships in Bradford. Now one game from this event has already made it onto this website in the shape of Bernard R's wonderfully incompetent disaster against the Evan's Gambit (see the post Tournament Round-Up, May 12, 2023). This is an altogether different kettle of fish.

First it features a KCC victory. We always like that. Then it features victory over a higher rated player - just the 397 points in this instance! We like that as well. Plus it features victory over a titled player. Which we like a lot - especially when the letters GM make an appearance in the title. And finally, its a rather good game, which makes it an absolutely perfect candidate for GOTM. If you didn't know, you would be hard pressed to guess this was played at a fast time limit, since Ben mixes some very solid strategoic play with nice tactical blows. White's attack seems to start first, but never actually gets anywhere, as Ben jumps out from his Fort Knox bunker to open up the White king and deliver a decisive assault. I think this is an absolutely excellent game, that any of us would have been very pleased to play. (Especially me, with a lifetime score of 0/2 against Sheila Jackson!) Great stuff, Ben.

Hopefully this will inspire some more GM bashing by KCC members over the coming months. Kenilworth expects!

Game of the Month/Year - February 2023

It's been a long break since the last Game of the Month (probably because no KCC member has actually played a decent game!), but we're back with an absolute wowzer, which deserves to be a Game of the Year, not just a Game of the Month.

Now, those of you who regularly peruse the chess news pages of various websites may have spotted that a rather spectacular game from the Meltwater Champions Tour Final between Super-GMs Duda and Giri was voted Game of the Year in 2022 on chess.com. It was a rather exciting encounter, that's for sure, as you can see below.

Absolutely brilliant stuff, but even though KCC operates at a slightly less exalted level than this, the odd moment of genius can still suddenly erupt from nowhere to enrich the game of chess and weave another stitch into its rich historical tapestry. And that is what happened on December 22nd, 2022 at The Ale Rooms in Kenilworth, when - on the last Thursday gathering of the year - Paul unleashed a game of such ferocity that I reckon it blew his hapless opponent (Joshua), in the words of Warren Zevon, "from there to Johannesburg". Or possibly Maidstone or Manchester. But definitely a long way from Kenilworth!

As Paul so modestly says in his comment, " A pleasing finish".  Understatement or what?!

I can only assume that the voters on chess.com had not seen this game, because if they had it would surely have given Jan Krzysztof a good run for his money in the Game of the Year poll. It's not only Super-GMs who can sacrifice a rook and a queen, you know. The KCC blog might just have to concede to chess.com as regards the number of visitors but there is nothing to chose between the two as regards  the prestige of their respective GotY awards! It's a bit like the Oscars and the BAFTAs, I reckon.

What a shame that we so seldom get a chance to see Paul produce this sort of chessboard magic in a Kenilworth team. If he can do this in a 3 mins + 2 secs Blitz game, what might he produce given a whole 80 minutes + 10 secs??

I've already telegraphed this week's song, and here it is. The story of "Norway's bravest son", who rather surprisingly turns out to be called Roland and not Magnus!

Game of the Month - September 2021

Yes, I know. It's been a mighty long time between posts, but give me a break, for goodness sake. Everyone needs some time off occasionally to recharge their batteries. And I could point out that in the last year, there have been precisely two items on this Blog that haven't been written by me. So I guess everyone else must have been even busier than me.

Anyway, the Blog is back with a bang, as I am able to present a truly remarkable game. In fact, its so remarkable that you probably won't believe your eyes when you play through it. And in a break from tradition, I'm going to with-hold the names of the players until the end of the article. All I will say is that they should both be well known to all KCC members.

Play chess online

A game like no other ever published on this site! But now its time for a bit of background information. This encounter took place on Lichess at the rather taxing time limit of .......... 15 seconds for the entire game!! (Yes, it was an ultrabullet game. Harry Golombek would not have approved!) This may have been a contributory factor in the quality of some of the moves. The player of the Black pieces could only be our very own mighty atom, Jude Shearsby, who wields the fastest mouse in the west. We can put his participation in this frightful time format down to youthful exuberance, but his opponent Indian Grand Master Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, was surely old enough to know better, having turned 16 a couple of weeks earlier!

Another fantastic scalp for Jude - Praggnanandhaa is the fifth youngest GM in history and is currently rated 2617 in classical chess! (Though his rapid rating of 1821 could do with a bit of work - its actually lower than Joshua's - though I know who my money would be on in a match!

After 10 moves of the above game, Jude was 1.6 seconds ahead of Pragg on the clock - much more important than a mere pawn, of course. After 20 moves this advantage had grown to a ginormous 4.1 seconds - and Jude had taken only 3.9 seconds (!!!) to this point. When White lost on time, Jude had a massive 9.7 seconds left, so had taken only 5.3 seconds for the entire game. Scarcely believable that anyone can be so fast. I need a lie down just thinking about what playing at that speed might be like.

An absolutely brilliant result for Jude, the likes of which the rest of us can only dream about. As Spock almost said on Star Trek. It's chess, Jim, but not as we know it!

Game of the Month, July 2020

Looking through the previous instalments in this series, I was shocked to discover that I have made less appearances in it than a certain Roy Watson. Which can't be right, on any number of levels.

So, to right this egregious wrong, I have dusted off one of my own games, from an altogether distant past. And not just any game, but one which I have long considered to be amongst the best games I have ever played. In fact, maybe the best.

It was played in New York, two days after my 30th birthday, in a 5 round Swiss played on successive Wednesday nights at The Game Room in Upper Broadway. Amazingly, I came first with 4/5 (including a half point bye) winning the princely sum of $100 (and given that sterling was having a very bad time of it around then, that was not far off £100.)

My opponent subsequently became an IM, and was the top seed in the tournament with a USCF rating of 2388 at the time, so this was a very satisfying win for me. Especially when you see the way it happened!



* This is the 12th instalment in the Game of the Month series, and the roll call of appearances now reads:-

Andy B 3 (+2 -1)
Mark 2 (+2)
Roy 2 (+1 -1)
Ben 1 (+1)
Bernard C 1 (+1)
Carl 1 (+1)
David P 1 (-1)
Jude 1 (+1)

Given current levels of OTB activity, I suspect I may soon be at the top of this leader board, faute de mieux. (Look it up!!)

Game of the Month, June 2020

The more perceptive amongst the KCC readership will have noticed that there hasn't been a Game of the Month for over a year, for which I tender a grovelling apology. But boy, was the wait worthwhile, as I am able to revive the series with an absolute humdinger of a game in which our second youngest member, Jude Shearsby - now having just made it into double figures, age-wise - gives an almighty beating to an American Woman Grand Master sporting a Lichess rating of around 2400.

Now, we don't know for sure who lurks behind the online moniker of Crush09, but it must surely be a reasonable guess that it might be Irina Krush - just the 7-time US women's champion and a fully fledged Grand Master to boot. That would be a truly brilliant scalp.

The game below was part of an 8 game bullet mini-match (1 minute with no increment) on Lichess between Jude and Crush09, which Jude won 4.5-3.5. Admittedly, in three of his wins he was saved by the clock - but that's the whole point of bullet, after all - if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen. (Like I do!) Coming out on top over 8 games against such a strong player - whoever she was - ranks as an absolutely tremendous achievement. At the age of 10, for goodness sake!!

And there's absolutely nothing lucky about the Game of the Month, as Jude is about to deliver mate next move when the WGM throws in the towel (Tal?). And remember when you are playing through this - each player had only 60 seconds for the entire game. That needs some seriously quick brain-work, and even faster mouse skills. Right, let the massacre begin!




What a game! And by the way, did I mention that Jude is just 10 years old?! Awesome play, Jude. Absolutely awesome!

Game of the Month, May 2019

Its been rather a long wait since the previous article in this series, but I hope you'll agree that all good things are worth waiting for. Here we come within an ace of witnessing a KCC Grand Master scalp - even if it is a GM that none of you have ever heard of!

The game was played in Rhodes at the recent World Seniors' Team Championships, on Board 1 in the match between Finland and England 3, and features, as White, GM Yrjo Rantanen, against our own Andy Baruch. Despite falling some way below his lifetime peak of 2465, Rantanen still had a near 250 rating point edge over Andy, so the odds were very much stacked against our brave warrior. But in a very tense and exciting game, in which both sides launched the kitchen sink at their opponent's kings, Andy had the chance to land a killer blow. Unfortunately the moment passed, and although he was still better, there was no obvious breakthrough. Andy should have reconciled himself to a draw, but after several hours of knife edge chess, he went and spoiled everything, probably through tiredness and lack of match practice, by a one move blunder. I can speak from experience when I say its very tough to put these GMs away. They don't like losing, however ancient they may now be!

Game of the Month, January 2019

Normally the criteria for inclusion in a Game of the Month article would include, as a minimum, being a KCC member and playing an interesting game, preferably ending in victory. But I have stretched the envelope a bit this time around, so we have a Kenilworth resident (albeit one who did make a single appearance for the D team a few years ago and who has more recently made many Thursday evening appearances at the Gauntlet), playing a rather unexciting game, that he lost rather anti-climactically.  But when I tell you that in opposition to David Phillips was 4 times US Champion; super-GM; and on-line Blitz and Bullet Legend/World Number 1, Hikaru Nakamura, and that there was very nearly one hell of an upset, you will see that this was no ordinary game.

The game was played on the chess.com platform as a 3 minute Blitz as part of one of Nakamura's regular streams (this one went on for 8 hours!), but David got to play him right at the start of the session, when the GM was presumably at his sharpest.

I feel pretty safe in stating that no-one else associated with KCC in any shape or form has ever played anyone with such a high rating. In fact, at the time of this game (only played earlier this month), Nakamura's chess.com Blitz rating was 3122!! So David was giving away the small matter of 1,032 rating points! Despite that, he came within a whisker of landing a very palpable hit on his illustrious opponent.

According to my engine, at no time in this game was Black ever better, not even by as much as 0.01 of a pawn. And of course, at one crucial moment he was considerably worse. Even if David had spotted 14 Nxf7, the GM would almost certainly still have won the game on time, since there was no increment and he was typically averaging only a third of David's time per move, despite the distractions of streaming. That doesn't detract from an excellent effort by David, against an opponent whose playing strength is of an order of magnitude we can hardly even comprehend.

David certainly doesn't need any chess advice from me, but the one thing I do dare to suggest to him is that he changes his internet provider. Every second counts when playing against GM Hikaru!!

Game of the Month, August 2018

Well, I did warn you that a number of wins by Andy against big-name opposition had come into my possession, so it can't be a surprise that the latest Game of the Month should come from this source. And it really is a big name, even though its also Short. Yes, back in 1978, Andy came up against a rather useful 13-y-o from Lancashire, who had already played in the British Championship at the age of 12 (where he defeated 10 times champion Jonathan Penrose!), and who would go on to become England's most famous chess player and to challenge for the World Championship.

The following encounter is razor sharp, and understandably the complications are a bit much for both players (says the man using Deep Fritz!), but it is Andy who keeps his cool and stands firm against an avalanche of White pieces, when lesser men (eg the Club Organiser) would have wilted in the face of a frightening onslaught.

This is a very nice scalp to have on one's CV, and one that most of us could only dream about. Kind of makes you want to treat the old geezer with a bit more respect, doesn't it!?

Game of the Month, June 2018

Alright, alright! I know its been a long time since the last Game of the Month, but this feature has exacting standards, and just any old rubbish will not do. But when a victory by a (future) KCC member over a (future) GM falls into my hands, I just know that the wait has been worthwhile.

In this encounter, we are transported back to a simpler time, some 35 (!!) years ago, when Kenilworth's invisible man, Andy Baruch, was actually an active chess player who was more than a bit useful. Here he takes on a young whipper-snapper in the shape of a 15 year old David Norwood, who would get his IM title just 2 years later and his GM title a further 4 years after that (age 21). In this battle between Innocence and Experience, though, its the old codger who comes out decisively on top.



A small selection of further games by Andy from his golden years has come into my possession, so I think you can reasonably assume that some other big names will be biting the dust on these pages in the not too distant future. Sigh, if only he could still do it today!

Game of the Month, October 2017

Never mind showing us all these games by other club members, what we want is one of your own masterpieces, Mark. Is what non-one has been saying to me, but I'm sure that has just been an oversight and that deep down you are all desperate to see another example of my mastery of the chessboard. And since it has now been officially decided by no less a judge than Richard Weaving that I played the Best Game in the Leamington League last season (beating off masses of competition in the form of a whole four other submitted games - another of my own efforts; a game by Nigel Byrne; one by Jason Madden and one by Peter Stiff), it seems obvious which game I should present to you.




A fairly easy game to understand. Black played for a crude kingside attack; white co-operated by being far too passive, and a pleasing and not too common rook, knight and pawn mate concluded the evening's entertainment. What's not to like?!

Anyway, just remember that I am constantly on the lookout for good - correction, exciting - games played by KCC members for future Game of the Month articles. So could somebody please play an exciting game or two!!

Game of the Month, April 2017

If any sensitive reader of the KCC blog felt I had been a tad unfair to Bernard C, in my report of the recent match v Banbury A, then I hope this article will put your concerns to rest. I bow to no man in my admiration for our much loved and highly revered senior citizen - though I have to admit I do find his paintings rather unsettling! But that is just the worthless reaction of a conservative philistine - Bernard walks an altogether more intense artistic path. After all, he is a man seemingly so charged with creative impulses that, in order to spark his muse to even greater heights, he apparently decided to enact the sentiments of some lines from a song by an equally gifted and tortured artist:-

I'm going to hurl myself against the wall,
Cause I'd rather feel bad than not feel anything at all.

("Ain't That Pretty At All" by Warren Zevon - which I am sure was not in anyway a comment on Bernard's art!)

He said he tripped, but we all know he would never do anything as banal or cliched as that. Thank goodness he didn't follow Van Gogh's even more extreme example and cut off his ear! We were all very relieved and pleased to learn that Bernard suffered no lasting damage from his "domestic accident" - although there was clearly a temporary effect at Banbury the other night.

Anyway, when he is in the zone, Bernard is a very dangerous opponent at the chess board, as I have found to my cost, managing just two grovelling draws from 3 games. In this April Game of the Month we see him at his most inspired, as he performs a brutal hack on an extremely strong (ECF 216) opponent from Warwick University's all conquering A team. Indeed, with a grading gap of 58 points this is the biggest giant killing yet featured on this website. Regrettably, it was achieved on behalf of Coventry rather than any Kenilworth team, but you can't have everything.

Sit back and enjoy a real demolition job - given the date it was played on, I think we can all agree that this is a contemporary Valentine's Day massacre!


A real tour de force by Bernard, and a game anybody would have been delighted to play.

Game of the Month, March 2017

Only two months after the previous instalment, I'm pleased to bring you another KCC game of the month, and most appropriately it features our man of the moment, Roy Watson. The game shows the two sides of Roy's play, as he manages to mix the sublime with the absolutely appalling within the space of a few moves. On this occasion Good Roy had the last word, but I think we can all see only too clearly, how Bad Roy can sometimes get the upper hand!

Anyway, the game was played just before Christmas in the C Team's away match against Solihull C, when a spirited 2.5-1.5 win was secured against the (grading) odds.




Vigorous play at the end by Roy, especially for one of such advanced years! There's life in the old dog yet. And talking of old dogs, the next Game of the Month will feature a sensational piece of giant killing by another of our "senior" members. Well worth waiting for, I assure you.

Game of the Month, January 2017

Well, I did warn you all that this feature wouldn't be appearing every month! Even so, I felt slightly embarrassed when I found out the previous episode appeared as long ago as last July. But I soon got over it.

This month's game features our much loved Social Secretary, Carl Pickering, and his recent encounter with Tony Sadler in the A team's match against Solihull B. At the end of the game, Carl wisely took his score-sheet home with him, but Tony - presumably wishing to forget the events of the previous 3 hours, left his lying about. Naturally I swooped on this, as the game -- which had been played out on the next board to me - had been a mind-blowing affair, with which I was sure our silicon friend Fritz would have a field day. I wasn't wrong!


What an epic encounter! Fantastic fighting chess that saw both players down on the canvas and seemingly out for the count several times, before Carl landed a final hay-maker at the death. Never mind the computer evaluations - this was just one of those games that remind us (as if we could ever forget) that chess is rather difficult. At least for us poor humans.

And by way of a tease, I can let you know that I already have another Game of the Month lined up for the near future. And while it can't quite match the sheer excitement of the game above, it will more than make up for that by its capacity to surprise and amaze you!

Watch this space.

Game of the Month, July 2016

The more sporty of you may recall a goal scored by Mark Robins for Manchester Utd against Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup match in January 1990. It came to be known as the goal that saved Fergie's job - and we all know what happened subsequently as a result. I can't claim that July's game of the month offering had quite that much significance, but it sure as hell played a major role in shaping our debut Coventry League season.

The game was played in our very first match, away at Rugby. On Board 4, Rugby's very promising junior, Jamie Kearney, found himself up against our grizzled veteran, Roy Watson. Roy was quite heavily outgraded, and all the smart money would have been on Jamie. The smart money would indeed have won the day eventually, but not before a very exciting, and exceedingly bumpy, ride along the way. Roy repeatedly got himself a winning position, and repeatedly let it slip. Then in a final twist of fate, he blundered horrendously when up on the clock and still with an extra pawn. Tragedy. The match was drawn instead of being won, while Roy's season got off on the wrong foot - and never really recovered.





That really was one that got away. I imagine it was a case of sleepless in Fen End that night. Games like that take a lot of getting over - as we all know, only too well!

Game of the Month, March 2016

Yes I know its only March 4th, but I very much doubt we will see a more enjoyable or significant game than this in the next 27 days. Indeed, as Paul said afterwards, this must be a strong candidate for KCC game of the season.

Our Leamington League KO Cup Semi Final against Solihull looked set to be a very close struggle, with the two teams separated by just 3 points on average grade. I had a big ratings edge against Ray Carpenter on Board 3, but Ben was giving away 20 points to Neil Clarke on Board 5 and the other three boards were virtually even. But when Ben blitzed his way to a win in just 21 moves, it swung the match massively in our favour and inspired the rest of us to follow suit, resulting in a quite remarkable 5-0 whitewash of this season's Division 1 front runners. This was definitely a game which was worth more than just a single point to the team. The only thing that annoyed me was that it made my 23 move win look positively pedestrian.

What a great way to get a new website feature up and running. I shall now be on high alert looking for future candidate games for inclusion here. Though don't expect anything quite as explosive as this on a regular basis. And in fact don't expect anything at all on a regular basis. It might say Game of the Month, but it doesn't say Game of the Month Every Month!