One Thousand and Thirty Eight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Playing Catch-Up

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

B-igly C-alamity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eight Days A Week

At least that's what it feels like, after important KCC matches on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. With 2 wins and a loss, the week can be judged, on balance, a success, especially as it ended with us sitting on top of the two leagues we play in.

It got off to a mega-start as the A team welcomed current Leamington League leaders, Banbury A, to a head-on collision of the two strongest teams in the league. As usual this season, Banbury were headed by IM James Jackson, who was doubtless out for revenge against Jude after losing the decisive game in our earlier KO Cup encounter a few weeks back. I was present for the first hour of the match and when I left it was naturally all to play for. Javier and Bruce both appeared to be slightly better with the White pieces, while Jude seemed to have plenty of activity, but a slightly loose structure. (Though I am clearly not qualified to make such judgements!) As for Keatan, I was slightly worried by his knight on b4 which seemed to be stranded, with no retreat squares if White could arrange the move pawn to a3. Thankfully there was a knight on that square for the time being, but my immediate thought was that this was a difficult position.

So, of course, the first message I got later on, was from Nash telling me Keatan had won against Gary Jackson! I'm giving up the prophecy game completely, as I always get it wrong. And then a bit later, a photo appeared showing the completed official match score-card (or tatty scrap of paper as its also known) which told me that we had chalked up a significant win!

Now that's what I call impressive!

So many congratulations to the A team for a big performance which lifted us to the top of the table for the first time this season - at the expense of our B team! Sorry I can't do the individual players justice with a detailed report of their performances, but hey! - you guys are humble and are not looking for cheap praise. Virtue is its own reward after all. Especially not from the likes of me.

Tuesday night and it was a Coventry League encounter away against Warwick Uni B. We should have gone one better than Monday and won 4-0, but yours truly let the side down by losing from a position where I was +6. It didn't help that my opponent continually transgressed the Laws of Chess by moving the pieces with one hand and pressing the clock with the other. But no excuses from me. I played a good game, but ruined it with one bad move. My own fault. Mike, Ben and Phil all won readily enough. Phil was soon an exchange up on Board 4 and later upgraded this to a rook before liquidating to an ending where he had a single bishop left, but his opponent didn't. Mike won a pawn in the opening but couldn't remember his decades old theory and was soon a pawn down. White generously gave it back and it came down to a battle between White's rook, knight and two connected queenside pawns against Mike's rook, bishop and three connected kingside pawns which Mike won. I didn't see much of Ben's game, but when I did look he had a queen and his opponent didn't, which as you can imagine was a fairly important advantage! So 3-1 and we're top at Christmas for the second year running. Let's hope it goes a bit better than last season!

And so to the end of an exhausting week, and an away match at Solihull for the B team. Unfortunately, Solihull managed to get their 4 strongest players to the board for the first time this season, and coupled with our frailties on the night, it was enough to send us down to a 2.5-1.5 defeat. Thereby missing the chance for the B team to go back to the top of the table. Andy drew very quickly on Board 1 against Don Mason, but there was a long wait until the next game to finish. But as this was Mike losing to Ray Carpenter after one careless move wrecked an equal position, things started to look a bit bleak. I had been completely winning out of the opening against Andrew McCumiskey on Board 2, after his Jobava London opening went belly up. As this is the opening I detest more than any other (sorry Paul and the CCA Opening Handbook team!) I was exceedingly pleased with myself. But I then failed to continue with my attack when I could have pulverised the White king into submission with a bit more imagination. I then almost messed up a completely drawn ending, but somehow saved myself by the skin of my teeth. Which left Bruce needing to beat Akshath Shivakumar on Board 3 to save the match. It was very complicated, but Bruce's position had a lot of holes and he was in considerable trouble. He tried one last throw of the dice with an exchange sac, but the Black defences held quite easily and as the clocks ticked down, Black gave perpetual check to clinch the match for Solihull.

I rather telegraphed this week's song. So here it is.

Billy, Please Do Be a Hero

24 hours before our latest Coventry League match, against Nuneaton A, Billy wasn't even in the team (and had never played a single game in this League!), but with Keatan having to drop out there was a large hole on Board 1 that he thankfully stepped in to fill. And what an inspired piece of captaincy that turned out to be by yours truly, as Billy got the sole decisive result of the evening and steered us to a 2.5-1.5 win which - quite by chance - sent us to the top of the table on maximum points after 2 matches.

But for much of the evening I was fearing the worst, as an enterprising pawn sac in the opening by Phil Briggs seemed to put Billy in considerable trouble, and when Phil's rook crashed in on g7 and a Black rook was simultaneously hanging on a8 it looked like curtains for the youngest of our Candidate Masters. But what do I know? Billy somehow rode out the storm and then pocketed a whole piece when Phil completely forgot about his loose bishop that had previously captured the loose rook on a8. So Billy had an extra piece and a centre pawn then yomped down the board to queen and end the game. Phew!

The remaining games all ended, almost simultaneously, in draws. Mike, on 3 against Colin Green and Ben, on 4 against Maurice Staples both seemed to be pushing for much of the evening, but couldn't get a decisive edge, while I was the one hanging on in a rook ending a pawn down against Paul Davies. But with all the pawns on the same side of the board, it wasn't too difficult for me to hold the draw.

We've now got a three week gap till our next match, but after just two weeks of action we are the only team in Division 1 with a 100% score. Not bad considering we've already used 7 different players and are not taking the competition too seriously!

No special reason for this week's song. Except that I like it and its a great video. Like a 5 minute episode of Miami Vice, but with a killer song! Can't think what took me so long to choose it.

Not a Draw in Sight

A rather delayed report of this week's match activity, which spread across two leagues, over two nights, with 8 games played - and all of them decisive. Who said chess is basically a draw? Not in Kenilworth, it isn't.

Monday night saw the first ever Kenilworth - Warwick University match in the Leamington League, but shelve any thoughts that this was a unique occasion, as there will be five more such encounters this season, plus four in the Coventry League for good measure. The series didn't get off to the perfect start, as Kenilworth A dropped it's first point of the season in a 2-2 draw. Our opponents came with a pretty useful team, but I was hoping we would pack enough of a punch to claim the victory, as we had deployed our strongest line-up so far this season and had a ratings edge on every board - slight on Boards 1 and 3, but substantial on 2 and 4.

I finished first, beating David Cebolla on Board 4 after he mistakenly gave up two pieces for a rook and pawn, and then immediately made a catastrophic oversight which led to the loss of his queen.  Not long after, Javier marked his first outing of the season by beating Magnus Borissow, making use of his extra exchange after carefully neutralising the threat from Black's pair of bishops. So two White games, and two White wins. Unfortunately that pattern continued for the rest of the match!

On Board 3, David had got himself into terrible trouble in the opening and was fighting a rearguard action to try and hold off a big attack on his highly vulnerable king. Eventually he had to give up his queen for two bishops, subsequently picking up an exchange to leave him with a pair of rooks and a bishop against queen and rook. The position may have been holdable, but David's king was very exposed and he had almost zero time. 10 seconds doesn't go very far in such circumstances and the inevitable loss duly arrived. Which left the match outcome depending on Jude's heavyweight Board 1 encounter with CM Edward Jackson. (No relation to IM James, who Jude had beaten a week earlier to heroically win our KO Cup tie against Banbury.) Jude sacked a pawn very early on to get an open g file against the White king and in a complex middle game had plenty of compensation - at the point where Jude's score sheet became indecipherable, the engine was giving him a clear edge. But when I returned to witness the final moments, things had changed horribly, and Jude was now 3 pawns down. although he made life very difficult for his opponent with two bishops and a rook. But pieces kept getting exchanged and when Black's last pawn disappeared the game was up and the match was drawn.

24 hours later it was another first, as we welcomed Daventry on their first ever Coventry League visit to Kenilworth, for what was their Division 1 debut. We had a sizeable rating edge on all 4 boards, and the match ended in a 3-1 win for us. I left after about 90 minutes (I was only present in my dogsbody role of setting everything up) knowing that we would soon be 1-0 up, as Phil - on his much anticipated return to the team - was material up with a dominant position against Abbie Stevens. Of course, the inevitable happened and Phil somehow contrived to lose - I need to give up making these predictions when I am a spectator as I keep getting them hopelessly wrong. But thankfully, the other games all went our way. Keatan won a rather wild game on Board 1, while Mike played very correct and sensible chess to bring home another point on Board 2. After pressing for most of the evening, Paul eventually found a rook sacrifice to secure a decisive advantage and clinch a solid victory. But 4-0 would have been much nicer!

So no shortage of blood and thunder in the two matches, and all 8 games being decisive. After a 4-0 win for White on Monday, Black cut back the deficit on Tuesday by winning 3-1.

No logical reason for this week's song, except that I went to see a Billy Joel tribute act last week and I guess he's at the top of my current musical memories. Plenty of cracking tunes to choose from, and here's the one you lucky readers get to hear now. I recommend putting the subtitles on or you'll likely miss half the lyrics!

Golden Ace Wins at Cheltenham - KCC Blow Golden Opportunity at Coventry

Yesterday the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham produced a shock result - the starting prices of the first three horses were 25/1 (Golden Ace); 66/1 (Burdett Road) and 150/1 (Winter Fog).

And yesterday evening, the Coventry League KO Cup Final saw a shock that was arguably bigger still, when Division 2 Rugby A, who I would have made at least 10/1 outsiders in a 2 horse race, managed to hold off the might of KCC to lift the cup. Sure, we won the match 2.5-1.5, but Rugby had a 1.25 points handicap advantage, so they ended up edging us out by 2.75-2.5. Full credit to them, but this was an open goal - of Ronny Rosenthal proportions -  missed by us.

Our rating advantage, by board, was 319, 417, 337 and 409, but on the evidence of this match, you need at least 410 points in hand to be sure of winning, and I was the only one on the right side of that thresh-hold!

Things started to go wrong when Mike bailed out on Board 3 with a timely draw offer against Martin Wilson - as he was a pawn down; miles behind on the clock and probably losing, this was a wise decision, and thankfully Martin was happy to take the half point. But it already reduced our margin for error, as we needed to score at least 3 points to overcome Rugby's handicap advantage. So we could have two small accidents, or one big accident and still win - and surely with such enormous rating disparities on all boards we could score 2.5 out of the remaining 3 matches?

Well, next to finish was me, with what - quite improbably - turned out to be our only win of the evening. Dave Riley sacked a pawn in the opening as Black to double the pawns in front of my king, but there was very little play for the material, and I soon annexed a second pawn, then a piece, then a third pawn and when I threatened mate and it could only be averted by giving up a queen, Dave had to resign.

But now that I had time to look at the positions in the remaining two games I started to get a bit nervous, as it wasn't obvious where our second win was coming from. Keatan was trying to push on top board against Mark Gilbert, but Paul seemed to be clearly worse against Leslie Williams on bottom board, with rook and knight against rook and bishop, with plenty of pawns. It looked like Paul's opponent could have forced a draw by repetition to me, but instead he went for a convoluted manoeuvre that saw his rook mysteriously end up on h8. So some hope for us yet. But then I glanced back at Keatan's game to discover that, short of time, he had dropped two pieces for a rook and things looked distinctly bleak here. But Keatan, in his typical fashion, gritted his teeth and dug in to get a draw - though he may well have been losing in the final position.

However, it ended up not mattering, as Paul's position had not improved - and in fact had seemingly become dead lost! He'd dropped a pawn somewhere along the way and ended up with a lone rook against Black's rook and g pawn. But Paul's king was cut off, and the Black king was in front of the pawn safe from any checks. And then the gods cruelly intervened and Black - with plenty of time - simply unprotected his last pawn and Paul was saved from defeat. But a third draw of the night meant we weren't!

So no Coventry League silverware for KCC this season, when the opportunities were right there in front of us to do the double. But thanks to a major cock-up in a league match against Coventry by me and this cup catastrophe (not guilty, m'lud!) we ended up empty handed instead. My sombre mood demands some suitably soulful music. And you can't get much more soulful than this epic blues rendition by the Allman Brothers. "They call it stormy Monday, but Tuesday's just as bad!" In fact it was even worse!! 

I Guess it Doesn't Matter Anymore

Or at least so I thought before during and immediately after our final Coventry League match of the season against Warwick Uni B last night. Until Paul told me that if Warwick Uni A had lost against Nuneaton A in their final match, we could have overtaken them and won the Division 1 title for the second time in our history. Regrettably, though, it subsequently transpired that Nuneaton could not even muster 4 players for their match, let alone inflict a defeat on the University A team, and so the title eluded us again and we had to be satisfied with 2nd place, two points adrift but 4 pts clear of 3rd place Coventry A.

So in the end I was right, and last night's match really didn't matter anymore. Which was a shame, as we rounded off the season with a 4-0 victory, though the match seemed a lot harder work than the final score line implied.

Keatan, sporting some natty new Isle of Wight Open merch, was tghe last to arrive and the first to finish on Board 1, winning with the Black pieces. I missed the denouement, but previously I had seen that the position was getting quite tactical and the White queen was running short of squares. But who knows what actually happened? Only Keatan, I imagine!

Paul followed soon after, crashing through to victory with a kingside pawn storm that was not to be denied. I was the next point on the score card after an absolute rollercoaster of a game, where I built up a +5 advantage; gave it away; got a completely winning position again but gave that away too, and finally clinched the point after getting my third winning position of the evening. It was all very exciting - just not very good! And then Mike completed the clean sweep though not before failing to take a whole rook with check, which would have left him a rook and bishop up. As it was, one extra piece was enough and the win soon followed.

So that's the Coventry League season over for another year, except for the small matter of the KO Cup Final next week against Division 2 team Rugby A, when we will have to try and overcome the handicap disadvantage, which means we need to win 3-1 to annex the trophy.

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to guess what our song is going to be this week.

The Return of the Twofer

Its been a long time since I played on consecutive nights for Kenilworth, but Monday and Tuesday of this week saw me back in double action and also gave me the chance for another twofer post, when you get two match reports for the price of one.

On Monday the A team hosted Olton A in the Leamington League. We were distinctly below strength, though still fielding a pretty respectable team, but with Jude, Billy and Keatan all in the Isle of Wight this week, we were missing the youth dynamic that has been a feature of our success in recent years, and Javier was also absent. Fortunately David made one of his rare appearances for the club (nice to see you again!) but he's virtually an old man now that he's in his twenties, so we weren't expecting too much of a youthful dynamic from him, and he didn't disappoint! In fact, he was the first to finish, agreeing a draw with Mark Cundy on Board 2 after his non-mainstream approach failed to get anywhere against Mark's Dutch Defence.  My game finished next, with me victorious against Richard Liszewski. Richard went wrong in the early middle game, and after some distinctly sub-optimal play from both parties I eventually won a piece for a couple of pawns and then swapped off all the pieces to secure the point. Unfortunately, though, Andrew lost on Board 1 against Alan Lloyd, and it was all level again. This left Mike to decide the match against Richard Reynolds. Mike had been pressing slightly for most of the game, and I had hopes that Richard would find the defence too difficult in time pressure, but when Mike went the wrong way about winning a stray Black pawn, Richard was able to steer the game into an opposite bishops ending that was easily drawn despite the pawn minus. So only 2-2 in a match we would have hoped to win, though it was enough - just! - to send the A team back to the top of the table ahead of Banbury A, who had also dropped a point in their most recent match against Stratford A. All still to play for.

Regrettably there was pretty much nothing left to play for in our penultimate Coventry League match of the season last night against Nuneaton A, with bost teams destined to finish amongst the also rans behind Warwick Uni A. But our encounters usually result in competitive matches in which both sides can fancy their chances when play starts. Though I didn't fancy our chances much last night almost from the off, when Ben made a horrendous blunder in the opening against Tony Green and was immediately 2 pawns down and lost. As he admitted afterwards, he almost resigned and went home, but thankfully he stayed, rolled up his sleeves and tried to find some way of making life difficult for Tony. And somehow or other he must have succeeded as he produced a miracle save to make a draw!

Which was what also happened on the other three boards as well. In each game White was better/winning, but this counted for nothing in the final analysis as all 4 games were drawn. Paul was a pawn up against Colin Green on Board 3 but was unable to hold on to the extra material in a heavy piece ending, while Mike had to tough it out on Board 2 to get a half point against Paul Davies when the position turned against him and he was saddled with a backwards d pawn and very weak light squares. But tough it out he did to secure the half point. And it was the same result in my game on top board against Phil Briggs, though in this case the White advantage was +2 or +3 for most of the time according to the engine. Not that I realised this completely at the time, as Phil played in his normal imaginative fashion to set plenty of tactical problems, which eventually I failed to solve, and just when I should have been crashing through to victory I wimped out and swapped pieces off to reach a drawn ending. Rather a waste of an overwhelming position, but at least pleasing for those who like a symmetrical result on the match card. 2-2 did neither of us any good - but nor did it do us any harm. And it passed the time quite engagingly ..... though the journey to/from Nuneaton is something of a trek, so thanks to Paul for acting as chauffeur for Mike and myself last night.

Regular readers will be expecting some splendid music to finish this post off, and here it is. Timeless magic from - good grief - over 50 years ago. RIP Dickey Betts, guitarist extraordinaire. In the right hands, I think the electric guitar may well be the greatest invention of all time.

A Question of Perspective

 This week saw two big games for the club on successive nights. On Monday, Kenilworth C were in action against Coventry A, in the battle at the top of the Division 2 table. On Tuesday, we followed this by playing Daventry in the semi-final of the CDCL KO, needing a 3-1 victory to make the final.

Monday did not go well. I had inadvertently set us up on the wrong side of the table, which must have been an omen, as we were a little out of sorts. I did not see much of the Board 1 game between Andy Ward and M.M.Latt, but Andy was ultimately edged out to put us 0-1 down. Paul Badger drew an interesting game against Jonathan Fowler on Board 2, which left us needing 1.5 points from the remaining two games to cling on to a draw.

I blame myself for what happened next. On Board 4 against Dave Filer, who I had a 100% record against going into the match, I completely messed up my opening. Not in the sense of being lost, more just lifeless. Twenty-minutes in, to my horror, I realised that my winning prospects were extremely limited - and I was the Kenilworth player who had the biggest rating gap between myself and my opponent. I tried everything, and we ended up in a double rook, double bishop endgame. Eventually I did make a bit of progress, but as has been my wont since Christmas, ran desperately short of time and ultimately had to bail out with a draw. All credit to Dave though, whose improving rating reflects his improving play.

This left Rhys needing to win on Board 3 against Ed Goodwin. Rhys was slightly better for much of the game, and seemed to be winning towards the end. Yet Ed is a canny opponent and ultimately, Rhys's attempts to go all in (and all credit to him for this as we desperately needed a win) backfired and we ended up going down 1-3.

Disappointing as Coventry now close the gap on us at the top of the table, but plenty of games remain. We have a chance to put things right in the return match in a couple of weeks. It's still all to play for!

So, to Tuesday... I had to drop my other half off on the way to the game. I made the mistake of pointing out that this meant driving via a different route and not being able to follow my normal pre-match routine. As she observed, my previous routine hadn't been all that hot in terms of my results, so maybe this was for the best!

At least on Tuesday I set us up on the correct side of the table, which felt like a better start. Albeit the very fact that Daventry showed up meant that we were in for a tougher night than in the last round against Nuneaton, when we drove to their place but they did not.

Daventry has had a terrific season in Division 2, and while on paper we looked quite a lot stronger, we knew we could not be complacent. Particularly as the handicap system meant they only needed 1.5 on the night to go through. 

Having instructed everyone to on no account take early draws, I was momentarily inwardly horrified to see Mike shaking hands with Andy Johnson ten minutes into their Board 2 encounter. It transpired Andy had gone wrong (we've all been there) and Mike had put us 1-0 up. I'm guessing that might well be his quickest ever CDCL victory? A great start to the proceedings!

A couple of hours later, Keatan was next to finish on Board 1 against Harvey Monroe. Keatan always looked in control and his class showed, but credit to Harvey for putting up a good fight.

That left Paul against James Brown (Daventry's new junior) on 3 and me against Abbie Stevens on four. Paul was level, I was winning, but the clocks in both games were a mirror image of each other. We were both running low... [How I keep getting into time trouble when I spend so much of my life playing online Blitz, is a question I really do need to reflect on!]

After the debacle of the previous night, I played a more aggressive opening line than I normally would against Abbie's 1. g6. I took a lot of space, got very active and then struggled to find a breakthrough (hence burning through so much time.) This again has been a feature of my games of late, in that I have frequently been in the better position but not able to close things out. However, ultimately Abbie's entombed light square bishop, weak e6 pawn and opportunities to get at her King started to tell. Despite a really robust defence, I finally picked up a piece, forced the queens off and gave myself an ending that was both routine and more than capable of being executed while under 3 minutes. All credit to Abbie though, as she played very well and they are always good games.

Fortunately my win meant that we were over the line, and Paul's game was a dead rubber. Which was probably just as well. It sounds obvious, but chess is a very hard game to play with no time! Paul missed a drawing resource and James did not need a second invitation to put Daventry on the board. I am sure James has a very bright future ahead of him.

So 3-1 on the night. We'll be up against Rugby in the final! I was quite down after Monday, but perspective is important. All is not lost in the Division 2 battle, and we have a chance for some silverware in the CDCL! The final will be played at a neutral venue, so who knows which side of the table we will be sitting on. Either way, it will be a night to look forward to!

 

Chess is a Team Game, Right?

Hmm. I'll have to think about that, but on the evidence of last night's Coventry League defeat to Warwick University A, the answer is not as straightforward/obvious as I have always thought.

This was quite possibly a title-decider, as prior to last night we trailed the University by 1 point, with a match in hand - and a better game points difference. In losing 1-3, we now find ourselves 3 points behind with a game in hand - and an inferior game points difference! With the University having only 1 game to play, the chances of any slip-ups on their part are low to zero, so it looks like we have managed to blow the healthy lead we built up before Christmas, when we had a 100% record. But then, of course, I returned to the team....

It was a very close match last night, with all boards being very tough struggles, but in the end we were just pot-muscled. Keatan finished first on Board 1, after a valiant attempt to overcome a rather disastrous opening, which left him a pawn down and with doubled isolated c pawns to boot. He fought hard in a rook and same coloured bishop ending against the University's WFM, but there was a sense of inevitability about the result for most of the night. Surprisingly, I finished next and succeeded in equalising the match score after a second win in a row. Maybe my mojo is back?! I didn't play a great game against my opponent from Kazakhstan, but after scoring just 0.5/2 against him last season, a win was not to be sniffed at. I was on the back foot after a slightly insipid opening (with White!), but Black got a bit carried away and sacked a piece for a couple of pawns to expose my king. However, I had virtually my whole army defending it, and the attack was repulsed relatively easily, with me quickly taking over the initiative and the game was over (when my opponent had around 5 seconds on his clock) just as I was about to deliver mate.

Paul seemed to have established a drawn rook and knight ending against Tom Brown on Board 4, but unfortunately a loose pawn fell off. The rooks were then exchanged and it came down to knight and 3 v knight and 2, but with all pawns on the kingside. It looked a dead draw to me, as Black had no passed pawns and I assumed at some point that all but one of the pawns would be swapped off and Paul's knight would sacrifice itself for the last remaining Black foot soldier. However, he went on a strange king advance up the queenside which left his forces split, and an unfortunate knight check forced the minor pieces off to leave an easily winning king and pawn ending for Tom.

So it all came down to Mike's game on Board 3. |It was very exciting in the middle game, with both players on the attack against slightly weak kings, but by the time I came to focus on the game it was rook, bishop and 2 against Mike's rook, knight and one. But it soon became a two pawn advantage, and White unfortunately knew not to swap the minor pieces off as Rook + f and h pawns v rook is a theoretical draw, despite two extra pawns for the attacking side. (And for those who don't believe me, take a look at the 2023 British Championship game between Jude and Jacob Connor Boswell which reached this very conclusion.) But then Mike lost his knight to a pin anyway, and despite a serious time issue and some slight dangers of delivering stalemate, White was able to make the extra material count decisively.

So, back to my original question. I used to pontificate from my moral high horse that if your own result was more important than the team's result, you were probably playing for the wrong team. But now that I have been through a period when I thought I might never play, let alone win, another game of chess, I don't feel as though I am standing on such firm ground. I felt distinctly chipper (great word!) after winning last night, and the fact that the league title disappeared out the door with our match loss didn't upset me as much as it should. If at all. Sorry about that, but sometimes you've just got to own up to your own selfishness.

I'm in the mood for some good music, and as I've recently seen the excellent new Bob Dylan bio-pic A Complete Unknown, how about one of those early masterpieces from the only rocker ever to win a Nobel prize?

Up For the Cups

Following the Christmas break, Kenilworth were meant to be back in action with two cup games this week. On Tuesday we travelled to Nuneaton in the CDCL Open competition. On Wednesday we were in Solihull for our rearranged LDCL U8750 quarter-final, as the first step in our title defence.

The first sign that we might have a problem on Tuesday came when I entered Nuneaton's venue at 7.20, to find the club room in darkness and not a chess player in sight. By 7.30, I had been joined by the rest of the Kenilworth contingent - Paul, Mike, Keatan, and of course, Nash - but still no sign of any opposition. We phoned Colin Green who was not aware of the game. Following further calls that he made, it soon transpired that none of the Nuneaton B team were either. Colin was very apologetic and there wasn't anything he (or anyone else) could do, so we were awarded the match by default.

I guess there might be people out there who enjoy nothing better than a winter evening drive to Nuneaton for no reason whatsoever (Dominic Cummings/ Barnard Castle style) but our team were not amongst them. We had a nice chat, and went home. Colin could not have been more helpful, and it wasn't his team who had missed the fixture, so really a case of these things happen. I do think though that the Coventry League could have done more to publicise the game. It did somewhat "appear" on the fixtures list and it's better practice if clubs receive an actual email about subsequent rounds of cup competitions, to avoid things like this happening. Moan over!

Myself and Paul were the only two players from Tuesday who were also in the team for the Solihull game on Wednesday. We agreed that we could not face another wasted journey, so I did confirm with Julian that Solihull hadn't forgotten about this one - fortunately they hadn't!

On the night we ran out comfortable 4-1 winners, despite the teams being very evenly matched on paper. I did not see much of the other games. Dhairya had a very good win on Board 2 against Tony Sadler - continuing his excellent form and making another great contribution to the team. So I'll give him the award for "performance of the night." Dan Bayliss also brought home the full point on Board 5 against Mike Nevin, having been in full control throughout the proceedings.

I was our third winner, on Board 3 against Paul Silverman. For the first time in an OTB game, I got to play a gambit line (sorry, no spoilers) that I have played quite a lot in online blitz. Almost as soon as I played the move, I could hear the instructional video ringing in my head. "Don't play this in a must win game, especially if you are playing for money." While of course we weren't playing for money, I did immediately wonder if I had taken an unnecessary risk.  However, Paul declined the pawn, I got a terrific lead in development and the tactics flowed from there. I've had some interesting games with Paul in the past, and while this one was too, it was pretty comfortable.

In relation to the draws, Paul Badger did a good job of neutralising Ray Carpenter on Board 1. They were ultimately the last to finish, with honours even. Perhaps the most interesting story of the night was on Board 4, where Dylan was playing Antony Mccool. I had long since accepted that we were going to lose this one, as frankly Dylan's position looked terrible. However, a little resilience and a bit of a plan can go a long way. Down to just king and rook, Dylan noticed that he could place his king on a square where it could not move. Antony did not take long enough to consider the implications, hastily pushing a pawn in what he must have assumed was a won position. Instantly Dylan checked Antony's king with his rook. The rook could have been taken, but this would have left stalemate. Wherever Antony's king went, Dylan's rook was going to follow, so Dylan had clutched a draw out of nothing!

So a very good night! We did not lose a game and had put up a good start to our title defence. We'll now look forward to the next round, ever hopeful that our opponents will turn up.

A Different Line: Double Headed Farce

 Coming up England by a different line

For once, early in the cold new year,

We stopped, and, watching men with number plates

Sprint down the platform to familiar gates,

"Why, Coventry!" I exclaimed. "I was born here."

Phillip Larkin

Well, if matches against Coventry on successive nights of the week don't warrant a bit of Phillip Larkin, I don't know what does. Even if both games left me feeling about as cheerful as the the curmudgeonly "Bard of Coventry".  

On Monday things seemed to be going exceptionally well, when the D team played Coventry A, in the Leamington League. I was up the exchange on Board 3 against Tom Stamper and Bernard had a dream of a position against Mike Johnson on Board 4. However, at the hour mark, with his rooks menacingly poised on the seventh rank, a monster passed pawn, and threats all over the board, something went horribly wrong for Bernard. He thought he saw a mate, missed Mike's defence, and in a heartbeat a certain point became a defeat. We've all been there. It's part of being a chess player. But it was painful to watch. It just shows however good a position appears, nothing can be taken for granted. Still, Bernard will bounce back!

Moments later Paul lost to the very strong Maung Latt. I didn't see any of the game, yet the reality was we were 2-0 down by about 8.45. When Rhys's game against Ed Goodwin on Board 2 petered out into a draw around 9.00, the match was lost.

My game while now pointless in terms of the match, turned into a real roller-coaster. I missed a win, went wrong and ended up with rook and 2 v knight and bishop. Fortunately for me, Tom also was not as a accurate as he could have been, and I somehow managed to swing back from close to lost to winning again. In the dying seconds (literally) Tom found a good defence and we ended proceedings with just the two kings left on the board. So a 1 - 3 defeat...

So, on to Tuesday. I'm looking after the Coventry League team while Mark is convalescing, and I know how much everyone involved on both sides over the two nights (and of course our whole club) is wishing Mark well. He truly is one of us and we all stand with him and look forward to welcoming him back to the board when he is better.

Unfortunately last night's Coventry match turned into a total farce. At 7.30 Mike and Ben Larkin kicked off on Board 2, but we were waiting for a full compliment of players to arrive. At which point, Coventry realised that their Board 1 was unlikely to appear for the brilliant reason that no one had told him about the game. Terrible organisation on Coventry's part. Much debate ensued about whether Coventry should default on Board 1 or Board 4. We felt it was more sporting to default on 4, however, I did respect the fact that Ed did not want to play himself above Jonathan.

Unfortunately, this meant that Keatan did not get a game, and I want to thank both him and Nash for their patience and understanding and to apologise for a wasted evening. Having played so late the previous night, I somehow found the conversations around the Coventry Board order a bit draining, so by the time I eventually sat down to play I wasn't feeling great, but there we have it.

Ultimately we started 1-0 up. Mike and Jonathan played out an interesting draw. My second game in 24 hours against Tom was a slower burn than the previous night's but ended in another blitz shoot-out. I'd successfully defended a slightly weak IQP all night, and with a level position and two minutes each left on the clocks, fully expected Tom to accept a draw, particularly given in my view Coventry should have forfeited on Board 4 rather than Board 1. But Tom opted to play it out, as of course was his prerogative, and I succumbed in the final less than cheering moments of the game. Fortunately Paul played brilliantly against Ed Goodwin, and won a superb rook and pawn ending which he played with great aplomb to bring home the full point and to give us a 2.5 - 1.5 victory. 

Given we won the match, I won't take issue with the Coventry decision not to play on Board 1 with the League, but will note that when team's are as poorly organised as this, it does take a lot of the fun out of the night for all involved.

So a win and a loss. Some brilliant games (especially Paul's win.) Some real nail-biters (both my games with Tom) and some more painful encounters (particularly Bernard's game against Mike.) On a good day chess is amazing and brilliant. On a bad night, there is a tendency to feel like Larkin who wrote:

"Morning, noon & bloody night

Seven sodding days a week

I slave at filthy WORK

that might

Be done by any book-drunk freak

This goes on until I kick the bucket"

(I've left off Larkin's final line. This being a family friendly publication and all that, but do look it up, for a full sense of how a chess-player feels after a bad loss.)

Still, all chess players know there will always be other nights to look forward too, when things will go better. Those moments when the black and white pieces resonate and connect with us, which is much like the feeling you get, when you happen on the place where you were born.

The Killer Queens of Coventry

How did that happen? We were winning on at least 3 boards in the final of the Coventry League KO Cup on Tuesday evening, but when the overweight person stopped singing, we had lost the match 1.5-2.5, and our first chance of silverware for the season had disappeared.

Mike finished first, drawing with Black against Ed Goodwin on Board 4 - a result the smart money would have been on at the outset. I saw virtually nothing of the game, but I gather Mike equalised and held a slight edge, but Ed just played very solidly and shut the game down to a draw.

I finished next, being the first victim of a sudden swarm of Coventry Killer Queens which attacked the Kenilworth team. I was much better out of the opening against Jonathan Fowler; missed an absolutely crushing, but very complex, piece sac; then missed a more prosaic way to establish a won position; before falling to equality around move 30. By move 33 I was completely lost, as I had a total mental blank and failed to notice that an obvious move of Jonathan's was check. Even after he'd played it I tried to make an illegal move. However, the fact it was check made rather a big difference, and I was virtually forced to give up my queen (and a pawn) for a rook and knight. But my king was unsafe and I couldn't find anything better than to force him to sac an exchange to secure two monstrous central passed pawns which - shepherded forwards by a killer queen - overwhelmed by two rooks and won the game.

But we could still win the match on board count if we could muster 1.5/2 on the top two boards. One point was in the bag, as Javier had simply taken a gambit pawn in the opening and held on to it without any semblance of counterplay for Black. By the time I could take a look at the game again, he had won a second pawn, and when he added a third - in what was now a single rook ending - Francis Sagyaman decided enough was enough.

But it didn't save us, as tragically Bruce had succumbed to another Coventry killer queen, this time in the hands of a certain Joshua Pink. Joshua started the inevitable madness early in the game, and Bruce made a fatal mistake in going along with him on his crazy adventures in Pinkland. This time round the Kenilworth player got a rook and two pieces for the queen, but that was hardly important - what really mattered was that Joshua was in his element and subjective assessments were pretty irrelevant given the massive material imbalance. When the White queen rook and knight all advanced to the 7th and 8th ranks, the large but hopelessly uncoordinated collection of Black pieces couldn't hold the balance, and Bruce lost on time when unable to find a defence to the White invasion. Score 2-0 to the Coventry Killer Queens!

This was all very disappointing (we did have a rating advantage on all 4 boards - particularly pronounced on my board!), but other than mea culpa, there's not a lot more I can say.  The only thing we can do now is to make sure we win the Leamington League Open KO Cup, where we are due to play Stratford in the Final on May 8th (at Solihull).

I think you all know what song's coming up. Though don't make the mistake of thinking that I like it. Far too popular for my tastes! Still, at least its blissfully short.

Economy of Effort

In our final two matches of the Coventry League Division 1 season I am pleased to report a massive, aggregate score for Kenilworth of 8-0 against two Warwick University teams - and this without actually winning a single game over the board. Now that is what I call economy of effort!

In our penultimate match we turned up at the University to play their B team. Imagine our surprise when the top 3 players were identical to the top three in the University A side we had played the week before. Especially as on this night, Warwick Uni A were supposed to be playing away against Nuneaton. Hmm, suspicious - unless 4 even stronger players had been rounded up (quite possible given the strength in depth at the University's disposal) to play for the A team. As to the match, Bruce went down spectacularly and very quickly against Arya Cont on Board 1, and Ben went down much more slowly on Board 4. Mike's game against Tom Brown was very interesting and he very nearly crashed through with a winning attack, but had to settle for perpetual. I was in  desperate straits against Damirali Magzumov - who had already beaten me earlier in the season - but thanks to sheer bloody-mindedness, a couple of good moves by me and some missed opportunities for my opponent, I somehow held on for a draw. So 1-3 on the night, but what would the League make of the composition of the University B team? Well, since the University A team did not show up at Nuneaton that night, the answer was not very much. Fortunately, though, there was no need to get into any row over whether this default and transfer of players to a lower team was within the rules (still don't know the answer to that!), as there was a more simple rule transgression with the University Board 1, and captain, being ineligible to play for the B team. So his result, and that on all boards below, were scored as 1-0 to us! Which is how we won 4-0 without winning a single game. The ruling didn't help anybody get back their lost grading points, but it did give us 2 match points in our quest for second place.

And then to cap it all, this week's home match against University A was also reduced to a non-event when our opponents were unable to raise a team at all - despite finding 15 players to play in 4 other teams fielded that night, all of whom were eligible to play in their A team! This is, of course, all highly unsatisfactory from a competitive perspective, as random defaults by the League's strongest side play havoc with the integrity of the final table, which shows us to have finished in second place, within 1 point of Warwick University A, even though they were clearly miles better than us.  I expect a discussion on this at the League AGM, though I'm pretty sure we've been down this road before.

So 8-0 to Kenilworth, with not a win for us to be seen anywhere!

In keeping with the bizarre events of the last two matches, I couldn't think of a more appropriate piece of music than this!

One more match remains in our Coventry League season, as we face Coventry A in the final of the KO Cup next Tuesday. I am pretty confident that they will at least show up for this, as they have - yet again, and for unspecified reasons - been given home advantage.

That'll Be a No, Then ......

 ..... if the question is "will Kenilworth retain their Coventry League title?" A narrow 2.5-1.5 defeat against a still 100% Warwick University A team this week finally extinguished any small hopes we might have harboured in this direction Though if truth be told, we have been highly unlikely to mount a serious challenge since our slip up against the University's B team before Christmas. So with two league matches left - return fixtures against each of the University teams - our only target is to hold on to second place. We'll probably know where we stand on that point after next week's round of fixtures when third place Nuneaton A play Uni A, and we take on Uni B. But at least we have a Cup-Final to look forward to!

Bruce was our sole winner on Tuesday, after another very entertaining and wide-open game - albeit rather more sound this time than his game on the previous evening! Javi chose a bad night to record his first loss of the Cov League season (against Arya Cont) while Ben lost against an opponent he had drawn with the previous weekend. I got rather excited when one of my opening weapons actually got to be fired against Tom Brown, but whereas it had worked brilliantly for (apologies for mentioning him) Sergey Karjakin, my opponent played a much better move than Baadur Jobava had, and the position was just dead equal for the entire game. Even though a draw was only agreed as we were about to go down to bare kings.

So there we have it - no league double for us this season, as we kiss our CDCL title goodbye. A sentiment which brings to mind this week's song - " you call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye." As Don says in the intro, "the history of western civilisation in 6 minutes." Though its actually nearer 7! But who cares? Definitely one of the Eagles' best ever songs.

5 Match Reports in One Week - a New Record!

There's been a virtual tsunami of match reports on the website this week - so many in fact that I felt obliged to step aside for a day or two for fear of being swamped. But - finally - there seems to be a bit of breathing space, so the story of our Coventry League KO Cup Semi Final win over Coventry C can now be told.

Truth to tell, there isn't a lot to report. We had to win 3-1, because as a Division 2 team, Coventry C got a 1.25 handicap start, but in the end we managed 4-0, so we made it comfortably enough into the final, where we will play Coventry A on March 19th. Yet again, Coventry have been given home advantage, which I find slightly irksome, but at least this time they will have to play with increment and not that absolutely awful G90 time control they are allowed to get away with in the league.

The story of the Semi-Final essentially boils down to the bizarre happenings on board 4 - of which more later. Bruce was first to win, delivering mate with a rook on the seventh and a swarm of minor pieces around the Black king which had been driven to the queenside. I'm sure that I've already seen Bruce play that exact attack about 3 times this season. Once his g2 bishop escapes down the diagonal, he is like a man possessed! I won on Board 3 against David Copson, though not without some anxiety, as I allowed/forced a piece sac in the opening which should have netted 3 pawns (I only bargained on 2!) but a terrible oversight by White did indeed keep it at 2, and at the cost of a second piece to boot. I subsequently won an exchange, and then a whole queen, at which point the game ended. Javi had a tougher task on Board 1, with Black against Katia, whose presence in any Kenilworth teams this season has sadly been very rare. Javi just did what he seems to do in every match at the moment - played a number of good moves and won! This time in a rook ending with two extra pawns and a dominant king.

So having reached the target of 3, I was relatively relaxed as I watched the conclusion of Harry's game against former long-time Kenilworth resident Simon Weaver. For the early part of the game, though, I was anything but relaxed, as Harry put his queen on a rather dodgy square in the opening, and I was somewhat concerned it might drop off at any moment. Additionally, he had played g3 on about move 4, but then never got around to putting his bishop on g2. Or h3. Or anywhere, in fact! But I shouldn't have been concerned, as it was, bizarrely, actually Simon who got his queen trapped on b6, and it could only be extricated by giving up a knight. Game over, I thought, especially when Harry got to a position of Rook and 2 bishops against Rook and knight. Until, that is, Harry forked a rook on e8 and a pawn on c6 with a bishop on d7, having failed to notice the Black knight on f6 which simply took the bishop. game on! Thi9ngs then got further out of control, as Harry swapped bishop for knight and gave Black a passed d pawn, supported by both his rook and a strong king. He was fighting this with a passed e pawn of his own and it soon developed into a race. Harry played the complications really well, though, and eventually reached the most winning king and pawn ending you could ever wish to see. And indeed he won it, but not without some serious brain fade moments along the way!

But now for the extenuating circumstances - it turns out Harry had had a very intensive day of board meetings at work and also wasn't feeling at all well. So it was a bit of a miracle that he actually made it to the match and kept awake long enough to get the win! Thanks Harry - but I'll still have to take the mickey out of you about this for a while yet!!

Some great music to accompany this report - prompted by Harry's condition and a couple of lines in the song:- "I make sure I work till I'm so damned tired; way too tired to think."

A Win's a Win for A' That .....

 ..... as Ayrshire Match Captain Robert Burns wrote back in 1795, after a narrow victory over Clackmannanshire in the Lowland League. A sentiment echoed by my good self after last night's narrow 2.5-1.5 Coventry League victory over a hitherto pointless Rugby A.

It all seemed to be going pretty well (myself excepted!) early on, with Bernard R in seeming total control against Dave Riley on Board 4, Mike doing what Mike does with the White pieces on 3 and Javi slowly getting the upper hand on top board. But then total calamity - Bernard's crushing position suddenly became a lost position after a terrible mistake and we were one down. Thankfully, I had just about crawled into a playable position, but it was very complicated, as I had a queen for two rooks. There was an exchange of mistakes, and suddenly I was winning, but then it was level-ish. Then I was winning again after cheapoing the exchange, but I blundered a pawn and had to bail out with perpetual.

But almost immediately Mike delivered checkmate against Tom Burgess. He had been up two exchanges, and despite dropping one was still winning when Tom moved his king to the wrong square and the game ended dramatically. So all square and everything rested on Javi's game against Paul Colburn. Thankfully he was always better after an Alekhine's Defence and played what looked like an excellent, controlled game, making a big queenside advance, winning an exchange and then giving it back to force liquidation followed by a pawn promotion. Classy, match winning stuff!

This has cemented our second place in Division 1, where we trail 100% Warwick Uni A by a point, but have played a game more. With three matches left, we now have University teams only to play, including two against their hitherto all conquering A team. We'll just have to give it our best shot.

Which leads very nicely on to this week's song. And just be thankful that I cut out 60 seconds of audience clapping and cheering at the start! Got to love the hairstyles, though, haven't you?!

Best of the Rest?

Having already slipped up once against Warwick University B, our chances of retaining our Coventry League title now seem to depend on us beating the University A team twice, which I very much doubt is going to happen, given the strength in depth they have at their disposal. So we are, realistically, probably playing for a best of the rest finish and second place - although you can never be sure that the perennial student aversion to administrative matters might just leave the door open for us. But I'm not banking on it!

Which is a long winded way of saying that a second successive convincing victory has elevated us to a second place Division 1 standing that is unlikely to be transformed into first place any time soon. 

But as we even improved upon last week's 3-1 win over Nuneaton A this time around, by seeing off Coventry A 3.5-0.5, there's still plenty to be pleased about.

Despite the wide margin, this was a well fought match. Javi was first to strike, beating Francis Sagyaman after an interesting battle in a Spanish opening. Well, the name says it all really - clearly that is one opening where Javi has to be favourite! Harry, on his Coventry League debut, had a tough task on Board 4 against our very own Katia (it is customary for us to have to face at least one of our own members in these matches!) but successfully navigated lots of complications - bishops and rooks were raging across the board! - to win. Though Katia was rather kind in resigning when Harry only had a couple of minutes left and - crucially - no increment!

Mike's win over Ed Goodwin - a match up that has been going for over 40 years by Mike's reckoning - yielded our third full point, so you'll now be able to work out that yet again it was the Club Organiser who failed to complete the clean sweep of victories. I only drew against Jonathan Fowler despite being two pawns up in a knight v bishop ending, as the pressure of the clock, and the realisation that if he had even one pawn left on the board at flag fall I would lose on time, meant I failed to convert a very tricky position. But 3.5-0.5 is still a pretty good score. I'd certainly settle for it every week!

And there has been more good news for the club this week, as the C team - newly invigorated by Keatan's elevation to Board 1 - chalked up a 4-0 win over Rugby A on Monday, and the D team - still just about hanging onto Keatan for a match or two! -  then beat Olton B 2.5-1.5 on Tuesday, with Solomon the hero of the hour. So double Division 2 success which consolidates our two teams in the top half of the table.

Such positive news demands that we have some truly excellent music to round off this report. I just discovered this today, and it seems mean not to share it. Former Allman Brothers guitarist Dicky Betts on stage with the Tedeschi-Trucks Band, playing an old Allman's classic. Its truly epic!

Is it a Bird? Is it a Plane? No, it's Another Twofer!

Monday night at the Abbey Club and Shirley A are the visitors for a Leamington League match. Kenilworth A has its four nominated players out, though whether its actually our strongest team is anyone's guess! But never mind, on the night it was strong enough to keep the show firmly on the road, as we ran out 3-1 winners to extend the lead over our B team at the top of Division 2, to 3 points.

Yet another reverse for Jude on Board 1, this time against Phil Purcell, took some of the shine off proceedings, as his bad run of results continued. But as we all know, form is temporary, class is permanent. Like General Douglas MacArthur, he will return! And rather sooner than MacArthur, I predict!

My game against Darren Whitmore on Board 3 was also nothing to be too proud of. I was taken aback when he sacked the exchange for no obvious reason, but one or two inaccuracies on my part soon gave him full compensation as a White knight on f5 was more than a match for my rook. But quite sensibly - yes, it surprised me too! - I found a good way to return the exchange for a better ending. It should have been a draw but in defending all his loose pawns Darren went very passive and allowed me to put him into a virtual zugzwang, and my passed e pawn soon won a whole rook and the game.

Bruce was hardly more convincing on Board 4, though he also eventually brought home the full point against Dave Thomas. After giving up two knights for a rook and pawn right out of the opening, he was clearly leaving all 3 results on the table. When a White rook got onto the 7th rank, though, the Black position started to creak at the seams and a timely exchange sac let the White queen in with decisive material gain.

But standing well above all this dubious play on the other three boards, Javier was in complete control against Jonathan Dale on Board 2. Somewhere in the middle game, he turned back a hopeful Black kingside attack and just started collecting pawns. By the time he reached a queen ending he had 4 or 5 extra pawns. Never one to be accused of resigning too early, the Shirley player played on until Javi's two queens delivered checkmate. 

Twenty four hours later, three of the team reassembled for another home match, this time in the Coventry League against Nuneaton A. Elevated to Board 2, Bruce played a wholly convincing game against Maurice Staples, gradually taking control of the centre and queenside (where the Black king had optimistically sought shelter) and then totally routing the Black position. I followed suit not long after when time pressure saw Tony Green collapse against me and blunder a piece, after a very interesting game in which I stood slightly worse for some of the time. Ben then went under against Colin Green after needlessly converting his light squared bishop into a big pawn by pushing d4-d5. Colin occupied the half open e file and trained all his sights on White's e4 pawn while also finding squares for his two knights and eventually Ben's position collapsed. But fear not, because for the second night running, Javi played a high quality game, this time against Phil Brigg's typically unorthodox play, and exploited his better pawn structure and more active pieces in the ending to wrap up another 3-1 win. Unfortunately, our chances of retaining our title are virtually zero, as we have already dropped 3 points and still have to play Warwick Uni A twice, but it would be nice if we could at least come out best of the rest, so this was an important win against perennially strong opponents.

On Monday night I wasn't able to pay much attention to the Division 4 table-topping clash between Kenilworth E and Daventry A while it was in progress, - if I had been, this report could have been a threefer! But - alas - I did see enough to notice that our 100% record went down the drain, as Nigel and Roy lost, meaning Patrick's victory was in vain. We still lead the division, but Daventry A (and Stratford C) are now only 1 point behind, though we have a match in hand on both of them and remain in the driving seat.

Let's finish with a musical offering. It suddenly dawned on me that I'd never featured a song by the late, great Tom Petty, so its clearly time I corrected that omission. Lots of fantastic songs to choose from, so why not this one? Before Suella Braverman or Robert Jenrick gets it banned because of its title!