2026 British Championships - On Your Marks: Get Set: ........

 .... And on August 1st it will be Go! With the Championships taking place right on our doorstep at Warwick University (for the third time after previous visits in 1970 and 2015) a bumper KCC turnout could reasonably be expected and with just over two weeks to go it seems like all the usual suspects, plus a couple of newcomers, will be on the start line come D-Day.

So, as things stand as of today, and as far as I have been able to identify, here is a list of all the intended KCC participants.

By my reckoning, Keatan, Ben and Joshua have entered the most tournaments (4) while the more seriously minded individuals like myself, Jude and Billy have eschewed this scattergun approach and focussed on a single event. Clearly we mean business. (Though I wouldn't be surprised to see the youngsters weaken and sign up for a blitz event or two. I can guarantee I won't!)

Amazingly, Joshua seems to have the best chance of winning a tournament, as he currently sits as the number one seed in the highly prestigious Sunday Rapidplay Under 2000. And with a rating of 1997 its probably unlikely that anyone will displace him from this position!

But looking at the real championship events, we really should take a moment to glory in the fact that Jude and Billy are playing in the main event for what seems like the umpteenth time, despite their tender years. While in the Under 8 events, the terrific twosome of Riyaan and Anish are very hightly ranked, which is all the more remarkable given that they will both be eligible for this event next year so are giving away a whole 12 months to most of the field. Our other particiapnts with single figure start rankings at the moment are Joshua (again!) who is 3 in the Weekday PM Under 2050 (he really is homing in on the most important events, isn't he?); Rhys, who is 4th in the Weekday AM Under 1900; and Dhairya who, fresh from his splendid return from the chess wilderness in the 1st leg of the Club Quickplay Championship this week, starts at number 5 in the Under 16 Rapidplay.

In all, we are presently due to have 13 KCC participants, but with events to fit all playing strengths, ages, time limits and days of the week, there's still plenty of time for others to put their toe in the water and play at the national championships. I'd be willing to bet that it won't be this convenient again for a few years, so don't let this golden opportunity pass if you are even slightly tempted.

Good luck to all. Including myself. If we are lucky Joshua may be moved to repeat his daily reporting that has been a feature of selected previous championships, even if some (one?) of us most vividly recall the day he didn't post a report and so avoided having to mention my triumph (shared) in the 2019 65+ event!

No reason whatsoever for today's musical contribution. Except that it suddenly came to mind and it seemed like a good idea.

Keeping it in the Family

A Wednesday evening in early May can mean only one thing - its the Leamington league Blitz Championship. This has been turned into something of a Kenilworth benefit event in recent seasons, largely due to Javier's total dominance - he won in each of the three years he played (2023-25), sharing the title in the middle year with Bruce. Additionally, Bernard and Keatan have won the second rating section in the last two years.

But come 2026 and where are these titans? Not in Solihull, that's for sure! (I'm not going to let the fact that Bruce was there spoil a good line. And we could always say he isn't one of the titans, anyway!) So it was very much a reduced and weakened Kenilworth contingent who turned up to do battle. But this could hardly be described as a vintage year for the event - numbers were down with just 24 players and Kenilworth still managed to provide seeds 2, 3 and 6 (me, Bruce and Rhys) plus Ben as number 12, after his blitz rating has been shredded by too many encounters with ferocious juniors. 

But its not where you start that matters - its where you finish. And after 9 rounds of hectic competition the cup was returning home again to Kenilworth as I romped to victory (not a phrase which has been used many times) with 8.5 pts to finish 2 points clear of Jon Griffiths (Leamington) and top seed Andrew McCumiskey (Solihull). Bruce finished fourth on 6 pts and somehow qualified for a prize which was only 40p less than I got for winning. Someone will have to explain how that works to me sometime! Rhys was 6th (5.5 pts) and Ben 12th (5 pts), which meant that we all finished almost exactly in line with our starting rank.

A triumph for the oldies - 71 year old beats 65 year old beats 60 year old beats 60 year old!

This is my third triumph in this event, though I suspect I had to play a lot better to win the other two times, when the entry list was undoubtedly stronger. But at my time of life I'll take whatever I can get. I am now tied with Javier as the winning most Kenilworth player, though as one of his victories was shared, I should edge first place on tie break! We'll gloss over the fact that his 3 wins have come from only 3 attempts, whereas mine have come from at least 20, with the other winning years in 2010 and 2018. So I can expect to win again in 2034 to keep the sequence going! (For those interested, the only other Kenilworth winners have been Bernard (1988) and Carl Pickering (2008)).

Before anyone asks, the quality of the games was what you might expect for Blitz between not very good players! I was under pressure from Bruce and lost the exchange, before the clock got the better of him and he allowed my heavy pieces onto his back rank to deliver mate. And against Rhys I completely missed the fact that he was threatening Qxf2 check, and it was only by luck it wasn't terminal. Fortunately I avoided Ben, as he gave me a right going over in the Club Championship last summer!

I'm not proud - I don't mind that I only won because Javier decided not to play. I know I was a substitute for another guy. Cue the music!!

Billy is a Warwickshire Champion - and Nearly Doubles Up!

Though this report is a bit belated, I couldn't let last weekend's Warwickshire Rapid and Blitz Championships pass without recording the fact that KCC has another Warwickshire Champion! Billy put up a dazzling performance to take first place in Sunday's Blitz event, conceding just a single draw to Finlay Bowcott-Terry, and ending up with 13.5/14 after 7 double rounds. This put him 1.5 points clear of the field, which was dominated by young Warwickshire players.  Billy, who recorded a massive TPR of 2416, follows Javier, who won in 2023, as a recent KCC holder of this title.

And it was so nearly a double triumph for our young Candidate Master, as he was just edged out of first place in Saturday's Rapid event, where his unbeaten 6/7 saw him finish second to Finlay Bowcott-Terry. After a draw between the two of them, the title was decided when Billy dropped half a point to the experienced South Birmingham player Cory Hazlehurst in Round 6. Which meant he "only" posted a rapid TPR of 2350. These are numbers most of us can only dream about!

A truly astonishing weekend then for Billy, going undefeated over 21 games, and conceding just 3 draws! I'm afraid chess really is a young person's game. Which isn't particularly good news for me on the eve of playing in the European Seniors Championships!!

This performance definitely deserves a song. If only we could all have chess days like Billy.

Javi Es Campeon de KCC, 2025

I knew it; I just knew it. Despite going into the third and final leg of the inaugural KCC Speed Chess Championship with a commanding lead, the tournament format (best 2 scores to count) meant that unless I got at least 6.5/7, Javi would overtake me if he reached this score. I thought that meant I would have to at least draw with him in our individual encounter to stand any chance, and I wasn't particularly hopeful. But I needn't have worried, as I played so dreadfully in Leg 3 that I never even got to play him! My hopes instead were - short of a major surprise result, all riding on Billy, a late entry and making his only appearance in the Championships, to take down the Man from La Mancha and secure the life changing first prize of £25 (twice what I won at the British Seniors Championship!) for me. Unfortunately for me, the Billy-Javi game ended in a draw, and with both winning every other game they tied for first place on the night.

There were some excellent performances on the night, with especially notable results for Algis and Patrick (who both wiped the floor with me!)  However, this wasn't enough to take them past Ben in the race for the U-1750 rating prize (another £25), even though he was unable to improve on his score from the first two legs. Though he did manage to draw with me again, to take his score to 2/3 as we played in every leg - all I needed was a half point more from either of the first two games and I'd have been the champ, so as well as winning his section, he also turned out to be the Kingmaker!

So the final Club Speed Championship Leaderboard/Points were:-

1 Javi 12.5
2 Mark 12.3 
3 Keatan 10.1
4 Mike 8.9
5 Ben 8.7 (and the U1750 Rating Prize)
6 Dave 8.2
7 Algis 8.0 (2nd U1750)
8 Dylan 7.0 (3rd U1750)

So many congratulations to Javi and Ben for their successes, and commiserations to those who were just pipped at the post - ie me!!

Do you think that was Spanish enough to commemorate Javi's victory??

In total, we had 18 participants who played in at least 1 of the three events - well over half the club's total membership - so this must be judged a major success and a triumph for Ben, who both created and organised the event - and then went and won his section as well! (Not forgetting the massive contribution of Gregory in his Chief Arbiter and Swiss-Manager supremo roles.) In fact it was such a success, we may well do something similar at Christmas, though that may have to be a one-off due to time constraints. Maybe we could get all our titled players to turn out for that?!

Clearly the most appropriate video to accompany this report would have been Yvonne Fair singing "It Should Have Been Me", but I've used that before (when I was also pipped at the post in something else!), so I won't bother trying to be relevant. Instead, I'll just delve into YouTube and pull out a random musical tour de force. Wonder what it will be?

What a suprise - Jackson Browne! Who could ever have guessed? And bonus appearances by Bonnie Raitt on vocals, Bruce Hornsby on piano and - of course - the wonderful David Lindley on steel guitar. Just magical. Wish I'd been there.

British Championships 2025

Well, my plan to file some regular reports from the front line in Liverpool clearly didn't work too well. what with sight-seeing, playing and then eating and drinking there simply wasn't enough time left for me to slave over a hot lap-top and keep you stay-at-homes up to date with how our brave lads were getting on. But - better late than never - I can at least provide a round up of how the KCC battalion ultimately fared.

Star billing has to go to our two junior sensations, Jude and Billy, who both performed admirably in the Championship event, both eventually finishing on 4.5/9 after a last round draw between themselves. Not the pairing either would have wanted to finish on, but at least no-one went home a loser! Jude's high point was obviously the win over IM Brandon Clarke which took him above 2300 and qualified him for the FM title, while Billy had an excellent event too, and gained 62 rating points. And it could have been even more as he had both IM Andrew Ledger and GM Nigel Davies on the edge of defeat. Crucially, he was unbeaten in the last three rounds when borrowing a pen from me! Between them, Jude and Billy only played 3 non-titled players across 18 games, which illustrates what a strong event this was. Excellent results and performances at such a young age.

Bruce was in the running for a high placing in the 50+ event, but a last round loss - when a win would have placed him clear third - sent him down the table to 9th=, but with a hefty rating gain. Ben made his debut in Seniors' chess in this event and finished 26th= from a starting rank of 41 and also gained rating points, as he did with his excellent 4th= finish in the U1900 morning tournament. (Which netted him £20, to boot!) Ed and I flew the flag for KCC in the 65+ event where, from 81 starters I finished 4th= (winning £12.50 - its big money at the British Champs!) and Ed was 44th= - in both cases well above our starting ranks. Finally, as far as proper chess is concerned, Keatan found it hard going in the Major Open but still scored above 50% in his unsuccessful bid to qualify for the 2026 British Championships. Which, if you haven't already heard, will be held at Warwick University - so no excuses for not playing next year! I guess I should also mention the Blitz and Rapid events, but only because Joshua managed to finish 3rd= in the U-2000 rapidplay event and take home £18.50, which must have more than paid for his day return from Manchester!

And I can't let the event pass by without mentioning that the recent slayer of KCC at our 50th anniversary simultaneous display, GM Mickey Adams, collected a 9th British Championship title to go with his recent English Championship success. What a player - not bad for a 53 year old! And he fully deserved to see his image up in lights on an enormous billboard opposite the playing hall. Don't think I've seen chess get such large scale promotion before.

Disappointing that none of KCC's finest managed to make it onto the advert along with Gawain, Mickey and Nikita!

Liverpool proved to be a very interesting host city - plenty to see and do and no shortage of accommodation, food and beverage options. Especially the last named! And what a venue we played in - Warwick University will do well to find anywhere on campus as impressive as this!

The grade 1 listed St George's Hall

Which was equally impressive inside!

Slightly larger than the Abbey Club!

Although it has to be said that the tradesmen's entrance the chess players had to use was slightly less imposing.

The way in looked like the entry to some public toilets. And not very nice ones at that!

Liverpool, famously, has two cathedrals which stare at each other from either end of the marvellously appropriate Hope Street.

The truly monumental Anglican Cathedral, seen from the steps of the Catholic Cathedral, half a mile away. It is the longest and fifth largest cathedral in the world. But definitely not the most beautiful.

The RC Cathedral, designed by Coventry kid Sir Frederick Gibberd - also
famous as the architect of Didcot Power Station and Harlow New Town!

When I wasn't busy preparing for my battles on the chessboard (ie most of the time) I took advantage of the free mornings to visit some landmark sites associated with several of Liverpool's most famous sons and daughters.

Who lived in a house like this? John Lennon!

So no prizes for guessing this was the childhood home of Paul McCartney

Surprise, surprise! It's Cilla again.

And another surprise - who knew that the 100 Another Place statues by Antony Gormley on Crosby beach were actually modelled on the most famous of all Liverpool icons - the Diddymen?!

To avoid any confusion, please note that I am on the left.

After this bumper pictorial city tour (aren't you relieved there was no photography allowed in the Beatles's former homes?!) you'd think I'd have no energy left for a musical contribution as well. But you'd be wrong. How could I miss the opportunity to present one of Liverpool's most celebrated musical acts singing about an ancestor of a KCC legend? Answer - I couldn't!

Jude is an FM!

Fantastic news from the British Championships at Liverpool, where yesterday Jude had a tremendous win over the very strong IM Brandon Clarke (for the second time in a month, both with Black), finishing with a brilliant rook sac. You can play through the game here. After this win, Jude's live ELO rating has gone over 2300, which means he has qualified to become a Fide Master. This makes him only the second KCC player ever to become an FM, after Adam Collinson, though I'm pretty sure Adam didn't reach this milestone at the age of just 15!! Many congratulations from everyone at the club, Jude. Your success is absolutely brilliant.

It was very nearly an even more special day, as Billy was on the verge of taking down another IM, Andrew Ledger, but somehow the more experienced player saved a desperate looking rook ending and prevented an IM-bashing double by KCC juniors. So after 4 rounds of the Championships, Jude has a fantastic 3 pts with Billy on a more than respectable 2 pts. Today its another very tough pairing for Jude, against Ukrainian IM Svyatoslav Bazakutsa, while Billy plays FM Stephen Dishman. Good luck to them both, and indeed to all KCC participants. Which includes myself, of course!

More news as and when I can find the time/energy!

The Storm Before the Even Bigger Storm

It was the second instalment of the inaugural Kenilworth Speed Chess Championships last night, and ten intrepid players assembled to contest a five round rapid chess Swiss with a time limit of 10'+5".

Fresh from my surprise joint first place in leg 1, I found myself as clear top seed this time around, mainly thanks to everyone else having either ridiculously low rapid ratings (yes Keatan, that means you!) or no rapid rating at all. In the absence of our Swiss Manager supremo, Gregory, tournament organiser Ben had to revert to the tried and trusted analogue method of pen, scraps of paper and trial and error to make the pairings, but despite the distractions of also playing in the event, he coped admirably with the pressure and kept the show on the road.

Round 1

Mark 1 – 0 Bernard 
Ben 0.5 – 0.5 Mike 
Dave 1 v 0 Rhys
Keatan 1 v 0 Algis
Patrick 0 v 1 Paul B

Round 2

Paul B 0 – 1 Mark
Mike 1 – 0 Patrick
Keatan 1 – 0 Dave
Bernard 1 – 0 Ben
Rhys 1 – 0 Algis

Round 3

Mark 1 v 0 Keatan
Dave 0 v 1 Mike
Paul B 0.5 – 0.5 Bernard
Ben 1 – 0 Rhys
Algis 1 – 0 Patrick

Round 4

Mike 0 v 1 Mark
Dave 1 – 0 Algis
Bernard 0 – 1 Keatan
Ben 1 – 0 Paul B
Patrick 0 – 1 Rhys

Round 5

Mark 0.5 – 0.5 Ben
Mike 1 – 0 Rhys
Patrick 0 – 1 Dave
Paul B 0 -1 Keatan
Algis 0 – 1 Bernard

At the end of the evening I had just about managed to justify my number 1 seeding, finishing on 4.5/5, ahead of Keatan the rating bandit on 4. The full standings were:-

1 Mark 4.5 
2 Keatan 4
3 Mike 3.5
4= Ben and Dave 3
6 Bernard 2.5
7 Rhys 2
8 Paul B 1.5
9 Algis 1
10 Patrick 0

The tournament was very hard fought, with the 5 rounds not concluding until around 10.30, and many games lasting close to 30 minutes. I almost lost count of the number of drawn out queen endings I had to play!

For the second successive event, I got to the final round with a 100% score (after a very lucky Rd 4 win over Mike) but - just like last time - I found Ben a very difficult opponent. At least this time I didn't lose, which was just as well, as Keatan won his last round encounter against Paul and would have tied if Ben had done the double over me. I don't know what it is about Ben's play, but he's got me totally psyched out now!

The even bigger storm referenced in the title of this article could be either Leg 3 of the KCC Speed Championship (which will be another Blitz event on August 28th) or the imminent British Championships which are about to start in Liverpool. KCC's 2 junior CMs are both in action in the Championship proper (but with starting ranks of 43 (Jude) and 72 (Billy) you can tell this is a monstrously strong event. Keatan is flying the KCC flag in the Major Open, where he is seeded 17th (of 137!) aiming for one of the 10 qualifying places available for the 2026 British Championship. Ben makes his debut in the 50+ Championships (seeded 41) where he is joined by Bruce (start rank 24). Of course, Ben is also playing in a morning tournament as well, and a couple of Blitz evenings. Good luck to him I say, but count me out of such an intensive schedule - I've got sight-seeing, eating, drinking and sleeping to take care of! Keatan, Bruce and - surprise, surprise - Joshua will also be blitzing two of their evenings away. Madness, sheer madness!

Well, why not? It is Liverpool we're going to!

Ed (seeded 60) and myself (21) are the two KCC representatives in the 65+ event. The chances of me repeating my shock joint first in 2019 are consequently very low.

So we haven't quite been able to match the even larger turnout we had in Torquay back in 2019, but its still a respectable showing. Good luck to all and who knows, there may even be a report or two of proceedings posted here.

Now, we've had this song before (no idea if it was this same video), but it would be careless of me not to continue the theme. So here goes.

 

You Wait Ages for a 2700 GM and Then 3 of Them Come Along at Once

The English Championships are under way at the Holiday Inn and Kenilworth has been graced by the presence of not one, not two, but three GMs rated over 2700 ECF. This must be the strongest collection of chess players Kenilworth has ever seen!

Fresh from his slaughter of the innocents at the recent KCC 50th Anniversary Simultaneous Display, Mickey Adams has quickly returned to Kenilworth as the number 2 seed, with an ECF rating of 2726, and following a Round 4 win over number 3 seed Gawain Jones (rated a mere 2723!) has assumed sole leadership as I write with a 100% score. Trailing half a point behind is number one seed, and 2021 Russian Champion, Nikita Vitiugov (2746).  A potentially decisive round 5 encounter between the top two seeds is scheduled for Sunday morning.

Round 1 underway, with Nikita Vitiugov White on Board 1, Mickey Adams Black on Board 2, and Gawain Maroroa Jones on Board 3 nearest the camera (left)

Three of Kenilworth's finest are also in action, with Jude currently leading the way on an undefeated 3/4 after some excellent games. He faces IM Brandon Clarke in Round 5. Keatan and Billy are both on 1.5 pts at the moment, though Keatan will be the happier of the two given his very strong opposition so far. Billy has suffered two White losses which have derailed his progress, but lets hope for a strong finish in the last 3 rounds. We can in any case be massively proud that three of our juniors are mixing it in this ferociously strong tournament. Keep going guys!

Its Hot and Cold as Club Quickplay Championship Begins

It was 29 degrees centigrade in Kenilworth yesterday, as the first of three legs of the new Kenilworth Quickplay Championship got underway. Inside the Holiday Inn, though, it was decidedly parky, as the air conditioning was seemingly turned up to 11 and frostbite, rather than heatstroke, was the more likely affliction for the 12 players who contested a 7 round (slow) Blitz (5" + 2'). There should have been 14 players but Rhys (unwell) and Joshua (who knows!?) were late withdrawals.  But all twelve starters would surely agree with Little Feat that "it was freezing cold in that hotel!" Great version here, with Bonnie Raitt on guest vocals.

The tournament was only able to function smoothly thanks to Gregory, our 14 year old National Arbiter, who was able to set things up on Swiss Manager and handle the pairings, results and grading functions with an ease which made both Ben and I very embarrassed after our own pathetic attempts to master the software!

Javi started off as hot favourite, but something went very wrong in Round 2 when he contrived to lose on time against me, in a probably winning endgame - though as he pointed out to me afterwards, I had missed the one move win of a piece earlier! This put me, Mike and Dave in the early lead but somehow I then just kept on winning, getting myself to 6/6. Before the last round, Javi had recovered to lie in second place on 5 pts, with Dhairya and Ben back in a tie for third on 3.5.

The last round pairing had me as Black against Ben, and all I needed for victory was a draw, but as this is a three leg event, with the best 2 results on game points counting, I decided that it was more important to go for broke rather than try and wimp out with a draw. (Which Ben may not have accepted, of course!) You can all guess what happened next. Ben played a monster game and took several of my pawns before annexing a piece and then delivering mate. Brutal!

Of course, Javi then won his Round 7 encounter with Dhairya to catch me on 6 points. Ben's demolition job on me meant he finished in clear third place on 4.5. But this is just the first of three events, so there's plenty of twists that might happen yet - and the tournament winner might even not have played a single game yet! Who knows who might turn up for events 2 (Rapid) and 3 (another Blitz)? BTW you can play one of these events without being a member of the ECF, but you won't be allowed to play in a second without at least Bronze membership.

So the future dates for your diary are July 31st for leg 2 and August 28th for the potentially decisive leg 3. By the way, there will be a prize of £25 to the overall winner, and £25 to the best placed player under ...... a rating yet to be decided by Ben. Though on the evidence of yesterday's field, the rating cap will possibly be in the vicinity of 1700. Anyway, no need to panic yet as Ben will be in touch with everyone to take entries before each of the two remaining legs.  In the meantime I will enjoy my position as joint leader while it lasts - which will be until July 31st!

It's Deja Vu All Over Again, Again as KCC Dominate at the LDCL Blitz

Two years ago KCC managed a clean sweep of the podium at the annual LDCL Blitz Championship, as Javier led home myself and Bruce while posting a perfect 9/9 score. Last year our domination was slightly more muted, but Javier and Bruce still tied for the title, so it could hardly be called a failure. Jump forward to this year's event, held last night at Solihull, and it was almost as though we were back in 2023. Javier once again reeled off 9 successive wins to obliterate the field and I again followed at a respectable distance (7 pts), while this time round it was Keatan (6.5 pts) who completed the clean sweep. And Bruce (6 pts) then followed in 4th= place to make it an even more impressive night than 2 years ago. If Ben had won his last round he would also have finished 4th=, but as it was he had to settle for 9th= with 5 pts.

There were, unavoidably, plenty of intra-KCC encounters. Javier beat myself, Keatan and Bruce; I beat Bruce and Ben while losing to Keatan and Javier; Keatan beat me and Bruce but lost to Javi; Bruce beat Ben but lost to Javi, me and Keatan; and Ben did the decent thing and lost to me and Bruce!

32 players, but you'll have to make do with the top 23. 

As well as finishing third, Keatan also won the U-1800 prize (I know - what a bandit!) even though he should probably have been the number two seed. (This also kept this cup in KCC keeping, as Bernard won it last year!) Which meant that he got a cup to display and so, of course, did Javi, which left me looking like a bit left out in the post-event photo of the podium finishers!

They say blitz is a young person's game - so spot the outlier in this photo! Interestingly we finished in height order, but not in age order, which would have been my preferred sequence. As long as it was top down!

I wouldn't normally contemplate even for a moment repeating a musical selection here, but as its so apt I don't think I have much alternative. Indeed, this could well become an annual tradition the way things are going! So many congratulations to Javi on his third consecutive LDCL Blitz title. He was indeed just perfect.

Every Dog...

 All chess players think about why they play and what they want from the game. For most of us, our relationship with the sixty-four squares is double-edged. Who wouldn't want to be a little better or to win a bit more regularly? We all know that the pain of losing hurts more than the positive buzz that comes when we win. All too often chess is a game of disappointment or coming up just short - and that is the price we have to pay for playing. 

I am sure my biggest critic would not dispute what chess means to me. I've made so many friends, had lots of wonderful experiences and much of what I have done as a writer in terms of my books and articles is closely bound up with the chess world. Yet the gap between being the player I am and the player I want to be has been a challenge at times. Especially at a club like Kenilworth. On the one hand, I see and delight in seeing so much world class talent coming through our ranks. On the other, this accentuates my sense that I'll only ever be a journeyman. Someone who is capable of beating better players (and losing to weaker ones) but rarely consistent enough to suggest I am going to make much progress.

Indeed after a terrible season a couple of years ago I was at a very low ebb. Thanks to Paul Lam's help, I have improved my chess psychology, my opening repertoire and how I prepare. Essentially I now spend more time looking at my own games, do more tactical puzzles, and play a little less online blitz. All of which has helped me have a pretty reasonable season. Yet in the many years I've played prior to yesterday, my sum total of tournament victories (outside the LDCL Individual KOs) consisted of a junior open victory, an LDCL rapidplay major win and a share of first place at a Shropshire major (with Ed Goodwin as I recall). Not a great return on the zillions of tournaments I have played in. 

It is true of course that I don't enter tournaments because I expect to win. If that was the case I would have stopped playing chess years ago. But it is nice to think that sometimes it might be your day - and most unexpectedly for me that day turned out to be yesterday, as I ended up the joint winner of the Open section of the Swindon Rapidplay!

I had set off with some hope, as I was down as the number 1 seed in the U1900, but arrived to find that the Open and U1900 had been merged. I said to Mrs G "there goes that then," but she said "just try and win the Open instead," so I did!

I started with two routine wins before a bit of heartbreak in round 3 against Ben Ogunshola (the number 1 seed and tournament organiser who is in the photo). I unbelievably managed to throw away a won position at the death in the time scramble. This has become a bit of a habit of late, especially as in round 5 I did the same thing, but this time managed to cling on for the draw. I just tell myself that like a striker who doesn't always score from good positions, the fact that I am consistently getting into them must mean something...     

So I was on 3.5/5 going into the final round. A point behind the tournament leader and talented England junior Zack Norris (2058) who had just downed the slightly misfiring and out of the money tournament IM Petr Marusenko. I knew that a win would guarantee me a share of second, and would be good for a share of first so long as Ben Ogunshola did not win his final game (which he didn't!)

I think previously I would have been a bit overwhelmed. Zack is obviously the stronger player. But I resolved just to play. Twenty moves in, I could not help but think to myself, this looks pretty good. Still, given I knew I wasn't always holding onto my good positions, I did not take anything for granted. I found a nice tactic and won a piece for two pawns. A wildly complicated middle game ensued, but I was better co-ordinated and could see that Zack was very unhappy with his position. Eventually I forced another tactic and won Zack's queen for rook. A lot more moves followed, but by this point I knew I'd got this!

So a £100 prize and a trophy (to say nothing of a TPR of 2002!) Ben said to me afterwards that I looked happier than any of the kids. I'm sure that was true. They haven't suffered like I have. Mrs G says it is not sufficient to suggest I should pack it all in and go professional, and we are still negotiating as to whether the trophy can be displayed in the sitting room. In all seriousness I doubt that this is going to be the start of me winning lots more tournaments. But it was a very nice feeling, which I will always remember. Every dog and all that!

Black is OK. Kenilworth D slightly less so...

 There was a moment at the British Rapidplay, after I threw away a third winning position, when I inwardly compared myself to the hapless banker in the film Notting Hill. You might know the scene? The poor chap staggers home only to declare "Another disastrous day at the office... millions down the drain I fear...I never did understand this job," or something along those lines. Fortunately, my tournament picked up with 3.5/4 at the finish, which meant that my personal takeaway from the proceedings ended up being a lot more positive. Namely I noticed that I had scored 4.5/5 with black and 1.5/6 with white. So perhaps black really is OK? 

Partly this was the vagaries of playing stronger players with white and weaker players with black in the early rounds. But not entirely... Indeed had my 1950 opponent not missed N-f6+ in the final round, my tally with the white pieces might have been even worse. Heck, I wouldn't presume to say that the chess gods owed me one, but it was certainly a very satisfying final move to play in the tournament.

Just by way of reference, it is possible for games with black to resemble puzzle rush on chess.com. I very much enjoyed playing Rh1# in the below in an earlier round. (My opponent asked me afterwards where I thought he had gone wrong and I did gently suggest he should have given the material back and chopped off the black bishop when that had still been a possibility...) 

So when Kenilworth D travelled to Shirley on Monday night I was intrigued to see if black would prove to be OK once more - and indeed it was - even though as a team we we weren't. Black ended up with 3/4 on the night, and while both our half points came with black, it obviously wasn't enough...

I finished first on Board 2 against Keith Ingram. While playing down a line I knew well, I tried something different to see what would happen (that's what a weekend of fast chess will do for you...) It wasn't great, but I untangled myself reasonably easily, a lot of wood came off and we were the first to finish.

Dylan was playing the very strong Owen Adams (who I suspect is going to be much higher rated very soon) on board 3. A tactical melee ensued. It was very complicated and very difficult. I went through the game in the bar afterwards with Owen and a couple of the Shirley players. Dylan put up a good fight, but unfortunately it wasn't quite enough - still a good effort though.

Which left Dhariya up against Darren Whitmore on one, and Dan playing Dave Thomas on four. There was a time when I thought both Kenilworth players were winning, albeit I now suspect Dhariya never was. Dan was up the exchange against Dave, but Dave had a central pawn break and a bishop that controlled the key queening square. One of those positions where it was hard to see what else Dan could have done. Ultimately he had to return the material and ran very short of time, so a draw was a fair result. A great game for the spectators though.

Dhariya's was even more so. A whole host of pieces were en prise, but what I had probably overlooked in my initial assessment was the strength of Darren's passed b pawn which managed to find its way to the second rank. A whole host of tactics suddenly went Darren's way despite Dhariya's excellent resistance. A really terrific battle - but one that left us 1-3 losers, with Shirley (and black) as the winners!

It doesn't matter too much as the team is safe from relegation and can just enjoy our chess between now and the end of the season. We're next in action next week, when we will see once again if black continues to be OK!

Muy Rapido

This must be a first for the KCC blog - a double tournament report written by someone who wasn't present - let alone playing - at either of them. But thanks to the wonders of modern technology, it almost felt like I was actually there.

At least that's the case as far as the main event of this weekend - the British Rapidplay Championship at Peterborough - was concerned, as there were up to 93 boards transmitted live in each round. With so many KCC players in action, not to mention those from my 4NCL team, Warwickshire Select, it was almost impossible to keep up with everything that was happening. But when the chaos ended, after 11 rounds of 15 mins + 10 secs slugfests spread over 2 days, it was possible to take a deep breath and see how our six brave warriors/gluttons for punishment (delete as applicable!) had acquitted themselves. Pretty well, it's fair to say!

The KCC contingent was, in start rank order:-

28 Jude
37 Billy
82 Bruce B
109 Keatan
115 Andy W

124 Ben

And they finished like this, in a field of 217 players:-

33 Billy 7 pts/TPR 2161
44 Bruce 7 pts/TPR 2016
71 Jude 6 pts/TPR 2171
90 Ben 6 pts/TPR 1785
123 Keatan 5 pts/TPR 1820

125 Andy 5 pts/ TPR 1906

The final scores hide the full drama, though, because - as the Tournament Performance Ratings reveal - Jude and Billy played many of their games on very high boards, while Bruce (to pluck a name at random!) spent much of his time grovelling on the mid/lower boards before producing a storming finish on Sunday, when he scored 4/5, culminating in a last round victory over Jude which massively affected the KCC mini-league table. In fact, Jude seemed to run out of steam completely at the end, losing the last three rounds having climbed to a very exciting 9th= after 8 rounds.

There were some titled scalps claimed by the KCC contingent along the way -  Jude beating Italian FM Lorenzo Fava and pride of place going to Andy for a win over IM Neil Bradbury. Both Keatan (Round 1) and Billy (Round 3) got to play on top board against number 1 seed, GM Gawain Jones (just the 2797 RP rating!), while Jude faced off against GMs Gormally and Kovchan.

So no prizes or titles to be reported from Peterborough, but we do have a Kenilworth triumph to celebrate, as I've left the best news till last. Because in the rather calmer waters of the Warwick University Rapidplay on Saturday, Javier produced a storming performance to win the Open with 6.5/7 - conceding only a draw to top seed, Australian FM Sam Chow (rated 2483!) - who thankfully doesn't bother turning out for Warwick Uni in the Coventry League. Javi imperiously swept all other opposition aside to secure the £160 1st prize and post a massive TPR of 2452, virtually 300 points over his own rapidplay rating. After threatening to play in this event myself, I'm glad I decided to give it a miss and avoid being run over by a Spanish express train! On a weekend where there was "muchos rapidplay" played "muy rapido", Javi takes the prize for being "mas poderoso"!

And to round off this speed chess episode, let's play ourselves out with a suitably themed song!

Speed Kings

 

Such is the strength and depth at Kenilworth these days, that it is practically a FIDE law that no international event should go ahead, without a minimum of four Kenilworth players in the field. Fortunately for the organisers, myself, Bruce, Steph and Patrick were all available for today's Birmingham International Blitz.

The start of the day was a little random. I spent a while stood outside a locked gate with a gaggle of other players, as we weighed up what to do. Fortunately, someone vaguely practical amongst us suggested that we should try and go round the back. We did, and found ourselves in the venue! Things were still a bit unorthodox, as the organiser was probably the last person to arrive, but we soon got down to the fastest eleven round blitz (3 and 2) event I have ever participated in. Bar one 5 minute break, we literally played back to back. Having started at 10.30, we were done before 1.00.

As a collective, we did really well! Bruce came 2nd with 9/11. I was 4th with 7/11. Patrick 5th with 6.5 and Steph was 8th with 5.5. (Before any bright spark asks the question, there were 19 players in the field.) We also had a bit of blue on blue along the way. Bruce won a good game against me and also beat Patrick. Steph and Patrick drew. I think we definitely would have given the spectators their money's worth, had there been any.

The tournament was won by IM Mahadevan Siva with 11/11. He actually played all four of the Kenilworth contingent. Mahadevan told me afterwards that each of the games against Kenilworth players had pushed him to the outer-limits of his chess knowledge. OK he did not really say this, but we can but dream that this is what he was thinking!

So a fun (half) day out, and a good showing by the Kenilworth crew. If we carry on like this, FIDE will probably insist on even more of us being present at events like these!

County Title for Javi - Jude, Rhys, Dhairya, Joshua and George also in the Money!

The KCC army was out in force at last weekend's Warwickshire Rapid and Blitz Championships in Coventry (Alan Higgs Centre) and made sure to bring home plenty of the loot on offer! The Blitz events kicked things off on Saturday (10 KCC participants), with the Rapid Championships (8 KCC participants) on Sunday.

Pride of place for the whole weekend has to go to Javi, who claimed the Warwickshire Blitz title just ahead of Jude on tie-break. They each scored 9/14 to share 2-4th place with Thomas Sygnowski, a full 4 points behind runaway winner IM Yichen Han, who was ineligible for the county title (but not the prize money!). Trailing in far behind were myself (6pts/9th place) and Bruce (5.5 pts/10th place) in a disappointingly small field of only 11 starters.

There were 2 KCC participants in the Major section, with Joshua on the podium in clear third place with 9/14, in a field of 15 starters. His cause was aided by a totally undeserved win over Ben, from a position a full piece down with no compensation. Ben finished in a tie for 8-11th on 6.5 pts and both our chaps ended up above their starting rank.

The Intermediate section saw 4 KCC entrants, and the accent was decidedly on youth. Dhairya was the star, coming clear second with an excellent 10/14 performance (15 players). Keatan scored 7.5 for a share of 5th/6th, followed by Lionel (tied 7-10th with 7 points) and George right behind on 6.5 pts (tied 11-13th). There was no official KCC representation in the Minor section, but congratulations have to go to Dhairya's dad, Sagar, who finished 10th =, well above his start rank. Can't think why Keatan's dad, Nash, wasn't also taking part!

Sunday's rapid tournaments saw many of the same faces in action, but Javi, Jude, Ben and Lionel were missing from the Blitz contingent while only David and Rhys joined the fray anew. Overall, though, numbers were much higher for the Rapid than the Blitz.

I took advantage of some rather friendly pairings to top the KCC entrants in the Open, with 4.5/7pts (4-6th), while David played much better opposition in scoring 4pts as he finished tied 7-9th. Joshua, unable to blag his way into the Major section for the Rapids, was a further half point behind (tied 10-12th) and Bruce's disappointing weekend saw him score 3 to tie for 13-17th place. The title of Warwickshire Rapid Champion was retained by John Pitcher, while Yichen Han comfortably completed a double success on the weekend.

Keatan flew the lone flag for KCC in the Major, and finished on 50% for a share of 7-14th place, but in the Intermediate section 3 of KCC's finest went into battle and we ended with 2 people on the podium. Star performer was Rhys, who came second alone with 5.5/7 - half a point behind the shock winner who had started as the absolute bottom seed! George followed half a point behind Rhys sharing 3/4th place but having cause to regret his loss on time from a superior position against the tournament winner, which stopped a good tournament from being an exceptional one. Dhairya couldn't quite repeat his prize winning performance of the day before, but still managed a highly respectable 4 points and a share of 8-11th place.

So 6 prize winners for KCC, including a county champion. All good omens for the rapidly approaching club season ahead. All in all this was a fun event, which I would strongly recommend - though maybe give the Blitz a miss if you are over the age of about 25! It will be far too quick and you will end up losing on time. And yes, I am speaking from bitter experience.

Javi receives the stunningly impressive Warwickshire Blitz trophy
from local chess supremo Alex Holowczak

2023 British Championships - Didn't We Do Well!

Having reluctantly come to the conclusion - eventually - that Joshua will not be continuing his series of reports from Leicester, I guess it has fallen to me to summarise the KCC results and mark our collective scorecard.

There were a few changes from the initial runners and riders I published just before the off, as some people opted to play in more or less tournaments than I expected (maybe I just miscounted?), but the most significant change was that Solomon has returned from the Wild West (Wells) and at least temporarily revived his KCC membership. He played a rather impressive 42 games at Leicester - and did rather well - so he certainly needs to be included in our stats!  This means that the revised count is that KCC players made 39 tournament entries between them (covering 21 different events) and played 281 games in total.

Well, no doubt you are all on tenterhooks to find out what our final performance numbers looked like. So, to put you out of your misery, I can revela that the overall KCC score amounted to 141.5 pts, and a 50.4% strike rate. This represents a major improvement on the 46.7% achieved at Warwick Uni in the 2015 Championships. And we played more than 100 additional games this time around.

While the standout individual performance has to be Jude's 5/9 in the British Championship, the highest overall KCC percentage results were:-

1 David    9/12 - 75.0% (2 events)
2 Billy    18/28 - 64.3% (4 events)
3 Jude    11/18 - 61.1% (2 events)

It bodes rather well for the future when David is the old man amongst our star performers! Of our 15 players, no fewer than 11 scored 50% or more. Congratulations to everyone who played and supported this event. I just hope it wasn't so well supported that it's going to be in Leicester again, any time soon!

And we certainly have to record the names of our two tournament winners, who have every reason to be extremely proud of their achievements. Solomon came 1st= in the Weekend U1750 event, with a score of 4.5/5. Not bad for the 34th ranked player. And just as impressive was David's score of 6/7 in the Second Rapidplay Open, which gave him clear first place ahead of Billy, who tied for second, just half a point behind. It was quite something to see the pairing Fellowes v Phillips on Board 1 in the final round of an open event at the British Championships!

This week's song is by way of a tribute to the brilliant Robbie Robertson, lead guitarist and main song writer for that all time great group The Band who passed away earlier this month. Although not as famous as The Weight, or The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, this is my favourite Band song, and this is an awesome live rendition with brilliant guitar solos from Robbie. Frightening and tragic to think that only Garth Hudson remains from these five superb musicians - the only group ever who have been good enough to get away with calling themselves The Band. RIP Robbie. Another rock and roll genius gone, but what a magnificent musical legacy he has left us.

Its Official - KCC is (Slightly) Optimistic

Sorry to interrupt Joshua's "daily" reports from the British Championships (which seem to have run into the metaphorical buffers), but there's a Team Tournament involving KCC demanding attention.

Last Saturday, the Phil Holt Memorial Tournament took place at Tyseley WMC, remembering the recent tragic passing of Olton's top player, the widely known and formidable Phil Holt, as well as a number of other  Olton players. The event, unfortunately clashing with the final weekend of the British Championships, attracted ten three player, grade restricted, teams - all from the Birmingham area/league, except ourselves. The fixture clash, plus a strange outbreak of non-communication and non-cooperation, meant it was a struggle to raise our two teams, but with a judicious use of ringers it was finally mission accomplished, and KCC was able to support this worthy event to a level appropriate to the long competitive rivalry and friendship between ourselves and Olton.

Rather than call ourselves Kenilworth A and B, I decided we would participate under the titles of Optimists and Pessimists, mainly because I couldn't stand the idea of me being in Kenilworth B while Bernard was in Kenilworth A! The Optimists lined up with Andrew P on Board 1 (unrestricted grade); Bernard R on Board 2 (Under 1850) and Hector on Board 3 (Under 1650); while I led the Pessimists, with Rhys on Board 2 and John Conway, who we borrowed from Coventry for the day, on Board 3. Lined up against us were 3 teams from Olton; 2 from Halesowen and 1 each from Shirley, Mutual Circle and South Birmingham. The competition ran over 2 rounds at the Leamington League time limit of 80 mins + 10 seconds per move.

The first round was something of a disaster for both our teams, marginally edged by the Optimists who secured 1/3, thanks to Andrew's draw with Black against Alan Lloyd (Olton A) and Bernard's draw against Paul Evans (Halesowen A). Meanwhile, I was the only scorer for the well-named Pessimists though as I only managed to draw against Richard Reynolds (Olton C) despite being up a queen and pawn for just 2 minor pieces, I didn't have much to be proud of!

But then the KCC boys came roaring back with a big effort in Round 2, doubtless fortified by the free lunch, with both of our teams scoring a mightily impressive 2.5/3. For the Optimists, Andrew beat South Birmingham's Board 1, Kevin Hurney, and Hector won on Board 3 against Tom Evans of Olton A, while Bernard somehow hung on for a draw against Richard Liszewski (Olton C). For the Pessimists, guest player John led the way with a win against Tony Taylor of Halesowen A, while Rhys fought back from a difficult position to draw against Tim Lane of South Birmingham. But, in the biggest shock since Foinavon won the 1967 Grand National, the real sensation was that, at the 11th time of asking, I finally won against Alan Lloyd (Olton A) after managing just 5 draws and 5 losses previously.

Regrettably, our storming second half showings couldn't propel either of our teams onto the winner's podium, but at least it ensured that (a) everyone of our 6 players was on the scoreboard; (b) we could hold our heads up high amongst the Birmingham League big boys; and (c) that Optimism triumphed over Pessimism.

Final scores

1 = Halesowen B and South Birmingham 4/6

3= Kenilworth Optimists and Halesowen A 3.5/6

5= Kenilworth Pessimists, Olton A and Olton C 3/6

8= Mutual Circle and Shirley 2.5/6

10 Olton B 1/6

Only two players scored 2/2 and very fittingly one of them was Trevor Holt, Phil's dad, playing Board 2 for Olton A, who included Rhys amongst his victims. The other was South Birmingham's Board 3, Derek Green. Decency prevents me naming the two players who scored 0/2, but importantly ..... neither of them was from Kenilworth!

Many thanks to Rob and Richard Reynolds for organising this event, and for inviting us to be part of a memorable occasion. It was especially poignant for me, as Phil Holt was the person I have played the most games of competitive chess against - 16. Not quite in the Arkell v Hebden category, but hugely significant in my chess life. The awfully long list of Olton players who have recently died includes two others I had played against - Richard Smith and Rob Wallman - and three, Bill Yeomans, Ken Allen and ("old") Tom Evans that I hadn't, but whom several KCC members undoubtedly will have.  This has been a tragic couple of years for Olton and we can only hope they have an upturn in fortunes from now on.

Such events certainly make you think about your own mortality. There's only one song that comes to mind right now. No further words needed.

The 3rd of 7 consecutive wins

Update for Wednesday 26th July, as of 16:47. First I should apologise that these updates seem to focus only on my games - I seem to be the first person to finish each day so have no other results to report whilst I am writing. At least today Steph finished no longer after me (and also won) so it is looking like a positive day for Kenilworth might be in the offing.

The question arising from my game today is about queen sacrifices. My game featured a relatively pretty finish in the position below:

Now, obviously this (Qxg7, on the off chance anyone hasn't seen it) is a very unimpressive queen sacrifice. It is technically the best move (the only way to give mate in 2) but Bxg7 is mate in three, and many, many other things win (as you would expect, being a rook up with an attack). However, it did get me thinking that I'm not sure I've ever played a "necessary" queen sacrifice (that is, one where it is the only good move) and, given both how many games of chess I've played, and how much of my time I spend looking for fancy tactics, that does make me think they might be quite rare.

I feel I should also put in a special mention for Solomon's performance in the blitz event yesterday evening. After only scoring 2/9 in the first blitz event last week, he scored 5/9 this time, level with Bruce and only a point behind Jude (who, you will all be shocked to learn, was the top performing Kenilworth player). Given that Billy came second for Kenilworth, I think I might have had the no doubt entirely original thought that perhaps young people are quite good at fast chess.

The 2nd of 7 consecutive wins

Report for Tuesday 25th July, as of 16:27. Another win for my good self today, as per the title of this post. 8 moves before we were out of the Lichess "Masters database", and 9 before we were in an original game. Based on the comparison to the 8 moves from yesterday, I think that implies I know 12.5% more Latvian Gambit theory than I do Caro-Kann. I'm not sure what that says about me as a chess player, but I am sure they can only be good things

I have decided my new rule for this tournament is that if you beat a titled player you get your game published on this blog (actually, there is one extra criteria, which is that I need to notice the game, but let's pass over that swiftly). To that end, we have Ed's victory over WGM Sheila Jackson from yesterday. The full game is below, but the critical position to look at is after white's 21st move. White has sacrificed a piece, and there is one move here that completely wins for black (-5 according to the computer). See if you can find it (hint - it is not the move that Ed played in the game:

If anyone found Kh8, I think you are officially too good a player to be part of this club. For myself, even now I know that is the move, it is hard to convince myself it is the only move which is any good at all. Still, fortunately, after Ed's inaccuracy, his opponent swiftly went wrong again anyway, sacrificed another piece (even more unsoundly) and Ed was victorious.

Leicester question of the day - who is John Biggs? He has a sizeable statue in a fairly prominent place in the City Centre, but it contains absolutely no information as to why he merited such a monument. This presumably means that he is so well known it is unnecessary to provide any further details, but I'm fairly confident I have never heard of him:

The 1st of 7 consecutive wins

Report 2 from the British Championship in Leicester, as of 16:51 on Monday 24^th July. Does what it says on the tin really – a victory today, though many more needed for the tournament not to still end up as a disaster. I thought, to see how original (and no doubt sound) my play was, I would put the game into the opening database on Lichess, to say how long it took before we were out of known theory. The answer: after 4 of my moves (1. e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Qf3 Nf6 4.Bd3) we were out of the Lichess “Masters database” and after 8 moves it appears to be a game that has never been played before.

Second, we will have a quick look at the critical position below. Which move in this slightly strange structure wins for white basically at once?

 If you answered Nxd5, you are a better chess player than me. I played f5 gxf5 and only then Nxd5, which is a good deal fancier but sadly not as good a move. Still, one of the advantages of being at the bottom of the table is playing against people who are also out of form, so my opponent duly managed to misplay the position quite soon afterwards, and I was able to win. Not very impressive, but why waste your best chess at the start of a 7 game winning streak.

Since I finished early, I don’t have that much other news to report. Ben was in far too chipper a mood for someone who has played this many games of chess recently, Nigel gave what looked like a very convincing checkmate down the h file, and Solomon’s return to the area was marked by his opponent not bothering to turn up, meaning he had an even earlier finish than I did.

Leicester fact of the day – it has the largest Shopmobility and mobility aid shop in the UK. First review on Google for the establishment: “"The best day I have had in LEICESTER for 5 or more years now." I really hope that person hasn’t visited Leicester all that many times in the last 5 years, or it does not bode well for what I’m going to be able to find on the rest of my days there.