After the first three Coventry League fixtures of the season things looked pretty bleak for our plucky squad. Three matches and three defeats. Three defeats by 3.5-0.5, in fact. Three defeats by 3.5-0.5, with just a solitary draw on Board 1, actually. In each and every match. We badly needed to escape from this recurring nightmare. Thankfully, just like in our debut season last year, Nuneaton B came to our rescue!
Not that it was easy. They (slightly) outgraded us on every board for a start, and they came in to the match with a 100% league record from their first two fixtures. But even so, it was such a relief to be in a reasonably balanced encounter and not to be facing one of the University juggernauts.
Mike D was first to finish on Board 3, readily holding a draw with Black against Dave Kearney. It was a strange sort of Pirc where both sides got some good squares, but didn't seem to have any obvious ways to improve. Mike assures me it was strategically tense and subtle, and that he might have tried a promising pawn sac, but in truth it didn't score high on spectator appeal.
Carl followed soon after with a more exciting draw on Board 2 against Tony Green. A balanced middle game erupted into some nasty tactics when Tony gave up two minor pieces for a rook and two pawns. Carl's king was open, and his two bishops didn't have any good diagonals, but Tony likewise had problems getting his rooks into the White position, and a draw by repetition seemed a fair result.
Then things moved decisively in our favour. In a complex position, originally arising from an Owen's Defence - but looking for all the world like a French - Dave and Mike Maher had a complex Board 4 encounter, that I didn't see too much of. Dave was pressing against the Black king, but Mike seemed to be infiltrating down the b file to get at the White king. I have no idea who, if anyone was winning, but Mike managed to lose on time with one move to make. Dave had become the first Kenilworth player to win a Coventry League Division 1 game this season, and we were at least sure of our first match point. It just needed me not to mess up for it to become two match points.
My game had been very tense and exciting almost from the beginning. White (Phil Briggs) went for a big kingside pawn push in a Closed Sicilian and I tried to break open the centre with my own pawn advances. It was mighty difficult and I was not sure whether I was better or worse for almost the entire game. (Fritz tells me it was generally level-ish, but it was well beyond my non-silicon brain to appreciate this.) But then right before the time control I found a couple of good moves to win a pawn and break up the White pawn mass, and in hastening to win his pawn back, Phil overlooked a sneaky bishop pin, which led to a forced win of the exchange for me. I then hastened to swap the queens off and found a slow but inevitable way to win, with Rook and 4 against Bishop and 4, which secured a 3-1 victory for us.
And not only did we kick start our League points total, but we also managed to climb off the bottom of the table as Coventry A remain pointless, albeit with a game in hand on us. We would be facing a relegation 6 pointer against them in a few weeks time, if it weren't for the fact that there is no relegation!
Wednesday, 2 November 2016
Friday, 28 October 2016
Things You Thought You Would Never See
Just when you thought you'd seen everything ............
along comes a photo of Roy Watson (currently ranked 17th in Kenilworth Chess
Club) posing with Super-GM Anish Giri (currently ranked 11th in the World). I think you can tell which is which!
Personally, I reckon Roy has every reason to look like the cat who got the cream. For some strange reason, Anish doesn't seem quite so excited.
 |
| Photo reproduced by kind permission of Paul Lam |
Personally, I reckon Roy has every reason to look like the cat who got the cream. For some strange reason, Anish doesn't seem quite so excited.
They said it could never be done, so many congratulations to
Paul for getting these two giants of the chess world into the same room.
Sunday, 16 October 2016
Two out of three ain’t bad!
Kenilworth B played three Leamington and District League games in rapid succession in September. We won two and this is my somewhat belated write up!
An all Kenilworth encounter saw us start the season against Kenilworth C and despite a near 30 point average grading difference, the match really could have gone either way. All credit to the C team for pushing us so close. Mike Donnelly and Nick Mottram had a really exciting game, in which Nick’s queen side play proved to be a fraction slower than Mike’s kingside attack. Mike created a lot of tactical threats, which Nick defended strongly but in the end Mike broke through to notch the first point. Sadly from a B team perspective, this looked like being the highlight of the evening. I thought Phil was losing. I knew I was losing. Dave’s game with Roy was unclear. When the dust settled Dave and Roy had drawn. Phil felt he tried too hard against Stuart to get a tactical idea to work and in doing so, allowed Stuart to get round the back of his pawns. It was a really difficult Rook and Pawn ending, in which Stuart played well, but Phil clung on for the draw. Which left me hanging on by the edge of a finger-tip against Rod with the match poised 2-1. I’d badly miscalculated the speed of my attack relative to his in the middle game and then made the wrong decision as to when to exchange Queen’s, my belated attempt to take the pressure off leaving me a pawn down in a Rook and Pawn ending. But Rod continued to outplay me and my King position and scope for general activity both seemed very bleak. The only thing that could possibly rescue me was the clock [as regular followers of Rod’s games will perhaps not be too shocked to hear!] With 5 moves to go before the time control, Rod was under two minutes and I offered a draw. After an agonising period of consideration (for both of us!) Rod accepted. So a half point each but very much a moral victory for him.
So the B team had scraped home 2.5 – 1.5. Underserved, but we resolved to try and do better going forward. Which of course we then completely failed to do…
Next up, we took to the road to play Shirley B. Another frustrating night, but sadly this one didn’t see the same undeserved reward for us. I outplayed Dave Thomas and was a pawn up in an endgame. Opposite coloured Bishops and his initiative convinced me it was only good for a draw, which I took. When we looked at it afterwards it was clear to both of us that I should have played on, as I certainly still had the better chances. Mike Donnelly was surprised in the opening (only subsequently finding out he was still in well-known theory) against Gordon Christie. He fell behind on the clock and blundered a piece, but then his survival instincts kicked in. The position was wildly complicated and Mike grabbed a perpetual check to draw. Only then to suffer buyer’s remorse as subsequent analysis showed that a forced mate (albeit five moves deep) had been possible. So 1 – 1. I didn’t see much of Dave’s game against Frank, but that also ended in a draw. Phil’s game with John Freeman was the real agony. Phil looked to be coasting to victory for most of the night, up a Rook and two pawns to a Bishop, but John found a mate in three which Phil unfortunately overlooked. We’ve all been there and it was fairly obvious it wasn’t really our night as we went down 1.5 -2.5 when on another night we might have won 3 of the games….
After this second less than convincing outing we faced Solihull C and finally showed a bit more what we could do. I played Amartya Maheshwari who through the “kitchen sink” at me. I was certainly on the defensive and down on time, but when the dust settled Amartya had created quite a lot of weaknesses in his own position which I was able to exploit to land the win. Phil had clearly shrugged off his Shirley B experience and looked in good form against John Green. He built up the pressure nicely, grabbed a pawn and landed a nice tactical blow to bring home the point. Dave was even quicker off the mark. He seemed to completely demolish his opponent. When I looked after about 20 minutes, he’d already bagged the exchange and seemed to accumulate material at a rapid clip after that, which culminated in the win. Mike and Nigel Bryne probably played the richest game of the evening. Very complex manoeuvring culminated in rival King and Queen side breaks emerging just before the time control. Deep in time trouble, Mike didn’t find the best defence and Nigel picked up a consolation point for Solihull. Still we would have taken 3 – 1 at the start of the evening.
So three matches, two wins… We would have taken that. At times we rode our luck (against Kenilworth C in particular) at other times we failed to build on our luck (against Shirley B) but against Solihull C we probably put things together best. We’re well placed points wise and we know we can play better, so lots to go for when we are next in action in November!
An all Kenilworth encounter saw us start the season against Kenilworth C and despite a near 30 point average grading difference, the match really could have gone either way. All credit to the C team for pushing us so close. Mike Donnelly and Nick Mottram had a really exciting game, in which Nick’s queen side play proved to be a fraction slower than Mike’s kingside attack. Mike created a lot of tactical threats, which Nick defended strongly but in the end Mike broke through to notch the first point. Sadly from a B team perspective, this looked like being the highlight of the evening. I thought Phil was losing. I knew I was losing. Dave’s game with Roy was unclear. When the dust settled Dave and Roy had drawn. Phil felt he tried too hard against Stuart to get a tactical idea to work and in doing so, allowed Stuart to get round the back of his pawns. It was a really difficult Rook and Pawn ending, in which Stuart played well, but Phil clung on for the draw. Which left me hanging on by the edge of a finger-tip against Rod with the match poised 2-1. I’d badly miscalculated the speed of my attack relative to his in the middle game and then made the wrong decision as to when to exchange Queen’s, my belated attempt to take the pressure off leaving me a pawn down in a Rook and Pawn ending. But Rod continued to outplay me and my King position and scope for general activity both seemed very bleak. The only thing that could possibly rescue me was the clock [as regular followers of Rod’s games will perhaps not be too shocked to hear!] With 5 moves to go before the time control, Rod was under two minutes and I offered a draw. After an agonising period of consideration (for both of us!) Rod accepted. So a half point each but very much a moral victory for him.
So the B team had scraped home 2.5 – 1.5. Underserved, but we resolved to try and do better going forward. Which of course we then completely failed to do…
Next up, we took to the road to play Shirley B. Another frustrating night, but sadly this one didn’t see the same undeserved reward for us. I outplayed Dave Thomas and was a pawn up in an endgame. Opposite coloured Bishops and his initiative convinced me it was only good for a draw, which I took. When we looked at it afterwards it was clear to both of us that I should have played on, as I certainly still had the better chances. Mike Donnelly was surprised in the opening (only subsequently finding out he was still in well-known theory) against Gordon Christie. He fell behind on the clock and blundered a piece, but then his survival instincts kicked in. The position was wildly complicated and Mike grabbed a perpetual check to draw. Only then to suffer buyer’s remorse as subsequent analysis showed that a forced mate (albeit five moves deep) had been possible. So 1 – 1. I didn’t see much of Dave’s game against Frank, but that also ended in a draw. Phil’s game with John Freeman was the real agony. Phil looked to be coasting to victory for most of the night, up a Rook and two pawns to a Bishop, but John found a mate in three which Phil unfortunately overlooked. We’ve all been there and it was fairly obvious it wasn’t really our night as we went down 1.5 -2.5 when on another night we might have won 3 of the games….
After this second less than convincing outing we faced Solihull C and finally showed a bit more what we could do. I played Amartya Maheshwari who through the “kitchen sink” at me. I was certainly on the defensive and down on time, but when the dust settled Amartya had created quite a lot of weaknesses in his own position which I was able to exploit to land the win. Phil had clearly shrugged off his Shirley B experience and looked in good form against John Green. He built up the pressure nicely, grabbed a pawn and landed a nice tactical blow to bring home the point. Dave was even quicker off the mark. He seemed to completely demolish his opponent. When I looked after about 20 minutes, he’d already bagged the exchange and seemed to accumulate material at a rapid clip after that, which culminated in the win. Mike and Nigel Bryne probably played the richest game of the evening. Very complex manoeuvring culminated in rival King and Queen side breaks emerging just before the time control. Deep in time trouble, Mike didn’t find the best defence and Nigel picked up a consolation point for Solihull. Still we would have taken 3 – 1 at the start of the evening.
So three matches, two wins… We would have taken that. At times we rode our luck (against Kenilworth C in particular) at other times we failed to build on our luck (against Shirley B) but against Solihull C we probably put things together best. We’re well placed points wise and we know we can play better, so lots to go for when we are next in action in November!
Thursday, 13 October 2016
Good News/Bad News
We had a Leamington/Coventry League double whammy on successive nights this week, and it was very much a case of contrasting fortunes for our plucky lads.
On Monday we chalked up a 3-1 win (not entirely convincing!) against Leamington to return to the top of the Division 1 table, in a match which showed our strength in depth. With 3 of our A team squad missing (including "the Big Two") we were lucky to have very useful substitutes in the shape of Bernard C and Ben. Ben won efficiently on Board 4, and I followed with a less efficient draw on Board 2, where I made a pig's ear of a good position - but at least this time I didn't actually contrive to lose. However, the match was very much in the balance until Andrew claimed a miraculous win on Board 1 after a massively unsound, but highly exciting and inventive, game! A major blunder that allowed forced mate decided it in his favour when he was a piece and a big passed pawn down. Phew! Bernard took this as a cue to offer a draw to wrap up the match. He had been better for most of the game but lost his extra pawn in trying to trap an errant white knight on c7, after which the position was more or less level.
It wouldn't have mattered what team we put out the following night in our Cov League match against University A, such was the blitzkrieg we encountered. As it happened, though, we were, just like the previous evening, decimated by unavailability with Carl, Ben and Dave all away. Rod and Roy manfully answered the call to arms - and walked into a monster of a match. I knew we were up against it when our opponents turned up with 5 players - what is the world coming to when a bunch of students turn out to be better organised than us?? And when the non-playing reserve turned out to be Morgan Blake, who had played Board 1 for Leamington against us the night before!!
There must be every chance that we faced the strongest team ever to play in the Coventry League. Certainly nothing comes close in recent years. On the top 3 boards they fielded players graded 224, 217 (converted from 2332 ELO) and 215, relenting slightly with a 184 on Board 4 - albeit one who had been on Board 1 for them in the corresponding fixture last season, and who had scored 6/11 in this year's British Championships! This meant that we faced grading deficits of respectively, 37; 64; 89; and 67!! Talk about shock and awe. And there's a saying about sledgehammers and nuts that also comes to mind!
We don't need to go into the gory details, except to say that Mike D came within a whisker of a draw on Board 2, and I did indeed earn half a point on Board 1 to prevent the whitewash. I was borderline losing from the opening, but staged a fight back and was +2 around the time control before my incompetence took over and the position became equal. Still, our lads were heroes one and all for commendable bravery in the face of overwhelming enemy force!
We face the only slightly weaker Uni B team next week, which doesn't bode well after 3.5-0.5 defeats in our first two matches. Still, it's only a game. And there's no compulsory relegation in the Cov League. It would be nice to win a match, though ...... or even a game!
On Monday we chalked up a 3-1 win (not entirely convincing!) against Leamington to return to the top of the Division 1 table, in a match which showed our strength in depth. With 3 of our A team squad missing (including "the Big Two") we were lucky to have very useful substitutes in the shape of Bernard C and Ben. Ben won efficiently on Board 4, and I followed with a less efficient draw on Board 2, where I made a pig's ear of a good position - but at least this time I didn't actually contrive to lose. However, the match was very much in the balance until Andrew claimed a miraculous win on Board 1 after a massively unsound, but highly exciting and inventive, game! A major blunder that allowed forced mate decided it in his favour when he was a piece and a big passed pawn down. Phew! Bernard took this as a cue to offer a draw to wrap up the match. He had been better for most of the game but lost his extra pawn in trying to trap an errant white knight on c7, after which the position was more or less level.
It wouldn't have mattered what team we put out the following night in our Cov League match against University A, such was the blitzkrieg we encountered. As it happened, though, we were, just like the previous evening, decimated by unavailability with Carl, Ben and Dave all away. Rod and Roy manfully answered the call to arms - and walked into a monster of a match. I knew we were up against it when our opponents turned up with 5 players - what is the world coming to when a bunch of students turn out to be better organised than us?? And when the non-playing reserve turned out to be Morgan Blake, who had played Board 1 for Leamington against us the night before!!
There must be every chance that we faced the strongest team ever to play in the Coventry League. Certainly nothing comes close in recent years. On the top 3 boards they fielded players graded 224, 217 (converted from 2332 ELO) and 215, relenting slightly with a 184 on Board 4 - albeit one who had been on Board 1 for them in the corresponding fixture last season, and who had scored 6/11 in this year's British Championships! This meant that we faced grading deficits of respectively, 37; 64; 89; and 67!! Talk about shock and awe. And there's a saying about sledgehammers and nuts that also comes to mind!
We don't need to go into the gory details, except to say that Mike D came within a whisker of a draw on Board 2, and I did indeed earn half a point on Board 1 to prevent the whitewash. I was borderline losing from the opening, but staged a fight back and was +2 around the time control before my incompetence took over and the position became equal. Still, our lads were heroes one and all for commendable bravery in the face of overwhelming enemy force!
We face the only slightly weaker Uni B team next week, which doesn't bode well after 3.5-0.5 defeats in our first two matches. Still, it's only a game. And there's no compulsory relegation in the Cov League. It would be nice to win a match, though ...... or even a game!
Wednesday, 28 September 2016
A Damn Close Run Thing!
Prescient chap that Duke of Wellington - even if he never actually said or wrote the famous words. Far from referring to the Battle of Waterloo, I think he was actually looking forward to September 17th 2016, and our away KO Cup match against Banbury.
In this repeat of last season's final (which we won 3.5-1.5), our hosts had considerably beefed up their team with the inclusion of James Jackson on Board 1, while we fielded virtually the same side except we substituted Andy P for the inevitably absent Andy B. This meant the two teams were almost evenly matched on average grade, even though there were large discrepancies on some boards.
Carl was first to finish on Board 4. With Carl playing Black against the whirlwind Chris Evans, I was very glum when I first looked at the position. Material was dead level, but Carl's king (castled on the queenside, was under what looked like a big attack with a horrible knight fork on b6 threatened. Then I realised that it was actually Carl's move and that the dangerous knight was en prise. So, Carl was a piece up, and a few minor alarms later we had the first point in the bag. (BTW, Carl had hotfooted it to Banbury straight from work and, immaculately suited and booted, effortlessly also won the best turned out prize.)
I was engaged in a Cup Final rematch against Dan Rowan, and we played the same variation as twice before - both of which I had won. He improved on his previous play, but still the Black position was hanging by a thread as his king got stuck in the middle on an open e file. He bailed out to a double rook and bishop ending a pawn down but then blundered what we both thought was an exchange, though it wasn't. Nevertheless, his resignation was correct as he was about to lose a second, and probably third, pawn anyway. 2-0 to Kenilworth.
At this point I was pretty confident, although Board 1 was a concern, as Paul had done his usual impractical thing of spending far too much time in the opening. He emerged with an advantage, as Black's entire queenside was virtually stuck, but he then opened the game too early instead of applying a squeeze, and Black's pieces came to life as the massive clock discrepancy proved crucial. Score now 2-1 to us.
Still, I wasn't worried, as Ben seemed to be playing a good game against Gary Jackson on Board 5, and was definitely doing all the pressing. A temporary pawn sac seemed to have really clogged up Black's position and I was hopeful of a full point. But when I looked again, Ben was a pawn down in a double rook ending and although I was hoping it was still a draw, it didn't end that way, so the scores were all tied up at 2-2.
But even now, I was supremely confident. On Board 2, Andy had been well on top against Paul Rowan from just out of the opening. He grabbed the open c file, hopped in with a knight, won a pawn and penetrated to the seventh rank. The White position collapsed and further material was lost - game surely over in our favour? Not so fast! When I returned from my post-mortem a hurricane had blown through the position. Andy was queening a passed f pawn (crucially with check) but White had somehow created connected passed e and d pawns which were not only going to yield a queen, but also win a bishop. And Andy was well down on the clock. With a large crowd watching, and our man apparently completely unaware of the match situation (or the tie break rules), he reached an ending of Queen and 3 pawns against a queen and knight. Thankfully Andy had a perpetual (he so nearly had a forced win of the White queen) and now my only worry was that he'd think he needed to try to win - hardly practical with about a minute left! - but, still in blissful ignorance of the match situation, a handshake signalled the ending of hostilities and the match was tied 2.5-2.5.
I had taken the precaution of checking the rules to establish the tie break method. If it had been Board Count, we would have lost 6-7, but - praise the LDCL Committee - it is actually Elimination, so with Banbury's win on Board 5 removed, we were the victors and we had, just, cleared the first hurdle in our defence of the Cup. And so its on to a Semi-Final at the end of January against either Leamington or Solihull.
In this repeat of last season's final (which we won 3.5-1.5), our hosts had considerably beefed up their team with the inclusion of James Jackson on Board 1, while we fielded virtually the same side except we substituted Andy P for the inevitably absent Andy B. This meant the two teams were almost evenly matched on average grade, even though there were large discrepancies on some boards.
Carl was first to finish on Board 4. With Carl playing Black against the whirlwind Chris Evans, I was very glum when I first looked at the position. Material was dead level, but Carl's king (castled on the queenside, was under what looked like a big attack with a horrible knight fork on b6 threatened. Then I realised that it was actually Carl's move and that the dangerous knight was en prise. So, Carl was a piece up, and a few minor alarms later we had the first point in the bag. (BTW, Carl had hotfooted it to Banbury straight from work and, immaculately suited and booted, effortlessly also won the best turned out prize.)
I was engaged in a Cup Final rematch against Dan Rowan, and we played the same variation as twice before - both of which I had won. He improved on his previous play, but still the Black position was hanging by a thread as his king got stuck in the middle on an open e file. He bailed out to a double rook and bishop ending a pawn down but then blundered what we both thought was an exchange, though it wasn't. Nevertheless, his resignation was correct as he was about to lose a second, and probably third, pawn anyway. 2-0 to Kenilworth.
At this point I was pretty confident, although Board 1 was a concern, as Paul had done his usual impractical thing of spending far too much time in the opening. He emerged with an advantage, as Black's entire queenside was virtually stuck, but he then opened the game too early instead of applying a squeeze, and Black's pieces came to life as the massive clock discrepancy proved crucial. Score now 2-1 to us.
Still, I wasn't worried, as Ben seemed to be playing a good game against Gary Jackson on Board 5, and was definitely doing all the pressing. A temporary pawn sac seemed to have really clogged up Black's position and I was hopeful of a full point. But when I looked again, Ben was a pawn down in a double rook ending and although I was hoping it was still a draw, it didn't end that way, so the scores were all tied up at 2-2.
But even now, I was supremely confident. On Board 2, Andy had been well on top against Paul Rowan from just out of the opening. He grabbed the open c file, hopped in with a knight, won a pawn and penetrated to the seventh rank. The White position collapsed and further material was lost - game surely over in our favour? Not so fast! When I returned from my post-mortem a hurricane had blown through the position. Andy was queening a passed f pawn (crucially with check) but White had somehow created connected passed e and d pawns which were not only going to yield a queen, but also win a bishop. And Andy was well down on the clock. With a large crowd watching, and our man apparently completely unaware of the match situation (or the tie break rules), he reached an ending of Queen and 3 pawns against a queen and knight. Thankfully Andy had a perpetual (he so nearly had a forced win of the White queen) and now my only worry was that he'd think he needed to try to win - hardly practical with about a minute left! - but, still in blissful ignorance of the match situation, a handshake signalled the ending of hostilities and the match was tied 2.5-2.5.
I had taken the precaution of checking the rules to establish the tie break method. If it had been Board Count, we would have lost 6-7, but - praise the LDCL Committee - it is actually Elimination, so with Banbury's win on Board 5 removed, we were the victors and we had, just, cleared the first hurdle in our defence of the Cup. And so its on to a Semi-Final at the end of January against either Leamington or Solihull.
Wednesday, 21 September 2016
That's Better
Attentive readers may have noticed that there was no match report of the A team's season opening 2-2 draw with Shirley, but given my loss from a completely winning position, the more sympathetic amongst you might understand my reluctance to relive the depressing experience. So the fact that I am now reporting on our 3-1 win away at Banbury B yesterday evening should tell you that I'm feeling a bit happier with the world.
Paul was unavailable, so Ben joined the team and the rest of us moved up a board from last week to make room for him. Our opponents were fresh from a shock 3-1 win over their own A team, and fielded a team which had a grading spread of just 6 points from top to bottom. The first thing I noticed was the bizarre happenings on Board 1, where our Player of the Year, Andrew Paterson, opened with the moves 1 c3; 2 h3 and 3 d3. Revolutionary stuff. It certainly worked, though, as by move 12 he was a clear pawn up. A bit later on this extra pawn had captured its way, from g4 via f5 and g6 to h7, and Black was so tied down by this monster that he couldn't prevent further material losses on the queenside.
I played rather more conventionally against Carl Portman, and after a serious positional error by Carl conceding his good bishop, my pawns yomped down the centre towards his king which was stranded in the middle. With Carl in serious time trouble (and boy do I mean serious!) I found a nice combo which won the exchange, and in attempting to avoid this White walked into something even worse and lost on time a couple of moves later a whole rook down.
This all came after our Carl had rather grovelled his way to a draw against Nick Martin on Board 3. He played the opening nicely against Nick's Dutch Defence, but then seemed to play without much of a plan. Nick was able to redeploy his entombed light square bishop and attack the White king with queen and rook, and I had mentally written the game off as a loss. I have no idea how it came to be agreed drawn a few moves later - even though I was sat next to the game!
The rest of us then abandoned Ben who was struggling along on Board 4 with a queen against 2 rooks. It looked bad, and he tells me he was lost at some point, but he hung in there and eventually secured a draw by perpetual - queens are quite good at doing that after all!
So an excellent, if slightly flattering, scoreline. On another day it could easily have ended 2-2. Let's hope the Chess Gods smile on us again when we have to revisit Banbury next week for a KO Cup match!
Paul was unavailable, so Ben joined the team and the rest of us moved up a board from last week to make room for him. Our opponents were fresh from a shock 3-1 win over their own A team, and fielded a team which had a grading spread of just 6 points from top to bottom. The first thing I noticed was the bizarre happenings on Board 1, where our Player of the Year, Andrew Paterson, opened with the moves 1 c3; 2 h3 and 3 d3. Revolutionary stuff. It certainly worked, though, as by move 12 he was a clear pawn up. A bit later on this extra pawn had captured its way, from g4 via f5 and g6 to h7, and Black was so tied down by this monster that he couldn't prevent further material losses on the queenside.
I played rather more conventionally against Carl Portman, and after a serious positional error by Carl conceding his good bishop, my pawns yomped down the centre towards his king which was stranded in the middle. With Carl in serious time trouble (and boy do I mean serious!) I found a nice combo which won the exchange, and in attempting to avoid this White walked into something even worse and lost on time a couple of moves later a whole rook down.
This all came after our Carl had rather grovelled his way to a draw against Nick Martin on Board 3. He played the opening nicely against Nick's Dutch Defence, but then seemed to play without much of a plan. Nick was able to redeploy his entombed light square bishop and attack the White king with queen and rook, and I had mentally written the game off as a loss. I have no idea how it came to be agreed drawn a few moves later - even though I was sat next to the game!
The rest of us then abandoned Ben who was struggling along on Board 4 with a queen against 2 rooks. It looked bad, and he tells me he was lost at some point, but he hung in there and eventually secured a draw by perpetual - queens are quite good at doing that after all!
So an excellent, if slightly flattering, scoreline. On another day it could easily have ended 2-2. Let's hope the Chess Gods smile on us again when we have to revisit Banbury next week for a KO Cup match!
Tuesday, 23 August 2016
Spooky or What?
So there I was, on holiday in Spain, minding my own business, as I strolled around the stupendous Gothic Cathedral in Leon. Naturally I didn't wish to miss out on the exquisite walnut choir stalls, amongst the oldest in Spain, which were carved by Flemish artists in the 15th century. An idle glance here; an idle glance there; and then .... what on earth?! Was I seeing things?!
No I wasn't. Completely by chance, I had happened upon a carving which quite clearly bore the name of KCC's highest graded player. Not a great likeness (too much hair for a start!), but you can't have everything. Never before had I remotely considered that our very own Andy Baruch had any elements of the divine or sacred about him, but you can't argue with the evidence, can you? I think we'll all have to look at him in a different light from now on!
No I wasn't. Completely by chance, I had happened upon a carving which quite clearly bore the name of KCC's highest graded player. Not a great likeness (too much hair for a start!), but you can't have everything. Never before had I remotely considered that our very own Andy Baruch had any elements of the divine or sacred about him, but you can't argue with the evidence, can you? I think we'll all have to look at him in a different light from now on!
Tuesday, 9 August 2016
Early Season Fixture News
The 2016-17 fixture lists for the Leamington and Coventry Leagues are almost ready to be published - just one or two problematic dates still to be rearranged - and as soon as they are available I will ask Rod to post them under the respective tabs on this website.
But I know that some of you are really eager to mark those early season dates into your diary right away, so here are the September matches which we can look forward to:-
LEAMINGTON LEAGUE
A Team (Div 1)
Sep 12 - Home v Shirley A
Sep 20 - Away v Banbury B
Sep 27 - Away v Banbury (KO Cup Rd 1)
B Team (Div 2)
Sep 05 - Home v Kenilworth C
Sep 12 - Away v Shirley B
Sep 19 - Home v Solihull C
C Team (Div 2)
Sep 05 - Away v Kenilworth B
D Team (Div 4)
Sep 26 - Home v Banbury D
So busy starts for the A and B teams, and a more leisurely beginning for the C and D teams. But initially all eyes will be on the massive B v C team clash on September 5th. I can almost feel the ground shaking already!
COVENTRY LEAGUE
Division 1
First match not till October 04 v Rugby A (away)
Divisional Cup
First match not till October 25 v Coventry D (home)
And two more important pieces of information ahead of the new season:-
1) Don't forget that most KCC players will need to renew their ECF membership - you will probably get a reminder e-mail from the ECF if your membership is due to expire at the end of this month. I shall be checking renewals and will doubtless be sending my own reminders to anyone who hasn't renewed by the end of September! (At the moment, that means I will have to e-mail myself.)
2) The KCC Team Formation meeting will be taking place at the Abbey Club, on Monday, August 22nd at 7.30 pm. This is where we will be trying to sort our who is playing for which team in which league/cup this year. If you aren't going to be present that night, please let me know in advance if you have any special preferences about where/when/how often you play - otherwise we are going to assume you will have the same availability as last year - adjusted for any team or board order changes needed because of the new grades.
LEAMINGTON LEAGUE
A Team (Div 1)
Sep 12 - Home v Shirley A
Sep 20 - Away v Banbury B
Sep 27 - Away v Banbury (KO Cup Rd 1)
B Team (Div 2)
Sep 05 - Home v Kenilworth C
Sep 12 - Away v Shirley B
Sep 19 - Home v Solihull C
C Team (Div 2)
Sep 05 - Away v Kenilworth B
D Team (Div 4)
Sep 26 - Home v Banbury D
So busy starts for the A and B teams, and a more leisurely beginning for the C and D teams. But initially all eyes will be on the massive B v C team clash on September 5th. I can almost feel the ground shaking already!
COVENTRY LEAGUE
Division 1
First match not till October 04 v Rugby A (away)
Divisional Cup
First match not till October 25 v Coventry D (home)
And two more important pieces of information ahead of the new season:-
1) Don't forget that most KCC players will need to renew their ECF membership - you will probably get a reminder e-mail from the ECF if your membership is due to expire at the end of this month. I shall be checking renewals and will doubtless be sending my own reminders to anyone who hasn't renewed by the end of September! (At the moment, that means I will have to e-mail myself.)
2) The KCC Team Formation meeting will be taking place at the Abbey Club, on Monday, August 22nd at 7.30 pm. This is where we will be trying to sort our who is playing for which team in which league/cup this year. If you aren't going to be present that night, please let me know in advance if you have any special preferences about where/when/how often you play - otherwise we are going to assume you will have the same availability as last year - adjusted for any team or board order changes needed because of the new grades.
Sunday, 7 August 2016
Leamington League Jamboree - September 6th
For those of you who don't pore over the LDCL website on a regular basis, this is a notification that this year's Jamboree will take place at 7.30 on Tuesday 6th September at the Leamington Chess Club venue, Oak House, 87 Upper Holly Walk, CV32 4JS.
The Jamboree, which is traditionally the League's curtain raiser, is an easy going competition designed to blow the summer cobwebs off. Entries are £2 per person and include food.
Teams of two compete in two pools of strength over four or five rounds to determine the winners. Each team of two must have a combined grade of no more than 280.
Entries to Jason Madden, whose contact details are on the LDCL website here within the entry detailing this event.
As I am not a prospective participant in this event, I'm afraid any interested parties will need to make up their own teams. Feel free to use the comments box below to advertise your interest to other club members who might want to join in a team. Or I suppose you could simply talk to some people to unearth a team-mate. Good luck to any Kenilworth teams that enter the fray!
Teams of two compete in two pools of strength over four or five rounds to determine the winners. Each team of two must have a combined grade of no more than 280.
Entries to Jason Madden, whose contact details are on the LDCL website here within the entry detailing this event.
As I am not a prospective participant in this event, I'm afraid any interested parties will need to make up their own teams. Feel free to use the comments box below to advertise your interest to other club members who might want to join in a team. Or I suppose you could simply talk to some people to unearth a team-mate. Good luck to any Kenilworth teams that enter the fray!
Tuesday, 2 August 2016
New Grades - How Did You Do?!
The new ECF grades have just been published, and as these are the ones that will determine board order for the whole of next season they are quite important for everyone. Our super-efficient new webmaster has already updated the relevant page on this site (click the Players tab to discover your new grade), and now it falls to me to mark your report card, according to whether your grade went up or down:-
Top Of The Form
Ben +18
Dave +8
Stuart +7
Rod +6
Andy B +3
Steve +2
Phil +2
Could Do Better
Tony - no change
Nick - no change
See Me After Class
Mike W -1
Andrew P -2
Rajen -2
The Club Organiser -3
Mike D -4
Roy -4
Bernard C -5
Carl -6
Chris -7
Bruce -8
Paul -8
Mike J -10
So, pop-pickers, from our 21 rated players we had 7 risers and 12 fallers, with two non-movers. In total we lost 60 grading points and won 46, for a nett club loss of 14 points - an average of less than 1 point per person. Not bad, really, considering our demographic!
We now have a new club number one - move over Paul and make way for Andy, who edges him out by three points. I wonder what's put the lead back in his chess pencil?
Star man was our current Clubman of the Year, Ben Graff, who increased his grading by a massive 18 points in just 6 months. If he can repeat this for each of the next 7 grading periods he will overtake Matthew Sadler (282!!) as England's highest rated player. Go, Ben!
Top Of The Form
Ben +18
Dave +8
Stuart +7
Rod +6
Andy B +3
Steve +2
Phil +2
Could Do Better
Tony - no change
Nick - no change
See Me After Class
Mike W -1
Andrew P -2
Rajen -2
The Club Organiser -3
Mike D -4
Roy -4
Bernard C -5
Carl -6
Chris -7
Bruce -8
Paul -8
Mike J -10
So, pop-pickers, from our 21 rated players we had 7 risers and 12 fallers, with two non-movers. In total we lost 60 grading points and won 46, for a nett club loss of 14 points - an average of less than 1 point per person. Not bad, really, considering our demographic!
We now have a new club number one - move over Paul and make way for Andy, who edges him out by three points. I wonder what's put the lead back in his chess pencil?
Star man was our current Clubman of the Year, Ben Graff, who increased his grading by a massive 18 points in just 6 months. If he can repeat this for each of the next 7 grading periods he will overtake Matthew Sadler (282!!) as England's highest rated player. Go, Ben!
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