League leaders just too strong on the night

With Rugby pushing to win the league, they fielded a strong team against our regular B team.

Ben's poor run continued with white getting the better of the opening and a lasting advantage into the middle game. White managed to create some counterplay but it proved to be too little too late with the Bishop and five versus rook and 2 proving just to be too strong.

Mike secured the only points of the evening with a good win against a now unfashionable Queens Indian defence. White central initiative allowed him to win an exchange but had to jettison a pawn in order to activate his rook in the resulting ending. Black chances of drawing the ending were quickly quashed by some excellent play that forced his king into a mating net.

Phil young opponent played a London system that was unfamiliar to black. Taking an opportunity to sacrifice a bishop on h7, white's attack was such that he was able to regain his piece and win a second pawn. After the dust had settled, white's solid play saw him convert his additional material into a win.

Dave played white against a Nimzovitch defence and early play gave him a space advantage on the queen side. However, clever defending by black allowed him to gain equality. With white short of time and ideas, black won a pawn and exchanged off into a rook, bishop and five against rook, knight and four ending. White resigned when he was unable to stop a pawn queening.

100% - The Champions of what we always wanted (honest!)

When the season starts, you can but dream. We were a whisker away from the Division 1 and 2 titles in the Leamington League last season and won the Open Cup. We might well have hoped we would go one better this year and bring home a stash of silverware. As the winter set in, reality bit, along with the cold and it’s become clear that those prizes are going to have to wait until next season…

But what’s that you say? Indeed, all is not lost. For we have won something after all and for the first time in Kenilworth’s history! Last night we were crowned champions of the Coventry League Divisional Cup (Group A no less.) OK – it’s only the second time we’ve entered it, but hey.  It would be slightly disingenuous to say that this is the one we really wanted to win, but it has been good fun and we’ve ended up with a 100% record.

What a night it was… At home to Coventry C we needed to win 3-1 and we started very brightly as Dave brought home the full point pretty quickly to put us 1-0 up. At which point it all became more challenging. Toward the time control, I was in a wild position with Black against John McCan. He’d attacked on the King side, been pushed back and was attacking on the Queen side, but I was pretty solid and had good counter chances. At the start of the campaign I would have played it out without hesitation, but the season has not gone well for me. Part technical issues, but also part psychological – I’ve certainly lost a bit of confidence of late. Hence, I was happy to take the draw. I know I have a lot of work to do to get my game back to where I want it to be – but lots of games left and I’m already thinking about how I might re-work things in the closed season. We had an interesting post-mortem, in which it was clear that it was all very double edged and John played it all very well.

So 1.5 – 0.5 as the time control approached, and boy was it looming up on Rod as his clock ticked down to almost nothing with quite a few moves left to be played. Rod was up against Simon Webster on four and it was totally wild. You have to say, Simon played very well and held his position together very nicely and it wasn’t obvious how Rod was going to break through, particularly with so little time to think about it. Rod really wanted to try and bring home the full point, but it just wasn’t possible. So a draw was agreed which left the score at 2-1, meaning Carl needed to beat Dave Filer to lead us to glory.

The only problem was, Carl’s chances of doing this appeared to be minimal. In a Bishop and five v (same colour) Bishop and five ending there appeared to be absolutely no way through. Dave was playing really well and it looked impossible. Then finally at the death, Dave succumbed. He pushed a pawn onto the same colour square as the Bishops and after Carl fixed it there he had another target. The pawn could not be held and once it had fallen, Carl pressed on with a passed pawn to bring home the full point. An excellent effort by Carl, who brought us to glory! It had looked impossible, even minutes earlier.

Thanks also to Mike and Nick who have also been part of the Divisional Cup squad this season – it’s been a really enjoyable and successful effort. I’m very happy to manage a squad in this competition next year – when hopefully we can repeat this success. Whilst also hopefully winning a host of other trophies!

And Then it was Downhill All the Way

If we stop to think about it, I imagine that most of us could identify the absolute high point of our chess careers. Not so much in grading terms, as after all grades cover a 6 month period (12 till not that long ago), but as regards a specific performance or a specific game. Of course, those of an optimistic nature may not be ready to admit that their peak has already passed, but once you get to a certain age you have to accept that whatever is your greatest moment so far is going to be your greatest moment ever.

I have reached that certain age, and I can assuredly say that my chess peak has been and gone. It was reached sometime in the late afternoon of Saturday, July 22nd 1983, (at Islington Town Hall, I think) when I was much better (I could say winning, but that's not quite true) against someone who, at the time, was the 44th highest rated player in the world (according to the Chess Metrics database) and who would subsequently qualify for two Candidates' Tournaments (convincingly winning matches against Yasser Seirawan and Nigel Short in one of them!) and rise to be the 4th ranked player in the world just six years later.

The chess colossus in question was Super Grand Master Jon Speelman (graded just 246 at the time), who I found myself playing in Round 5 of a Chequers 30 minutes tournament. I was obviously on a going day, as I had 3.5/4 coming into the game. These semi-regular rapid tournaments (30 mins per player - no increment, of course, as digital clocks didn't exist) in North London were rather lucrative, being generously sponsored by someone called Ali Amin if I recall correctly), so not surprisingly a few strong players turned up to grab their share of the cash. Plus the likes of me, who had nothing better to do on a summer Saturday with no football match to go to.

Here's the game. Feel free to share my pain.


You'll notice from the times, that he had not had to think too much. I don't imagine he was ever remotely worried that he wouldn't win, even after his careless blunder. He certainly moved up a gear or two as soon as he needed to.

After this harrowing experience, I'm amazed to report that I got my act together sufficiently to win my Round 6 encounter against Theresa Needham (181J at the time) and finish in a tie for 5th place (4.5/6) with Peter Large, Mike Basman and Mike Surtees. We each received the princely sum of £25, while Speelman, William Watson and Geoff Lawton each took home £200 for being joint 2nd (5/6). The £500 first prize was won outright by Shaun Taulbut (5.5/6).

By the way, did I mention it was a rather strong tournament?! I certainly kept illustrious company that day

A win!

On Monday night we played Coventry B in a Divisional Cup Game that had been postponed before Christmas due to the snow. We needed to win 3-1 to win given the handicap system - and guess what? We won 3-1! This season has been pretty awful but the Divisional Cup is one event where we still have a chance of glory.


Dave playing against Kate struck the first blow, opening the position up with her King stranded in the center and nicely converted. Mike soon followed with a nice win against John Harris for 2 - 0.


My game against Bernard appeared to be heading for a draw from early on. The Queens came off and a lot of wood was traded, but Bernard proceeded to make some headway and things got very tactical. I managed to find an "only" move to hold things together and we agreed to split the point around the time control, with everything becalmed once more.


Rod making his debut in the Cov League was the last to finish - a wild game with Mike Johnson in which honors were also shared. His half point secured us all the points!


We host Coventry C on Tuesday and look extremely well placed in this competition, which is something.


Despite the draw, I am looking on my own season with stunned horror. (Obviously I followed this draw up by losing again the following night.) It has never been worse. But it's Kidlington this weekend and I continue to hope against hope for an upturn in personal fortune.


What is it that they say? Sometimes it is the hope that kills you. I guess we've all been there.

Double Defeat

The Coventry League fixture list gave us Division 1 encounters with Nuneaton A and B on successive Tuesdays, and with a certain symmetry we went down to successive 2.5-1.5 defeats. Any aspirations we may have had for a top three finish have been well and truly blown out of the water. Last night's defeat to Nuneaton B was particularly galling, as for a long time a draw looked like the minimum we could hope for.

But I get ahead of myself, as the previous week we had lost against their A team, on our first visit to Attleborough Liberal Club. I don't know how many Liberals were actually on the premises, but a conservative guess, and I don't want to labour the point, would be not many.

Nuneaton A managed to wheel out their top four against us, which probably made them slight favourites. There were not very exciting draws on Boards 1, 3 and 4 for me (against double agent Andrew Paterson); Carl (against Paul Davies) and Mike D (against Colin Green) where we never seemed to have any advantage at any stage of the evening, so the match was decided on Board 2 where Ben went down to Maurice Staples with black. White seemed to play a very controlled game, slowly building a kingside attack, while Black's queenside play against a long-castled king never got off the ground. Something horrible eventually happened in Ben's time trouble and a piece fell off.

The Nuneaton B encounter was a lot more exciting, though the end result was unfortunately the same. Carl finished first, but not in a good way. Facing an exceedingly tepid Exchange Slav, Carl spiced things up with a kingside pawn advance. However, when he pushed with g4 this was met, unexpectedly I imagine, with a piece sacrifice and after fxg4 the reply Qxg4+ forced Carl's king onto the middle of the board where it perished in surprisingly quick order. Either this was a crushing attack and a very good game by Dave Kearney, or Carl defended dreadfully. I couldn't possibly comment. (No really, I couldn't, as I didn't see what happened!)

This loss on Board 3 was quickly balanced on Board 1 where I was essentially gifted the full point by Phil Briggs. After a somewhat unusual Sicilian that was probably misplayed by both sides, we quickly reached a position where Black was going to be slightly better in a double rook and minor pieces ending due to two bishops and pressure along the c-file. At least if White had swapped queens that would have been the outcome. But in trying to keep my king on the centre, Phil put his queen offside and let me grab his c2 pawn with my queen. He had been relying on the move Rc1 in response, spearing my queen against a loose rook on c8, but only when I took the pawn did he notice that I was threatening Qg2 mate. Phil could have bailed out into a queen-less position a pawn down, but in trying to keep the queens on, he walked into another tactic that won a whole rook.

Ben was not getting anywhere against Tony Green on Board 2, and indeed Tony started taking over as he advanced on the queenside to gain space while Ben didn't seem to be doing anything much at all. Things then went seriously wrong when Ben had to trade off a Black rook which had got to d2, and allow a Black pawn onto that square. With White's queen stuck on d1 to blockade the pawn, his knight struggling to find any squares, and his king wide open, Tony's queen and bishop jumped into the kingside dark squares and forced the win of Ben's knight in exchange for the d2 pawn. The outcome of the resultant ending of bishop v no bishop was as predictable as you would expect.

But not to worry, as we were two pawns up on Board 4 in the battle of the 2 Mikes (Donnelly v Maher). Well, we had been two pawns up, but then it became one, and then we were in a rook and pawn ending. Our Mike went all in by pushing his passed e pawn to e6 and then creating another passer on the a line. But his king was miles away from the action and Black was able to block the e pawn with his king and get behind the a pawn with his rook. Eventually all the pawns came off and Black was able to secure a draw with about 30 seconds left on his clock. This was definitely one that got away, as Mike was winning on the board and on the clock for most of the evening.

So there you have it. Refined Kenilworth (population 22,000) proves no match for Warwickshire's largest town, gritty Nuneaton (population 86,000). I guess that means you can stick your gentrification in your pipe and smoke it!

Karma in Solihull?

Last night at Solihull we had a double header. The A team against Solihull A, and the D team against Solihull E. So prepare for a special bonus "twofer" report.

The D team match was over first. Tony drew on Board 3 against one of Paul's mighty microbes, and Mike J drew on top board against Penny Wood. which left Matt to decide the match against a 104 graded opponent on Board 2. I'm pleased to report that the Thursday evening school of hard knocks at The Gauntlet has served Matt well, and after more than matching his opponent he won a pawn and established a winning position. But instead of taking a second pawn and keeping decisive threats against the White back rank, he tragically undid all his good work in trying to win instantly and dropped a rook to a queen check. Most unfortunate and most undeserved, but the D team thus went down to a 2-1 defeat.

I'm able to recount all this in detail as my game against Tom Thorpe had ended quite early in a draw after what was a very boring game, despite him playing the "interesting" move 1 e3, and I was in the unusual role of spectator for much of the evening.  And it wasn't making pleasant viewing, since in addition to the sad demise of the D team, I was having to watch the A team struggle in each of the three remaining games.

On Board 4, Ben had taken a hot pawn in a 2 c3 Sicilian after an enterprising sacrifice by Paul Roper, I imagine this is well known, but it didn't seem to be to Ben or his opponent (and certainly not to me!) as they both consumed lots of time in a very tense position. Ben suffered the tortures of the damned to hang on to his extra pawn and gradually get his pieces out, but just when he seemed to have achieved this he dropped a key pawn on e6. If Paul had captured with a rook, I wouldn't have been enthusiastic about Ben's survival chances, but instead he took with a bishop. The crisis had passed and a draw was swiftly agreed.

It was equal purgatory for me on Board 1, where Andrew P started off by building up a big attack on the f file against Olivia Smith's king, but when this failed to break through he found Black's counterplay on the queenside coming rather fast. A pawn fell off on c4 and the White pieces lost all co-ordination, essentially looking as though they had landed on random squares when someone had emptied a set onto the board. When you have a loose rook on h5 that isn't threatening the Black king, you do kind of wonder what it's doing there! Around the time control, though, there was a flurry of activity and when I next looked most of the pieces had come off and Andrew had somehow won his pawn back. So another draw from a game where we could very easily have slipped to defeat.

(BTW, with the two games at Solihull on Wednesday, plus the Cov League game on Tuesday, Kenilworth faced female top boards in three successive matches. This must be a first!? And we ended up with one defeat and two draws. Memo to Club Recruitment Officer - sign up some women players!)

But I have saved the worst to last. Since on Board 3 Carl was simply horribly lost against Ray Carpenter. As White he mislaid (or sacrificed, who knows?) a pawn fairly early on in a Closed Sicilian. Try as he might, he couldn't get good squares for his pieces, while Ray established a monster knight on d4. Eventually the crisis came. Carl tried to activate his queen at the cost of giving Black a massive passed pawn on c3. Ray picked up a second pawn and parried Carl's queen incursion. Almost any move would have won. Instead he needlessly captured a third pawn with his queen, and this allowed Carl to get his own queen to a7. His bishop was already on h6 and his rook on f1. All of a sudden he was threatening both Qg7 mate and Qf7 check followed by Qf8+ and after Rxf8, Rxf8 mate. Ray's clock was declining rapidly towards zero and under this sudden pressure he blundered. A draw was still to be had with Nd4-e6 which would have guarded both g7 and f8, leaving Carl with a perpetual after Qf7+/Kh8/Qf6+Kg8/Qf7+. This would have been a major success given the position he had two moves earlier, but instead Ray defended with Nf5 only to find that after Rxf5 he was completely lost. A recapture would allow Qg7 mate, and after a queen check the White rook retreated to f2 and Carl was just a piece up and the mate threats were all still there. Incredibly Carl had won, and instead of losing the match we had not merely saved it but actually won. An amazing turnaround.

So there you have it. Karma in Solihull. Matt lost undeservedly to lose the match for the D team, and to balance things out the cosmic forces decided to let Carl win undeservedly and win the match for the A team. Its good to know there is a harmony of sorts in the universe. The gods take with one hand and give back with the other! Though I doubt that's much consolation for the victims of this cruel reversal of fortune.

Rats! We Had to Play a Chess Match

After consecutive wins in the Coventry League against Nuneaton D (KO Cup) and Rugby A (Div 1) when our opponents declined to field any players against us, Warwick University B went and spoiled our run of 4-0 crushes by turning up with three people last Tuesday. And unfortunately for us, this was enough for them to secure a 2-2 draw and split the points.

This was especially disappointing as Mike won very convincingly on Board 3 to propel us to a 2-0 lead. His opponent gave up a pawn on b7 very early, then another one a few moves later and then a third on around move 20. She played on until Mike had a bishop and about 4 pawns to her 2 before deciding enough was enough.

But that was as good as it was destined to get for us, because on the top 2 boards both Ben and I messed up from good/very good positions and managed to gather precisely zero points. And to add insult to injury we both ended up being mated!

So not the greatest evening's entertainment, but the draw was enough to leave us in 4th position in Division 1 with a rather useful cushion of 5 points over the fifth placed team.

The harsh winter wind continues to blow into 2018

The B versus C fixtures opened the second half of the season but unfortunately the B teams fortunes didn't improve with a new year.

On top board, Ben was playing Rod in a line of the closed sicilian. Just to emphasis the nature of closed, there were no exchanges for the first hour and forty five minutes of play. With time running out white decided to attack the king side and it all looked so promising. However, Rod excellent defending was very resilient and white's initiative run out leaving black with the slightly better endgame prospects. With both sides now short of time a draw was agreed.

Mike D was playing Roy Watson in a Kings Indian defence. Black was able to temporarily sacrifice a piece to leave white with a isolated pawn. The resulting posotion allowed black more space and opportunity and ultimately white lost a rook via a fork whilst trying to defend his pawns.

Phil was playing Nick on board three and his queens pawn position looked okay out of the opening. White opted to play on the queen side but over extended himself and lost a queen side pawn and found himmself in a rook and knighth ending. Black cleverly managed to exchange rooks leaving white with an ending that was too difficult to defend.

Dave played Make J in another very slow closed sicilian position. When the queens were exchanged white had a slight advantage but offered a draw. At that point in the match the B team were one point up from one game and only needed a point from the other two games with the white pieces. Surely we could get that and a draw as agreed between the players.

Don't call me surely. Match drawn 2 all.

Warwick University Rapidplay

As old Will Shakespeare so nearly wrote, when local chess tournaments come, they come not single spies but in battalions. Even before we reach the Warwickshire Open in early March, you will have a chance to strut your stuff at the inaugural Warwick University Rapidplay tournament on Saturday February 3rd. For a very low entry fee (especially if you are already an ECF member at Silver or above), you can get no less than 7 games of (rapidplay) rated chess, in either Open or Minor (135 and below) sections.

Full details of this new local initiative can be found here, entries can be made online here and a list of entries plus travel/parking information is here. I hope a few KCC players will be able to support this very welcome new event.

Warwickshire Open 2018

A chance to play some serious chess (whatever your grading) at the upcoming Warwickshire Open  weekend tournament (March 2-4), which is once again being run by Ed Goodwin. There's a new venue this year at the Alan Higgs Centre in Coventry. Main details below. Look out for an entry form for even more information, or enter online at the address shown at the bottom of this post.

Warwickshire Open Chess Championships 2018

Organised by the Warwickshire Chess Association Ltd

www.congress.warwickshirechess.org

Friday March 2^nd to Sunday March 4^th

Alan Higgs Centre

Allard Way

Coventry CV3 1HW

 FIDE rated Open

FIDE rated Under 1975 (U170)

ECF Under 140

ECF Under 110

Chief Organiser: Ed Goodwin

Arbiters : David Thomas (Chief Arbiter)

                                                     Tom Thorpe

Entry fee
Open      £30 adults £15 Juniors
Other  £25 adults £15 Juniors
Juniors are players who are under 18 on 2^nd March 2018

Open and U1975  – Additional £10 for players who are not ECF Gold or Platinum members.

U140 and U110     –Additional £7.50 for players who are not ECF Silver Gold or Platinum member

No entries taken after Thursday 1^st March

Time Control        All moves in 90 minutes plus 30 second increment per move from move 1.

Schedule                               

                       Friday       R1 19.00 – 23.00

                   Saturday: R2 10.00 – 14.00 R3 15.00 – 19.00
                       Sunday:    R4 10.00 -  14.00 R5 15.00 – 19.00

Prizes              Open             1^st - £250, 2^nd - £150, 3^rd - £75,

                         Best Performance Prize - £50

                         Under 1975  1^st - £175, 2^nd - £100, 3^rd - £50

                         Best Performance Prize - £30

                         Other             1^st -£175, 2^nd - £100,  3^rd - £50

                         Grading Prize £30

Online Entries via http://www.warwickshirechess.org/Enter_Online.aspx