Blue on Blue - Take 2!

 

Following the excitement of last week's A v B match, on Monday the C and D teams battled it out, in a contest that proved to be every bit as dramatic. These intra-club affairs always take a fair amount of organisation, and myself, Harry, and Mark had spent quite a while sorting the line-ups. With Mike, Michal, Andy and Bernard Rogers all unavailable, Dhairya and Paul Badger both stepped up to represent the C team. I was delighted that Phil came out of retirement to help the D team, and we were also delighted to call Dylan up again. 

Bernard Charnley was the only one of the eight of us, who also played in the A v B match. It speaks both to the strength and depth we have in the club (and the excellence of Rhys, who made a welcome return to the club on Board 1 for the D team) that having won his match against the A team, Bernard would be defeated by his D team opponent.  Rhys and Bernard were actually the first to finish. I didn't see as much of this one as I would have liked, but Rhys appeared to pick up a pawn and then played with a lot of control and skill to bring home the full point. A terrific effort, and we are so pleased to have him as a part of our squad for the season ahead.

Dhairya finished moments later with a good win against Phil on Board 3. Dhairya broke through very convincingly on the kingside, and while Phil had castled queenside, Dhairya's pieces found more than enough material to feast on. A very good game, as Dhairya bounced back in style from his Banbury reversal. I guess with myself and Dhairya both having played 21 rated games over the weekend at the Warwickshire Rapid and Blitz the pair of us were well practised! 

With the match at 1-1, I would not have wanted to wager a penny on the final outcome. I was playing against Harry in the battle of the captains on Board 2. Very early in the game, Harry missed a trick and I picked up the exchange. However, as we agreed afterwards, I should have spent more time thinking about whether this was really the best approach. I ended up behind in development, and my reluctance to castle due to Harry's light square pressure on the a8 - h1 diagonal simply gave me other problems to deal with. In truth, a game that I thought I was winning comfortably at 7.45 became harder and harder over the next couple of hours, as Harry's pieces swarmed and his bishop pair combined well with his knight and queen. We both missed chances, but ultimately, when well below 5 minutes on my clock, I managed to find a resource that turned the tables and gave me a mating attack. Neither of us will see this as being amongst our finest games, but for all its rawness and imperfections, it was a pretty exhilarating way to spend the evening!

My win guaranteed that at 2-1 the D team were at least good for a point. On Board 4, Dylan was playing a terrific game against Paul. While down a pawn, Paul had doubled pawns to contend with as well as a formidable looking passed pawn. Frankly, I thought Dylan was winning at this point, but it was all very complicated and I might be wrong. Either way, it just shows how well Dylan is developing that he was giving Paul such a strong game. Both players queened, but neither new monarch survived. At the death, heartbreakingly for Dylan, he missed a chance to force a draw with a king move, instead pushing his a pawn which proved to be the losing blow. A shame, but it doesn't detract from how well Dylan had played, and for that reason I'm giving him my player of the night award. 

So 2 - 2, which felt like a very fair result. Both teams are in good shape for the season ahead. I'll try not to think about the fact that we have to do it all again in January - at least for a little while!

An organisational paradox

Arriving in Banbury at around 7.15 last night, I was confronted by a scene that I never thought I would witness in these parts. The club was open, the lights were on, all the boards were set up, and indeed 7 of the match participants were already assembled. Having done a doubletake and realised that this was indeed reality, the too-good-to-be-true principle kicked in. Firstly, I realised that I had forgotten my glasses. The vagaries of age mean that I now need one pair for driving and one for closer work. Until last year my sight meant that my driving glasses were the ones I played chess with, but thanks to a change of prescription they no longer are. I resigned myself to a night of squinting somewhat hopefully at the pieces. (Given what happened, one theory I am considering is whether looking at the chessmen too much is where I have hitherto been going wrong.) Secondly, which did not seem like so much of an issue in the beginning but would become more of one later, Paul Rowan was missing from the Banbury team. 

 We got underway promptly, with Dylan who was making his debut on Board 4 lacking an opponent. Dylan had a great season last year and we are looking forward to him playing a part as one of our key reserves in this campaign. Dylan waited patiently, while Mal (who I was playing on Board 3, for our 5th game in two seasons) made increasingly frantic, unanswered calls to Paul. Eventually we agreed that Banbury could make a substitution. Sadly this is where home advantage can tell, as Banbury had the equally strong Arran Grundy in the house, who stepped in. Obviously Paul then turned up a few minutes later, but that's by the by. At the board, my own game started really well. I got strong initiative out of the opening, and gave Mal the unpalatable choice between allowing a super strong attack or tripling his pawns. He went for the tripled pawns, but I felt at this point that I was strategically won. I set about applying some of the lessons I have picked up from Paul Lam (with huge thanks!) over the summer, in terms of keeping the position completely under control and gradually turning the screw. 

  However, when I surveyed the other games, things were looking less promising. Gary Jackson seemed to be edging a complicated game against Paul on Board 1. Nathan Manley appeared to have tied Dhairya completely in knots, on 2, with Dhairya's pieces mainly rearranged on the back-rank. On Board 4 Arran had got the better of the opening and looked like he had a monster pawn break on the queenside, and the exchange. 

 Dylan played really well to hold Arran at bay for a while, but the end looked inevitable, and the Banbury supersub had put them 1-0 up. Dhairya lost moments later. Not his best evening, but Nathan is a strong player and we know what Dhairya can do, so doubtless a good learning experience. So many times last season, we were bailed out by our juniors (especially Dhairya and Keatan), but now myself and Paul had to do the job. 

 Mine was the much easier task. My position was just a joy, to the point that I wondered if this, along with the (briefly) seemless start to the evening was all but a dream. I brought myself back to reality by missing my best move as our clocks ran down, but it made no difference. I broke through with my rooks, and Mal resigned when I was one move from mate. I always have great games with Mal, but this was my best effort for quite sometime. Having thrown away six months of rating gains during one weekend at the British, I can start rebuilding once again!

 Paul battled valiantly against Gary. It was very complicated and I did not see all the detail, but Gary ultimately brough home the point. So a 1-3 loss on the road, but we were up against a strong team, who certainly deserved their win on the night. 

 We now go on to the C v D match up next week. One thing is for sure. The chess season is back! We will have plenty more opportunities in the weeks and months ahead.

There's Something Happening Here, But What it is Ain't Exactly Clear....

Though at least there's not "A man with a gun over there, Telling me I got to beware."

You couldn't tell from the traditional pre-match photo of the Kenilworth A v Kenilworth B season-opener that witchcraft and sorcery were in the air, but Monday evening's subsequent events proved conclusively that strange forces were at work.

Kenilworth A (left; front to back) - Mark Page, Billy Fellowes, Andrew Paterson, Jude Shearsby v Kenilworth B (right, front to back) - Bernard Charnley, Joshua Pink, Ketan Patel, Bruce Baer

Now we always like these matches to be competitive, so both teams were at as full strength as possible on the night, and it wouldn't be ridiculous that the ratings for each board would have pointed to a score of about 3-1 to the A team - when everyone could have gone home happy, feeling God was in his heaven and all was well with the world. The one relatively risky board for the A team looked to be Board 2, where Andrew had to face up to a still rapidly improving Keatan, who is full of ambition and thirsting for blood every time he sits down at the board.

The match was set up almost perfectly as a contest between Youth and Experience, except that there was also a Dinosaurs Board where Bernard and I faced each other. I was confident, because we had more Youth than the B team but ......... dear, oh dear!

The B team struck immediately in decisive fashion, where Keatan - in line with my very worst fears - simply demolished Andrew with a very deep piece of opening prep. One automatic move from Andrew and he was in a desperate, virtually losing position, after no time at all. He shouldn't feel too bad as plenty of strong players - GMs even - have walked into the same position and gone down to defeat. It really is a great line for White, so naturally I'm not going to reveal it!

Still, this was surely just a minor set-back, as Jude was already giving Bruce's kingside a real pounding, but a timely exchange sac (or was it just lost, I don't know?!) that yielded bishop and pawn for the rook, was enough to turn the tables, and in the final position Black had the luxury of a perpetual attack on a White rook, or playing on. With only 2 minutes against Jude's 50, Bruce erred on the side of caution, and took the draw.

Which meant the pressure was on, as Billy and I both had to win to secure the match victory. Billy initially seemed to be better against one of Joshua's regular, unorthodox openings, that he is just about the only person in the world to play. Given he scored 1/5 when using it at a recent British Rapidplay, it seems fair to say its not an entirely solid Black defence! But, of course, even against someone of Billy's monstrous strength, Joshua eventually got in a counter blow by rushing his d pawn down the board and getting a rook to the seventh rank. Billy had to be careful and to make matters worse, he was on the increment from a very early stage of the game (why?? - it was only Joshua!!). Somehow he navigated his way to a totally drawn position of rook and 1 pawn each. Joshua's pawn had whizzed down to a2, but Billy's rook was perfectly placed to sac itself when his own advanced g pawn would in turn force Black to give his rook up. But then - horror of horrors. Completely inexplicably, Billy played an instantly losing move when he had a very simple drawing sequence. If even I saw it while still in play on my own board it must have been simple. Joshua could scarcely believe his luck and proved quite quickly that he knew how to win with queen against g pawn.

So that was that, the match was gone and my game against Bernard was irrelevant. Except to the pair of us. The position was fairly level for the most part, though I missed a really good pawn sac in the middle game which would have put me right in the driver's seat. We swapped off a lot of pieces and were left with queen and knight each. My only hope was that Bernard had an isolated g pawn in front of a rather naked king, but against that his pawn structure was  better than mine, and his knight was threatening to get quite jumpy against my own king. I was miles behind on the clock, but Bernard started thinking (always a mistake!) and soon I had won the g pawn and followed up by winning another on the queenside, leaving me with h, g and a pawns against a solitary a pawn. The knights were exchanged and I thought my connected passers would just waltz down the board and win the game. But I was kidding myself, as I soon pushed the wrong pawn and gave Bernard a perpetual check. Rather than accept that, though, and make a king move and take the draw, I just sat in my chair and let my time run down until I suddenly saw I had one second on the clock. This proved insufficient time to make a move and press the clock, and so I managed to lose despite being 2 pawns up. Criminal and tragic at the same time.

Which meant that the final score was Kenilworth B 3.5 - Kenilworth A 0.5. I didn't see that coming!

Well played the B team - and especially Keatan for the game of the night - but it did require a whiff of brimstone and magic dust in the air to produce such an unnatural match result. Let's hope normal service can be resumed as soon as possible!

National Award for Paul!

Great news, if you haven't heard already, but Paul has just won the 2024 ECF Award for Contribution to Junior Chess. This is a massively deserved accolade for both Paul and the Coventry Chess Academy, which he has been running so brilliantly for a scarcely believable 11 years.

Thanks are due to Bernard C and Roy for preparing the submission, and I'm pleased to say that my Seconder's Statement at least did not derail the application! You can read the citation here. Paul is far too modest and self effacing to broadcast his achievement, but he should be extremely proud of this award, which also reflects splendidly on the likes of other KCC members Bernard, Roy, and Andy Ward who have been steadfast supporters of the CCA since its inception. 

And with Paul being the man who introduced the very stylish Basque beret to Kenilworth, this seems like quite an appropriate choice of song to kick off the new season's musical contribution!

Thursday Club Nights - an Update

Following the closure of our most recent Thursday evening home, The Gauntlet, KCC successfully held its first on-line club night since covid-times last week, at which Jude was apparently in imperious form, demolishing virtually all comers as a warm up for his tilt at the British Championships. Full credit to Keatan, though, for depriving him of a 100% score with a crucial victory.

We will again be meeting on line this Thursday (August 1st), but from August 8th, we will resume meeting in person - at the Abbey Club, which is, of course, already our home match venue. This can only be a temporary arrangement, however, as we will not be able to continue on Thursdays once the snooker season re-starts. Rest assured, though, that our Chairman is working night and day (alright, that's a bit of an exaggeration!) to find us a suitable permanent venue for our club nights after the recent unlucky turns of events we have experienced.

Any developments will be circulated immediately to all club members and also be posted here for the benefit of prospective new members.

Information - temporary Thursday evening changes

A note for everyone who attends or plans to attend our Thusday evening sessions, courtesy of our esteemed club chairman: "As many members will have heard by now, the Gauntlet pub where we having been playing for the last few weeks is to close this Sunday. The pub chain who own the building are apparently in talks with several interested parties about taking on a new Lease but nothing has yet been agreed. Mark and I have decided that rather than seek an alternative venue at this stage, we will await developments to see if the Gauntlet does reopen and if so, whether we can continue to play there. We have considered other options but at present, we would prefer to continue at the Gauntlet. For the interim period, we have decided to revert to online play as happened during Covid. There is already an established Kenilworth club on the Lichess website where many of you will already be members. In addition we use a program called Discord which enables us to talk amongst the members present on the site. Josh set this up for us at the start of the Pandemic and has kindly agreed to issue guidance as to how to join. The intention is that we will meet online on Thursday evenings from 7.30 until we can play in person again, be it at the Gauntlet or if necessary elsewhere." Hopefully we will all be back up and running in a few weeks, but if anyone does plan to join us online on Thursdays in the interim, just send me an email (imscar1986@gmail.com) and I can send you the necessary information.

World Exclusive - Magnus Carlsen Reads the KCC Blog!

 Well, that's the only conclusion I can come to after yesterday's events in Round 6 of the Norway Chess tournament being held in Stavanger. There simply isn't any other possible explanation. As the Iron lady said, "There is no alternative."

You only have to go back to the post of April 3rd to find the key piece of evidence. The report of the A team's win over Stratford A (which clinched our fourth successive LDCL Division 1 title) contained the beautiful queen sacrifice finish which Billy pulled off against Richard Dobedoe. If you can't remember what happened, here it is again, in all its glory.

Well, knock me down with a feather, but what happened yesterday in Norway but this. World number 1 Magnus Carlsen used Billy's exact motif to  deliver checkmate against current - but clearly ailing - world Champion, Ding Liren. 

So I think I'm on safe ground in being pretty confident that Magnus must be a KCC Blog reader, because there is simply no other way he could ever have come up with such a great idea if he wasn't copying Billy

Anyway, now we've established exactly where Magnus gets his best ideas from, it can only be a matter of time before we see some of Joshua's bizarre opening systems appear in his repertoire. And I expect he'll soon be fianchettoing his knights, too!!

Meanwhile here's an old favourite (though not with me, I can't stand the song!), but this post has clearly shown that its not only the history book on the shelf which is always repeating itself!

Return to The Gauntlet

After 19 months at The Ale Rooms, during which time the available furniture inexorably reduced till it was almost a case of standing room only, KCC's Thursday evening club nights have returned to our former home, The Gauntlet. Our first stay at the Gauntlet ran from June 2017 to October 2022 and spanned the 15 month Covid-lockdown period.

Home sweet home! Again!!

It doesn't seem to have changed a lot from what I could see based on our first night back last week, which rather unfortunately coincided with one of the infrequent Kenilworth Runners' social meetings. As a result we were confined to the dark side of the moon, I mean room, but we hope to be back on the sunny side of the street, I mean room, next week.

There's a lot of rubbish talked about "You can't go home" or "You can't go back", but we can and we have! Fingers crossed for a long stay, though in the modern world of the hospitality industry, that might be a tad optimistic. You never know. Anyway, enjoy this week's song. Very appropriate, I thought.

The 2023-24 KCC Stars

It wasn't quite like Oscars Night at the AGM last week (not a red carpet in sight, for a start) but in our little world the crowning of the two KCC stars for the 2023-24 season was just as exciting and important. Two new, richly deserving winners added their names to the roll of honour of previous illustrious winners.

The newly crowned Player of the Year is Paul Badger - making Paul the third successive winner of this award (after Hector and Harry) in their debut competitive season for the club.

Paul - one of the very few club members able to look the Chairman in the eye! - receives the historic Tilley Trophy from Bernard, as KCC Player of the Year

Final standings:-

1 Paul B 9/11 (81.8%)

2 Javier 18/23 (78.3%)

3 Bruce 17/22 (77.3%)

And a record was set in the Clubman (Clubperson!) of the Year award, which went to the youngest ever recipient, Keatan, for his outstanding contribution to the club -  both competitively (4th in the PotY competition; played in 4 of our 5 LDCL teams; match winning hero in the U8750 Cup Final; played in both our Coventry League and Cup teams) and socially (regular on Thursday evenings, despite rather pressing alternative demands on his time - good luck with the exams!!).

Keatan receives the shinier and larger (but less historic!) Clubman of the Year Cup from the Chairman

 

Many congratulations and well done, chaps!

Three Steps to Heaven

Place: Solihull

Date: Wednesday May 8th, 2024

Details that will be spoken of in hushed tones for years to come, as this was where and when history was made. For the second time in three years we got all three of our Leamington League Cup teams through to Finals night. In 2022 we managed to lift the Open and U8750 Cups, while last year we "only" made the final of the Open and U1600 competitions but in winning both we again picked up to two out of three trophies. In 2024, KCC was again trying to go one better and win all three cups in the same season, for the first time ever. This was a feat which had been performed only once this century (by Banbury in 2015), so clearly this is no everyday happening. How did it go? Let me tell you!

Step One - Kenilworth 3.5 - 0.5 Daventry (U1600 Cup Final)

The Kenilworth team comprised three juniors - Dylan, Lionel and Gregory - and a (very!) senior - Roy. The Daventry team unfortunately comprised only three players in total, which meant a wasted journey for Lionel and an extra hour wait before he could claim the win - a great shame as this is clearly the only time he will ever be eligible for this competition, given his tremendous recent form and rocketing rating.  1-0 soon became 2-0, as Dylan scored an absolutely crushing win on Board 1 (with the Black pieces) after forking his opponent's king and queen in double quick time. This actually meant we had already won the cup, as even two losses would have left us winning on tie break (board elimination), but our boys were not having any of that, and after Roy secured a steady draw on Board 2, Gregory rounded things off with another win to give us a decisive victory.

The U1600 Cup Heroes: Back (l-r); Patrick (non-playing Captain), Roy and Dylan. Front (l-r); Lionel and Gregory

Step Two - Kenilworth 3.5 - 1.5 Stratford (Open KO Cup Final)

A fourth consecutive triumph (and 6 of the last 7!) for Kenilworth, and a third consecutive League and Cup double in the process. But it was not plain sailing by any stretch of the imagination. Javi drew quickly and efficiently on Board 1 against Ben Larkin, but it was all to play for on the other boards. I was especially nervous about Joshua's position (for virtually the whole evening!) though he has subsequently assured me the engine never thought he stood worse. I can only assume the engine in question was PinkFish, and is programmed to be biased in favour of Joshua-style dubious positions! Jude was actually second to finish, defeating Richard McNally for the second time in a few weeks, before Joshua - inevitably - took us to the verge of victory by beating Richard Dobedoe. The victory celebrations had to put on hold when Bruce, uncharacteristically, went down disastrously against David Gardiner in a queen ending where one side had a lot more pawns than the other, but victory was confirmed when after a very measured game Andrew's steadily growing control translated into decisive material gains against Sam Cotterill. 

The Open KO Cup Heroes - (l-r) Bruce, Andrew, Javier, Joshua and Jude

Step Three - Kenilworth 2.5 - 2.5 Olton (U8750 Cup Final) - Kenilworth win on tie break!

So two down, one to go, but things were not going according to plan in the U8750 final. Dhairya had got us off to a flying start with a brutal kingside attack against Andy Cottom which only ended when checkmate was delivered and when Paul drew against Rob Reynolds everything in the garden looked rosy. But then Solomon and Ben both fell to defeat (against Richard Evans and Richard Liszewski, respectively), which left us facing defeat. But there was still hope - if Keatan could win on Board 1, he would tie the scores at 2.5-2.5, and we would win on board elimination. But he faced no easy task, as Black against the very experienced Richard Reynolds (how about that - Olton had three Richards in their team!?) . The position was very complicated and Richard sacrificed an exchange, although it wasn't at all clear to me that it was good. And indeed Keatan, despite severe time pressure, then played excellently to invade with his rook and dominate White's remaining minor piece. A rampant passed a pawn then won that minor piece and with it the game - and the Cup. A tremendously composed and mature win from Keatan, in highly pressurised circumstances.

The U8750 Cup Heroes:- (l-r) Solomon, Paul, Keatan, Ben (Captain) and Dhairya

And so the season ended in an unprecedented blaze of glory. It was particularly gratifying to see all 6 of our junior players winning on the night. (Watch out KCC oldies - they're coming for you!) Congratulations to all the members of our three victorious teams - though I like to kid myself that non-playing captains and spectators also deserve a share of the glory - as Milton nearly wrote several centuries ago, "they also serve, who only stand and watch!"