Looking Through Some Photographs .......

Here's a couple of fantastic photographs that have recently come to my attention - via two very different routes.  First we have a brilliant snap of a blindfold simultaneous display, being given by Coventry player Derek Horseman (great name for a chess player - what do you think his favourite piece was?) sometime around the end of the 1950s. One of his 6 opponents is nobody other than our very own John Ambler, a regular at club social nights for many years - here seen looking rather more youthful in his Whitley Abbey school uniform, second from the right of the 6 players.  Regrettably no record of the game score is available! Many thanks to John and son Richard for sharing this great photo with us.

Blindfold really did mean blindfold in those days! Derek Horseman against John Ambler (2nd right)

D.G. Horseman (b May 6, 1931 - d March 18, 2010) was a very strong player - a former King Henry VIII pupil - whose best chess years were in the 1950s. He played in four British Championships (1954/56/57/58) scoring 6/11 on each occasion. He had been British U-18 champion in 1948, and played in the 1953 and '54 Varsity matches for Oxford on Boards 3 and 1, making 2 draws. But his greatest achievement was winning the 1955/56 Hastings Challengers and so qualifying for the following year's Premier.

Writing on the English Chess Forum in 2010, Leonard Barden remembered Derek as follows:

"Derek as I knew him was a gentle, friendly and perennially good-humoured young man who honed his skills with the successful Oxford University teams of the 1950s. He was a sharp and inventive player with creative ideas, and while at Oxford improved his game from around 200 strength to near-IM level. When he qualified for the Hastings Premier he was widely expected to be outclassed but didn't allow himself to be overawed and had an excellent result given the quality of the opposition which included Larsen, Gligoric and Olafsson. The game which stands out in my memory is his draw with Szabo, then an active world title candidate close to the height of his powers. Playing Black, Derek swung a mighty mid-game tactic which had the great man fighting to hold the draw."

Horseman finished on 3/9, in 8th place, on this one and only appearance in the Hastings Premier, ahead of both Penrose and Alexander, each of whom he beat! Well, I did tell you he was a strong player!!

In another obituary Malcolm Pein wrote: "Although he pursued a successful career in education, he continued to play a lot of chess and passed his love of the game to his children and grandchildren. Until shortly before his death, he was coaching juniors at Southport Chess Club and a primary school."

At the age of 77 he was still strong enough to win the British U-175 (c2000) Championship. There's hope for us all yet!

Moving from the black and white era into full glorious technicolour, we have our second photograph. Unfortunately this doesn't connect us to quite such lofty chess reminiscences, but it does enable us to see two current club members in their earlier years, plus two more who predate my time with the club. In fact, one of them pre-dates anybody's time with the club, as the founder of both the LDCL and of the original Kenilworth Chess and Draughts Club, Stanley Gibbins, had already moved to Liverpool by 1962!

The 1994/95 LDCL Committee, with LDCL/Kenilworth Legend Stanley Gibbins. And spot the future Kenilworth Legends.

I found this photo in the 1995 Best Games and History of the Leamington and District Chess League (catchy title, eh?), written by Colin Searle, which I discovered only yesterday by a complete miracle in a second hand bookshop in Chipping Camden. I had long heard of this book, but had never seen a copy and had begun to doubt its existence, until serendipitously stumbling upon it yesterday. The bookshop was optimistically looking for £15 for this, which probably means it would have stayed on the shelves for all eternity if I hadn't come along. But while no-one else would have given anything like this amount, I would have been happy to pay £50 for it. So you can say that both the bookseller and the purchaser thought they had got a good deal!

I will be revisiting this tome on multiple occasions in the coming weeks/months/years, as it is a source of fantastic information and amusement. It might even prompt me to finally finish my "From the Archives" history of KCC - last seen at Part 16!

Back to the black and white era for our song, which is an absolute masterpiece. Jackson, looking almost as handsome as Roy in the above photo, on excellent vocal form and the brilliant, and sadly recently deceased, David Lindley being - well, brilliant - on guitar. "Looking through some photographs, I found inside a drawer, I was taken by a photograph of you. There were one or two I know you would have liked a little more, but they didn't show your spirit quite as true." Pure gold.

The Harry and Paul Show

It's not only the BBC which has a Harry and Paul Show, as the awards section of the 2023 Club AGM turned into a Kenilworth version of this classic comedy.

First into the limelight was Harry, who picked up the Player of the Year trophy, after scoring 9/11 in his debut season for the club. The winning performance of 81.8% was the fourth highest in the history of the POTY, beaten only by Joshua's two 90% efforts in 2014 and 2019, and by Hector's stratospheric 92.9% score last year. Another debutant, Keatan, scored a tremendous 10/13 (76.9%) to finish second and it was another junior, Jude, who rounded out the podium places with 12.5/17 (73.5%) - a remarkable score given that most of these games were played on Board 1 in Division 1! And to think that in 2015 it only took a 68.2% performance for Roy to win the cup. Standards have clearly improved!

Harry receiving the Ray Tilley Trophy for Player of the Year from the very tall KCC Chairman

And then it was the turn of Paul to step up to receive the equally prestigious, and altogether bigger and shinier, Clubman of the Year trophy. Despite the fact that, as I cruelly pointed out at the presentation, Paul's last appearance for the club was in December 2019, and his last win was in May 2017 (more than 6 years ago!) Paul's contribution to KCC over the years has been absolutely enormous. First, and for many years, as the strongest player in the club by a very large distance, but more recently as the driving force behind the encouragement and development of the incredible junior talents which the club is now so fortunate to have as members. Truly a most deserving winner. The only query yet to be answered, is why hadn't he been awarded this trophy long before now?  To which there is no satisfactory response. Mea culpa!

Paul receiving the Clubman of the Year trophy from our (still very tall) Chairman

However, worthy though those two trophy recipients may have been, and amusing and sociable as they both are, I don't think they are quite yet ready to replace the other Harry and Paul on TV. But you can be the judge of that.

KCC Big Boys Win Something by Beating Somebody

It's hard to argue with the accuracy of Roy's description (see immediately preceding Blog post) of Kenilworth's 3.5-1.5 win over Shirley in the final of the Leamington League Open KO Cup, though I think I prefer my more specific summary to his!

The victorious KCC teams, pre-match: (L-R; Keatan, Javi, Mark, Roy, Jude, Patrick, Josh, Andrew, Katya) Memo to Keatan - Bruce Springsteen is the Boss, not you!

This was our 3rd successive win in this competition, and our 9th in total.  We fielded a strong team, and while Shirley also mobilised all their eligible troops we held a rating advantage on every board and started as favourites. Now my reporting on the action from this match is going to be rather vague, as basically I saw nothing of what happened. I only got up from my own board once all evening and I was also the last to finish, so most of what follows is hearsay. Inadmissable in a court of law, but quite acceptable in the KCC Blog!

Having won the toss (at least I did something right that night!), we had three White games, but it was our two games with Black which finished first - both in our favour. Andrew P was sat right next to me, so I was able to hear quite clearly when a rather shell-shocked Dave Thomas said, "Oh, is that mate?"  It certainly was, and I'm pretty sure that before Dave's final move there had been no mate in one available, though my undercover informant (who we will refer to as JP to preserve his anonymity) tells me that Andrew was winning anyway. Almost immediately Javi won against Marcus Walsh on Board 2 after a game where there may have been a decisive check delivered on f2 by a Black knight. At least that's what I think JP said! Shortly after Jude (who seemed to have no idea of why he was present and what the occasion was!)  drew against Phil Purcell on Board 1, having been better and probably winning according to Deep Throat/JP.

This meant that we were 2.5-0.5 ahead, and already assured of victory, as even if Shirley won both the remaining boards, they would then lose on tie break by the elimination of the Board 5 result. But in fact, we won another point on that board after Joshua's pawn sac in the opening against Darren Whitmore eventually paid dividends and he ended up a decisive pawn ahead in a knight endgame. Which left me in play against Jonathan Dale, in a game I shall try to expunge from my memory forever. First I had a tremendous position from the opening. Then I hit on totally the wrong plan and went from much better to worse to lost as I got completely outplayed. But I got very lucky as my opponent missed some decisive moves that would have ended the game on the spot and from nowhere I got doubled rooks on the 7th and an attack which looked certain to deliver mate.  But then I experienced a very strange - and I hope not to be repeated - meltdown when one of my dominant rooks was attacked and, in time trouble, I picked up the rook that hadn't been attacked and put it on the square I meant to move the other rook to. Total disaster, and a virtually instant loss. My first of the season in the Leamington League, too. Still, the team won, he said through gritted teeth, which is the only thing that really matters.

Which brought a very successful season to a close, as we gathered our fourth and fifth trophies on the night. Many thanks and  congratulations to everyone who has contributed to these victories and to making the club the terrific chess community it has become.

No particular reason for our finishing song. except that it's just pure musical magic. You people are so lucky to have me choosing this stuff for you!

KCC's Very Own K & K

Any Cup Final win merits an individual match report, so our dual triumphs at this week's Leamington League Finals Night will receive separate coverage. And first up is news of KCC's 3-1 win over Daventry in the final of the U-1600 Cup.

Once upon a time the letters K & K meant only one thing - Karpov and Kasparov. Then a few years later, but only briefly, it could have referenced Kasparov and Kramnik. But those days are long gone, and a new K & K era has begun. Now the letters stand for Katya and Keatan, who turned out to be the youthful heroine/hero of our first success in the U-1600 cup (and its predecessors, the U-120 and U-100 cups) since 2003. All together now (you know the tune!):

Two K's in our team, U-1600 Cup still gleaming

20 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming

It's coming home, it's coming home - chess is coming home!

But enough of such digressions, it's finally time for Roy's report - suitably edited by me to remove a distinctly dubious historical/literary reference. He knows which one  I mean!

"It was a struggle to get a team together for this match - we have so many juniors and school takes precedence - despite the lure of La Gloire! But a full team was assembled with just the two juniors, Katya and Keatan leading the way, plus Patrick, who has played very little this season due to his unavailability on Monday nights, and captain Roy, who has played very little this season due to his completely justified estrangement from the Leamington League.

Having beaten Daventry in the showdown for divisional title a few weeks back, confidence was high since Daventry's best players were ineligible. Confidence went higher as the Daventry captain told me they had to default on bottom board! La Gloire (not the ironclad) was calling. In light of a major kerfuffle earlier in the season about an alleged board order infringement a quick consultation with the many League bigwigs who were present confirmed that it was in order to move Patrick up to board three whilst I sat it out.

Captain Roy did his best to calm things down and to ensure the team took nothing for granted. And we were off - not at all in the shadow of the big boys of our club who were also playing for something that evening against somebody. (match report of Kenilworth against somebody to follow in another artcile!) So, with a 1-0 scoreline before a piece was even moved, Katya on top board quickly established a comfortable position, then a three pawn advantage then a win. 2-0. Patrick's game set off at a blistering pace with almost everything rapidly coming off but leaving him with an inferior endgame - Patrick's knight and five v bishop and six. Patrick lost, though not without some controversy as Patrick's opponent touched his king in order to play an illegal move, but when this was pointed out by Patrick, his opponent moved a different piece instead - a rule contravention Patrick did not clock until after the game. 2-1

So, all down to Keatan on board two. Because of the board elimination rule Keatan needed a draw in order to secure team victory. If he had lost my bottom board default 'result' would have been eliminated and they would win. A case of me losing the match and losing La Gloire without me even playing a move!

But there was no worry, as at no point was Keatan in trouble. His opponent could, I think, have secured a draw with opposite bishops but of course he needed a win and probably pressed too hard resulting in another win for Keatan - and the team and the club. Which sat nicely with the A team's victory against someone.

Johnny-come-lately Paul Lam turned up to support us all, arriving seconds after Keatan's very last move. But it was great to have a crowd of supporters - albeit numbering just the one, who arrived after it was all over!

Although Mark, club gruppenführer, has already declined my suggestion that the club buys one of those things that shoots a thirty foot celebratory flame into the cosmos (I think this is the sort of thing Roy has in mind!)

or a Nuremburg style victory parade down Kenilworth High Street, there will be much to celebrate at the club's annual dinner and dance on the 31st. Although there will be no dance at the Sunam!"

Tournament Round-Up

Somewhat lost amidst the frantic end to the latest league season, KCC members have been very active in tournaments recently, and some of the performances were simply too good to pass unrecorded. So here, memory permitting, is a brief guide to those events.

At the end of February, 9 KCC members were in action in the one day Warwick University Rapidplay. In the Open section Javier, on his UK tournament debut, led the way with a score of 5/7 for a share of 5th place, ahead of Bruce B (4.5), Jude (4 - but with individual honours in his encounter with Javier) and, bringing up the rear, Joshua on a rather disappointing 3 pts. Jude was just half a point off the lead after 5 rounds, but went down to two strong Warwick Uni players in the last 2 rounds. The Major section saw two excellent performances by KCC juniors, with Keatan and Dhairya both scoring 4.5/7 to finish in a share of 6th place. Ben, who started as number 1 seed, finished in a tie for 11th, with 4 points. The only intra-KSS clash saw Keatan and Ben draw in Round 1. In the Minor section Patrick and Gregory tied for 23rd (in a field of 52) with a 50% score, while Gregory's dad, Eugene, also took part, but couldn't keep pace with Gregory!

Fast forward to Easter, and the feature event was the 4NCL congress at Daventry. Once again Javier led the way, scoring an excellent unbeaten 5/7 to tie for 3rd place (with GM Nigel Davies amongst others) and finish in the money. Yet again he was paired against Jude, who finished just half a point back in a share of 7th place, but this time the point was shared. Javier drew against GM Keith Arkell, but missed getting a great scalp in time trouble. Jude had some terrific results and was tied first after 5 rounds, but GMs Hebden and Arkell proved too strong in the last two rounds. Our two stars had near identical TPRs at around 2240.  Bruce B finished in 22nd= with 3.5 pts. Meanwhile, the seldom seen Andy Ward was a surprising starter in the U2000 section, where he performed strongly to finish in a share of 4th place with an unbeaten 4.5/7.

As if Javi hasn't brought enough Spanish flavour to proceedings already (and - spoiler alert - there's more to come!), we now come to the annual CCA pilgrimage to the Menorca Open, which this year saw an expanded KCC participation, with Jude, Billy and Keatan all playing, and Paul and Roy in supportive attendance.

The most controversial figure in world chess ....... with GMs Hans Niemann and Max Warmerdam. (Caption unashamedly purloined from Paul!)

The strength of the A Group can be gauged by the fact that Jude ranked only 131st, and Billy was a scarcely believable 194th of 200 starters. Both our junior stars ended up on an excellent 4.5/9, tying for 82-116th places. Jude's high point was the round 8 draw against the 2418 rated Iranian IM Poormosavi, while Billy - with only 1 draw in 9 games! - had an all round strong showing to gain over 100 ELO points.

Jude hobnobbing with the stars (1) - World number 18 Gukesh hopefully passing on a few tips!

Jude hobnobbing with the stars (2) - in play against World Blitz number 13, Vladimir Fedoseev on Board 1 in the Menorca Blitz

Keatan was in the slightly calmer waters of Group B, but also turned in a tremendous performance, as from a starting rank of 39th (of 77) he finished in a tie for 4th place, picking up a very welcome and most deserved Euros 100 for his efforts - not to mention gaining an extraordinary 155 ELO points. A fantastic achievement.

Keatan in the money!

KCC was triply represented in the British Rapidplay Championships, which took place in Bradford on April 15th and 16th, though - no disrespect intended! - our stars stayed at home in preparation for other impending challenges. Joshua headed our raiding party from his starting rank of 41 in a field of 118, supported by Bernard R and Ben who were seeded 71st and 73rd respectively. Josh scored 6/11 to finish in a tie for 35th, with Bernard and Ben a point behind in a tie for 65th. So everyone finished above their seeding position, which is no mean achievement for gentlemen of advancing years amongst a field awash with ferocious juniors. Ben had the star result of the event, with a win over WGM Sheila Jackson. Watch out for this game in a forthcoming Game of the Month feature! But we just have space for another game here, where our much respected Chairman shows just how much he has learnt in his near 50 year association with KCC.

Ben was at it again just 7 days later in Paul's splendid annual CCA Masters Rapidplay. Once again he assembled a strong field, including 2 IMs (Chris Baker and John Cooper) and featuring no less than 6 Kenilworth players in a select field of 14. Notable absentees, though, were Jude - a victim of covid - and myself - serendipitously sight seeing in Copenhagen! Javi, Ben, Bernard C and - welcome back - David Phillips represented the KCC seniors, while Billy and Keatan flew the flag for the juniors. As if taking the scalp of a WGM was not enough, Ben now took down IM John Cooper, though I am informed that the game featured several very strange incidents including missed wins, illegal moves and a big blunder! But who cares? The result is what ultimately counts!

Ben wondering who his next titled victim will be

The event was a big triumph for Javi, who took clear first with 4.5/5 and made off with the lion's share of the cash! His only shared point was against Chris Baker. Inevitably there were plenty of intra-KCC encounters, but hopefully everyone remained friends, whatever the result! Billy got an excellent draw with John Cooper, who afterwards was highly complimentary about the standard of his play.

Who looks the more Spanish?! Javi receives his CCA prize from Paul

Billy and 2 nervous looking IMs (Chris Baker, left, and John Cooper) who have had a glimpse of the future - and seen that it's scary!

Right, nearly there. The LDCL Blitz has already had a separate write up, so no need to go over yet another Javi triumph again, which just leaves the English Seniors, that took place in Leamington over the coronation weekend. Three Kenilworth members went chasing a national title and, unsurprisingly, none of them were successful. Bruce B was the sole representative in a very strong (4 GMs) 50+ section, and played a stormer, losing only to GMs Arkell and Wells. He was agonisingly close to tying for 3rd place, but let a winning position slip in the last round and had to be content with a still excellent 5th= in scoring 4.5/7. This was the same score I managed in the 65+ section, which also put me in 5th=, but after a much easier tournament than Bruce. Ed finished just half a point back, but had every reason to be satisfied with a tie for 11th given a starting rank of 21st.

No song after all that. I'm totally shattered!

Clean Sweep

This year's Leamington League Individual Blitz Championship turned out to be a major triumph for KCC, as Kenilworth members took the first three places. This has definitely never happened before, and in fact, 1st place has proven rather elusive, as since 2000 we have only managed two victories - Carl Pickering in 2008 and me in 2018. (I also won in 2010, but as I was a Leamington player then, we'll pretend that never happened.)

Undisputed winner, scoring a perfect 9/9, was Javier, who despatched all comers without seeming to ever have a worse position and without making any major blunders. With everyone else routinely dropping pawns and pieces on most moves, or overlooking mate in 1 (thank you, Josh), this meant he was the runaway winner. I chased as hard as I could (40+ years handicap notwithstanding), conceding only one other half point after my Round 5 loss to Javi, but you simply can't fight perfection! The podium was rounded out by Bruce B a further point behind, due to the fact that I beat him in our individual encounter.  So KCC scooped the entirety of the massive prize pot (£16 for 1st and £10 each for 2nd and 3rd) in the Open section.

Unfortunately, one person objected to the event being graded, so Javi's remarkable 2748 TPR counted for nothing! Some form of justice was done as the objector played at more than 100 pts over his rating, but won't see any benefit from this.

Besides the prize winners we had a good turnout of Kenilworth members, with Joshua (8th) Mike (10th), Ben (14th) and Keatan (17th) all in attendance. Not much doubt where the team prize would have gone if there was one!

So many congratulations to Javi, whose name goes on the LDCL Roll of Honour (which can be seen here, though in some need of updating). There can only be one song to celebrate a score of 9/9.

Ending With a Bang

This is the way the season ends - not with a whimper but a bang. (T.S Page, The Hollow Chess Men, 2023)

The league season came to an end for KCC last night, as the A team played the club's final fixture against Stratford A. We had long wrapped up the Division 1 title, and Stratford were already confirmed to finish third, so there was precisely zero resting on the outcome of the match - quite a contrast from the nail-biting tension of the D team's final match the night before. But thankfully, the team found sufficient personal motivation to ensure that we ended with a strong performance. No whimpering here!

This was actually my first visit to Stratford's latest venue at Foundation House in Masons Road - and also my last, as we were informed that the building is to be demolished!

Despite losing Jude to another dose of covid, we still had a strong team out, and it was great to be able to replace him with Billy, who was making his Division 1, and A team, debut at the age of 11 years and 6 months! I wasn't sure, but Paul has checked the details and it transpires that Billy narrowly missed taking Jude's record as the youngest ever A team player/winner. Jude was just 11 years and 5 months when he made a winning debut against Banbury in October 2021.  One record Billy certainly does hold, though, is as the youngest ever debutant and winner for any KCC team. He beat Simon Payne of Stratford in December 2018 two months after turning seven years old! (And also two months after his debut against another Stratford player, Adrian Grimes.) After the D team's exploits and the sensational performances of Jude and Billy I am suddenly feeling very old indeed.

Not at all surprisingly given his normal speed of play, Billy was the first to finish, though in fact this was a very measured and controlled effort with Black against former Kenilworth player, Richard Dobedoe. Impressive stuff, which finished with Billy's queen invading decisively to get us off to a flying start. Javi finished next after a strange game against Richard McNally on Board 1. As usual, Richard was hell bent on sacrificing something to get at his opponent's king, but it looked to me as though he had gone too far this time, by investing a whole rook. I expected Javi to shut things down and win quickly, but it didn't happen, and somehow Richard was able to force a draw.

I should have been the first to finish, as I got an overwhelming position against David Gardiner's wide open king in no time at all, but I missed several chances to win a whole piece, and ended up having only an extra pawn. Rather luckily I then won a second, and even the prospect of opposite bishops didn't seem so awful. But, in fact, two rooks each stayed on the board and from nowhere I managed (with a little help) to set up an unstoppable mate threat to clinch the match victory.

Though by this time, the result was not in doubt, as Andy had finally converted his nagging pressure into something very concrete, and was a piece up in a bishop ending - well, he had a bishop, but Sam Cotterill didn't!

After our very unconvincing effort against Leamington last week, this was a much better way to sign off after a record breaking season, in which we have won 13 out of 14 matches and finished 9 points clear of second placed Olton A. This even eclipsed our efforts of last season when we scored 18 pts from a possible 20, though in 2021-22 we went unbeaten, so that was also no mean achievement. 

Its getting harder and harder to think of relevant songs to accompany these reports, so sometimes I just have to choose a personal favourite. Like this!

 

One of the greatest songs ever. Almost makes me want to be a Londoner. Though it doesn't make me want to play the London System.

A Night to Remember

No, I'm not talking about this:-

Or this:-

What I'm talking about is Monday April 24th, when Kenilworth D team - average age about 15 - scored a dramatic, last second win over Division 3 leaders Daventry A to vault themselves into first place and secure the league title. For those who were there - and there were plenty of supporters present - it was truly a night to remember.

And talk about triumph out of adversity. First, our intended top board for the match, Harry, had to cry off at about the 9th hour, and then Katya, who moved up to board one in his place, suffered an agonising defeat against the strong and very experienced Steve Willets, after declining a draw offer. With Daventry going in to the match one point ahead of us, it meant they only needed a draw, so to go 1 point up with just three boards left in play put them very much in the driving seat. Two draws or one win would do it for Daventry, so we had almost zero margin for accidents.

But cometh the hour cometh the KCC heroes. Keatan and George were both a pawn up for much of the evening, but neither had any quick path to victory. Thankfully, Keatan ignored the move suggestion I made to Bernard, which I thought just trapped his opponent's queen, as it actually involved Keatan putting a rook en prise. Just as well I was not playing!! Unlike me, both our chaps displayed nerves of steel and played super-precise chess to simplify the positions and convert their extra material in excellently played endings, finishing almost simultaneously. So at 2-1 up, we had a chance - but it was a very remote chance, as Dhairya had fallen into a knight fork in the middle game which cost him an exchange, and while he had managed to drum up some counterplay, Andy Johnson seemed to have defended everything and be well on the way to victory, especially with Dhairya way behind on the clock. I couldn't bear to look and adjourned to the Committee Room, where the B team (average age about 75!) were slowly sinking to defeat as Olton A looked to secure a second place finish in Division 1.

But just as I screwed up the courage to return to the D team match there was an outbreak of applause and it transpired that Dhairya had managed to hold a lost ending of rook and a pawn v bishop and b pawn, when Andy could find nothing better than liquidating to king and a pawn against king. Cue bedlam and massive relief all round. What an incredible display of fighting chess from all four of our players, and what a massive credit they were to themselves and to the club. So unbelievably we find ourselves, prospectively, with two teams in Division 1 and 2 teams in Division 2 next season. We will certainly need another team to balance out such a concentration of activity in the top two divisions.

So, that's three trophies for the club this season, with two Leamington League cup finals (open and U-1600) still ahead of us. Which is more than enough to justify a celebration meal, I think. Mr Social Secretary you are hereby placed on notice!

Massive congratulations are due to Roy for his inspirational, selfless and enthusiastic captaincy and also, of course, to Paul for his brilliant coaching and support of so many of our exceptional junior talents. 

This success, coming as it did in virtually the last minute of the whole season, when all seemed lost, did kind of remind me of another rather exciting moment that you might recall .....

....... which also went down to the wire!

We Are Family

Those sports nerds amongst you might remember the end of the 1985 Division 1 relegation battle. (For clarification, we are talking football here, not the Leamington & District Chess League! And yes, it was called Division 1 in those pre-Premiership days.) Coventry City had to win their last three matches to stay up and relegate Norwich in their place. With 2 wins achieved over Stoke and Luton, it all came down to a Sunday morning showdown against already-crowned champions Everton - unimaginable now, I know! Well, it was strongly rumoured that the Everton players had been celebrating their title rather vigourously, and come the final match they didn't quite perform as champions should.

The parallels with the Leamington A v Kenilworth A match last night were striking We went into the match 7 points clear at the top of the table, and with the title long since wrapped up. But Leamington were fighting for their lives at the foot of the table, and had picked up three points from their previous two matches against Stratford and Shirley which now put them just one point behind the 7th placed team ......... Who just happened to be our B team. So there was an added twist, as a Kenilworth A win would definitely save Kenilworth B, while a draw or - God forbid - a win for Leamington would see them overtake us ahead of the B team's tough last match against Olton A.

But what could go wrong for the B team? The A team had won 11 of its 12 matches, scoring at least 3 points in all those victories, and in the pre-Christmas meeting between the two teams had despatched Leamington A 4-0. Moreover, we had a strong team deployed for the occasion, and as far as I know there had been no riotous and prolonged celebrations of our title triumph, so it looked like a formality for the A team to get the required win. I imagine you're already guessing by now that things didn't necessarily go to script. Correct!

To relieve any anxieties, though, I will say straightaway that we did indeed win the match, albeit by an unconvincing 2.5-1.5 scoreline. But behind that there was a lot of drama. It was a good job that Ben was not in attendance to monitor the B team's survival prospects, as the tension would probably have got too much for him at times.

Things looked more or less OK to begin with. On Board 1, Javi had kept his extra pawn against Tom Darling's inevitable Elephant Gambit, but Josh had a ropey position against Ola Olaleye on Board 4. Andrew was equal against Ben Egid's Stonewall Dutch on Board 3, while on 2 I had a very double edged game against a new Leamington player, Mohammed Ben-Rashed.

Then the inevitable happened, and the games got too difficult for the players. Josh found a cheapo and Ola rather unnecessarily gave up an exchange, hoping his passed queenside pawns would compensate. Maybe they should have, but in practice they didn't and Josh crashed through with his rooks. so 1-0 to us. And I had played rather well, though I say so myself, and reached a completely won position. All under control.

No!!

Time trouble got to me and I missed a number of winning moves and finally had to accept a draw, and things had gone decidedly pear shaped on the other two boards as well! Josh assures me that Andrew was lost at some point in a double rook and bishop ending, and then compounded the situation by turning down a draw offer. (BTW, I seem to recall that Andrew's opponent once turned down a draw offer from the late Phil Holt in a Leamington-Olton match and went on to lose. If he had accepted, Kenilworth would have won another Division 1 title!) But a draw was then reoffered by Andrew soon afterwards and thankfully accepted. But things had also gone horribly wrong on top board and after being temporarily two pawns up, Javi somehow then lost 4 pawns to end up 2 pawns down in a rook ending. Happily, though, Black's extra pawns were f and h, and Javi's technique was up to securing a relatively easy draw to clinch the match. So thank goodness for Josh, as I would have been mortified if my inability to win from +6 had cost the B team their Division 1 place.

Incidentally, this is the second time I can remember winning our final game to relegate Leamington. The previous occasion was in 2014, when once again we had already won the Division 1 title. By winning this game, we relegated Leamington and saved Banbury B - who repaid us one year later by defaulting against Olton A to help them on the way to the title at our expense. (My memory may be going, but I still have total recall of all those who have done the dirty on us in the past!)

Some people come and go, but there are others you can never get rid of! Page, Pink and Wood all still going (strong?) 

Commiserations, then, to Leamington who had a more than decent team last night and may feel slightly hard done by, but with our B team likely to be pretty strong next season, there's no way it should be playing in Division 2.

And its also worth mentioning that on the same night, our D team were in Division 3 action against Stratford B and chalked up another win (2.5-1.5) to put themselves top of the table and set up a promotion/title decider against Daventry A next week. I hardly need to say that it was our juniors who were the heroes again - Keatan and George both winning - and the slightly more senior Patrick adding the extra half a point.

The A team did the B team a favour and the D team won, so only the C team was left out of last night's display of club unity and togetherness. But we love them, too! Cue this week's song.

Another Cup Final for KCC!

Once again we are indebted to our roving reporter/non-playing captain Roy Watson, for a blow by blow account of last night's U-1600 Cup Semi-Final match, between Kenilworth and Shirley. 

This was the semi-final!  Us at home. I have to be upfront and confess my grasp of the games was perhaps not entirely sound so I do apologise to our players if I have assessed their games inadequately. By the time all four games had reached the early middle game I could not really tell what was happening but my feeling was that Shirley had a slight edge overall.

Next time I came in to watch Steph on board four (as White, playing Roger Ball) was a couple of pawns down (I think four v six) and with a knight v bishop. Sadly, Steph missed a simple fork winning the bishop and almost certainly the game. 0-1.

At this stage Harry's position (board one, Black, against John Asbury) was not good but holdable, Keatan (board two, White, against David Cotterell) was definitely struggling but relative newcomer George (board three, Black, against Kim Gilbert) was doing well.

In the last few minutes of the match Harry's opponent blundered a rook and resigned, (1-1) George was three pawns up and won (2-1) and Keatan also manage to pull one out of the hat (3-1). It seems that Keatan's opponent spent a lot of time thinking (and in my experience that is always a recipe for disaster in chess!) in what seemed to me a winning position and fell a long way behind on time and indeed lost on time!

Well done lads and lasses, and Kenilworth will now play Daventry in the final of the U-1600 Cup at Olton on Tuesday May 16th, when we will also be taking on Shirley in the Open KO Cup Final. Regrettably our U-8750 team failed to make it past round 1, having mounted no sort of defence of the Cup it won so dramatically last season, so we haven't matched our 2022 feat of getting a team to each of the 3 cup finals.