Thursday 21 March 2024

The Killer Queens of Coventry

How did that happen? We were winning on at least 3 boards in the final of the Coventry League KO Cup on Tuesday evening, but when the overweight person stopped singing, we had lost the match 1.5-2.5, and our first chance of silverware for the season had disappeared.

Mike finished first, drawing with Black against Ed Goodwin on Board 4 - a result the smart money would have been on at the outset. I saw virtually nothing of the game, but I gather Mike equalised and held a slight edge, but Ed just played very solidly and shut the game down to a draw.

I finished next, being the first victim of a sudden swarm of Coventry Killer Queens which attacked the Kenilworth team. I was much better out of the opening against Jonathan Fowler; missed an absolutely crushing, but very complex, piece sac; then missed a more prosaic way to establish a won position; before falling to equality around move 30. By move 33 I was completely lost, as I had a total mental blank and failed to notice that an obvious move of Jonathan's was check. Even after he'd played it I tried to make an illegal move. However, the fact it was check made rather a big difference, and I was virtually forced to give up my queen (and a pawn) for a rook and knight. But my king was unsafe and I couldn't find anything better than to force him to sac an exchange to secure two monstrous central passed pawns which - shepherded forwards by a killer queen - overwhelmed by two rooks and won the game.

But we could still win the match on board count if we could muster 1.5/2 on the top two boards. One point was in the bag, as Javier had simply taken a gambit pawn in the opening and held on to it without any semblance of counterplay for Black. By the time I could take a look at the game again, he had won a second pawn, and when he added a third - in what was now a single rook ending - Francis Sagyaman decided enough was enough.

But it didn't save us, as tragically Bruce had succumbed to another Coventry killer queen, this time in the hands of a certain Joshua Pink. Joshua started the inevitable madness early in the game, and Bruce made a fatal mistake in going along with him on his crazy adventures in Pinkland. This time round the Kenilworth player got a rook and two pieces for the queen, but that was hardly important - what really mattered was that Joshua was in his element and subjective assessments were pretty irrelevant given the massive material imbalance. When the White queen rook and knight all advanced to the 7th and 8th ranks, the large but hopelessly uncoordinated collection of Black pieces couldn't hold the balance, and Bruce lost on time when unable to find a defence to the White invasion. Score 2-0 to the Coventry Killer Queens!

This was all very disappointing (we did have a rating advantage on all 4 boards - particularly pronounced on my board!), but other than mea culpa, there's not a lot more I can say.  The only thing we can do now is to make sure we win the Leamington League Open KO Cup, where we are due to play Stratford in the Final on May 8th (at Solihull).

I think you all know what song's coming up. Though don't make the mistake of thinking that I like it. Far too popular for my tastes! Still, at least its blissfully short.


Tuesday 19 March 2024

Top of the League (Temporarily) - Part 6 (the finale)

 Not much to this post, other than I want to put this here for one last time:


If we all agree to end the season now, then the most deserving team will win the league. I should also point to the extremely surprising fact we managed to have a +7 match results difference, with only +6 game points, which can't have happened many time before.

I don't wish to dwell too much on our last couple of games (a loss to Banbury and then a victory over Shirley), as my teammates decided to cram a whole season's worth of captaincy stress into the last two games; with late arrivals, blundered pieces, and a refusal to take pieces when our opponents blundered them. Therefore, I thought I would focus more on overall achievements for the season.

My task was definitely made easier by having 3 players who managed to play every game in the season, with the following results:

  • Andy P - 6/14
  • Myself - 7.5/14
  • Mike - 9/14

Andrew definitely gets the excuse of having by far the hardest competition, but Mike will clearly have to be awarded our MVP trophy. Board 4 is much more complicated, with 6 different players (Paul B, Andy B, Keatan, Bernard, Ben and Harry) having made appearances, with all scoring points along the way. Once you add up the totals across all those players, you end up with:

  • Motley collection - 8.5/14
In many ways, I feel this is a good metaphor for my life. I thought I had quite a good season, but in fact I am just a little bit worse than a random selection of people from the club.

Wednesday 13 March 2024

Economy of Effort

In our final two matches of the Coventry League Division 1 season I am pleased to report a massive, aggregate score for Kenilworth of 8-0 against two Warwick University teams - and this without actually winning a single game over the board. Now that is what I call economy of effort!

In our penultimate match we turned up at the University to play their B team. Imagine our surprise when the top 3 players were identical to the top three in the University A side we had played the week before. Especially as on this night, Warwick Uni A were supposed to be playing away against Nuneaton. Hmm, suspicious - unless 4 even stronger players had been rounded up (quite possible given the strength in depth at the University's disposal) to play for the A team. As to the match, Bruce went down spectacularly and very quickly against Arya Cont on Board 1, and Ben went down much more slowly on Board 4. Mike's game against Tom Brown was very interesting and he very nearly crashed through with a winning attack, but had to settle for perpetual. I was in  desperate straits against Damirali Magzumov - who had already beaten me earlier in the season - but thanks to sheer bloody-mindedness, a couple of good moves by me and some missed opportunities for my opponent, I somehow held on for a draw. So 1-3 on the night, but what would the League make of the composition of the University B team? Well, since the University A team did not show up at Nuneaton that night, the answer was not very much. Fortunately, though, there was no need to get into any row over whether this default and transfer of players to a lower team was within the rules (still don't know the answer to that!), as there was a more simple rule transgression with the University Board 1, and captain, being ineligible to play for the B team. So his result, and that on all boards below, were scored as 1-0 to us! Which is how we won 4-0 without winning a single game. The ruling didn't help anybody get back their lost grading points, but it did give us 2 match points in our quest for second place.

And then to cap it all, this week's home match against University A was also reduced to a non-event when our opponents were unable to raise a team at all - despite finding 15 players to play in 4 other teams fielded that night, all of whom were eligible to play in their A team! This is, of course, all highly unsatisfactory from a competitive perspective, as random defaults by the League's strongest side play havoc with the integrity of the final table, which shows us to have finished in second place, within 1 point of Warwick University A, even though they were clearly miles better than us.  I expect a discussion on this at the League AGM, though I'm pretty sure we've been down this road before.

So 8-0 to Kenilworth, with not a win for us to be seen anywhere!

In keeping with the bizarre events of the last two matches, I couldn't think of a more appropriate piece of music than this!


One more match remains in our Coventry League season, as we face Coventry A in the final of the KO Cup next Tuesday. I am pretty confident that they will at least show up for this, as they have - yet again, and for unspecified reasons - been given home advantage.

Tuesday 12 March 2024

They Couldn't.......Could They?

4 wins on the bounce has seen Kenilworth C come out of the pack into a clear second place in the 2nd Division and this run, combined with Leamington A losing their penultimate game of the season has opened up a slim possibility of the league title ......we just need to win our remaining 3 games of the season.

First up - Solihull B, who we had yet to play as their season started after Christmas. It all started smoothly, games looked very balanced, Keatan playing a symmetrical English as black, Bernard was facing a lot of pawn advances but looked ok to me, I had negotiated the opening with an edge as black and Ben looked like he had the edge on Board 4. 

Bernard then took advantage of his overstretched opponent and won a couple of pawns, Keatan was taking the initiative (although it had eaten into his time) and Ben looked threatening although still equal. Great, I thought, as my edge had fizzled out due to some smart play by my opponent. This left me thinking a draw would be enough and indeed my opponent offered me one which I declined as I wanted to see how the games played out and my position contained no real risks.

But Bernard then got on the receiving end of a series of checks by the opposing Queen that he could not escape - 1/2 point. Ben contrived to lose a pawn heading into the end game but solidly stopped his opponent progressing and gained another 1/2 point. Keatan's game looked in a good place but could he win with the time remaining on his clock? Suddenly my game might need to be won....

I tried to create some pressure in a Queen and Bishop vs Queen and Bishop (same colour) endgame with plenty of pawns on the board - computer says draw (obviously) but I find playing computer moves to be difficult and hoped this was the case for my opponent too. Indeed he abandoned his King's defence to snaffle a pawn and suddenly I spotted a mating trap. With 1 minute each left on the clock, I confidently moved thinking it was in the bag but he simply sidestepped the issue (note to self - the opponent does not have to take pieces when they are offer!) and I was left floundering with very little time and could feel the pressure getting to me........

Fortunately for me, Keatan (not for the first time this season) came to the rescue - I did not see how but he secured the much needed win, leaving me to immdiately take the easy perpetual I had and secure the draw needed for the overall win....phew. Nerves a bit frayed to be honest, but our hopes are still alive (with our 3rd 2.5-1.5 victory in a row). One more win (against Solihull B again) would leave a winner takes all title decider against Leamington A.....

PS - Only when I got home did I find out I had a (pretty simple) win at the end as my nerves over time got the better of me. At least I could reconcile this as the team win was secured so I was happy with my decision to take the half point and it was probably a fair result.

Wednesday 6 March 2024

And Then There Were Two

For the gazillionth time this season the A team vaulted over the B team and returned to the top of Division 1 after a 3.5-0.5 win over Solihull A on Monday night. Its fair to say that we fielded a very strong team while our opponents, sitting unusually low in the table, were clearly missing some players. Nevertheless, we've seen in the past that rating gaps seldom convert that smoothly into victories, but on this occasion there were not too many alarms along the way.

Javi scored a very convincing win over Ray Carpenter on Board 2. Ray went wrong in the opening and Javi simply won a pawn with an overwhelming position. In no time at all he was three pawns up, and as these were 3 connected and passed pawns the result was never in doubt.  Bruce was next to finish against Tony Sadler on Board 3. I only looked at this game twice - the first time, Bruce was a pawn up and the second he had added an exchange. Plus he had all the play against White's long-castled king. Andrew - more at home on Board 1 for the B team - found himself on Board 4 against a very promising Solihull junior Akshath Shivakumar, who has already made a winning 4NCL debut for Warwickshire Select 2 in Division 3 of the 4NCL. Paul will have to check his records and see if Akshath has broken Jude's record (or is it Billy's?) for the youngest player in Division 1 of the LDCL. Andrew seemed to get a very big plus in the opening, and landed a monster knight on e6 where it was forking 2 Black rooks. He had to be careful about his king safety, as his fianchettoed light squared bishop had disappeared, but he avoided the potential banana skins and wrapped up the victory soon after.

But things had gone less smoothly on Board 1, where Jude had not found a great set-up against Don Mason's slightly innocuous opening set-up, and was soon in some difficulties. He tried to tactic his way out of the problems, but Black had too many loose pieces, and as we all know Loose Pieces Drop Off. But just as one of them was about to, Don offered Jude a draw because he was already in serious time trouble. Jude, being in a lost position, could hardly decline, and was probably very relieved toi take home a half point.

The upshot of this latest A team win is that the Division 1 champions will definitely come from Kenilworth - its just a question of whether it will be the A or B team that gets the trophy.

LDCL League Table as at 05/03/24. Pleasant reading if you are from Kenilworth!

So, to paraphrase a Little Feat song, "Now there's 2 trains running on that line, One train's the A team and the other's some friends of mine."

Wednesday 28 February 2024

Top of the League (Temporarily) - Part 5

I feel the title should be self-explanatory by this point. A minor point of note that we (Kenilworth B that is) actually won 3-1 in this match against Olton instead of our usual 2.5-1.5, but I’m in a thoroughly bad mood about the whole thing.

The start of the evening did at least produce some amusing early stress, as our two home matches in one evening became something of a space problem once we realised there was already an AGM taking place in the main bar area, meaning we had to fit 8 boards into the space usually taken up by 4 (or, to be precise, 7 boards there and one in the corridor). The confusion was then confounded by Steph and her opponent’s decision to sit on opposite sides of the table from everyone else in the room, meaning I was constantly confused by which team was doing well on that board every time I looked.

However, focusing on our match for a bit, it all seemed (with one specific exception to be covered later) to go quite well. Andrew as black against Alan Lloyd played an excellent looking gamer, neutralising Alan’s traditional English, winning a pawn in the middlegame and then converting. Keatan also had a nice win in his debut B team game, pushing a pawn up to f6 as white early in the game which, although it never quite led to a mating attack, did stay there for most of the rest of the game, and eventually cost black a piece in the endgame. 2-0 and looking smooth.

3-0 followed not long after, with Mike converting a game I assume he must have been much better in for quite some time. Relatively early on as black, after white had castled kingside, he played Bg4 attacking a white knight on f3. White responded with h3 to attack the bishop, and black captured the white knight. So far so normal, except that white had no piece defending the knight, and so had to play gxf3 in front of his own king. It took a while for this to prove catastrophic, but it looked very ugly for most of the game, and did eventually cost Olton a third point.

The match should have ended 4-0 to us – it did not. I was playing Mark Cundy and, after a not very impressive game from either player, I eventually bumbled into a better rook endgame, normally something I am not that terrible at.

In that position, I played the quite exciting (I think) move Rc7+, sacrificing the rook to get the passed pawn moving as fast as possible. Not a necessary move, other things also worked, but it is winning for me, and I would argue the most fun way to do so. A few moves later, we reached the following position.

You will see three noted possible moves in the position. I spent most of my last 3 minutes deciding between Kb1 and Kb3, thinking they were both winning, and eventually settled on Kb1 it looked the simplest win. It turns out both moves lose for me. I played Kb1, and after b3 I do indeed get a queen, but it turns out I then get mated by c2+, Ra1+ and c1=Q+. The move Kd3 wins for white, but this is a move I did not even notice was a legal one to play. So, a loss from a winning position, and the fancy rook sacrifice wasn’t even the move to blame. What a disappointing way to go back to the top of the table.

Tuesday 27 February 2024

Eyes down for the British Rapidplay - and you can watch us live!

This Saturday and Sunday, the British Rapidplay takes place in Peterborough. There are currently 210 runners and riders, with several Kenilworth players in the mix. If you fancy a flutter, I probably wouldn't. But if you must, back the youngsters. Our current seedings are Billy (18), Jude (27), Joshua (91), Keatan (113) and me (131), albeit clearly I am just lulling everyone into a false sense of security! Apologies, of course, if I have inadvertently missed anyone from this list.

The great news is, you can watch the action live. Every board will be streamed in real time, via this link (or some such.) Chess-Results Server Chess-results.com - 2024 British Rapidplay Championship

Mark watched last year as myself, Josh and Bernard Rogers strutted our stuff. He said it was quite an experience, albeit on reflection this might not have been a ringing endorsement of our technique! It is certainly a fun event. Last year I managed to beat WGM Sheila Jackson and to lose to a 1200 within the same afternoon. Albeit, I normally only tell people the first part of this story.

So if you've got time on your hands and fancy watching some weekend chess, check us out. Alternatively, if this has whetted your appetite, perhaps even explore putting in a late entry...


Thursday 22 February 2024

That'll Be a No, Then ......

 ..... if the question is "will Kenilworth retain their Coventry League title?" A narrow 2.5-1.5 defeat against a still 100% Warwick University A team this week finally extinguished any small hopes we might have harboured in this direction Though if truth be told, we have been highly unlikely to mount a serious challenge since our slip up against the University's B team before Christmas. So with two league matches left - return fixtures against each of the University teams - our only target is to hold on to second place. We'll probably know where we stand on that point after next week's round of fixtures when third place Nuneaton A play Uni A, and we take on Uni B. But at least we have a Cup-Final to look forward to!

Bruce was our sole winner on Tuesday, after another very entertaining and wide-open game - albeit rather more sound this time than his game on the previous evening! Javi chose a bad night to record his first loss of the Cov League season (against Arya Cont) while Ben lost against an opponent he had drawn with the previous weekend. I got rather excited when one of my opening weapons actually got to be fired against Tom Brown, but whereas it had worked brilliantly for (apologies for mentioning him) Sergey Karjakin, my opponent played a much better move than Baadur Jobava had, and the position was just dead equal for the entire game. Even though a draw was only agreed as we were about to go down to bare kings.

So there we have it - no league double for us this season, as we kiss our CDCL title goodbye. A sentiment which brings to mind this week's song - " you call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye." As Don says in the intro, "the history of western civilisation in 6 minutes." Though its actually nearer 7! But who cares? Definitely one of the Eagles' best ever songs.


Tuesday 20 February 2024

Fortune Favours the Brave

On paper this should have been a mismatch - the all-conquering (well, all except Banbury A!) Kenilworth A team against bottom of the table Shirley B. But all was not entirely as it seemed. For a start, I was on Board 1 for us, so you can immediately tell that we had at least 2 players missing! Nevertheless, we still managed a rating advantage averaging very nearly 250 points per board, so you'd think the match was guaranteed to go our way, wouldn't you? Not so fast, I'm afraid!

It all began swimmingly with one of the most remarkable carve ups I've seen in a long time, as Andrew put the late arriving Keith Ingram completely to the sword with a devastating king side onslaught. If I tell you that by move 10 Andrew's queen's knight had captured a Black pawn on h7, you can tell this was no ordinary game! The finish was swift and brutal. 

Not surprisingly there was then a long wait for the next point, which arrived when I checkmated Jonathan Dale to get some revenge for my loss against him in last season's KO Cup Final. After winning a pawn in the opening, and with the Black c8 bishop becalmed on its starting square by a White knight on c5 for nearly the whole game, Black was reduced to a rather unconvincing kingside attack, but as his own king opened up it was me on the attack and the end was inevitable for several moves.

Meanwhile, on Board 2 Bruce had launched a kingside pawn storm of his own against Darren Whitmore, which looked likely to win the game in short order. And Keatan, making his A team debut  (after starting the season in the D team!), was much better/maybe winning from the opening, against Gordon Christie. So it all looked like plain sailing - but as soon as I retreated to the bar for a well earned drink, the wheels began to come off in spectacular fashion.

So on my return what do I find but Bruce a queen and a rook down (and White with 2 queens!) and Keatan facing disaster with a mighty White pawn on c7. Gulp! We're only going to draw the match. But cometh the hour cometh the men.

Given a sniff of opportunity Bruce somehow forced the White king out into the middle of the board, where it was hounded by Bruce's queen and rook, while a bishop on h6 threatened to join the fun if it could just get to give a check. But it was still losing for Bruce (-8.1 he tells me!), but despite having more time on the clock, Darren chose the wrong escape route for his king and after first turning the win into a draw, he then fell into mate by avoiding a perpetual. Phew! And all the time White's 2 queens just looked on from h3 and a8, powerless to intervene!

So I adjourned back to the bar, happy we had somehow managed to claim the match victory, but expecting news of Keatan's loss any moment. Only it never came, as right at the end Gordon apparently went wrong and Keatan's tenacity was rewarded with what had seemed an impossible draw.

Talk about snatching victory from the jaws of disaster. In other circumstances you'd have to feel for the Shirley team, but with us still trailing the B team before last night, the best I can offer them is a song dedicated to their misfortune. "If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all." Ain't that the truth!


But on a more upbeat note, the A team has regained the lead at the top of Division 1 and has a 1 point advantage, with a game in hand. Its over to the B team now, who are in action against Olton A before the A team return to action against Solihull A another week later.

A Night to Forget...

 In order to draw a hasty veil over last night's proceedings, we will keep this match report relatively brief. We were reasonably evenly matched on paper against Solihull B, and actually outpointed them in terms of our grading average, but it was fair to say that little went our way.

I was the first to finish, on Board 2 against Julian Summerfield. Not the most exciting of games, it has to be said. A lot of wood came off early, and there was no real way for either side to make progress. I've not had the best of records against Julian in the last couple of years, so was happy enough. We retreated to the bar and had a very nice drink and a catch up. I think both feeling that Kenilworth probably had the edge in the other three games. Still, as we all know, there is many a slip between cup and lip...

Michal had snatched the poisoned "b" pawn, on Board 1 against Tony Sadler, but seemed to have digested it pretty well. Unfortunately, a slight miscalculation saw a promising position turn to dust, and we were down 1.5 - 0.5.

Dhairya's position out of the opening against Ian Brodie on Board 3 was as wild as ever. However, for once, I feared it wasn't better. Yet Dhairya seemed to gradually improve the situation and was certainly winning at one point. However, post my return from the bar, something had clearly gone awry, and he was down a piece. Credit to Dhariya for proceeding to make Ian work exceptionally hard, before finally succumbing when both were below a minute on the clock.

The heartbreak of the night award goes to Solomon, who completely bossed his game against Matthew Allen. At every stage he had the initiative and seemed to be making good choices, without yielding a breakthrough. Finally a pawn race ensued. Matthew queened a move earlier, but Solomon queened with check and still seemed to have the play. However, when the checks petered out, the key factor was the better positioning of Matthew's King. Ultimately the black monarch and consort worked exceptionally well together. Solomon's pawns dropped off and the game was lost. Painful to watch and I'm sure even more so to play. We've all been there. Such is the life of a chess player.

So, a disappointing evening, but these things happen. We know we can do better, and will look to put things right in next week's cup game against the same opponents.