Last Tuesday Warley Quinborne lifted the Pittaway Cup at the first time of asking. From left to right: Iain Kings, Nick Glover, Captain Simon Dighton, Steve Moxley, Simon Smith, and Ian Emery. Also part of our victorious team were Chris Williamson and John Lewis.There are more pictures and commentary from the organisers here.

Simon Dighton reviews the event:

I have to say I was absolutely buzzing after this game. I had been pretty concentrated for a while so was unsure how we were doing elsewhere. I had looked after about an hour & things were looking tricky on a number of Boards – not helped by Mercia heavily out grading all the opposition. On finishing my game then got an update as to where we were;

 Chris Williamson and JB had finally gone down after putting up stiff resistance against higher rated opponents – a great effort. I then saw that Simon Smith who had been slightly worse & defending all game had managed to swap off all the pieces and turned it around by quickly winning the resulting pawn endgame.

Nick Glover had what looked like the Black side of a French Advanced, (but was actually a Sicilian c3) where White was trying hard to get a real clamp on. Nick had managed to swap off the light square bishops and engineered some play. It all looked complicated, but Nick gradually outplayed his opponent to win a tricky game.

I had not seen Steve Moxley’s game for a long time. Steve seemed to be fighting to hold the position against the strongest club on paper, Mercia, & someone rated more than 300 points higher. Defend he certainly did and then won a piece and with it the game.

Suddenly we were at 4-2 needing 1.5 points to win from the final 2 games. Repairing to the bar (the games were shown on a video screen linked directly to the boards) we could see that Ian was 3 or 4 pawns up in an endgame Although it was slightly awkward with a R & a N bouncing around Ian’s King his passed pawns meant a new Q was coming and Ian took the honours.

At around the same time Iain King had played an interesting game offering a piece which was declined early on (and would have resulted in a perpetual). Next moment Iain was up a Bishop in an endgame with only Queens and pawns left – I didn’t see how he wrapped it up but he certainly did and we had six points out of a possible 8 and with it the title beating Mercia in second place on 5 points.

The whole evening was really well run – huge congrats to Will Vout, Steve Tyler & Andrew McCumiskey from Mercia and Chris Lewis from Wolverhampton for organising both the event but also the electronic boards and a really good buffet on the 80th anniversary of the League – it really was all a bit special.

Indeed, Simon has supplied analysis and commentary on his spectacularly chaotic game that saw him mating his 2300+ opponent on board 1. The game can be accessed through the GAMES tab at the top... Suffice to say, all the game scores from the top eight boards can be found here. Simon went through his game on our recently acquired demonstration board at the club; and here he is leading a discussion of the subtleties of queen and king against king and bishop's pawn on the 7th rank...



Ian Emery has had a terrific season. After drawing with Simon Dighton in the final, the two shared the Rock Cup. Their game is here. Ian made the final of Birmingham Individual against a previous many times winner, John Edge, from Halesowen Chess Club. It was a hard-fought game where John converted a small material advantage against Ian's customary defensive stubbornness:

I was sorry to hear of the demise of Keith Thomas. Keith was a regular player for Warwickshire County chess sides, including when I was captaining the side. He was a gentleman and exuded a friendly relaxed aura that always made him pleasurable company to be with. Keith always seemed to enjoy the humorous side of chess as well as being a fierce competitor.

This from the BDCL chess site:
I'm sorry to have to report that Keith died on Monday 2nd March. Over the past few years Keith had suffered many medical problems requiring hospital treatment. His great ambition during these setbacks was always to get back to playing chess. Keith was a member of the League for over 50 years winning the Division 4 Individual in 1972/73 season. Keith played for Kynoch for many years before moving to the club now known as Oscott in 2001. He also played many games for the Warwickshire county team. Keith's brother lived in Holland and for a number of year Keith formed a team to go there and play against his brother's local club. As I understand it, a good time was had by all on these occasions. Keith just simply loved to play chess.

Our first team and Birmingham Div 2 side look set to finish mid table. I had previously hoped that we might bounce back to Div 1 straightaway. Perhaps next season though... Likewise, our Birmingham Div 3 side looks to be in the mid table safe zone. Our Wolverhampton league Div 1 and Div 2 sides are likewise both in their respective table "safe zones". I suspect the level of competitiveness in this league has increased in recent years. I would be interested in what people think if this is a fair assessment.

Warley Quinborne continue to provide players for different league individual tournaments. Chris Williamson, Iain Kings, Simon Dighton, and Ian Emery have entered the Birmingham individuals this year. Ian is currently set to be play John Edge from Halesowen in the Open final. We wish him well...

Warley Quinborne recently came 2nd in the Lightening Tournament at Olton.

As always, new players are always welcome. The club has a thriving pool of recent players. As chess players we are of all standards. It doesn't matter how "good" or "bad" you think you are, you are very welcome to come along and play a few friendlies... The more experienced players are always willing to play with and give advice ...

I came across this video about 10 Hidden Features of Lichess that folks might find interest. Among other things, there is a hidden Space Invaders type game that appears when a Lichess link is faulty...

We are now playing at The Crosswells Inn Oldbury. Full details can be found from the ABOUT US tab


It was perhaps sad that we have had to move on, but a chess club is made up of the people who play chess and not embodied in the venue itself. Many clubs have experienced dislocations in recent years because of the changing economic nature of the places we gather in – usually pubs and social clubs. South Birmingham had to move but when one recalls their dedicated chess room with books and photos of chess players, it seemed like they would always be there forever – as it is, their new venue is superior IMO. As chess players we should know that flexibility in how we adjust to the unfolding moves on the board has counterpoints in real life. I make this the seventh venue we have played in since Warley and Quinborne clubs merged to form Warley Quinborne in 1977. I found myself reading Alan Burnett's piece again from our history page where he describes the then Warley Secretary Dave Rowe making moves towards a very successful merger.

The club has always been blessed with dedicated secretaries who have served the membership. John Fahy has done well driving the club forward and finding our club venue. The pub itself is one I remember myself, being the one I visited from my nearby workplace, Albright & Wilson, on a Friday afternoon. A&W is now no more and another reminder of the world forever changing. It occurs to me that the new venue has the advantage of easier access for older and disabled people because our previous venue required some stair climbing. Another advantage is that the bar for drink ordering is closer; something not unrelated to the previous observation.

AND YES, WE DO NEED TO PATRONISE THE BAR AND BUY VISITING PLAYERS A DRINK IN ORDER TO SOLIDIFY THIS AS VENUE. THE  LONG TERM ALTERNATIVE IS TO PAY RENT AND INCUR INCREASED MEMBERSHIP FEES. AND YES, WE ALSO NEED TO POLICE THE PENNY PINCHING DRINKS BOTTLE BRINGERS WHO CANNOT FATHOM CHESS CLUB ECONOMICS BECAUSE THEY CANNOT SEE FURTHER THAN THEIR OWN PRIVATE SIXTY FOUR SQUARES UNIVERSES.

We were sad to hear of the demise of Eric Horwill of Stourbridge Chess Club.

Our club observed a minute's silence last Thursday. Eric did a lot for chess. Among other things he was involved with the Dudley League. I (Simon Smith) participated in the Dudley and Bremen exchange programme during the late 1990s. Eric was the leader of the chess part of this sports exchange that made this possible. This involved visiting Bremen for chess and other cultural related activities that also involved hosting the Bremen Chess Club to the borough of Dudley in alternate years. I must say this cultural exchange over a several years has been one of the most memorable events in my life. Chess can be a very solitary pursuit for many but it is only possible as a cultural activity by the efforts of people such as Eric who served the chess community. Chess is mostly a voluntary activity and is only possible by the efforts of such publicly minded individuals...

Below picture shows Julie Wilson - another chess community stalwart - presenting an award to Eric:


Stourbridge Chess Club reports:
Stourbridge chess club stalwart Eric Horwill passed away at home in the early hours of 11th October 2025. Eric’s health had been deteriorating since the Summer. He was 92. Eric first joined Stourbridge chess club in 1946. His brother and father were also members. Throughout his life he has worked tirelessly to support the chess club, having served as club president and captained numerous teams. He also organised the Dudley chess exchange with Bremen Germany which was part of a wider sports exchange. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the exchange, Eric walked from Dudley to Bremen ! Besides being an excellent attacking chess player. He was also an international race-walker.

In the club blitz on Thursday 28th August, the elephants will be getting 3 minutes and 2 seconds per move; gnats 6 minutes and 2 seconds a move, while baby elephants and bigger insects will be getting times controls somewhere in between... Kick off is at 7.30/7.45pm.


Contact details for the secretary John Fahy, Club Secretary, and myself (Simon Smith), webmaster can be accessed from the ABOUTUS tab on the top left of this page.

One of the elephants taking part in the club blitz will be Candidate Master, Simon Dighton. I asked Simon to give a summary of his chess career. It makes for very interesting reading:


            It is difficult to remember where and when I first started playing chess but I do remember Fischer v Spassky in 1972 and this must have been the catalyst. In particular I remember the first match being explained on TV, especially when Fischer played ...Bxh2 and lost his Bishop and the game. The following year I went to secondary school where the chess club was very active and strong - old boys include IM John Piggott (whose sister coincidentally married my brother), and much further back in time Leonard Barden. The school chess in those days ran a Sunday Times competition which was a handicap based on age. My movement through the school teams was accelerated as due to someone in the team being sick, I was drafted into the first team on the basis of being around 11/12 years old (and hence helping our handicap). I won against all expectations against a 6th former allowing our team to progress to the next round. From that moment on I moved into the first team and played 5 minute chess most lunch times.

        I massively benefitted from the English chess explosion at the time. There was a good framework of junior tournaments and weekend congresses. Looking back at the junior tournaments now (the largest ones were in London sponsored by Lloyds Bank, Evening Standard and the BCF) the quality was tremendous. During that time I played the likes of future GM's such as Julian Hodgson (+1,=1), James Plaskett (+1), Joe Gallagher(=9/7?-4/2?), John Levitt(+1,=3), Daniel King(=1), Tony Kosten(+1), Peter Wells (-1), Mark Hebden (the bane of my chess career - lost 5 times and turned down a draw in my first game and had an easy win in the second, -5), Keith Arkell (=2? - Keith will probably know!),  Stuart Conquest (+1,=2,-1), John Emms (=1), Glenn Flear (-1) and many others + the IM's of the day such as Bellin and Pritchett (=3). The high points were winning the Charlton Open, 2nd= in Evening Standard Open (drawing with IM's Robert Bellin, and Craig Pritchett, beating Tony Kosten on the Friday night and ending up with 4.5/6 - Tony Kosten recovered to win with 5/6), winning a London Open Rapidplay, 4= British U18, and being selected to play for England in a simul against Karpov (and it still rankles that I lost even if he was world champion!). In retrospect although I had no formal coaching (which was a shame) there were many strong players around. I also benefitted from working with Bob Wade on several projects including photocopying hundreds of games to help Korchnoi prepare for his match against Karpov - Bob's chess library was huge & occasionally luminaries such as Jon Speelman would drop in - and slaughter me at 5min, no contest.

        Sadly when I went to university in 1982 I started to play less and enjoyed the other delights - I would say wine, women, and song but no one likes my singing (it's awful) and there was a lot more beer than anything else. After the first term with a slowdown in results due to less play and getting used to university life I stopped playing. I think looking back I was too focussed on the result which gave too many emotional swings, and I am sure also prevented me from doing better. In tournaments at that time I was overly nervous about the outcome / was I winning or losing etc. I don't have many regrets but in hindsight I wish I had the emotional maturity to accept a lower performance from myself so I could continue playing rather than stopping because I couldn't get the results I thought I was capable of.

        I think my final game was somewhere around the beginning of 1983 even though I did have a good result at Hastings Challengers (the first year I played I got 50%, the second time I think I finished in the top 10 with something like 6.5 or 7 out of 10 - 1982/83 was probably the weakest year for the Challengers although I did play Andy Martin, Neil Bradbury, Gary Dawson, Keith Arkell so it wasn't too shabby).

        I always kept an interest in the game & stayed good friends with John Richardson ( a previous U18 British Champion) and coincidentally Amrit (Mik) Singh as we both played squash. In the mid / late 90's John said his team were short of a player for a forthcoming 4NCL match and would I help out. Drawing my first game and averting a team whitewash started me back on playing once again. This time round though desperately rusty & with opening knowledge from the 1970's I resolved to try and make myself difficult to beat and resist taking short draws. Between 1998 and 2004 I got an ELO from playing in the 4NCL at about 2250 and although it declined slightly (as people started to prepare against me, rather than having an equal battle) I still kept the ranking at around 2230. I also played for Warwickshire for a season at number 1 and won a couple of Opens (although they were not strongly contested, good players but no big names).

        Most importantly though Mik persuaded me to join Warley Q. There were many familiar faces from today in the team back then - too numerous to mention and it does feel like coming home now that I am playing again. It was difficult playing again - there was a temptation to rush the game and try to force the position rather than waiting a bit more and allowing things to develop. Once I rediscovered some patience better results started to flow - although I think it was over a year before I beat someone graded above 2000 with the queens still on the board! Warley Q were just in a period of renaissance - we staved off relegation on the final day of the season against Bushbury - a loss would send us down, a draw would take us into a playoff with Bushbury and a win would see us safe. A close match saw us after adjournment winning 3.5 v 2.5. Things took off after that. IM Geoff Lawton joined mainly playing home games (I had a lot of blacks that season!), Alket Tarifa (now in New York!) entered midway through and got progressively stronger with Malcolm Hunt, Dave Cooper (captaining the team expertly), Mike Fox, Mike Wildboar, Brian Whitehouse & Simon Smith giving us a formidable team - & Tony Miles coming round to the house to help the team with adjournments - definitely a secret trump card that paid huge dividends in saving a few matches. Delightfully we won the League 1 title for the first time in WQ history - heady days!

        As we got into the early 2000's there seemed less time for chess and again I stood back from the game - although with fond memories & a desire to play again once things got less busy. I still kept an interest in chess by solving puzzles in the newspaper etc to keep the mind ticking over but coming back to play in 2025 after over 20 years without a game still feels like a bit of a shock! Now mainly retired but with a desire to keep my brain active returning to the battleground is a delight. I still don't like losing but want to broaden my chess knowledge - the actual time I played from say 1972 to 1983 and 1999 to 2004 is quite brief and there are definite gaps in my understanding of some positions (but I am not saying which ones!). I think the experience of playing in the mid 90's / early 2000's has benefitted me and made me a tougher player to beat, at least that it what I keep telling myself. I now want to keep improving and seeing where that takes me strength wise whilst also not putting any pressure on myself by setting targets - more about whether I can improve playing certain type of positions, can I improve my endgames, & can I contribute to the team and play wherever John tells me to. I had no idea when returning to the Board what strength I would be. The game has certainly changed, more tactical, and much deeper opening knowledge so I think it will take me some time to get up to strength but hopefully I will make steady progress.

        Happily although unknown to myself at the time having my grade from FIDE events (in my case the 4 NCL)  being over 2200 over something like 30 games has allowed me to claim the title of Candidate Master. To do so I recently contacted the English Chess Federation and asked them to apply to FIDE on my behalf. Despite the claim being made 20 years retrospectively they did so and I was awarded my title earlier this year. There are currently something like 3,000 candidate maters in the world, 9,000 Fide masters, 4,000 International masters & 2,000 grandmasters. Being titled means I get free premium membership on chess.com, allows me to advertise coaching on the platform (I haven't done) and allows me to play in the titled Tuesday competition which gives me a chance to play Carlsen et al!

August

2025

I have created a separate webpage for this article. It can be accessed from the the  club history page  in the ABOUT US tab.

Simon has provided a game against Keith Arkell from the Hastings Challengers back in 1983. He writes, I am not sure it stands up to today's computer analysis, but it felt like a decent battle at the time. I will put this in the GAMES section, accessible through the tab at the top and also here.

Our 7400-max rapid-play team have claimed this summer's title with just one fixture left to play.
https://lms.englishchess.org.uk/lms/event/7677/table

Despite just being four per team, eight different players have answered the call. Given the league title, I believe this confirms our strength in depth. Our Birmingham League Division One relegation last season owed much to the sad demise of Andy Southall. Nevertheless, I had the feeling that we were still unlucky to be relegated. But we march on. I note that (modest) Simon Dighton can be seen as a Candidate Master from his CM title in the list of Warley Quinborne players. Simon is also a top veteran cyclist. I spoke to a neighbour of mine who takes an interesting in cycling and he mentioned that he had heard of him.

Our 6600-max team also featured eight different players, again demonstrating our club depth. They look like finishing towards the top as well.


It is always gratifying to hear from other clubs who read our website. David Rudd from Hertford Chess Club recently contacted us with regard to an old newspaper article involving our two chess clubs in the national championships:

Simon/John,

Please forgive this unsolicited e-mail.  My name is David Rudd and I help with the running of Hertford Chess Club.  Our main Club officials … Andrew and Alan are copied. We have recently been trawling through old local newspaper archives as we piece together a version of the history of our Chess Club.The attached article references our first dip into the National Team competition in 1993.  I thought that you might appreciate a copy and perhaps add it to your own history records.  Your players are named, and that might kindle a few memories.You might also enjoy the ‘cannabis article’.  Happy days.
With best regards,

Dave

The article at the bottom of the clipping mentions J Naylor, A Southall, R Thomas, J Edge, D Cooper, and M Wildboar playing for Warley Quinborne.

This is a good time for any prospective members to come forward. We have our all-play-all summer blitz coming up soon. A good time to play against all the club players.

The BBC's Chess Masters: The Endgame is understandably drawing flak from we chess purists. Despite the contrived diversity, the promotion of trash talking, and jokes about bashing the bishop, it might be welcomed if it does encourage greater chess participation.


There should be more actual board focus so that viewers can appreciate the subtle rather than the extraneous WWF narrative the BBC bring to us. What's next though I wonder:
Walk-on music?
"Security" guys from "Storage Wars" separating players nearly "coming to blows"?

Perhaps people are drawn to chess because of the inner beauty and not because there are people who look like them playing it. The BBC are missing the point and insulting the intelligence of people who might be attracted to chess by pitching their effort at many people who will never be interested in chess...

Let's compare with the older BBC Master Game and a time when they tried to educate rather than patronise their viewers

This may be the greatest demonstration of chess prophylaxis by one of us ever performed. You may have the right genes for chess but if you are not wearing the right jeans it is more problematic than facing doubled rooks on the seventh rank...Alex Holowczak as tournament controller prevented Magnus Carlsen from playing in December because of a dress-code violation. And quite right too in my opinion.
(Thanks to Jon Turner for bringing this to my attention...)


Why should Carlsen be the prima donna exception? Unfortunately this caused a problem for the tournament sponsors who forced their organisers to curtsy towards Carlsen's specialness. I confess to having mixed feelings on this. I share Carlsen's apparent loathing of formal wear, but I doubt if the rules "U" turn would have been implemented for most of the other players. I understand Magnus Carlsen likes a game of football. How would it sit with other players if instead of wearing shorts, he wore jeans when he was playing that?

Warley Quinborne's longest standing member and treasurer for many years, Brian Whitehouse has recently passed on. Brian is survived by his wife Margaret, two daughters, Sally and Elizabeth and two sons, John and James, as well as a number of grandchildren. Jon Turner has said he will pass on the funeral details in due course...

Any reminiscences of Brian will be gratefully received and published on this website. As a long standing member myself  — Simon Smith —  I will offer some of my own recollections:

Brian was of course a professional musician:
Brian Whitehouse the School's principal, was appointed Guitar Tutor to the Birmingham Conservatoire in 1973 and has also taught for the Universities of Birmingham Aston, Coventry, Wolverhampton and Keele, the Birmingham Junior School of Music and Schools of King Edward VI. He has worked as a specialist examiner of Diploma and Advanced Certificate candidates for The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and Trinity College of Music in London.

http://www.guitarschool.co.uk/aboutteachers/brian_whitehouse.html

As such, he was once a perfect host for Mark Taimanov — himself a concert pianist — who had famously lost to Bobby Fischer in a candidates match. An April 19th 2023 article below this includes a picture of Brian and other Warley Quinborne players at a simul given by Taimanov.

Brian of course was a first team member and one of the strongest members of the club for over half a century. Any games played by Brian that others have would be gratefully received. Brian loved to recount stories of times gone by which he would accompany with a smile and chuckle. He is recalled himself, in an email to the website from Peter Hughes:
After our chat at WQ I have been thinking about the history of Smethwick/Warley CC where I was a member from 1962 to 1976 meeting throughout at Bearwood Road school in Ethel Street. I joined on leaving school and found a younger teen Brian Whitehouse already in the first team…

http://warleyquinborne.co.uk/history.html 

One of Brian’s favourite stories was how as a schoolboy he was interrupted in an exam by an invigilating schoolmaster with a chess set. Brian recalls being flabbergasted and concerned that he would flunk the exam if he accepted the invitation to play, but the teacher said to him something like, Who do you think is marking the exam boy?

In recent years Brian had given me a lift to an away match. It had rained during the evening then on the way home the temperature dropped rapidly, freezing the road. The car couldn’t make it to the top of the road because of poor traction. Fortunately, we were fairly close to home. Recollections like this in their totality form the memories of former times of those whom are no longer with us. I will miss his schoolboy like chuckling over the chess playing of times gone by...

I've done a little housekeeping on the site, noting that for January 2025 - as last year - matches will start at 7pm. This is repeated from the ABOUT US  - tab above. Links have been updated and streamlined. Knowing that many of us play other games as well as chess, I would draw folks' attention to the Goldtoken.com website - listed in links - that gives a plethora of other online games including the likes of draughts, backgammon, and various card games.

Some of us played a little backgammon at the club before we "broke up" for Christmas. It turns out that Steve Moxley is a national level backgammon player; he's kept that quiet! Steve was teaching us some of the finer points of the game. I learnt that the play often has to be understood over a number of individuals games that not only includes the probabilities of the two dice, but also factors in other probabilities involving the "doubling cube". The club is open on the 2nd January 2025 for chess and perhaps a little backgammon as well.

Chess-wise, in Birmingham Div 1, we are just above the drop zone. In Wolverhampton Div 1 and Div 2 we are mid-table, while in Div 3 we are in third place. Nick Glover and Iain Kings are sporting excellent results. I've directly linked the Birmingham League Individual tournaments from the FIXTURES tab, so the progress of Ian Emery, Phil Maybury, and Iain Kings can be followed.

As always, Warley Quinborne Chess Club welcomes players of all ages and abilities. Along with chess in three different leagues, "friendlies" are also played in a room set aside from the "serious stuff" where discussion of the games in play, and already played, is welcome. Prospective players can either contact the club secretary or just turn up on the night. We play on the upper floor of The Stag And Three Horseshoes in one of best chess venues in the West Midlands.

Club President, Pauline Woodward, presents various trophies at the recent club AGM. Ray's acceptance photo should win a competition for some category of its own, but I'm not sure which one.... (I confess to being defeated again by the inability to turn certain images around, hence a couple of Phil with his own trophy haul are missing...)

From the AGM minutes:
The Secretary reported on a very successful season as evidenced by the trophies on display once again, with Phil Maybury heavily involved in all. Our first team in BDCL Div2 have won promotion back to BDCL Div 1 at the first attempt and also secured the Homer Trophy although not without huge helping hand from the BDCL Div 2 second team who contributed to 2 1/2 pts in the Final. Unfortunately the Div2 second team have been relegated to Div3 after a hard fought battle. The BDCL Div5 team finished as one of the three strongest teams, holding up all the other teams takes some doing !! JB Lewis scored a very good 4 ½ /9.

In WDCL Div 1 we finished a credible 3rd beaten only by the top two teams. The WDCL Div 2 team had a tough season, although Phil Maybury was unbeaten in 6 games. As too did the Div 3 team although Nick Glover scored 4/4.

Phil Maybury followed up last season’s win in the WDCL League’s Individual Bidgood Trophy by winning it again this year !! Added to that he also took Individual honours in the BDCL max1900 competition beating our own Jon Turner in the Final, in what was an exciting game where the result was in the balance right to the end. Iain Kings finished runner-up in the max1450 BDCL event.

John Fahy writes: WQ had won the Top Prize in the Stag raffle - a Goodie filled Basket - aimed at raising funds towards a locally sited Defibrillator. A draw was made from the Prize Goodie Basket for all in attendance last night - the remaining Goodies must go on WQ Blitz night, Thursday 29^th August 2024 don't miss it ??

The annual blitz competition is this coming Thursday 29th August. This is usually the best social evening of the year. It is ideal for prospective members who are very welcome to come along and meet many of the club's players. As always new folk are always welcome.


I've been watching a few of Ben Finegold's video's on YouTube. My first inkling of his existence came from a thread entitled Is Ben Finegold As Big A Jerk As He Seems In His Videos, in the chess.com forums. His humour is often biting. Here is his channel: https://www.youtube.com/@GMBenjaminFinegold

A useful and obvious piece of advice he gives that in order to get better one has to play lots of games then analyse them after. Finegold is dismissive of paid coaches given the advances in chess engines. All one has to do to get better is play a lot and analyse after. I recognise this advice because over years it has become obvious to me that merely partaking in the theoretical works of chess, including opening and middlegame study — while interesting — is no substitute for playing and analysing one's own games. Here is Finegold on the subject in hand:


I found it telling that Keith Arkell in the introduction to his endgame book mentions he only ever skim read endgame books himself, which certainly might give the reader pause for thought. I have certainly enjoyed the aesthetic side of chess over the years, but I reckon after a while, one needs to pay attention to one's own games rather than the game of the masters of old. After all, our own games are those that engage us more emotionally... Following on from this, I believe hero-worship of certain players is a sign of immaturity that one should try and avoid. One should try and cut one's own path through life in general rather than constantly following in my opinion.

Chess.com certainly provides the game review feature. Along with this, I also recommend downloading a game from chess.com and importing into Lichess.org for analysis. This is something I have been doing myself recently. Win or lose, there is always something to learn from post-game analysis. The import game feature on Lichess can be accessed via the TOOLS tab on their site.

Warley Quinborne continues to compete in multiple leagues. Currently we are playing in the 5800-max, 6600-max, and 7400-max  Birmingham Summer League Rapid-play divisions. When the Autumn fixtures commence, we'll have teams in: Division One and Three of the Birmingham League; Divisions One, Two, and three of the Wolverhampton League; and Division Three of the Dudley league.

Would like to politely remind all visiting Chess players NOT to bring their own drinks to our venue. As a licensed venue, drinks either hot or cold etc are available to purchase. This is a joint notice from both the venue and the Chess club.
People bringing their own drinks may be asked to leave the venue immediately.

It is hoped that the whole club will support this. No one likes to be confrontational on these matters, but turning a blind eye is simply putting all responsibility on the shoulders of the club officials. Looking the other way is the easiest thing in the world, but it betrays those who work for the club on a voluntary basis as well as compromising our own status at an excellent venue. So if EVERYONE of us - not just John Fahy or Phil Maybury - can lend a hand on policing this it will share the load. It is my understanding that visiting teams for the immediate future will be reminded of this, so just bringing in drinks is an indication of disrespect for our club anyway. Maybe bringing the visiting team's captain's attention to any bootleggers in his or her team might be the best intial response.

Our first teams are currently second from top in Birmingham Division 2 and in Wolverhampton Division 1. Our recent win over Walsall Kipping, a fellow relagatee in recent years, was a close affair that saw Mik Singh and Iain Kings score crucial wins to keep our promotion challenge on track. Warley Quinborne B in Bham Division 2 are second from bottom, while our Birmingham Division 5 are in bottom position with two games in hand over fellow strugglers. In the Wolverhampton League, our Div 2 and Div 3 teams are mid table...

In the Birmingham U1900 individual, there is the possibility of an all Warley Quinborne final if Phil Maybury beats Mike Hollier and Jon Turner beats David Smith:
https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/league_comp/144571/swtable

Meanwhile Iain Kings is in the semifinal of the U1450, a competition that due to his increasing grade will be his only chance to win this title:
https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/league_comp/144574/swtable

I just thought I'd show off my new coloured chess set. You can buy various colours from the London Chess Centre for a fiver for each half-set; you choose a light and dark colour. The position features the closing moves of a very famous game. White - or yellow - to play and win:


Far be it from me to start a conspiracy theory...but I was looking at the Birmingham And District Chess League website, noting the 1897 date and the league's coat of arms...So Bham official Dave Thomas invented a time machine...

MATCHES  START AT 7.00 PM PROMPT FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE.
THIS IS BECAUSE OF THE NEW PUB CLOSING TIME. WE HAVE NO ROOM FOR FLEXIBILITY HERE!

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Over the last few years I've increasingly become aware of the observance of manners, or the lack thereof; both from club to club and from player to player. Put simply, as chess players, we are absolutely dependent on our opponents to further our enjoyment of chess. For some however, opposition means the opportunity to give a limp handshake and to not consider the visiting player worthy of offering a drink to. One club, who I will not name, not only didn't offered a drink, but there was no place to buy a drink either. Their own players however, did come equipped with flask and drinks bottles. The thing is, we as visiting players had no idea what the drinks arrangements were. I was quite angry about it. On the other hand, there are clubs who go the extra mile, and it is appreciated. Recent opponents Rushall, in a Wolverhampton League match, handed around mince pies. A nice touch in my opinion.

No one expects youngsters to get drinks for a visiting players, but I need to vent at those penny pinching players who refuse what was a traditional courtesy. If you can’t be bothered to offer your opponent a drink who has travelled for your mutual enjoyment of chess then you are that little less a human being in my book; yes, it has been noticed and yes, you are a miserable skinflint. Related to this is players who bring their own drinks, despite the fact that many clubs are offered the venue in a pub or club on the basis that all of those visiting the venue put something back to those supplying the room and facilities. Chess on one level is a solitary pursuit but it should surely not obviate the courtesies that a playing community should observe in my opinion.

Well done for Mik Singh for his third place at Hasting over the new year. It is always worth casting a eye on the ECF's tournament calander for what conresses and one day events are coming.

Derek Ellesmore was the only winner in our recent 5-1 debacle to South Birmingham "A". I've added his fine game with black, fighting against the Tarrasch French variation. This can be seen in the GAMES section, linked above.

The previous year, as always, was good for playing chess. There is always a good time for playing chess! We remember those players who are no longer with us. New players of whatever strength are always welcome to come along. Please see the ABOUT US tab - top left of this website.

WQ "A" took a hammering at the hands of South Birmingham "A" last Wednesday. South Birmingham has the most chess themed surround of any club I know. There are photographs of old players, hundreds of chess books, and a display board. Among many humourous chess cartoons on display, there is an article from the English Chess Federation that caught my eye. This is part of it, with a link at the end:

MASTER POINTS TITLES
There are six categories of award with equivalent classes as below (with reference to  the USCF rating class system)

English National Master – minimum rating 2200 ECF standardplay
The player must maintain an average listed rating at, or above, the minimum rating for a period of 24 months, with a total game count of 60 games or more in the 24-month qualifying period.

English Regional Master – minimum rating 2100 ECF standardplay
The player must maintain an average listed rating at, or above, the minimum rating for a period of 24 months, with a total game count of 60 or more games in the 24-month qualifying period.

English County Master (Category 1/Expert) – minimum rating 2000 ECF standardplay
The player must maintain an average listed rating at, or above, the minimum rating for a period of 24 months, with a total game count of 60 games or more in the 24-month qualifying period.

English Club Master (Class A) – minimum rating 1800 ECF standardplay
The player must maintain an average listed rating at, or above, the minimum rating for a period of 12 months, with a total game count of 30 games or more in the 12-month qualifying period.

English Team Master (Class B) – minimum rating 1600 ECF standardplay
The player must reach the minimum listed rating as an average over a 12 month period, with a total game count of 30 games or more in the 12-month qualifying period.

English Chess Maestro (Class C) – minimum rating 1400 ECF standardplay
The player must reach the minimum listed rating as an average over a 12 month period, with a total game count of 30 games or more in the 12-month qualifying period.

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/master-points-system/

Originally the term master, specifically grandmaster, was a honorary title bestowed upon Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch, and Marshall at the 1914 St Petersburg tournament by the tsar of Russia....

Unknowingly, the tsar was responsible for the often asked question on chess forums among beginner players, How do I become a grandmaster? (For some reason, the questioner always reminds of a young bird with its mouth open, waiting for the mother bird to give it a worm.)

The simple answer of course is to play and love chess, but the questioner I believe is often more interested in the status they hope for than its realisation through a simple love of the game. Of course, chess titles present a target on one's back, particularly since they persist long after one has attained them.

Perhaps the  tsar had learnt from another and earlier emperor, Napoleon, who had said: A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of coloured ribbon. In the martial arts, various coloured belts can be attained. They are analogous to chess titles. Belts and titles are of course inducements for participation - read payment, as much as skill. There has therefore been an interesting application of psychology applied to those who seek recognition - and who doesn't - in exchange for maybe political or monetary gains by the bestowers of coloured belts, chess titles, or war medals...

As for myself, apparently I'm an English Club Master, Class A, or I would be if I deemed the prestige worth bunging a fiver to the ECF. In any case I'm big enough a man to still fraternise with the lowlier classified  players...After all, some of my best friends are merely Team Masters or even lowlier Chess Maestros ....I'm no snob...

Warley Quinborne's first teams in the Birmingham and Wolverhampton League have made a strong start. The aim of course is to get promotion to division one in the Bham League. There is an old saying: there's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip. A few seasons ago when were we in division two, I was waiting for Andy Southall to pick me up. I forgot about this important end of season promotion match. Andy travelled on without me; fortunately we won despite my oversight and default. Ironically, I was playing chess online at the time! Another bizarre reason for me not playing was I was once out of my way out while my key got stuck in my front door. Again, I had to shout to Andy out of my window that I was waiting for a locksmith and so couldn't play.

Warley Quinborne's other teams are just about staying above the dreaded "dotted line" that football fans face with dread.

All remarked on what an enjoyable club evening November 9th was: our Birmingham Division 2 first team beat Shirley 4.5 to 1.5, while our Wolverhampton League Division Two side beat Bushbury 3.5 to 0.5 - Jon Turner getting a good draw against the very strong Lee Grinsell. I always feel that for a middle size club, we are strong in depth.

We are well represented in the Birmingham League individual tournaments. Iain Kings is in the U1450, John B Lewis is in the U1600, while Phil Maybury and Ian Emery are in the U1900. We can track all our players via the LINKS tab or here etc.

***

A recent email exchange between Warley Quinborne players centred on grade tracking. Mik Singh keeps an Excel spreadsheet from game to game, together with notes on his games:



***

One of the pleasures of chess is that one can play from schoolboy or schoolgirl to pensioner. If one is at the same club for one's whole chess life, there is a likelihood that the people one knows for the longest time are fellow chess players. I will say en passant that chess for an ostensibly introverted game where everyone often doesn't talk, strangely encourages a very enjoyable social aspect to the game before and after the "action".

England currently boasts a couple of world senior champions in the 50+ and 65+ brackets. The ECF reports:

Congratulations to England’s Michael Adams and John Nunn, who both became World Senior chess champions yesterday in Terrasini, Sicily, Italy. Despite both being the top seeds in their respective sections, neither had it all their own way...

My own experience of older players is that by and large we maintain our general intelligence. That we play chess may be no accident. I came across this article, whose title is Frequent Brain Stimulation In Old Age Reduces Risk Of Alzheimer's Disease . It begins:

Newswise — How often old people read a newspaper, play chess, or engage in other mentally stimulating activities is related to risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published June 27, 2007, in the online edition of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

For the study, more than 700 people in Chicago, IL, with an average age of 80 underwent yearly cognitive testing for up to five years. Participants were part of the Rush Memory and Aging Project, a longitudinal study of more than 1,200 older people. Of the participants, 90 developed Alzheimer's disease. Researchers also performed a brain autopsy on the 102 participants who died.

The study found a cognitively active person in old age was 2.6 times less likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer's disease than a cognitively inactive person in old age. This association remained after controlling for past cognitive activity, lifetime socioeconomic status, and current social and physical activity.

Researchers say the findings may be used to help prevent Alzheimer's disease...

***

There is a rare weekend tournament in the Birmingham area next weekend: Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th. One or two Warley Quinborne players have already entered. It would be good to see more coming along other than those already listed .

I recall observing to Pauline Woodward and John Fahy on the way to Andy Southall's funeral that the games we play and recorded, are a small part of our lives. History often seems misleadingly portrayed as a serious of battles, but they are what we often remember historical figures for. For we chess players, games played are these battles. Here is a game played by the then two clubs represented by Alan Burnet and Mike Wildboar. (How has Mike ever avoided being called Mike “Wildboard” I wonder?)  I give the scoresheet as recorded by Alan, as well as in the GAMES section tab.)

A good few years before the merger of Warley and Quinborne, the two clubs played each other in the Birmingham League. Alan Burnet was the last of the Quinborne players to leave us. John Packenham too, another recent loss to the club, was also a Quinborne player. Since John's passing I was informed that he tended to refer to Warley AND Quinborne as though the two clubs were a courting couple rather than married. Whether it be chess or life, one of the big challenges is how we preserve what is good while adopting the genuinely progressive. The genius of chess is to train the mind to discriminate these tendencies in the 64 squared theatre. I recall the chess organiser Bruce Holland describing how chess players make more decisions over a weekend than many folk do in a lifetime. He was of course referring to those "life and death" decisions at the chess board that are as real and intense at the time as the menacing discordant notes of a horror movie.

Maybe the games we play reflect something of our personality. Alan as a younger man would have played Mike while Mike was still a schoolboy at Holly Lodge. Alan would beat Mike in this game, but as the two grew older, it would be Mike who would be regarded as the stronger player. Alan played the conservative Ruy Lopez. A strong no nonsense traditional opening while Mike responds with a more progressive interpretation that could have given him a slight advantage by 7...Nf6 rather than 7... f6.  (For those of you watching in black and white, the scoresheet notation is not in Latin but descriptive notation...)

Nevertheless, Mike castles queenside, which is usually where the Wildboard king finds a home even fifty years later. After castling, the engine really dislikes black...and then it gets worse for him. This is not a high level game but it does illustrate a very important point that I know Mike and I have spoken of in the past: "pawn levers". The terminology garnered from Han Kmoch’s idiosyncratic but useful “Pawn Power In Chess”.

Here the attack against black's king is facilitated by black's advanced queenside pawns and the "lever" moves a4,b4,b5, opening up the black king's position. I have come to believe the essence of closed and semi open positions are these potential lever mechanisms. When encountering new opening systems, our analyses should be informed by this point.

***

I don’t know about anyone else, but when a chess forum question asks, “Who is your favourite player?”, I have given the observation that a grown man should not wear the name of another man on the back of his football shirt. By the same token, my favourite chess player, is well, “me”. The decision to live vicariously through another might partially explain the attention doted on young chess players and footballers.

While following the Harry Kane mania, I discovered that Bayern Munich have a chess page:

https://fcbayern.com/schach/de

“He's one of our own,
He's one of our owwwwn,
Harry Kane, he's one of our own.”

On the international stage, Alex Holowczak socks it to Nakamura:

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=351933680688761

Thanks to Phil Maybury for that link

“He's one of our own,
He's one of our owwwwn,
Alex Holowczak, he's one of our own.”

Secretary John Fahy reports on the traditional blitz tournament:

As usual a great night was had at the annual WQ Blitz. 

Members in contention included three previous winners all trying to close the gap on the absent multiple Champion - Ian Emery.

In an all play all round robin - Iain Kings emerged in the front ranks after a couple of rounds, whilst others struggled to get off the mark !! and one never did 🥴 no name mentioned to save my blushes 🤭.

With the top four going through to the semi-finals there was much to play for and after a couple of early losses Marvellous Maybury clicked into gear picking up 4 straight wins. 

Mike Wildboar’s infectious chuckle kept everyone’s spirits high and he moved with menace into the semi’s. 

I’m out cries Mik - with a round to spare - I’m sure that would’ve been music to the Emery ears if he could hear it - there’s always next year Mik to add to your tally.

In the final round robin Simon needed a win and someone to falter, but not Rev Jon although surely with divine intervention in a win over pace setter Callum 😲. Simon duly wins and Phil is denied a place in the semi’s on head to head count back.

And so the semifinals - a quickish win for Simon as Mike makes an illegal move !! And Jon can’t repeat the trick against Callum this time.

In a thrilling masterclass from Callum of opening lines for inventive chess, Simon after a brave struggle is mated.

Callum retains the trophy and has Ian’s tally in his sights 👀.

***

Warley Quinborne "A" met Warley Quinborne "B" for the first fixture of this type for some years. Our Birmingham division five are off to an excellent start with a win over Walsall Kipping. I see no reason why they shouldn't set their sights on promotion to division four even at this early stage. Our Wolverhampton division one side are looking to defend the title after an excellent victory over a strong Wolverhampton side, while our Wolverhampton division three side kicked off with a win over Bushbury.

***

I've attended to a little housekeeping on the website: the ABOUTUS tab now reflects Phil Maybury role as assistant club secretary, and subscriptions have also been updated. On the FIXTURE tab, I've updated to reflect our current teams. On our LINKS tab, I've updated the links for other chess clubs.

"It's like a game of chess out there...", is an observation that the late Mike Fox and Warley Quinborne player observer in his journalism. This is a description often suggesting an intelligent planning aspect tied to a slow boring over studious attempt to gain victory by relying on more than the natural skills and strengths of players. Prior to the women's world cup final, the chess trope was wheeled out again. Perhaps the world cup final was lost because of insufficient chess sense...

In any case, chess like football teaches us that the joy of victory ultimately will always lead at some stage to defeat. Team and players rise or fall to the level of our abilities. Victory and defeat are both inevitable.

On display at our AGM were a number of trophies won by the club. We also remembered Alan Burnet, Stuart Black, and Andy Southall - players lost to us over the last six months.





I'm grateful to my South Birmingham correspondent, Patrick Duncan, for sending me this article about chess funding:

English chess is set to get a funding boost to help foster young talent.

Bloomberg has reported that the government is to announce £500,000 of funding for the English Chess Federation, alongside plans to expand chess in schools and public parks.

An announcement is expected later this month and the federation said it was in talks with the government over how to best invest in the game.

It said the money was "potentially transformational".

Chess is not officially recognised as a sport in England, which means it can not access funding from Sport England.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66392630

It will be interesting to see whether the money is well spent or not...

As The Summer League Comes To A Close...

There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip i

Now that the winter leagues have finished we must congratulate our Div Three Birmingham side on promotion to Div Two and observe our Div One side have done the football equivalent of winning the FA cup by winning the Wolverhampton league while being suffering regulation from the Premier league of Birmingham. Like all the football fans starved of glory but willing to suffer some pain, I personally will accept that...

Our under 7400 side were overall winners against Mercia by 4 1/2 to 3 1/2 while our open side lost by the same scoreline against Mutual. The open side fixture was indeed a game of two halves. Below is a miniature played by Jon Turner in his 2 to 0 score. It demonstrates a very useful tactic for improving chess players to be aware of. Often the discovered attack will be anticipated by stronger players and form part of their analysis that informs their stronger moves. It is nevertheless educational to see it played out.

Play chess online

I have started on a page devoted to Andy Southall's games that can be accessed from the GAMES tab as well as here

The page will be added to in future, but for now features International Master, Lawrence Cooper's 10 of 19 games with Andy Southall. The second 9 of 19 will be added in due course. Andy of course once gained an IM norm; you need three norms to be recognised as an IM. I imagine being a titled player can be a mixed blessing. It can either act as a frightening accoutrement against timid players or a red rag to a bull for those who wish to show their mettle. Andy's record comes in at a respectable three wins, six losses, and ten draws against Lawrence. They form a partial record of an exceptionally strong club player on the cusp of master level chess against a master.

These games give a flavour of what ordinary club players should aspire to. We may learn from both their good moves and bad. With study we might imagine ourselves playing these games because their level is occasionally within our reach with some effort.

The recent  deaths of Stuart Black, Alan Burnet, and Andy Southall leave the club sad. They will of course be missed by family, friends, and fellow chess playing colleagues. A chess player is a human being before they are a chess player. Chess is usually a small but significant part of most chess players lives. The fame that comes to anyone in chess is solely owed to one's legacy over the board. As mentioned last Saturday, Andy Southall made quite a splash. There have been condolences and the sharing of anecdotes from many players. I have decided to put a special webpage together on Andy's chess playing legacy in the coming days and weeks to share games and reminsciences.

My thanks to David Cooper for finding the below 1989 photograph at
https://theabysmaldepthsofchess.blogspot.com/2020/07/chess-in-80s-6-soviet-in-birmingham.html


From Left to Right: Brian Whitehouse, George Hill, Mike Wildboar, Andy Southall, and Mark Tiamanov
https://www.chessgames.com/player/mark_taimanov.html

Taimanov was a world championship contender from the fifties to the early seventies, famously losing 6 games to 0 against Bobby Fischer and also above, to Andy Southall. I give this encounter in the GAMES section, accessible from the above tabs. Mark Taimanov was hosted by Brian Whitehouse - they both shared a professional interest in music. Website viewers will score bonus points for telling us who the two guys are in the background are as well. Since we're chess players, we like a good puzzle...

***

Warley Quinborne Chess Club are sad to report the passing of two of its longing serving players: Stuart Black and Alan Burnet.

While Stuart’s demise was unexpected, Alan’s demise was something expected and perhaps a glad release from his ongoing condition.

While time ultimately defeats all players, it’s blessing is to bestow character on those it marks. Both players were characters in different ways with a common denominator I will come to.

Stuart was a Manchester United fan. Alan was a West Bromwich Albion fan.

Stuart liked sailing. Alan liked walking.

Stuart had a roguish sense of humour. Alan had a gentlemanly sense of humour.

They were both kind men…

The last time I saw Stuart it was to speak with him downstairs at the Stag and Three Horse Shoes. I’m glad I did because apart from a frequent gruff robust exchange between us and a photograph he took of me, I didn’t really know him. I do recall that Stuart and the late John Packenham would often enjoy a late night drink in Blackheath at the end of a chess evening. In the event he gave me a lift home that night I spent some time with him without me asking for it. I hadn’t known that he had worked in sports photography. I do maintain that chess players as a group are despite an often unfashionable introverted appearance are among the most interesting group of people in the community.

I hadn’t seen Alan for a while now. A few years ago we were frequent team members, often enjoying as we do and will do, a joke on the journey to away matches. I recall Alan and I both playing the Monte Carlo variation against the French Defence for a while and sharing notes on it. (1e4 e6 2d4 d5 3ed ed 4c4.) Alan favoured an the deployment of the king’s knight to e2 while I favoured f3. There is a game of Alan winning against Tim Lane with the Monte Carlo in the GAMES section. Two other games in the section feature a Ruy Lopez and a Najdorf Sicilian - both staples of his repertoire. Alan was the last remaining player from Quinborne prior to its merger with Warley.

 ***

I believe one of the delights of chess is that it removes worrying about the future and provides a refuge in the present…

Warley Quinborne continues to welcome new players such as Richard, Chris, and Jack, along with returning players like Derek Ellesmore and Mike Wildboar. There is a continuing excellent friendly club environment.

The club has just won the Wolverhampton League after Rushall lost to Halesowen on Monday:

http://www.wdclchess.org.uk/blog/?page_id=310

It must be said that while Andy Southall hasn’t played in later matches, his plus score has helped the team over the line. Andy is sorely missed in the first team as we hope to fight our Birmingham League relegation battle. While our division five side looks midtable safe, our division three side is in with a good chance of promotion to division two. The prospect of an A versus B match next season in division two is not something I personally relish. I know chess is not boxing, but I still don’t like serious chess between two teams from my own club.

In the Wolverhampton League Phil Maybury has picked up the BIDGOOD Trophy for his individual success. The first time a club member has done that since its inception in 1962! That John Fahy reported it as the BIGWOOD Trophy is my excuse for an internal joke that Freudian psychology needs little imagination to anticipate.

Our Bham division three side are in danger of promotion. They are third in the table. All players are doing well, and the regulars scoring well over 50%. Our division three strength also explains our resilience in Bham division one; what we lack in named stars, we certainly make up for in terms of strength of depth. Many in our division three team play for our division one side. Of the Wolverhampton league, the division one side is currently on top. Will we remain there? Time will tell...

How many players wheel out the first twenty moves of the Najdorf Sicilian or Ruy Lopez without understanding the significance of the moves? I suspect this is more common among weaker players where they and they opponents are playing an emperor's new clothes type of chess. When an earlier deviation from grandmaster praxis occurs the nakedness of ability is often evident. As a younger player I remember copying Bobby Fischer's repertoire, but many of us did then - a little cringeworthy in retrospect. A far more honest approach is to just play chess rather than openings. But then again, should we ignore standard move orders? To be or not to be, that is the question...

Further to the signature early f4 advances by Mik Singh, his economy of opening study means that questions of objectivity are relegated relative to the subjective "advantage" of knowing the terrain. I've posted a couple of his recent Krazy Gang efforts against the Sicilian Culture Club within the GAMES section.

And speaking of Krazy Gang efforts against the Sicilian, if anyone - including players from other clubs - has any of Andy Southall's Morra Gambit games, please email me the PGN. Andy is one of the nation's leading authorities on this gambit but he doesn't keep his games!!!! It's a real shame because a book could have been put together on this.

The way we each approach the game of chess might say something of our own natures. I have often sought objective truth in the opening with little success. Chess is only in part subject to objective analysis. A great part of chess is purely subjective. A game result may depend on what we have eaten, the journey to the match, or the familiarity with opening schemes we choose relative to our opponents - regardless of their inherit merit.

Two games added to GAMES section - see above tab - represent how two different players that while delighting in the combinative aspect of chess approach the opening differently. Both games are taken from our recent match with Mutual Circle. This was a drawn match that seems a good result bearing in mind Mutual's current position, heading Division One.

The first game is Mik Singh's usual slow burning kingside attack based around his beloved early f4 against most things that black's semi-open responses has to offer. The computer doesn't like white's early setup, but club chess is played between human beings. Knowledge and experience of the strategic motifs is more valuable than the impossibility of finding the objective best moves early on.

The second game features a rare queen for three pieces trade played by Mike Wildboar. It is difficult to know what is going on most of the time; the time limit of club chess is not conducive for the players being able to analyse the game as I expect they might have wanted. Suffice to say, the chess engine puts the position as even after the initial fireworks with white getting the upper hand until - according to the computer - move 35. The prosecution of strategy takes a back seat to the existential reality of where the pieces are at any one time...

I was reminded of a game of Paul Keres versus Bobby Fischer where the latter player as black triumphs with the queen against the pieces in another game of complexity.

Club secretary John Fahy commented in his last circular:


Phil Maybury drew our attention to a Guardian newspaper article, Chess: Hans Niemann chosen to lead USA at World Team Championship, featuring, a former and hopefully future Warley Quinborne player, Alex Holowczak. I'll give an extended copy-paste to provide context:

Hans Niemann is the surprise choice to play top board for the six-player US squad at the World Team Championship in Jerusalem on 19-26 November. It will be the 19-year-old’s first event since launching his $100m lawsuit against the world champion, Magnus Carlsen, and others.

Niemann is nationally ranked only No 8, so it is possible that some of those with higher ratings, including Hikaru Nakamura, who is among those being sued, and the current US champion, Fabiano Caruana, have declined to play in the same squad as the teenager.
Chess 3838
Chess: Niemann sues Carlsen and others for $100m after recovery at St Louis
Read more

However, it is also true that many of the teams announced for Jerusalem are without their top players. That applies particularly to China, which is returning to competition after missing the Olympiad in Chennai but which will field a team consisting entirely of newcomers.

England did not qualify, despite finishing second to the now banned Russians in 2019, the last year the event was held.

There will still be a significant English presence in Alex Holowczak, the chief arbiter. In former times, Leonard Rees was one of the founders of Fide, while Harry Golombek was an arbiter at the 1963 world title match and other major events. At just 32, Holowczak is almost a prodigy by normal arbiting yardsticks, yet he is already a proven success at events such as the Fide Grand Swiss and the online Olympiad.


David Cooper's recent article on WQ's championship year mentioned several notable players. Some of them who have moved on and one or two have departed for good. One player of course was Mike Fox, author of the The Complete Chess Addict and Chess Magazine columnist.

A very warm welcome to a returning player, Mike Wildboar. Mike is not so much a famous former player but a former player of infamous style who unfortunately encouraged me to play the Latvian Gambit longer than I should have done...Mike was often seen near the entrance of dark allies by various chess clubs opening a suitcase of various (dubious) gambits he would try and sell to gullible players; even within the watchful eye of the chess authorities who, with much disapproval, tried unsuccessfully to move him along...What would a world class arbitor do about that? Come back Alex, we need you!

I wonder whether our surnames contain some clue as to the style of chess players we may be? Who knows. This is a question I will try and hammer out an answer to...

I've done a little bit of housekeeping to the website: on the ABOUT_US tab; the PLAYERS tab showing WQ players' gradings - it now links directly to the ECF ratings page; I've updated many links, including the LINKS tab, to open on new pages; and the FIXTURES tab now reflects the current teams playing. 

I note that "ratings" - American English - has now replaced the British English, "gradings" on the ECF page. This is just my opinion, but because a large number of people believe or use one term, doesn't mean that a smaller group should abandon their old lexicon, save that moving with the herd is considered some kind of virtue...


I think it worthwhile reproducing the email from Birmingham general secretary, Tim Lane, that was forwarded to Warley Quinborne members regarding the importance of playing in grade order:

Ladies & Gents,

 

Just a line to say that this season's rules, as printed in the Handbook, are also now available on the BDCL web site (on the "Rules & Docs" page).

 

Please make 100% sure that your team captains are aware of the requirements of the new "100-point" rule (Rule 4) and the revised Rule 8.2 (which was Rule 7.2 last season). There is now an unambiguous definition of a legal board order:

 

Rule 8.2 – "Before the start of each match the opposing captains shall list their players in descending approximate rating order in accordance with Rule 4 [...]".

 

Rule 4.6 – "Where the rules specify that players are to be listed in approximate rating order this condition shall be regarded as satisfied if no player is rated more than 100 points below any player placed lower on the list."

 

Please also be aware of the penalty for out-of-sequence board orders:

 

Rule 15.1 – "A team shall lose a match by default [...] if it shall fail to comply with the requirements of Rules 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 8.2, and 9.4 [...]".

 

Please be completely clear that Rule 15.1 specifies an automatic loss of the match. There is no longer any requirement for the sinned-against team to raise a board-order dispute in the event of an out-of-sequence board order. Out-of-sequence board orders will be detected (and the corresponding penalty applied) by the Hon. Records Secretary.

 

Finally, a couple more things to be aware of:

• August ratings will apply until the end of December.  After that, January ratings apply.  See Rule 4.5.
• An unrated player who acquires a rating at any time during the season will thereafter be regarded as being of that rating for the purposes of Rule 8.2.

We are grateful for David Cooper, a former Warley Quinborne player and our championship team captain, for penning this. David informs me that another former club member, Malcolm Hunt, helped in the detailing of the article; an article that can now be referenced from the history section, via the ABOUT_US tab on the top left of this page:

Warley Quinborne – Division 1 Champions, 2000-2001

With the 1999-2000 season not even half way complete, WQ’s Division 1 side was on its knees and threatened with being disbanded. One year later, it won the title. What happened?

I hasten to add that my decision to answer the call for a new captain in that rocky year had nothing to do with it. Perhaps I helped win the battle against relegation, but that’s about it.

The early signs of recovery owed a great deal to Mike Fox’s Checkmate junior club. Thanks to Tony Miles’ patronage, we were able to take advantage of Leicestershire’s IM Geoff Lawton’s interest when he resumed OTB chess. Malcolm Hunt, one of Tony Miles’ old schoolmates who had had an even longer break from the game, also turned up, along with Simon Dighton who had evidently been putting career first for many years after a highly promising spell when a junior. Club regular Andy Southall was no longer on the county and congress scene following his marriage, but he was still not far off his peak. The team was becoming settled.

What made the difference as the new season dawned? Not so much Ameet Ghasi, one of Mike Fox’s rising stars whose meteoric ascent was still to come, as Alket Tarifa, an Albanian refugee who had arrived over the summer and had already showed via congress play that he was going to be a strong prospect fit for a high board. Even better, there was every sign that most of us were ready and able to play in almost all of the fixtures. As the season progressed, in Malcolm’s words, “My overriding memory is the team spirit which grew throughout the year and the great support, particularly at adjournments.  My recollection is that Tony had a greater influence on the latter since I thought he helped to turn/ensure the best result from 5 games towards the end.  I remember some analysis/ideas coming by email from the USA and I am sure he helped me out on one.”

The first four matches showed a mixed start. Two wipe-outs of lower division opponents in the Terrill, and two narrow victories in the league, only just neutralising a default on our side in each match. Oh well, they all count…

Now the fun began. Sutton Coldfield were annihilated 6-0 and Shirley 5-1. Alket managed to win what appeared to be a hopeless adjournment against Sutton two pawns down by spinning a mating net. Second in the table with a 100% record. For good measure, we knocked South Birmingham A out of the Terrill.

It didn’t all go our way. Lacking Andy, we struggled to draw against South Birmingham B, only redeeming ourselves with solid victories against their A team and the University. Only third in the table at the beginning of March, with 13 points out of a possible 14, but with games in hand.

A decent victory against Halesowen led to another scare, when we fielded two reserves against Lichfield and had to salvage game points from one promising adjournment (Geoff’s?) and one extremely shaky one (mine). Time to deploy our secret weapon for the analysis, Tony Miles, defying illness to come along to Simon’s house and lend a hand, as commemorated by Geoff in It’s Only Me (see below). The problem with my position was that everything seemed to turn on ideas rather than concrete lines. Armed with GM wisdom when the game resumed, I found the courage to play three moves that the then version of Fritz did not suggest…and held the draw. Match drawn. It was now mid-March, and we were in first place with three to play.

Before demolishing Tamworth 5-1, it was back to the Terrill. We needed a 5-1 against Mutual to overcome the handicap, and Simon had adjourned with a microscopic advantage in a minor piece ending. Now for another secret weapon, team solidarity. If my memory serves me well (a pint for the first correct identification of the song and artist? – sorry, already claimed by Malcolm), Geoff, Malcolm, Alket and I all turned up to lend Simon a touch of silent moral support on the night, and he duly won. This gave us a place in the final against – wait for it – the Warley Quinborne Division 2 side. Needing a 4½ - 1½ win, and lacking Geoff, draws were dropped on the top boards, and bottom board was lost. Never mind, it couldn’t have gone to more deserving opponents.

Next up, the closest title chasers Olton. On the night, five draws and an adjournment for Malcolm in a winning position two pawns up. A tied match then and there on the night would have delivered the title, but all good things come to those who wait.

The title winning match a week later turned out to be the dampest of damp squibs. It became evident early on that Walsall Kipping were unexpectedly set to default three boards, presumably because of traffic problems. In its own right this guaranteed us a shared first place. Not long after their clocks fell, in a position that post match analysis demonstrated to be clearly winning, I came up with a couple of truly pathetic moves that squandered the advantage, probably realised what I had done, and offered the draw. My grateful opponent agreed and gave us the title outright, before Geoff and Simon sealed it with a win and a draw.

It only remained for Malcolm’s Olton adjournment to be confirmed as a win, and the title was won by a 5 point margin. Played 12, won 10, drawn two, lost none, points 22. Four of us – Geoff, Andy, Malcolm and I – went through the whole season without losing a game. The celebration curry saw Alket informally acclaimed player of the season and presented with a symbolic copy of “Mikhail Tal – His Life and Games” signed by all of us.

Sadly there was to be no repetition of this success. Tony Miles’ tragic death of a suspected heart attack was a devastating blow to team morale. Alket lost his application to remain in the country. Over the next two seasons, Geoff decided to quit league chess (but thankfully wrote “It’s Only Me” together with Malcolm and Mike by way of tribute to Tony Miles), Simon was under increasing work pressure, and Malcolm and I relocated away from Birmingham and found other clubs. However, that’s one season that we’ll never forget and will live on in WQ’s distant memory.

David Cooper

September 2022

Warley Quinborne Blitz Evening

Pauline Woodward presents Callum Gordon with the Dave Rowe blitz trophy...

Our late fellow club member Mike Fox pointed out in his writings for Chess magazine that a frequent sport comment - usually in football - was that the play was often described  as being "like a game of chess out there". Of course, this was meant in a disparaging way... I recollect this as I await the 2022 Champions League final...

I haven't read Garry Kasparov's "How Life Imitates Chess" yet though I believe Jon Turner has, and when he reads this he may like to send me a review of it for publication here. Suffice to say that chess is used as a simile in football commentary as well as often being regarded as microcosm of life generally. We all have our reason for liking chess; my take is that it offers the possibility of acquiring sufficient knowledge and information to control one's own destiny when the world at large is just too extensive to plan for in any meaningful way. Of course, one's knowledge of chess and commitment to win may also match what our "results" are elsewhere. But the universe of the 64 squares and 32 pieces at least offers a release from the more extensive and more unpredictable day to day life...

On the subject of Mike Fox, if anyone has any of his games, I'd like to put them on our website. And speaking of departed chess colleagues, David Anderton passed on recently. As a captain for Warwickshire I - Simon Smith - faced David Anderton in his role as captain of Staffordshire several times. He came across as a hard working individual. I bumped into David at the 2013 centenary of the British Chess Championship; it's always good to see a familiar face when away from one's usual stomping ground.

In any case, here is a link to a collection of some of David's games:

https://www.365chess.com/players/David_W_Anderton/?p=1&start=240

and an obitituary from the ECF website if you haven't seen it yet:

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/david-anderton-rip/



I came across Alex Holowczak recently in Bearwood and had a little chat with him. With all his chess work he said he was usually too busy to play. Alex is obviously very talented within the world of chess administration and arbiting; it's obviously something he enjoys very much...Here's a video of Alex showing us how to set a clock on YouTube...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOBfVROW6zA

A skill more of us need to know how to perform; especially after a player makes an illegal move and the clock has to be reset with a two minute penalty. This occurred the other week. Fortunately John Fahy was at hand to be able to do this. I had a little stab at it. It's something worth practicing when you have a spare moment...

Well...our division four side is safe, but  the first team finds itself in a position many Albion fans will be familiar with. Can we stay up? In the final analysis whether we stay up or go down will be because we deserve it - either way...

On visiting Olton a few matches ago, I was reminded why it is a club I like. The Olton players offered to buy drinks to the visiting team. It's what is called Old School. We play to win but we are amateurs, and the little traditional gestures mean something I think. The petty minded I won't buy my (visiting) opponent a drink is an attitude I have absolute contempt for; without the other party, we could not play chess. It's a pity this traditional courtesy of appreciating the other player's prescence beyond just playing seems to be in decline...

...It was good to see a move to greater normality after the restrictions at a recent club evening featuring both Dudley League and Birmingham League matches. A shoutout to Jon Turner who has frequently provided photographs for our website. Here is one from the evening showing our own Andy Southall after narrowly losing to a recent World Over 50 Champion, GM, Keith Arkell in the Warley Quinborne versus Solihull fixture that saw the latter clinch the division one title after they beat us.

Younger players won't appreciate that after the 1972 Fischer Spassky chess boom the Birmingham League expanded to ten divisions over the coming decade. And I recall that division one was expanded for eight board teams for a while. Whether with higher or lower numbers chess is brought to us by volunteers. And indeed many of us try and do "our bit", be it taxi driving for others - a service often taken for granted by non drivers - or various behind the scenes administration...

Given the many factors aligning against over the board chess, it is good to be playing after a long lay off. As an individual there is much I could volunteer about what I see but can't say; as a club webmaster I'm constrained by a sense of duty to promote chess and the club without veering into territory of a controversial character...Although I would like to recall an interesting chess story I once read:

The basis of the story was two nightwatchman playing chess during the Blitz of World War II. On a particular evening an incendiary bomb hit their factory and a piece of burning ember landed on the board one square diagonally from a knight. Because the player wouldn't dream of making an illegal move and raise the adjoining knight to stamp out the fire hazard, the board caught fire, followed by the whole room, and ultimately the whole factory...

Suffice to say with three or two wheels left, our chess wagon carries on with a respectable start for our four person division four side and a win for our division one side. The games section now features another of Jon Turner's victories, garnered from the division one 4 to 2 victory over South Birmingham "C".

Club secretary John Fahy reminded us of the loss of many fellow chess players over the last year. A scan of  the Birmingham and District League news feed, accessible from links at the top, reveals the passing of Ken Francis and Lionel Lewis - father of our own John Lewis. I was sad to see that Nigel Byrne is no longer with us. I knew Nigel from league, as well as county chess when I was Warwickshire captain. I found Nigel a true gentleman. And I believe a gentleman reveals himself in the small things he does. Nigel had a self effacing manner with a good sense of humour. I remember he would always offer a visiting player a drink. Little things yes, but in their summation, say a lot about a man. I'm reminded of John Henry Newman's Definition of A Gentleman:

It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say he is one who never inflicts pain. This description is both refined and, as far as it goes, accurate. He is mainly occupied in merely removing the obstacles which hinder the free and unembarrassed action of those about him, and he concurs with their movements rather than takes the initiative himself.

His benefits may be considered as parallel to what are called comforts or conveniences in arrangements of a personal nature: like an easy chair or a good fire, which do their part in dispelling cold and fatigue, though nature provides both means of rest and animal heat without them.

The true gentleman in like manner carefully avoids whatever may cause a jar or a jolt in the minds of those with whom he is cast;--all clashing of opinion, or collision of feeling, all restraint, or suspicion, or gloom, or resentment; his great concern being to make everyone at their ease and at home.

He has his eyes on all his company; he is tender towards the bashful, gentle towards the distant, and merciful towards the absurd; he can recollect to whom he is speaking; he guards against unseasonable allusions, or topics which may irritate; he is seldom prominent in conversation, and never wearisome.

He makes light of favours while he does them, and seems to be receiving when he is conferring. He never speaks of himself except when compelled, never defends himself by a mere retort, he has no ears for slander or gossip, is scrupulous in imputing motives to those who interfere with him, and interprets everything for the best.

He is never mean or little in his disputes, never takes unfair advantage, never mistakes personalities or sharp sayings for arguments, or insinuates evil which he dare not say out. From a long-sighted prudence, he observes the maxim of the ancient sage, that we should ever conduct ourselves towards our enemy as if he were one day to be our friend.

He has too much good sense to be affronted at insults, he is too well employed to remember injuries, and too indolent to bear malice. He is patient, forbearing, and resigned, on philosophical principles; he submits to pain, because it is inevitable, to bereavement, because it is irreparable, and to death, because it is his destiny.

It is with sadness that I must advise of the death of Wendell Rawlings last week, one of the great characters of the local chess scene and a WQ member for many many years. As you may know Wendell has been fighting a battle with cancer over the last few years and sadly passed away in St Mary's Hospice, in Selly Oak.

He wasn't one to complain about his illness and I found him very philosophical about it when dropping him off home after a match, he always knew what was around the corner. He will someone that will be hard to forget when chess stories are told, everyone who has picked him up or dropped him home or sat opposite him over the boards will know what a character he was and oh how he lived for his chess.

When I first joined the Club, I would play friendly games with him and he would play the Blackmar Diemar gambit and have great fun watching me struggle against him. He loved nothing more than a victory over the boards.

Farewell old chap and God Bless from all at WQ

(The above picture was taken at the Brian Dudley Memorial on August 21st 2019 at Stourbridge Chess Club)

Typical of sentiments expressed about Wendell's passing was that made of Brian Whitehouse, one of Wendell's regular chess sparring partners:

Wendell was a great character who will be personally sadly missed; a sentiment I feel sure that all members will share.

In fact Wendell faced off a couple of years ago against Brian in a Warley Quinborne "B" versus a Warley Quinborne "A" division two match. Here is the game link.

Jon Turner expresses what many of us noticed too. It does take a larger than life character to eat crisps at a "quiet" chess match :

My favourite memory of Wendell was an away trip to Lichfield… I was driving and picked him up - we had to stop en route for Wendell to arm himself with all manner of chocolate and crisps.. the latter he used much to his advantage by crinkling his packet throughout the match, much to the annoyance of his opponent.. a solid tactic it seems, and one that worked well for him to secure the win!!!

A new game submitted by our own online organiser Phil Maybury has been added to the games section. Click on the games tab at the top...
As usual, I extend the invitation to other club or even ex club members to send me one or two of their games to gain internet immortality !

From the gallery section - accessible from the top tab - a five year old mystery has now been solved ! A picture of Tony Miles with the young fellow wearing the baseball cap has now revealed its secret. I received this email recently:

Hi there,

After watching the Queen’s Gambit on Netflix, I remembered my time at Checkmate chess club in the mid-1990s, with Mike Fox - I think it was Saturday mornings!

I went on your website and was very surprised to find my picture on there. My name is Bhavin Patel - I’m in the gallery page about half way down, aged 9 - with a baseball cap on, being presented a trophy by Tony Miles. I found a copy of the same photo at my parents’ house in Birmingham! The trophy was from the Checkmate Members tournament in 1995 - I’ve attached a picture of the certificate I still have!

Above my photo on the website it says ‘who are they?’ So I thought someone might be interested!

Thanks,

Bhavin Patel

What chess teaches us that whatever our situation we have certain pieces on certain squares, different from any preconcieved idealisations we previously had. These situations and pieces have been two dimensional within the last nine months, but we all play on !  I sometimes think the progression of time is like being the exchange down in various interesting positions that always demand analysis.

And to use another sporting metaphor, Phil Maybury has been a great servant of the club since the lockdowns have been imposed, in organising Warley Quinborne's online presence. We thank him for picking the ball up on this and running with it.

Warley Quinborne continues to play internally and externally on the chess.com and lichess.org platforms. Most of our internal matches are often close run and interesting, demonstrating in my opinion, the strength in depth that the club has. Anyone player can be beaten by most any other player competing. The recent weekly Swiss won by Mik Singh with an excellent 4.5/5 can be found here .

I should also like to mention the BDCL club on Chess.com which is also pioneering chess for the local Birmingham League online. Found here.

Posterity will no doubt give its verdict on the events of the current era which have not only stymied much of what was once regarded as normal. Notwithstanding that, chess continues even in its non over the board format to provide not only enjoyment but a level of conviviality ameliorating the social disconnectedness rightly or wrongly imposed upon us from above.

While over the board chess has ground to a halt, the club has carried on playing online chess: both internally and against other teams. A father and son who have joined the club within the last year have brought welcome new blood to the club. The father is Puru and the son is Amitesh.

Amitesh who is seven years old is a rapidly improving player, showing a maturity of play that would usually be associated with much older players. Puru shared this with the club:

Amitesh played in the UK chess challenge in the U8 category (online format) over the last few months (qualified through megafinal, gigafinal and terafinals) competing at various rounds and secured 4th place in the Terafinals representing our club. It is worth mentioning that more than 150 U8 children have competed in the UK chess challenge this year. Very proud of the results.

I hope to put a game or two of Puru's in the games section in future weeks...


No one knows when/how over the board chess will return, but as usual the club is always welcoming to new players. Warley Quinborne will support and encourage players of all ages and backgrounds who wish to participate in the Game of Kings...

Phil Maybury reports:

Warley Quinborne played in Arena A of the (European) blitz league this week, at stake the chance of both promotion and Relegation. For almost 2 hours 8 warley players played over 120 three minute blitz games. The top 4 players from each team have their match scores added together to give the team score.

Both Patrick and Mik scored 51 points each, however Patrick pips Mik to the hall of fame on performance rating. Jon and Andy added the other 75 points between them. The top 4 were well supported with good performances from Steve and Martin.
Next week we move into the contenders arena, with 4 promotion places available into the 1st 10 ….but 4 relegation places back into Arena A.

We will be competing alongside local rivals Sutton Coldfield and South Birmingham as well as a few teams from abroad including Cornella and Marseille chess clubs.

So if you’ve not tried this before join in, have some fun and if you are feeling Brave go …..BESERK

Is the question that many Birmingham League players would like to know the answer to.

According to the man himself he has been declining in ability since he was 12 !

Henrik plays a very classical form of chess. He likes to fight toe to toe in the centre. As white he plays the English Opening and is fine transposing into Queens Gambit positions. As black he has favoured symmetrical openings against 1e4. Against the Queens Gambit he plays the Tarrasch Defence. He knows his own repertoire very well.

He is both tactically and positionally strong with a fierce fighting determination. Henrik will deviate occassionally from his repertoire. Against Andy Southall he ventured 1e4 e5 2Nf3 d5;  "The Elephant Gambit" in a recent league match.

Our own Martin Draper beats Henrik with the black pieces. The latter varies from his usual repertoire with 1d4 Nf6 2Nc3 e6 3e4 d5 4Bd3

It might just be that Henrik was unaware he was transposing into a line against the French Defence. In any case, while I was compiling the game for the site I noticed that the majority of moves were all those the computer preferred. So, a very good win for Martin against an extremely strong player.

The game can be found by clicking on the GAMES tab at the top of this page.

John Fahy reports:

From the Warley Quinborne perspective the latest biscuit match gave us burnt fingers as we strove to retrieve the broken rich tea that was being dunked. Sutton Coldfield won 52 to 45. As usual, individually, the Big Heads did well.

Still good fun though, and I continue to make the observation that when I win I play well, and when my opponent wins he is lucky. I'm beginning to see that a well rehearsed regular opening repertoire that one plays week after week - if reasonably sound and enterprising - is certainly the way to go.

Please also note that Phil Maybury is looking after the Warley Quinborne Facebook Page

The URL is added to the LINKS tab at the top right hand side of this website

For every cloud there is a silver lining...


Well this is no reason at all not to come along; at least in the virtual sense to begin with !

For Warley Quinborne players under Phil Maybury's organisation we are now playing regular online chess tournaments. On an online 4NCL system is being worked out right now.

The platform of choice is https://lichess.org I'll put it in the LINKS tab at the top right hand of this web page. There is of course the http://chess.com platform that many of us play on as well.

Can I also recommend https://www.goldtoken.com for a variety of other online games. It is an excellent "Lockdown" retreat. Personally I play draughts, chess variants as well as a Scrabble derivative, and a couple of non money poker variants. Goldtoken is all correspondence and not real time. (Yes play poker for points and by correspondence ! The interface is very nice. Again, this can also be accessed via the LINKS tab.)

Any questions. Please get in touch via the ABOUTUS tab on the top left hand corner.

I think Bobby Fischer would be very pleased with Alan's opening repertoire: Ruy Lopez as white and Najorf Sicilian as black. In the first game against M Topham we see the thematic white kings side attack of the Closed variation of the Ruy Lopez crashing through. And what for me is the defining plan for black in the open sicilian: the consolidation of a central pawn majority prior to counterattacking. While it might often be the case, as many commentators say that black does his stuff on the queenside in the Open Sicilian, I believe this is an auxilary theme of the defence. I always play the Sicilian, as does Alan here against Robert Glass, with the centre in mind. As usual, the added games can be accessed through the GAMES tab at the top of this website.

I shall be extending the GAMES section to include games from TV/film/books as a novelty item. I shall also add a Hall of Shame section. The idea of which is to include games we lost where we played badly or should have won and then blundered. I invite submissions for this.

Warley Quinborne have for a number of years supplied players to the Warwickshire county sides. Several of us have been Warwickshire captains for the different sides. In John Fahy's case, he's captained several of the teams. The current captain of Warwickshire's first team, Golam Ali of Sutton Coldfield Chess Club, has to be congratulated for Warwickshire's current topping of the MCCU table. Played five, drawn one, and lost none.

Our own Rev'd Jon Turner has supplied a couple of his games. One where he bashes the Bishop of Birmingham, and a recent game from Birmingham Division Three, where Warley Quinborne seem to be holding our own ! As usual, the games can be accessed from the GAMES tab at the top of this page.

Chess isn't short of chess playing clergy. The English vicar John Owen, of "Owen's" Defence fame, is accorded by Wikipedia has being amongst the top ten players in the world during the 1860s. Here he is playing and beating the legendary American player Paul Morphy in a friendly game:



I (Simon Smith) would also personally like to recall how the Reverend Jim Potter of Holy Trinity Church Smethwick used to play me on a regular basis at the Vicarage when I was a teenager. Jim was once school boy champion of Warwickshire.

An interesting board game deserving more attention is one called "Lines of Action". Like many things in life, I've found it something of an acquired taste. Introduced to me by my draughts playing mate Tony Boyle - also organiser of Bromsgrove Abstract Games - the games can be played with two colour sets of pieces - perhaps poker chips (?)

The inititial set up is below:


In simple terms, a player has to connect all his pieces orthogonally and diagonally. Play alternates with black(red) starting. A piece can only be moved the number of squares along a line commensurate with pieces along that line. The capture of enemy pieces takes place when landed on. A player's piece can move through their own colour but not through the opposite colour.

So while capturing pieces may be advantageous, it has to be balanced by the fact that fewer pieces will require less joining up. As chess players too we are also aware of the need to balance space aquisition with compactness of pieces.

More info on Lines of Action

John Fahy reports:
A terrific evening of Poker at WQ last night with the usual suspects turning up plus Martin "The Ringer" Draper all vying for the famous Poker Tin. Once again there were several brilliant hands on turn over with "The Hoover's" FOUR Jacks !!!! taking the top place. "The Ringer" started well obviously finding it much easier than in the World Series of Poker !?!

The banter is always in evidence "no Simon I haven't won a hand yet" !?! "How many chips have you got left John ??" "All-In" Jon made a bold bid early in the second half but came unstuck on the River as "The Nearly Man" Phil seemed to take command. However "The Hoover" started to sweep up chips in his usual fashion and took out "The Nearly Man" in what was effectively the main bout of the night with maybe 90% of the chips in the pot.

"The Rules" was just happy to make the last two but went down fighting in a short head to head. A good job too as the pub would be closing soon !!! So Ian "The Hoover" wins Again and becomes the first two time Poker Champion and received the cherished Poker Tin from last time winner "All-In" Jon.

A Christmas Tale - Nightmare Before Christmas -  From A Visit To Stafford.

Go , a game that has been regarded by many has having superior strategy to chess, and hitherto avoided the increasing onslaught of IT into human games, seems to have fallen to the silicon monster...


Add it to the list of things computers can do faster than people: master ancient Chinese board games.

On Wednesday, researchers from Alphabet-owned Google DeepMind announced that they’ve done something previously thought to be impossible for computers: defeat a world-class Go player... (more in above link)

After a hastily convened Extraordinary General Meeting between myself and club secretary John Fahy it has now been deemed compulsory that all first team members now wear hats for official games. The first team just evaded relegation last season and it has been observed that the sure way to chess improvement is to cultivate eccentric behaviour and fashion. While my unicycle and juggling act is still being developed, I have nevertheless seen fit to order myself an Afghan Mazari Pashteen Uzbek Turkmen Red Cap Hat. I am confident that I shall experience at least a 20 point grading increase. Members should feel free to wear hats of their own choice. Otherwise, spare wooly hats will be available in the box containing spare pens and score sheets.

Ian Emery Queen Sacrifice Game Added To Website

Like most of my games I was fortunate to win the match. Like normal I didn’t come out of the opening well and by move 15 it was clear it was only a matter of time before my opponent broke through on the queenside. My only hope was to have some counter play on the king side. My opponent was still in complete control of the match however once he played Bf1, which didn’t look an obvious blunder, he was in trouble and this led to the unusual finish

John Fahy reports:

Monday 23rd Sept 19 - Welcome Home John 

The Club President surprised everyone by making his first visit to the Clubs new venue tonight.

He has been recovering slowly, following illness but gave everyone a lift with his presence - it was good to see him back and on the road to recovery.

He even found a place on the team sheet but wasn't called upon as South Bham were defaulting a board. He'd have been ready though, I'm sure of that.

Thumbs up too for the venue - thanks John - all we need now is to get you back playing there but good to see you looking fit and healthy again.

A medieval chess piece that was missing for almost 200 years had been unknowingly kept in a drawer by an Edinburgh family. They had no idea that the object was one of the long-lost Lewis Chessmen - which could now fetch £1m at auction. The chessmen were found on the Isle of Lewis in 1831 but the whereabouts of five pieces have remained a mystery. The Edinburgh family's grandfather, an antiques dealer, had bought the chess piece for £5 in 1964. He had no idea of the significance of the 8.8cm piece (3.5in), made from walrus ivory, which he passed down to his family.They have looked after it for 55 years without realising its importance, before taking it to Sotheby's auction house in London...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-48494885

Stourbridge chess club held the second Brian Dudley memorial blitz chess tournaments in memory of the club’s former president and county champion Dr Brian Dudley on August 21st 2019.
Players were invited from neighbouring clubs to participate in either a junior or an adult tournament. Both tournaments had a fast time control of 10 minutes per person per game.

Main tournament

The main tournament had twenty eight players and was a 7 round Swiss tournament.
Worcestershire champion Jeremy Fallowfield was the clear winner with a perfect 7 out of 7. Zibi Koncki (
Stourbridge), David Anderton (Walsall Kipping) and Simon Smith (Warley Quinborne) tied for second.

Halesowen's Peter Banks won the under 120 price and and Ray Hall (Warley Quinborne) the under 150 prize.

Congratulations to Ian Emery who won the Dave Rowe club blitz championship. Well done also to Ray Hall who won the inaugral "plate" competition. The preseason competition has become a regular fixture just like the recent  14th "Cold War Cake Match" friendly contested at Sutton Coldfield

As the Midlands Open Championships gets underway in Telford http://www.mccu.org.uk/m_congress , players may also like to record in their diaries that the Birmingham section of the UK Open Blitz championship is visiting the Quinborne Community Centre on September 7th: https://www.englishchess.org.uk/uk-open-blitz-championship-2019/ This will be fifteen rounds of 3 minutes plus increments of 2 seconds !

Another Very Enjoyable Evening of Poker At The Chess (?!?!?) Club

John Fahy reports:

A thoroughly enjoyable nights Poker ended rather earlier than on previous occasions. It was a great night though with lots of action and banter and almost everyone won a hand except "The Hoover" forgot to plug in for a change.

The main hand of the night proved to be the final one before the interval and "Buy Back-In" point. 

With only three players still holding chips and the 'Blinds' raising rapidly - Jon Turner - after a huge raise that was "Called" by the other two players - eventually went all-in for the 4th time in the evening !!! Called again by both Phil and John - virtually all the chips were in the Pot.

Whoever won this was surely going to triumph on the night ?? With the cards all dealt - the turnover revealed Jon's pair of Aces too good for Phil's pair but was matched by last years winner !?! (I had to get that in) however Jon's King kicker took the pot against a Queen and a massive five to one chip lead going into the second session.

There was only going to be one winner from there and sure enough Jon bullied players into all-in during the next 4 hands - winning them all !!!! and with an eleven to one lead in the final pairing, that contest didn't last too long either.

Well Done "All-In" Jon and Welcome to the WQ Poker - Hall of Fame !?! 

Warley Quinborne AGM - Club Subs Slashed By Half !

Above: picture of Harvey Watkins - left - winning an award - Dudley Division 3 - with thanks to roaming photographer Jon Turner...

Modesty Forbids...

Warley Quinborne has benefited in the last couple of years from the addition of Patrick Duncan to our ranks. Patrick is an extremely strong player. A couple of his combinative attacks are added to the GAMES section - top tab - for your enjoyment

Political Commentary Wrapped Up As Chess Cartoons - Send Me Any You Have

I was reminded of a very useful and free chess tool last week. It's the chess datebase at chess365.com It has hundreds of thousands of games, giving the statistics of all opening variations. On a smart phone it really is useful. Speaking of which the Stockfish chess engine is also freely available as an app called DroidFish for those interested.

England Win Silver In World Team Championship

The Stag and Three Horse Shoes is a good find by Phil Maybury. The lighting is good and so are the tables. On the top floor it's welcomely quiet as well. The pub is a pleasant venue. It does meals and shows sport on the many TVs around its main lounge. Just right for relaxing after a quick win - or a loss...

Coming Chess Tournaments Of Possible Interest To Warley Quinborne Players

Chess 960 Explained (Click here)

A History of The Birmingham League - From a Records Perspective

Alan from BCDL records emailed me regarding the history of Warley, Quinborne and the subsequent merger. Warley had once been Smethwick, which for a brief time had been Bearwood Baptists!

Warley - Quinborne - Smethwick - Bearwood Baptists      

Founder members Smethwick 1897, played for six years then faded, revived in 1921 for one season, revived again as Bearwood Baptists 1932-35 reverted back to Smethwick, 1935-66. Changed name to Warley in 1966-78 amalgamated with Quinborne to be Warley Quinborne 1978. Have won the most Individual 1 Titles
http://records.birminghamchess.org.uk/BDCL-Honours.htm

http://records.birminghamchess.org.uk/BDCL-Final-Tables.htm

New Game Added To Games Section

This was an exciting game between our own John Fahy and Jon Turner. Navigate via the GAMES tab at the top. The Rock Cup is a new venture for the club and is organised under the auspices of the Wolverhampton League:

http://www.wdclchess.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Rock_Cup

Junior Cheating and Looking Back On "Toilet Gate"

Club member Alex Holowczak made the local news after a teenager was caught red handed cheating:

An international chess tournament held in Shropshire was hit by scandal when a 14-year-old boy was booted out of the competition on the brink of winning the £600 first prize - for using an electronic device.

The Fédération Internationale des Échecs (Fide) rankings system governs international chess competition.

BBCA Midlands Rapidplay 2018 @ Broadway Academy Perry Barr Birmingham

John Fahy reports:



It's easy to overlook a game winning combination. When we are presented with a white to play and win position we are, as it were, tipped off to look for a violent game ending conclusion. Real life chess however doesn't present itself so conveniently for us to solve. A smothered mate combination that was available in a similiar position that appeared in Patrick and Phil's game, is known as Philidor's Legacy. Unfortunately for Phil - but not Patrick - he missed it. See below:

I've added an old game of my own showing Phildor's Legacy - see GAMES TAB . It's from 1977. The opportunity to deliver the Phildor smothered mate doesn't occur that often! Of course the other player can always give his rook up for the knight...

John Fahy forwards details of Joe's funeral:

I visited Joe's wife Maggie today and gave her a card from All at WQ.

We had a lovely chat with an old friend of Joe's also at the house.

She was pleased to think that several of us would wish to attend the funeral service :-

Thursday 6th September 2018 - 1.45pm at Sandwell Crematorium and invites anyone who wishes to join the family shortly afterwards - to the Bear Pub on Bearwood High Street.

Poker Evening

John Fahy writes:

It is with great sadness that we have learned today, of the death of our fellow member Joe Rourke.

As most of you will know Joe was fighting a battle with cancer and did so very bravely and with extreme dignity over the last couple of years. Never losing his sense of joy for a game of chess and even a recent game in the Summer League, although he hated the faster time control.

Joe was a quiet, unassuming member but a very supportive one and I think I can speak for everyone in saying that he will be sadly missed by all.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

Funeral details will be notified in due course.

God Bless Joe.

John Fahy writes:

Thursday night saw the Club hosting the 13th ColdWar Cake match between WQ and Sutton Coldfield, plus a few friends of the Cake ?!?

Thanks for another good ColdWar Cake night, its always an enjoyable event in the calendar with the more relaxed feel and social side to the evening rather than other chess club nights.

Congratulations to Sutton who take back the trophy this year but we'll be back all guns blazing next year. It can't be often that Henrik loses twice on the night and yet the team still win ?? and I rather feel we let Andy down on the other side of that coin !! Particularly our board 6 who played like a plonker ?!? no name needs mentioning.

The Cake is the main part of the night particularly when WQ end on the losing side !?! Which unfortunately happened this year. This year we had competition in the Cake department with Ray Hall and Phil Maybury both submitting Cakes in addition to the usual one we provide.

Although the match ended badly for WQ after two successful years - I'm pleased to say the Cakes were very well received and a good social night was had as usual.

Congratulations to Sutton who take back the trophy.

First Brian Dudley Memorial and Brian Dudley Memorial Junior Chess Tournaments

Photos from last week's AGM

2018 Trophy Haul




Club President John Pakenham getting plenty of handshaking practice in, with left to right & top to bottom: Brian Whitehouse, Dave Jeffs, Phil Maybury, Lee Fellows, Jon Turner and Pauline Woodward.

Lee Fellows has had a particularly successful season as a returning chess player. We wish him well with his next club - except when playing against us !



Thanks to Jon Turner for photos !

Hot Enough For Everyone !?

Dates for your summer chess diary. From the email sent out by John Fahy:

       The 2018 AGM will be held on Thursday 19th July 18. An agenda will follow shortly.

      Poker Night - Thursday 9th August 2018 - let me know if you want to enter ?? Details to follow but same as the previous events. 

      The ColdWar Cake match v Sutton Coldfield is at Home this year on Thursday 23rd August 2018.

      The WQ Blitz night for the Dave Rowe Clock will take place on Thursday 30th August 2018.

Congratulations to Andy Southall - AGAIN - on winning the Div 1 Individual against Ian Emery in the all Warley Quinborne final!

Warley Quinborne are proud to announce the presence of a

BRITISH RAPIDPLAY CHAMPION in our ranks !!!

Yes none other than our own Mik Singh

Kasparov is reckoned by many to be the greatest chess player of all time:
Here is a game that some have said is the greatest game of all time based on the former world champion's belief it was his best game!

The background to today's 'Ask Alex' was touched upon below. Both players were limited in material and short of time. Our player was expecting an imminent draw, but after some moves, understandably blundered. The 'guillotine' time limit - or what what we have played ever since the introduction of clocks to chess was used, does persist as a 'last bastion of archaic practices' (Alex H)  in league chess, in preference to the newer and arguably fairer 'incremental time' facilitated by digital clocks  - is very much at the centre of the discussion.

John Fahy asks Alex:

You may have worked out the problem that occurred very recently - whilst a player "offered the draw" or said "this is a draw" he didn't "claim a draw" - whilst in the last two minutes as is a players option against an opponent running down the clock and not attempting to win !! in the Quickplay mode.

Also - what procedure should be adopted bearing in mind several moves may have been made without notation ??

Further thoughts spring to mind - can you ask someone else to do notation - in the event you may have to claim a draw - and - can another person just do that anyway without informing either player (ie not offering outside interference) ??

It did cross my mind about asking our player if he had "offered" or "claimed" so as to prompt ?!? but I'm sure that would have been jumped on !?!

Whilst I agree with you about "incremental" being the best solution there will be occasions when Quickplay is forced anyway.

Thanks Alex - hope this doesn't put you to too much trouble but hopefully everyone can learn from such situations - any other thoughts you may have on this subject would be useful.

2016-2017 Trophy Haul - Not Bad !