Bd	Athenaeum	Grade	Result	Drunken Knights	Grade
1	Williams, Simon	234	1 - 0	Sowray, Peter	211
2	Thorarinsson, Paul	231	0 - 1	Moskovic, David	213
3	Quinn, John	200	½ - ½	Richardson, John	205
4	Anthony, Gareth	196	0 - 1	Shaw, David	206
5	Barrett, Stephen	196	1 - 0	Harakis, Alexis	210
6	Townsend, Paul	199	0 - 1	Crouch, Colin	206
7	Stevenson, James	191	0 - 1	Milovanovic, Aleksander	197
8	Golebiowski, Adam	-	0 - 1	Black, Richard	197
9	Farkas, Daniel	177	0 - 1	Rich, Mark	194
10	Launiau, Severin	-	½ - ½	Pederson, Carsten	194
11	Hopper, Paul	168	½ - ½	Wilson, Alexandra	175
12	Smith, Olivia	168	½ - ½	Foley, John	182
			4 - 8

Match Report by John Foley

Normally the Kingston Chess Club website would not publish the results of another team in another league. However, Drunken Knights do not have a website and their captain, Nevil Chan, needs more encouragement to set one up. He asked me to write up the encounter against Athenaeum and I was happy to oblige an old school friend (Salvatorian College).

The Athenaeum Chess Club is the longest established chess club in London. It has an illustrious past having won the inaugural London chess league in 1888 and three times since although the last victory was in the 1974/5 season. The Drunken Knights are the Johnny-come-lately team in the league and measures its progress by how well it does against Athenaeum. Prior to this match the Knights had managed to beat Athenaeum on only one previous occasion this century.

It was therefore with some trepidation that Nevil Chan put his team together for this encounter. The absence of three top players was unfortunate, but Nevil has managed to corral a bevy of players who manage to provide reasonable strength all the way down. As it happened, Athenaeum were also beset by absences and were only able to field one grandmaster – Simon Williams. Athenaeum outranked Knights on the top boards but this was reversed on the lower boards. The teams were well matched and promptly at 6.45pm on 18th November 2009 whites’ clocks were started.

Nevil paced the room nervously, assessing the situation at each board. As non-playing captain, he showed more restraint than a football manager – neither shouting nor gesticulations were exhibited. But scratch the surface and his stomach was churning. As the games began to finish, Nevil became visibly more relaxed. He even allowed himself a smile as it became clear that the Knights were developing an unassailable lead. He began to compose the wording of his message of commiseration to Simon Williams. He was still wordsmithing the text message in the pub afterwards; not a GSM character was to be wasted. He was clearly savouring his moment of triumph. Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive.

Finally the knights won 4-8 and suffered just two defeats. The board one encounter between Peter Sowray and Simon Williams seemed to be heading for a draw. Each side had a rook, bishop and five pawns on the same side. The trouble with playing grandmasters is that their relative advantage amplifies as one proceeds into the endgame and Simon’s technique proved superior. Board 5 saw the late arrival of the Knight Alexis who proceeded to build up a good position. The unfortunate denouement was that he missed his opponent’s queen move forcing mate in two.

Later in the evening, the players were distracted by noisy celebrations outside in the streets of Covent Garden. One observer, seeing the green and white flags, mistakenly suggested that the Republic of Ireland football team had succeeded against France in Paris. In fact, the commotion was from the Algerians who were celebrating getting into the World Cup Finals by beating Egypt. The Irish were experiencing a cruel implementation of the touch-move rule by Thierry Henry which led to the French equaliser.

Perhaps the most interesting game was David Moskovic’s win on board two who has provided annotations below. The strategic challenge was how to take advantage of an advanced pawn in a queens and rooks endgame. He played a neat maneoeuvre in the time scramble which discarded a rook to produce a pair of unstoppable connected passed pawns on the seventh rank. David arrived at the match carrying a very large box from Amazon which included the Analytical Manual by Mark Dvoretsky, an author who is highly regarded as a trainer and theorist by none other than Kasparov. The book is aimed at very strong players looking to complete themselves. It will be required reading for all Knights first team players. On board ten, Mark Rich played a blinder in the Dutch (see below).

Each side had a woman international – both of whom secured a draw. Aly Wilson (DK) plays for Switzerland and Olivia Smith (A) plays for Wales. It should be noted that they were selected on merit rather than on a quota as in the 4NCL. Aly comfortably protected her Isolated Queen’s Pawn in the rook endgame against Paul Hopper. Olivia Smith missed the opportunity to win material in a variation starting one move further than either side had looked (see below).

Other articles involving Drunken Knights
Top Mushroom
The Camelot years
Drunken Knight

Board Two: David Moskovic v Paul Thorarinsson
Pirc Defence
ECO B07
Notes by David Moskovic

Board Nine: Daniel Farkas v Mark Rich
Dutch Defence
ECO A80
Notes by John Foley

Board Twelve: John Foley v Olivia Smith
The critical juncture

Black to play
Black has a strong intitiative on the kingside and here decided to put her bishop on g2 to lock in the white king which somewhat dissipated her advantage.

Black had rejected the active 1…Rg2+ because of the continuation 2.Kxh3 Rxf2 3. Bg3 which appears to close down the attack (see next diagram).

If only black had seen one move further, what tactic would now have led to a winning material advantage?
(Scroll down carefully as the answer is below the diagram.)

3…Rxe2!
After 4. Rxe2 Bd3 forks the rook and loose knight.
5. Rf2 BxNb5 6. Rxf5+ Nf6 and black has two knights for a rook.