London League Mega Clash

[Chris Rice]

Just received an email from Nevil Chan the Drunken Knights captain who has been trying to topple Wood Green for years now. Can he do it this time?

"The 2013 Wimbledon Men’s Final ended a 77-year wait for a British champion. Though a straight sets victory, it was no stroll in the park for Andy Murray; his world number one opponent was never going to make the finish easy. http://tinyurl.com/Murray-Knights

The London Chess League has been waiting 11 years for champions Wood Green to be toppled. It was advantage Drunken Knights going into final match of 2010-11 season, by half-point, until Wood Green captain Brian Smith dug deep into his pockets to serve up 10 GM aces. In subsequent 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons, DK1 double-faulted twice against Hackney which effectively ended hopes of another challenge.

This season, despite a few close calls, DK1 have a second passing shot at the Division 1 title when they play Wood Green on Monday 9th June at Plough. Knights will need Murray-like courage and determination if they are to lift the trophy from Brian’s mantelpiece. The match is set to smash all previous league rating records.

Drinking spectators welcome.

http://tinyurl.com/LCL-Div1-2013-14
http://www.englishchess.org.uk/judgement-knight

[JustinHorton]

Is that the same venue it was ten years ago? If so I seem to remember it was hard enough to get the players in, let alone any spectators.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Yes it is cramped though it is not that bad and it is possible to watch and well worth doing if you can get there. I went a few years ago and enjoyed watching the games, including a QvR finish on top board.

[J T Melsom]

Its just a stunt though isn't it? Harmless enough but utterly divorced from the reality of amateur club chess as most of us understand it. Whats the legacy of this chequebook chess? Indeed in what sense is it a club fixture at at all rather than privately sponsored team fixture?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

True in some sense (though maybe only for one of the teams). The Thames Valley League (which I play in) recently concluded with the title undecided until the last match, which was exciting to watch. In amateur league chess, the pairings and fixture list don't always throw up clearly critical and decisive matches that can be publicised in this way.

[JustinHadi]

I'm pretty sure DK is largely an amateur club.

[J T Melsom]

I suspect league secretaries can routinely throw up decisive end of season fixtures if they so wish, although in small leagues it might result in fixtures generally being played in the same sequence year in year out. The Bucks League came down to the last fixture, which we won comfortably. I now have a trophy that hasn't been engraved since our last victory

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Chris,

Keep us posted. I may be popping down to London to see the O's if they make the pay-off final.

Both my teams (Hibs and Orient) are in play off's! I personally want to see Hibs go down.
Be a good league that one, the real hope being Hibs and Hearts go up and Rangers stay put.
Looking forward to it.

Post teams and titles (and grades to keep the number lovers happy).
Pictures of the event, including an outside shot of the pub and the trophy + two games.

Please pass on my details to Brian Smith, tell him I'll pay for my usual fee.
Two pints of Guiness and ½ ounce of Golden Virginia.

[Joey Stewart]

Please pass on my details to Brian Smith, tell him I'll pay for my usual fee.
Two pints of Guiness and ½ ounce of Golden Virginia.

That is very generous of you Geoff, I am sure Brian would appreciate a free drink from one of his players for a change.

[JustinHorton]

Keep us posted. I may be popping down to London to see the O's if they make the play-off final.

I had no idea.

I've not been to Brisbane Road for a good while but the Birkbeck Tavern was always the place to go and you'd do better than a couple of pints of Guinness. Mind you, I once got there, saw fewer Orient supporters than I expected, borrowed a newspaper and found out I'd actually got the wrong week for the match. It was already after two and too late to make it to Brentford.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Whats the legacy of this chequebook chess?

A much stronger London League which is more attractive to play in for the 'ordinary' chesser. That’s the legacy for the London League, anyway. The legacy for the club may be different.


Frankly, I’ve no idea why anybody would invest money 'winning' the London League when the very act of spending the cash makes the very exercise worthless. Still, it ain’t my money and it has a knock-on benefit of encouraging strong players to play in the league so that’s all to the good.

Certainly, the Wood Green money is more beneficial to the league as a whole than the Drunken Knights manipulation of board orders was when their second and third teams met that time (however legal it might have been).

[J T Melsom]

'a stronger and more attractive league for the ordinary chesser'. Is that actually true though? My impression is that whilst some of the stronger players play all year round (as one might expect , chess players generally want to play chess and keep their eye in so to speak), others are selected just for the single match. As I said its essentially harmless if also somewhat pointless, but does it make the London League stronger or more attractive on a week in week out basis or merely when you get to play Wood Green?

[Jonathan Bryant]

a stronger and more attractive league for the ordinary chesser'.

Is that actually true though?

Yes. So when I play against Wood Green, for example, I might get to play an IM (not a hypothetical - it actually happened) in a club game which would never happen in other circumstances for somebody of my modest grade. You don’t have to get much stronger than me and you have a good chance of playing a GM.

Other clubs - I"m sure this is true of DK for example - are stronger too. At the top end of course. Which filters down to the likes of me eventually.

I’m not saying that every club now has an IM or a GM up top, Of course that’s not true. But attracting strong players to the league is a good thing for the league.



Of course, if you’re goal was to 'improve the London League' and you had a budget equivalent to what is spent on Wood Green then spending it all on one club would not be what you’d do. That doesn’t me that somebody make a decision to spend his money as he wants to doesn’t have a side-effect that’s positive for the league as a whole.

[J T Melsom]

Yes I can see that stacking a team with strong players does mean that ordinary players might get to play a GM or certainly a titled player once or twice a year, but the downside as I think your last paragraph is intended to acknowledge is that the league is essentially uncompetitive. Most leagues in the country are lopsided to some extent, sometimes because some clubs are simply better run, or located in a larger place, but if the disadvantage is because a team is being bankrolled then thats a lot harder to accept. I don't have a specific axe to grind here as I don't play in the league, but I think that if I ran a London league club with a reasonably strong team that had grown 'organically' and then found we were always only aiming for second place each year I'd get bored, however often I got to play a GM.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Yes I can see that stacking a team with strong players does mean that ordinary players might get to play a GM or certainly a titled player once or twice a year, but the downside as I think your last paragraph is intended to acknowledge is that the league is essentially uncompetitive

Well yes that’s true of course. But I’m not sure how much people really give a crap about that. I mean, who really cares who wins the London League? Well Nevil, but who else? Whoever wins we come back next year and play again anyway.

I do accept, though, that some - perhaps many or even most (although I seriously doubt it) - folk *do* care and obviously the funding of one particular team does cause a problem in that regard.

But what about Drunken Knights deliberately fielded a weakened second team to give their third team a chance of not being relegated? That made the league less competitive too - and in an infinitely more dubious way.

I could put money into my chess club if I wanted to. I choose not to.

I couldn’t have one of my teams take a dive to try to save another.


Going out of your way to make your team stronger v going out of your way to make your team weaker. Which of these sounds more dubious to you?