Kirby’s Kennedy Quintuple – National Liberal Club Chess Circle

Just as with so many other once-certain dates in the calendar, the Kennedy Cup had not been played in the last two years due to that nasty cold that was going round.

But, like so much else, it was now back. On Wednesday 27 July a bumper crop of 10 Liberal speed chess enthusiasts charged to the Clubhouse to challenge for the Kennedy Cup 2022.

The glittering prize had the players salivating. Who would drink from the Kennedy Cup?

The players tried to keep calm before the kick off

The players managed to squeeze in an all-play-all format which meant 9 quickfire game with only a very short break halfway through to catch one’s breath.

With no time to record moves, what follows is largely a pictorial account of proceedings…

Doctor Kirby had his game head on. Not even a supportive glass of wine.

Senor Odriozola put in a good show in his Kennedy Cup debut

Some furious chess action being blitzed out.

Look closely. Mister Widdicombe is leading with 5.5 points after 7 games. [The Editorial Team can assure readers that this picture was chosen for inclusion entirely at random and that any inference of a connection to your correspondence is wide of the mark – Ed.]

Being Liberals, a very liberal systems of match ups was used in which players self-organised the rounds by pairing themselves up with opponents they hadn’t yet played. This worked remarkably well, with the added, and unintended, benefit of allowing the two favourites, Doctor Kirby and Mister Giffin QC MA (Oxon) to politely avoid each other until the final round.

Doctor Saldanha played so quickly he was a blur.

And what a final round it was, with Doctor Kirby outplaying his opponent with a (you guessed it) Caro-Kann, gaining an advantage in the middle game and converting it through to a finish. Classic Kirby.

And with that, Doctor Kirby claimed his fifth Kennedy Cup title in a row. Fully deserved.

The final standings: