Early April. Four delightful members of the Circle de l’Union Interalliee had come to London to play the finest chessplayers Clubland had to offer.
But where should they start their quest? Where else, but the NLC, known throughout Paris as the very home of Clubland Chess.
(The four would start at the top before moving down the Clubland chess scale to finally end up in such places as the RAC.)
Friday 12 April was the date. And a very ‘agreable soiree’ it was too. The Libs were captained by Doctor Saldanha, with Messers Widdicombe and Taylor and Miss Birrane completing the Liberal set. Our guests were Monsieurs Frédéric Dana and Robert Lipscomb, and Madames Andrea Creaser-Caradec’h and Micheline Kaufmann.
Some games
Said Captain Saldanha after the game: “Monsieur Dana played well early on and by move 20. had built a 2.5 pawn advantage. Black really was staring down the barrel of a gun (also some minutes behind on the clock) until 21. Qg4 effectively traps White’s knight after the reply g6. There are a couple of opportunities for White to get back to equality after 24. … Bc6 if 25. h4 and again at 27. … Qc7 with the reply 28. Qg4 Rg8 29. Qe4 where any attempt by Black to save his dark-squared bishop instead of 29. … Rg6 gives White a mating endgame. Instead, White is distracted by the threat to his c2 pawn and from there on in Black doesn’t really put a foot wrong. Note that 36. … Rxg2 leads to mate in three as opposed to five and so White is forced to play 37. h4 rather than taking Black’s queen. White resigned with only 20 secs remaining on his clock compared with Black’s 2.5 mins. An exciting and difficult encounter if perhaps not the most accurate of play. Black really has to admit to being rather lucky in places. Thank you M. Dana for the game and Le Cercle, Paris for visiting us at the NLC“.
Dinner
As ever, the Dining Room outdid themselves in providing an excellent dinner in honour of our guests.
Which only left Captain Saldanha to lead the table in a rousing rendition of the La Marseillaise before heading home.
Vive la France! Vive le Echech!
Serving escargot following grenouille, as opposed to the other way round, was surely our only faux pas.