The NLC may have long tradition of not winning chess matches, but they have an even finer tradition of repeatedly beating the strongest chess dinner menus. Time after time they dispatch even the most stubborn three courses with the practiced ease that is the mark of a true Grandmaster.
Tuesday 12 October saw the MCC menu once again take on the might of the NLC’s chess dinner team. What followed was – what can only be called – a modern-day masterpiece.
The opening
The MCC menu, as host, had the first move. It chose to open in a classical style, playing 1. Slow-cooked Scottish Salmon, heralding the slower, more positional game that has become the signature of the north-London player. None of this hyper-modern ‘parma ham and melon’ opening nonsense for the MCC. The Libs, after a little thought, responded sharply, with quick and confident development of their knife to the breadside, and their fork on the wineside – a clear sign of their intent to take the fight to the MCC.
The game developed quickly along well-known lines for the next 10 cutlery moves, with both sides clearly playing from memory. 13…knife x wasabi creme fraiche was the last book move (incidentally, last seen in the hard-fought NLC v Athenaeum menu, Whitehall Place, 2017), and despite leaving the caviar in a slightly passive position, allowed the NLC to claim equality at this point. Such deep opening preparation is a hallmark of the NLC’s chess dinner style. The middlegame beckoned.
The middlegame
With the MCC menu struggling to emerge from the opening with any clear advantage, it struck out with a bold middlegame strategy. After a twenty minute think, and showing a full grip of the strategic needs of the position, the menu served up a fillet of English beef. It was now in complete control of the centre and the NLC had to work hard to keep their cutlery pieces coordinated in order to stay in the game. The NLC’s position became more tenuous still as the MCC continued the onslaught by playing its olive oil potatoes and charred leeks to dangerous squares close to the NLC’s napkin (for an alternative way to play this position, see the analogous game NLC vs RAC menu, Pall Mall, 2005, in which the menu played a ferocious pork loin attack focusing on the Libs weak waistline square).
The crowd knew that the next ten cutlery moves would be vital as the game was already reaching the critical moment. It was here that the NLC showed why they are the Clubland chess dinner champions. With a flick of the wrist they played a quick intermezzo gulp of the Merlot, followed by a cunning sacrifice of a mouthful of smoked morel jus. This was enough to unbalance the MCC menu, who was still just about managing to hold the centre but now the Libs had strong positions for their cutlery and threats hanging in the air on the wineside. With a mutual exchange of the powerful Paris mushroom dust the game entered the endgame.
The endgame
This was a highly technical affair, in which both sides had to walk a tightrope to stay in the game. The NLC team began with a spoonside attack on the vulnerable square of the cigar tuile (this was a slight inaccuracy as forking the apricot slice would have led to a better position, but it was far from a blunder). In any event, the MCC didn’t punish the Libs for this inaccuracy but instead played the razor sharp 56. Petit Four to side plate. Now the correct response to this provocative attack is hard to find in home analysis, so near impossible in a timed over the table chess dinner match, but the NLC players dug deep, thought hard, and finally found the machine-like move 56…milk jug to coffee cup. Impressive.
With the Almond and Apricots off the board and the cigar tuile blocked in the centre, it came down to the coffee and remaining red wine. Despite beginning to get into time trouble, and for those as experienced as the Liberals, this was a mere matter of technique.
The MMC menu’s resignation soon followed. MCC menu 0 – 1 NLC.
Reflection
Hats off to the MCC menu, it acquitted itself well. The play was challenging and well thought out, and set the Liberals problems at various stages of the game. A menu such as this would have gotten the better of more inexperienced opposition, and perhaps was worthy of a half point in this match. But in the end the menu just didn’t have quite enough power to cause the Libs any lasting trouble.
So the Libs retain their dominance of the chess dinner arena. Few can match the NLC in over the table chess dinners; none can beat them.
Sounds as though our correspondent has been at the Paris mushroom dust . . .
The Editor responds: Indeed, our chess dinner correspondent takes his duties very seriously indeed, often subjecting himself to all manner of noxious intoxicants in order to faithfully report the facts. This dinner was a particularly arduous journalistic assignment.
What a splendid report on what sounds like an exilerating evening. I almost felt for one moment that I was there witnessing a breathless endgame. Keep up the great work NLC.