CHESS
Pub club
Raymond Keene
An important recent event which I have not yet covered was the National Westminster Bank Young Masters Tourna- ment, organised by the enthusiasts of the King's Head pub in Bayswater. The re- markable thing about this tournament was that two young British players, Michael Adams (16 years old, from Truro in Cornwall) and David Norwood (19, and about to go up to Keble College, Oxford) both made Grandmaster results at one and the same time. This hardly ever happens.
The final scores of the tournament lead- ers were: Adams, Kudrin and Norwood equal first with 619, followed by Hebden and Rogers with 51/2 points.
The King's Head itself, a pub where chess is the predominant bar game, is something of a phenomenon. Tony Hodg- kin, landlord for the past eight months, was attracted to the King's Head precisely because of its rich club atmosphere. He said: 'I wouldn't have it any other way. It is a great thing for the pub to have chess here. The chessplayers spend a lot at the bar and they don't wreck the place.' Things have been known, though, to get slightly out of hand at the annual club drinking championship. This is a knock-out tourna- ment, on the Wimbledon format (though there is less running about), in which it is necessary to consume two pints per game in order to qualify for the next stage. The other, perhaps slightly less vital require- ment for proceeding to the next round, is to win the game.
The reigning drinking champion is Andrew Whiteley, an International Mas- ter, who seems rooted to a particular stool in one corner of the Snug bar. He descends occasionally to discuss club strategy with other elders, or to administer a thrashing to an upstart 'rabbit', chess argot for a weaker player. Whiteley claims that to win the drinking championship one has to reckon on consumption of at least eight pints. Though, he confided, it definitely helps to get into training with a few quick ones before the actual battle commences.
Simpsons-in-the-Strand, the most cele- brated 19th-century London chess club, and the King's Head have very much in common. Simpsons is now a restaurant, and has been for many decades. But still displayed in the foyer is a board on which the immortals of the game crossed pawns
— Howard Staunton, Emanuel Lasker, Paul Morphy and Whilhelm Steinitz. As Britain resumes its rightful place in the world of chess (as a nation we are now second only to the Russians) visionaries at the King's Head, amongst the Chinese and Indian take-aways of Queensway, are steadily re-establishing that social chess environment which was so conducive to Britain's pre-eminence in the past.
The King's Head is situated at 33 Mos- cow Road, Bayswater. For information on joining, or simply coming to enjoy a game, phone Robin Pearce on 831 6144 or 602 0756. It is always encouraging to discover other bars and cafés where chess is played. In addition to the King's Head there is the very Spanish Bar Escoba, located at 102 Old Brompton Road, SW7 (tel: 373 2403). Here, it is possible to play chess on Saturday mornings. Chess boards are en- graved into some of the table tops, but there is a limited number of sets of pieces available,• so if you plan a trip, it makes sense to take along your own pieces, and a board to be safe. Finally, the Troubadour, also in the Old Brompton Road, at number 265, SW5, has been recommended to me by Grandmaster Murray Chandler, a de- nizen of that area. Here, too, chess is played on Saturday mornings.
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