Suffolk Chess

Sudbury's Rob Sanders travelled down to Paignton in September for their annual congress. He competed in the five-round Boniface Morning event and finished equal first on 4 points!

(Photo courtesy of Brendan O'Gorman)
Here's an interesting win by Rob from Round 2:
Rob's 18... cxd4 was an error; ... Qc6 was necessary. After 19. Rxg2! Rxg2 20. Qe4!, White has the advantage. White's fatal error was 21. Kd2 instead of Nxg1.

International Master Adam Hunt has held the post of Suffolk Junior Organiser for the past few years but has now decided to hand over the reins to someone else. His work at Woodbridge School is very demanding and he feels he cannot offer the level of attention that the role demands.

It's vital that this post is filled. Without juniors, the chess scene in Suffolk will undoubtedly suffer. We only have to remember the 1990s, when Nick and Richard Pert, along with the likes of David Spence, Ed Player, David Whitehead and many others, were a major force on the national junior scene. Many of these are still playing at a high level, with both David and Ed still living in the county. Nick is a Grandmaster and Richard an IM. Other bright young stars have emerged in recent years, including 15-year old Alan Merry, now the county's highest-graded player, and Emilia Jewell, aged 14 and the highest-graded girl in Suffolk.

Apart from Woodbridge School, the only junior club that has been able to continue without a break has been the Bury Knights; others including Stowmarket, Newmarket and Great Cornard have fallen by the wayside. Even the Ipswich Junior Chess Club has had its difficulties and has not been able to resume this term.

What is needed is an enthusiastic person, ideally a parent, who can commit time and energy to this role. He or she will of course have the full support of the Suffolk Executive. There are plenty of opportunities for innovative ideas and plans.

If you are interested in taking on this post, and would like to discuss it further, please contact .

This annual event takes place on Saturday 10 November at Whittlesford Memorial Hall, Whittlesford, CB22 4NE. There are three sections: Open, Team 600 and Team 500. The event is organised by . Teams consist of four players from the EACU but not necessarily from the same club.

The Open is for teams with any total grade.

Team 600 is for teams with an aggregate grade not exceeding 600. For the purposes of calculation, anyone with a grade under 100 will be taken as 100.

Team 500 is for teams with an aggregate grade not exceeding 500. For the purposes of calculation, anyone with a grade under 75 will be taken as 75.

There will be an inscribed digital clock or a cash prize for the team with most game points in each category but the number and value of prizes will depend on the number of entries. If ten entries have been received by 27 October the EACU will undertake to provide a trophy.

The event uses the county match format of two rounds but starting at 09.45 and 14.00. The time limit is 36 moves in 90 minutes with 20 minutes to finish the game. The exact format of the competition will depend on the number of entries.

The entry fee is £20 per team, payable on the day. Any player who is not a member of the ECF needs to pay an extra £4. The clubs that won the top division of the six EACU county leagues (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Bury League) in the last season are entitled to enter a team of entirely their club players at half price into the Open.

Tea and coffee will be provided free of charge. There is a pub or two in the village as well as a village shop.

Enquiries and entries should be made to or to 01223 842197. Entries by 28th October please.

Yesterday (21 October) saw two excellent wins for the Suffolk First Team, against Norfolk (9 - 7) and Cambridgeshire (10½ - 5½).

There were two wins each for Ted Matthewson (Ipswich) and Rob Sanders (Sudbury), whilst Alan Merry, Ed Player, Ben Purton, Graham Moore, Steve Gregory. Richard Lamont and Laurie Pott all managed a win and a draw.

See here for full results. An excellent start to the season!

13-year old Adam Taylor, who has recently joined the Manningtree club, has been selected to play for England in the World Youth Chess Championships, to be held in Maribor, Slovenia, between 7 and 19 November.
Graded 181, Adam has already achieved solid draws against Tim Lunn and Ed Player in the Suffolk League this season. His rise has been meteoric; just three years ago his grade was 73.

This sad news has just reached Suffolk... Many players will remember with fondness Adrian Thorpe, formerly of the Bury & West Suffolk Chess Club. He died suddenly at his home in Herefordshire, back in April. Along with Roy Adams and Gordon Chapman, Adrian was a mainstay of that club. Now, all three have passed away. Adrian moved from his Suffolk home at Preston St Mary, about ten years ago. The photo above was taken when he attended Gordon Chapman's funeral in January 2011.

Adrian's 'magnum opus' was his 'History of the Bury & West Suffolk Chess Club', which he published in a lavish red imitation leather cover, in 1997. Copies of the book, which reflected on the 130 year history of the club, are still available at £7.50 (half-price).

Last weekend, whilst the Bury Congress was in progress, Alan Merry was in Dortmund, representing England in a match organised and sponsored by the German Railway Company (Deutsche Bahn)- the Trans-Europe Chess Express. See their excellent website. The event carried the by-line, "Logic meets Logistics".

Alan played on Board 2 in an 8-board team headed by Nigel Short, which included three 'railwaymen'. Quite an honour to be playing on the next board to Anatoly Karpov and Nigel Short.


Alan scored 3 out of 8. His opponents outgraded Alan by an average of 100 points.

After the main event, Alan played in a 13-round Rapidplay, scoring 8½ points, finishing equal 7th out of 76.

In the final round of the Bury St Edmunds Congress last weekend, the oldest competitor, 88-year old John Dawson, from Linton, was paired against the youngest, 5-year old Jeff Tomy from Watford. The press were there to capture the moment and their photo appeared on the front page of the following day's East Anglian Daily Times, together with a fuller report on Page 4. See here. Oh, by the way, age prevailed.

134 players competed in this year's Congress, held at the 'Apex' in the town centre, 13/14 October. Of these, 48 were from clubs who compete in the Suffolk League. Section winners were:

Open - IM Harriet Hunt (Cambridge)
Major - Ed Kernohan (Cambridge City)
Intermediate - Warren Kingston (Lowestoft)
Minor - Jelena Tjurina (Wisbech)

Notable performances by Suffolk players included:

Ed Player (Bury St Edmunds) - on top board in final round against Harriet Hunt. He and Shaun Munson both finished on 3½ points.

Philip Hutchings (Manningtree) was runner-up in the Major section, on 4 points.

Another Manningtree player, Rob Kelly, was joint second in the Intermediate, along with Scott Taylor (Bury St Edmunds) and four others.

In the Minor section, Roger Smith (Ipswich) came equal second.

Mike McNaughton has published the fixtures and dates for the various Cup competitions. They are:

Under 125 Cup

(Semi-Finals)
Clacton v Felixstowe - 20 November
Stowmarket v Ipswich - 27 November
Final to be played on 23 April 2013

Under 145 Cup

(Preliminary round)
Felixstowe v Ipswich - 13 November
Clacton v Adastral Park - 27 November

(Semi-Finals)
Manningtree v Clacton or Adastral Park - 27 February 2013
Felixstowe or Ipswich v Saxmundham - tba

League Cup

Adastral Park v Ipswich A - 23 October
Manningtree v Saxmundham - 24 October
Ipswich A v Sudbury - 6 November
Saxmundham v Ipswich B - 6 November
Sudbury v Adastral Park - 27 November
Ipswich B v Manningtree - 27 November

Norfolk & Suffolk Cup

Ipswich v Bury St Edmunds - 23 April 2013

Any queries? Contact Mike at mike181040 (at) hotmail.com