Suffolk Chess

As regular readers will appreciate, it's not always possible to come up with something newsy and topical every day.   So it's on occasions like this that I have to fall back on either a puzzle or archive material.   Today it's the turn for something old.

Browsing through the old Minute Book, I came across the minutes of the 1963 Annual General Meeting.  Clearly there were some financial concerns at the time, because the Treasurer stated that there was a deficit of over £9 and that "there had been no subscriptions for vice-presidents during the year".   It appears that for many years it had been the practice of the Association to invite anyone to become a VP, upon payment of the appropriate amount.   Ten years earlier, in 1953, it had been agreed that "in future, all persons who subscribe £1-1-0 (a guinea) or more per annum shall be elected Vice-Presidents..."   This seemed to be quite a good way of raising money.   But with no funds from that source coming in during the 1962/63 season, it was agreed at the meeting that "Headmasters of schools, non-affiliated members who played correspondence chess, and any other person interested in chess, should be asked to become a vice-president".   The following year's AGM reported that £10-9-6 had been raised from VPs, so some ten people must have been persuaded to part with their guinea (apart from one who was short of a sixpence).

The 1963 AGM also agreed to reduce the number of boards per team from 10 to 8.   It would seem that there were no A, B, C teams then, just a single Club team.   The only clubs in the Suffolk League were Ipswich, Bury, Stowmarket, Felixstowe, Woodbridge and Saxmundham.   At some later date the number of boards was further reduced to 6, and subsequently to the current 4 (i.e. a car-load).   At least this did facilitate more than one team per club.

Finally, it was reported that the SCCA was "not receiving the publicity required to keep chess before the public and thus encourage the recruitment of new players".   Was that ever the problem!   Nowadays most clubs find it difficult to recruit new members, so nothing much has changed.   But with the advent of the Internet, all clubs have an opportunity to promote themselves to the wider world.   Just try googling 'Ipswich Chess' or 'Saxmundham Chess', or whatever your club's name is.   Does it immediately point you to your club's website?   For most clubs it certainly works, with your club's website top of the list.   But just as important is keeping your club's website up-to-date.   At least one club's site hasn't been touched for several years - and it shows!

The 61st Hertfordshire Congress took place last weekend at the County Hall in Hertford.   There were 108 entrants across four graded sections.   Ten members from Suffolk-based clubs competed.   The following tables show current (Jan 2013) grade, points scored (out of 5), and grading performance.   Eligibility for the graded sections was based on the July 2012 grades.   An asterisk after the score indicates that it includes a full-point bye.

Open

Name	Grade	Club(s)	Points	Performance
Chris Davison	177	Cambridge City / Bury St Edmunds	3½	213
Shaun Munson	206	Ipswich / Bury St Edmunds	3	207
Ian Wallis	174	Ipswich / Bury St Edmunds	2½	188
Adam Taylor	187	Manningtree	2	177

Challengers (u175)

Name	Grade	Club(s)	Points	Performance
Stephen Pride	153	Cambridge City / Bury St Edmunds	3	179
Silas Peck	154	Ipswich	2*	134
Philip Hutchings	160	Manningtree / Clacton	2*	128

Major (u150)

Name	Grade	Club(s)	Points	Performance
Rob Kelly	143	Manningtree	3	153

Minor (u120)

Name	Grade	Club(s)	Points	Performance
Steve Peck	e100	Ipswich	3	95
David Wood	19	Bury St Edmunds	1*	9

Of the above, only Chris Davison achieved any prize money.  As runner-up in the Open section, he won £88, which included the u180 grading prize.

8-year old Anita Somton from Bury St Edmunds has been invited to represent England at the World School Chess Championships, which take place in Halkidiki, Greece, in May 2013.

The invitation follows on a number of successes over the past twelve months.   Anita won the inaugural UKI Girls Under 8 Championship and was second-placed girl in the Under 10s at the British Championships in North Shields in July.   She is also South of England under 9 Girls Champion (from the London Junior in December).

Anita attends the Bury Knights Junior Chess Club, and has played a number of matches for the adult club in the Bury Area League Division 3.   Her father, Somton Ukken, is a strong player himself, and gives Anita two or three hours coaching every day.

A bonus for you - see if you can solve the puzzle on the board; it's White to play.  What is the winning move?

The Suffolk Ladies' Championship is now into its third round, although a couple of games have yet to be played. The latest situation is:

Name	Won	Drawn	Lost	Bye	Points
Emilia Jewell	2	0	0	1	3
Vicky Allen	2	0	0	0	2
Anita Somton	1	0	1	1	2
Adèle Lunn	1	0	0	0	1
Alba Saenz de Villaverde	1	0	2	0	1
Bethany Young	0	0	2	1	1
Liya Baby	0	0	2	0	0

Beacuse there are seven entrants, everyone takes a turn at receiving a bye, as follows:

Round 1 - Bethany
Round 2 - Anita
Round 3 - Emilia
Round 4 - Liya
Round 5 - Alba
Round 6 - Adele
Round 7 - Vicky

In the above table, byes have been shown up to Round 3 only, which is due to be completed by 15 February. Outstanding matches are Adèle v Vicky and Liya v Adèle.

This posting is Number 100 since the new Suffolk Chess website started at the end of September.   Not only has that milestone been reached, but also the site has now received 10,000 page views, as recorded on Blogger's 'stats'.   That of course is an average of 100 per day, but the highest daily figure was 181.

One slightly disappointing feature though has been the number of comments received, which number only 80 - and most of those are from the same few people.

Which brings me to the all-important question - How many people actually look at this website on a regular basis?

If you are reading this page, please take a minute to respond to these three questions, by :

1.   How often do you click on suffolkchess.org.uk?    Every day / a few times a week / once a week / only occasionally

2.   How many times have you added a comment?    A few / once or twice / Never

3.   Do you want these postings to continue?   If so, how often?    Every day / A few times a week / Weekly

Many thanks.   I look forward to hearing from you!

At first glance it just doesn't seem possible.   In this position it's White to play and win.   OK, White has a pawn about to promote, but threats of Nf7+ appear to prevent this.   On the other hand, Black is poised to promote the c and e pawns, as well as holding a considerable material advantage.

If you haven't seen this puzzle before, have a go at solving it.   There's not much use in using a computer - there's no way it'll see far enough ahead from this position.   The main line, which leads to mate, is 12 moves long!


Answers to please!

The Bury St Edmunds Junior Chess Congress will take place at Moreton Hall Community Centre (where the adult club meets) on Sunday 24 February.   Entries are coming in thick and fast, but there is still plenty of space for more!   There's a 'free to enter' section for parents, in addition to the usual age-group sections for Under 8s, 10s, 12, 14s and 18s.   The entry fee is £12, or £10 for ECF 'Silver' members.

If you know of anyone who may like to enter, please send them a link to this page, or to the ECF tournament calendar page, where you can download an entry form.  If you are involved with a school chess club, and have not received any entry forms, please email .

This event was not held last year, because the previous venue, Culford School, required an exorbitant fee to hire their hall.   So this year we have chosen the excellent Moreton Hall Community Centre, which has masses of off-street car parking and is next to shops, pub and a coffee shop.

It was a mixed tournament for Suffolk's David Spence.   Finishing on 5½ points (out of 10) sounds quite good, but this included two half-point byes, a default when his mobile phone rang, and two draws against titled players (GM/IM).  At the end, his Elo rating (2226) stayed virtually unchanged.  Still, I'm sure he had a great time, especially on the social side in the evenings.

You can see his individual performance here (scroll down and click on his name).   He finished in 100th place, out of 247 entrants.  Only six untitled players finished ahead of David, and five of those were on the same 5½ points score.

For those watching the live games, there was an outstanding finish.  Four players tied in first place on 8 points, so there was a Blitz play-off (10 minutes each + 5 seconds per move).  England's Nigel Short, already a four-time winner of this event, won his semi-final against France's Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, but lost out in the Final ½-1½ to Russia's Nikita Vitiugov (2694).  Nigel and Nikita were seeded tenth and ninth respectively, so both did extremely well against such an impressive field (which included 48 Grandmasters!).  

Nigel's rating has now crept up to just three points shy of 2700.  

The live online commentary by GM Simon Williams ('Ginger GM') and IM Irina Krush was quite brilliant - and amusing.   Hope they get signed up for 2014.

I particularly liked this finish by India's Chanda Sandipan (seeded 24th but who finished joint 1st) against China's Quang Liem Le in Round 10.  Sandipan (Black) in this position played 34. Qxd2+!.   The game continued ... Rxd2  35. Rxd2 h5  36. Bf5 Qe3  37. Ra2 resigns.   White is forced to take the rook on f2, else he will be mated.

11-year old Alex Sheerin of the Ipswich Chess Club and Bury Knights Junior Chess Club is attempting to qualify to play for the England Under 11 team.   His target has been to qualify for the Under 11 Trial, for which a 'norm' has to be gained.   Earlier at the London Junior in December he obtained a 'half-norm', so needed another half if he was to get to the Trial in April.

Mum Jane (pictured right with Alex) is incredibly supportive and on 19 January drove all the way to Liverpool (in the snow) for Alex to play in the EPSCA (English Primary Schools Chess Association) Rapidplay.  When they arrived at the venue they found a note pinned to the door to say the event had been cancelled.  This, after Jane had phoned the day before to check the event was still going ahead!

So, back to Ipswich and then last weekend it was off to Yateley in Hampshire to play in the South of England Junior Championships.  Playing in the Under 11 section, Alex scored the required three points out of five to obtain his second half-norm.   In doing so, he had a grading performance of 112.   See cross-table here.

Alex's new ECF grade is 105, an amazing improvement from his July 2012 grade of 69.   His Rapidplay grade is 116.

Now Jane and Alex will have to travel back to Liverpool for the weekend of 27/28 April for the England Under 11 trial.    Good luck Alex!

(This article should have been posted yesterday - sorry!)

Ten Clubs entered the Intermediate section of the National Club Championship, for which the controller is SCCA Competitions Secretary Mike McNaughton.   Saxmundham Chess Club is the only club from Suffolk that has entered.   In the first round they were paired against the 2012 champions Bishop's Stortford.   They came away with an excellent 3 - 1 win!

You can view full details on the ECF page here.

Two of the remaining five clubs now have to play a preliminary round, to determine the four which are to compete in the semi-finals.  Saxmundham have managed to miss the preliminary round and will now face either Maidstone or Wanstead and Woodford in the semis.  If the latter club wins, Saxmundham will be at home; if Maidstone win they will have to play away.

Good luck to the team, which consists of John Feavyour, Malcolm Lightfoot, Arthur McCormick and Andrew Paige.