Suffolk Chess

(Report from Ted Matthewson)

Last Tuesday, GM Jonathan Levitt bravely took on 17 Ipswich players in a simultaneous display.   There were some tough games which lasted late into the evening.   Congratulations go to Silas Peck, Tim Lunn and Martin Fogg on winning their games.   The full results are given below:

WIN – Silas Peck, Tim Lunn, Martin Fogg

DRAW – Ted Matthewson, Ken Lunn, Alex Sheerin

LOSS – Martin Tomes, Les Jones, Tim Serpell, Andrew Shephard, Keith Woodcock, Bernie Ross, Michael Cook, Alonso Paez, John Feavyour, Sam Brennan, Michael Clapham

Photo above shows (l to r) Tim Lunn, Silas Peck, Keith Woodcock, Alonso Paez, Mike Cook, John Feavyour, with Jon Levitt standing.

Many thanks to all who took part and especially to Jonathan for giving up his time and energy in putting on the display.

11-year old Alex Sheerin missed out on the England team when he scored only one out of six in the England trial over the last weekend of April.   The previous Tuesday he had beaten Andrew Shephard in the Ipswich Club Championship, so hopes had been high.   Mum Jane reports that all his games, except the one he won, were long ones.

Although he has not made an England team he has been invited to play in a couple of regional matches:   Rest of England v London & South East (assume he will be South East but will not know until the day - 22 June) and North v Midlands v Scotland v Wales - 7 and 8 December (boundaries are a bit odd apparently so he will play for the Midlands).   He has also been invited to take part in the Junior Squad training weekend next January, so there are lots of opportunities.

I'm sure we will hear a lot more of Alex.   He will be representing Suffolk at Under 18 level at the end of June, in the ECF Inter-County Champiosnhips.

-oOo-

This coming weekend sees the EACU Congress, at the Turner Hall, Newmarket.   There are three sections: Open, Under 170 and Under 130.   If you want to play but haven't entered yet, send an email to .

-oOo-

A date for your diaries: the SCCA Annual General Meeting will take place on Tuesday 3 September.

This is a summary of all the promotions and relegations from both the Suffolk League and the Bury Area League, as well as the various cup and graded competitions:

Suffolk League

Division 1
Winners - Ipswich A
Relegated - Sudbury
Player of the Year - Shaun Munson (Ipswich)

Division 2
Promoted - Bury St Edmunds B
Relegated - Clacton A
Player of the Year - Bob Jones (Bury St Edmunds)

Division 3
Promoted - Ipswich F
Last place - Stowmarket Rooks
Player of the Year - Peter Chadwick (Saxmundham)

League Cup
Winners - Ipswich
Runners-up - Manningtree

Under 145
Winners - Ipswich
Runners-up - Felixstowe

Under 125
Winners - Felixstowe
Runners-up - Ipswich

Bury Area League

Division 1
Winners - Linton A
Relegated - Cambridge Oddfellows
Player of the Year - Paul Kemp (Linton)

Division 2
Promoted - Bury St Edmunds Cobras
Relegated - Cambridge Dons
Player of the Year - Rob Cope (Bury St Edmunds)

Division 3
Promoted - Newmarket
Last place - Bury St Edmunds 'G'
Player of the Year - Charles Richmond (Newmarket)

Roger Goldsmith Cup Competition (Division 1 - u581)
Winners - Cambridge Students
Runners-up - Cambridge Porters

Roger Goldsmith Cup Competition (Division 2 - u451)
Winners - Linton Lions
Runners-up - Cambridge Bursars

Yesterday's posting reported the narrow loss for the Suffolk Under 160 team in the National Quarter-Finals to Nottinghamshire.   This followed three pairs of matches in the EACU competition, against Norfolk (win, win), Hertfordshire (loss, win) and Cambridgeshire (win, loss).   Suffolk were runners-up to Cambridgeshire, with Herts third and Norfolk last.

A total of 28 players were used over the seven matches.   Several performed well above expectation, as the following chart demonstrates:

Name	Score	Gp
Adrian Sanderson	1/1*	186.0
Stephen Lewis	1½/2	180.0
John Peters	3½/4	175.3
Ed Kirkham	4½/6*	167.0
Sam Brennan	3/5	165.6
Silas Peck	3½/5	165.0
Andrew Shephard	4½/7	162.3
John McAllister	2/3	160.7
Leon Burnett	1½/3	159.0
Bob Jones	3½/6	158.7
John Lambert	2/3	158.3
Mark Bettley	3/4	157.3
Kevin Greenacre	2½/5	155.6
Harold Thomas	1/2	146.0
Scott Taylor	3½/7	145.7
Keith Woodcock	2/3	145.0
Rob Harden	3½/7	144.3
Carl Phillips	2½/5	139.4
Les Jones	1½/4	137.0
Simon Riley	2/5	132.8
Anna York-Andersen	½/2	132.0
Jakob Tulic	1½/4	130.5
Vivian Woodward	1/4	125.3
Arthur McCormick	½/2	115.0
Jim Buis	0/1	110.0
Melvin Steele	½/2	103.5
Colin Roberts	1/7	102.1
Andrew Donnelly	0/1	101.0

* = also received a default win
Gp = grading performance

The Player of the Season is Ed Kirkham, who scored 4½/6 over the board but also received a default win when his opponent failed to appear.   Five people played in all seven matches.

Cambridgeshire also lost their quarter-final, 7½-8½, to Warwickshire.

-oOo-

It's often amusing to see how journalists, usually with little understanding of the game, use chess as a metaphor.   Here's one from the Evening Standard (16 May).   The journalist was Dan Jones.

The headline read: "Wayne Rooney's been playing chess with Manchester United and it's nearly checkmate".   The article included this reference: "In his chess game with United, this is check, with a view, in not so many moves, to checkmate."   Stick to football Dan.

Back from (two) holidays and the Suffolk Chess website is about to burst into life again.   It won't be quite as frequent as before, because the playing season has ended.   It's planned to do two or three postings every week until September, when the site will revert to daily updates.

So now it's catch-up time.   Time to update the end-of-season happenings, as well as a few new items.   There will be postings throughout this Bank Holiday weekend.

First, then, how did Anita do in Greece?   Pretty well, in fact.   She finished in 20th place out of 39 entrants, scoring 50% (4½ out of 9).   She had some splendid wins, and her last round draw was a clear win but she chose to finish on 50%, rather than risk anything.   Here's one of her games, in Round 7, against a Slovenian girl with a rating of 1386 (about 100 ECF).   This miniature is a good example of Anita's aggressive play:

Anita hopes to be playing regularly next season in both the Bury Area League and the Suffolk League, so watch out!

-oOo-

The Suffolk Under 160 team played against Nottinghamshire on 18 May in the quarter-finals of the Inter-County Championships.   The result was a loss, on board count, after the score was tied at 8-8.   A great pity, because a win would have given us a semi-final against neighbours Essex.   The full result will be published tomorrow, alongside a summary of all seven matches played this season by the Under 160s.

There was some disarray as the date of the match approached, when it was realised that two players, Malcolm Lightfoot and Silas Peck both needed to be approved by the National Controller as they did not have grades in July 2012.   Both had received grades (157 and 154 respectively) in January 2013, but that didn't count.   Malcolm was assessed at 160, rendering him ineligible, and Silas was initially given an estimated grade of 161.   But when Silas' many tournaments, including the 4NCL, were taken into consideration, his grade dived to e141.   So at the very last moment John Lambert was drafted into the team, to replace Malcolm.   Rules!

As this will be the last posting for ten days, it's a good opportunity to wish 9-year old Anita Somton the best of luck in the forthcoming WORLD SCHOOLS CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS.


Anita and her father Somton leave next Monday for a ten-day trip to Halkidiki in Greece that will involve nine daily games of up to five hours duration.   Anita is one of a 48-member squad of England players.   Playing in the Under 9 Girls section, Anita will be facing strong opponents from countries that include Kazakhstan, Turkey, Romania, India, Slovenia and Azerbaijan.

Anita is a member of the Bury Knights Junior Chess Club, which has awarded a grant of £250 to assist with travel and accommodation costs.

I will be on holiday until 10 May, so there will be no more postings until then.

Back in January, Saxmundham Chess Club won their way through to the semi-finals of the National Intermediate Club Championship (see report here).   To qualify for the Intermediate section players must be graded below 170 and the team grade must be under 580.

Yesterday Saxmundham travelled the 112 miles to Maidstone Chess Club.   Clearly exhausted after such a long journey they unfortunately lost 3 - 1, although captain Arthur McCormick reports that all games were "tight but enjoyable":

Maidstone v Saxmundham

1   Robert Lane (159)   1 - 0   John Feavyour (168)
2   George Hollands (146)   ½ - ½   Malcolm Lightfoot (157)
3   Alan Riddoch (139)   ½ - ½   Arthur McCormick (127)
4   Douglas Smith (115)   1 - 0   Andrew Paige (109)

This coming week should see the remaining matches played in the League and cups.

In Division 2, Saxmundham take on Adastral Park on Tuesday 30th.   In Division 3, the only outstanding match is Felixstowe v Stowmarket Rooks.   This was due to have been played back in January and no new date appears to have been set (according to Dave Wild's website).

There are two Finals to be played.   The Under 125 Final is between Felixstowe and Ipswich, whilst the League Cup Final sees Manningtree take on Ipswich.   This match was due to have been played last week, but no result has been submitted.   Perhaps it wasn't played - does anyone know?

To finalise the reports on the Bury Area League, here are the various league promotions and relegations, as well as the Players of the Year:

Division 1 Champions - Linton A (see yesterday's report)
Relegated from Division 1 - Cambridge Oddfellows
Division 2 Champions - Bury St Edmunds Cobras
Relegated from Division 2 - Cambridge Dons
Division 3 Champions - Newmarket

So, for the first time since 2002/03, Cambridge City Chess Club will have only two teams in Division 1 next season.

Players of the Year

(and runners-up)

Division 1

Paul Kemp (Linton A)   81.8%   (9/11) - no losses
Chris Davison (Cambridge City)   79.2%   (9½/12) - no losses

Division 2

Rob Cope (Bury St Edmunds)   75.0%   (6/8)
David Brown (Bury St Edmunds)   71.4%   (5/7) - no losses

Division 3

Charles Richmond (Newmarket)   78.6%   (5½/7)
Eugene Husband (Newmarket)   72.2%   (6½/9)

See the Bury Area Chess League website for detailed tables etc.

In a fascinating finish to Division 1 of the Bury Area Chess League, Cambridge Choristers came within a whisker of grabbing the title from leaders Linton A.

Facing Bury St Edmunds Scorpions last night, the Choristers fielded their strongest team, outgrading their opponents on three of the four boards.   Choristers needed to win 4½-½ to climb above Linton in the final league table.   That score would have placed them level with Linton, with an identical number of wins.   But in this league there is a second tie-break based on the results between the two teams during the season.   With a draw and a win behind them, Choristers would have triumphed had they won on three boards and drawn on one (remember, in the BACL there's a bonus point for a team win).

The Scorpions team included Shaun Munson and Ian Wallis, who play for Bury St Edmunds in this league.   Linton owe them a drink or two, because Shaun drew (against IM Richard Tozer) and Ian beat Rob McCorry.   The other two boards lost, making the final score 3½-1½ to Choristers, a point short of their target.

So, the Bury League Champions for 2012/13 are Linton A.

Left to right:   Kevin Clark (191), David Coleman (202), Paul Kemp (188) and Norman Hutchinson (186).