Suffolk Chess

Following an exhausting 10 days in Montenegro, competing in the European Youth Chess Championships, the 23 members of the England Junior team have now returned to the UK.   They included Suffolk players Adam Taylor (Manningtree) and Anita Somton (Bury St Edmunds).

Adam (2034 Elo) played in the Under 16 Open, a strong section which included four IMs and five players with ratings over 2400.

Seeded 58th out of 92 competitors, he finished on 4 points out of nine, in joint 52nd place (63rd on tiebreak).   Adam's best result was a draw against a German rated 2239.

9-year old Anita doesn't have an Elo rating yet, but managed to beat two rated opponents whilst scoring 5 points out of nine in the Under 10 Girls section.

She finished in equal 22nd place (32nd on tiebreak) out of 76 competitors.   She will be able to compete in the same event next year, as her birthday is after the 1 January deadline.

The finish of her seventh game was featured on the ECF website by her coach, IM Jovanka Houska.   Here it is again (Anita is Black):

Anita's opponent blundered with 27. Rxa6, to which Anita replied ... Rbxe2!   28. Rxe6   Rxe6   29. Rxe6   Bxe6, and won after 42 moves.

Anita now returns to League chess, where she will be playing this evening in a match for Bury St Edmunds Vipers against Cambridge Bollards in the Bury Area Chess League Division 2.

Playing in the Individual event at the 4NCL Rapidplay last Sunday, 16-year old Alan Merry (who has a rapidplay rating of 2252) beat GM Gawain Jones (2649).   And Alan had the Black pieces!

Here is the game, which you can play through:

The full results for the Bury St Edmunds Congress are now available on the Suffolk grading website here.

There were a number of outstanding performances by Suffolk players:

In the Open section, Adam Hunt drew his individual game with GM Alex Cherniaev and finished level with him on 4½ points.   Both earned £375 for their efforts.

Also in the Open, Dagne Ciuksyte and Shaun Munson scored 3½ points, sharing third place with GM Chris Ward.   Ed Player and Mike Harris both scored 3 points.

In the Major section, 16-year old Silas Peck scored 3½ points to finish equal 3rd.

Further down the list, John Peters, Malcolm Lightfoot, Robert Cope and Kevin Greenacre all scored 3 points.

The Intermediate section saw a brilliant performance by Clacton's Mike Coughtrey, who shared second place with four others, despite being graded only 115 (which would have qualified him to play in the Minor section).

Charles Richmond, Ed Kirkham, Mark Weidman and Alex Sheerin all scored 3 points.   11-year old Alex enjoyed a 139 grading performance.

Colin Gardiner from Newmarket shared first place in the Minor, with 13-year old William Sait from Bury St Edmunds in equal third place on 4 points.   William celebrated his 14th birthday the day after the Congress!

The photos were taken by Brendan O'Gorman, who played in the Major section.

Alan Merry beat GM Gawain Jones in the 4NCL Rapidplay event on Sunday!

More on this soon.

In haste....

Here's a preliminary report on the Congress which concluded this evening....

143 entered across the four sections.   The highest entry was in the Minor (u120) section, with 40 players.
The section winners were:

Open

GM Alex Cherniaev (Russia)
IM Adam Hunt (Woodbridge School)

Major (u170)

Mark Szymanski (Ely)
Francis Sagyaman (Coulsdon)

Intermediate (u145)

James Briginshaw (Linton)

Minor (u120)

Martin Harris (Colchester)
Colin Gardiner (Newmarket)

Other Suffolk players scoring well included:

Shaun Munson (Ipswich) - 3rd equal in the Open
Dagne Ciuksyte (Martlesham) - 3rd equal in the Open
Silas Peck (Ipswich) - 3rd equal in the Major
Alex Sheerin (Ipswich) - grading prize in the Intermediate
William Sait (Bury St Edmunds) - 3rd equal in the Minor

More on the event tomorrow.

Saxmundham Chess Club meets on Tuesdays between 7.30 pm and 11.00 pm at Benhall & Sternfield Ex-Servicemen’s Club, School Lane, Benhall IP17 1HE, just outside Saxmundham, tel. 01728 602337.   Click here to view our website.   We are open all the year round and there is usually adequate parking for cars.

The club is small and friendly and was founded over 50 years ago; it caters for serious and casual players alike, providing opportunities for those who wish to play competitively and for those who simply enjoy playing chess.

We currently have 16 members of whom ten are active Suffolk League players.   The ‘A’ Team plays in Division 2 and is captained by Andrew Paige and the ‘B’ Team in Division 3 is captained this year by Peter Chadwick.   Club officials are John Feavyour (Chairman), Hugo Brown (Secretary) and Geoffrey Lilley (Treasurer).

Arthur McCormick

With 145 entries confirmed, the 31st Bury St Edmunds Congress promises to be a success.   There are no fewer than nine players graded over 200, including two GMs and two IMs.

The full list of entrants can be viewed here.

It's not too late to enter, so if you've had a last-minute change of heart, go to the Congress website and pay online. Entries on the day incur a £5.00 surcharge, so don't leave it too late!

If you're playing, you may be interested in knowing the colours for the top board in each section.   It all depends on the result of a football match this evening!   Colours will be determined by the result of the League One match between Sheffield United and Crawley.   If the total number of goals scored in the match is even (including a 0-0 draw), then the top player in each section will be White in Round 1.   If the total number of goals is odd, then the top player will be Black in Round 1.

When we teach youngsters the finer points of the game, we suggest that it's a good idea to exchange pieces if you have a material advantage.   Nothing wrong with that, I hear you say.

...WRONG

Playing in the European Youth Championships in Montenegro this week, 9-year old Anita Somton was a pawn ahead in her first game, and a knight and a pawn ahead in her second game.   But she lost both games because she tried to exchange queens.

This was the first game:

Anita now played 31. Qxb7?, missing the convincing 31. Qe8+   Bf8   32. Nc6   Ra8   33. Rd8 etc.   She later missed a pin and lost the game.

In her second game, Anita (Black) was winning easily, although her king was poorly placed.   Here she thought a queen swop would be fine, and played 34... Qc6??, allowing 35. Rb8+   1 - 0

After five rounds, Anita is on two points.   Manningtree's Adam C Taylor, playing in the Under 16 Open, is on 1½ points.

Tomorrow is a rest day; the final four rounds commence on Saturday, finishing on Tuesday.

Looking further afield than Suffolk for a change, there are just five weeks to go before the World Chess Championship takes place between the current Champion, Vishwanathan Anand (2775), and the Challenger, Magnus Carlsen (2870).   Carlsen qualified to challenge Anand by winning the Candidates Tournament, which took place at the Institution of Engineering and Technology, Savoy Place, London, in March this year.

The match will take place in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chennai, India, from 6 to 26 November.   12 games are scheduled, one per day, with rest days after games 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 11.   Should the match be tied after the 12th game on 24 November, tie-break games will be played on the 26th.

The time control for the games will give each player 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting after move 61.   Tie-break games, if played, will have increasingly limited time controls.

This is the official website, where you will be able to watch the games live.

Not only is Anand nearly 100 rating points adrift, but Carlsen also has a 21-year age advantage!

I have acquired a large supply of 'new' chess books.   They come from Tournament Chess Supplies, who are trying to 'thin down' their massive stock of books.   By 'new', I mean they are mostly in pristine condition, but they are not particularly new in terms of when they were published.

They will be on display on the bookstall at the forthcoming Bury St Edmunds Congress.   Prices range from £1.00 to £5.00. Some of the books were priced at over £20.00 when published.

So even if you're not playing at the Congress, come and have a look at these books.   There will be over 500 different titles.   The photo shows just two of the boxes; there will be some 10 boxes of books to pore over.