Suffolk Chess

The new grades which were published last Monday included 151 players who either live in Suffolk, or who play for clubs affiliated to the Suffolk County Chess Association.

The breakdown is as follows:

Adults   -   129
Juniors   -   22
Females   -   10

67 have seen their grades increase;
65 have decreased grades;
19 grades remain the same.

The most noticeable fact is that there are three Juniors in the Top 8, all graded over 200.   The last time we had a couple of juniors graded over 200 was in the era of Nick and Richard Pert; when Suffolk won the Under 18 inter-counties championship in 1997, they were graded 222 and 221.   Now we have Justin Tan (227), Alan Merry (223) and Adam Taylor (201).   Adam has leapt from 190 in July 2013.

Who will be the next Junior to reach the 'magic' 200?   16-year old Silas Peck looks to be the likely candidate, graded 171, up from 162.

The biggest improvement is by 9-year old Anita Somton, who gained 14 points, followed closely by David Green and Mike Coughtrey (+13).

Whilst the massive Gibraltar Masters, with over 100 GMs and IMs playing, reaches its third round, the Zurich Chess Challenge starts today.

This is the first-ever Category 23 tournament, with an average rating of over 2800.   The six participants, which include the top three players in the world (Carlsen, Aronian and Nakamura), are all rated in the world's top ten.

The Chess World is spoilt for choice, with these two major events taking place at the same time.   I hope to be able to display some of the more interesting positions and games from these events on this website in the next few days.

The only Suffolk player at the Gibraltar Masters is David Spence (pictured right).   In the first round, played yesterday, he drew (with Black) against GM Dubov from Russia, rated 2614.   For his efforts, he faces another GM in Round 2 today.   The only other East Anglian player in the Masters is Cambridge City's Ashley Stewart, who lost his first game.

According to the Sunday Times, "The annual Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival has established itself as the most prestigious open tournament in the world".   This year over 250 players have entered, 66 of whom are GMs!   There are 22 players from England.

To follow the results, go to the tournament website.   And to watch some of the top games, live every afternoon, go to the Chessbomb site.

On Sunday, the Suffolk Under 160 and Under 100 teams played at the Turner Hall in Newmarket.   The results were mixed!

The Under 160s, outgraded by an average of nine points per board, performed miracles in the morning against Cambridgeshire, pulling back an 8 - 6 deficit to draw the match.   But all the hard work was thrown away in the afternoon, when the same team crashed 3½-12½ to Hertfordshire.   Suffolk were still outgraded, but by only five points this time.   Suffolk's star was the reliable Ed Kirkham, who was the only player of the 16 to win both games.   The two top boards, John Feavyour and Andrew Shephard, scored 1½ points.

So with just one point out of a possible eight match points, Suffolk's chances of qualifying for the next round are almost nil (although mathematically possible).   Unfortunately, many strong players were unavailable and seven members of the Suffolk team were graded below 140.

At the same time, the Suffolk Under 100s, captained by Felixstowe's Dave Robertson, were competing against Norfolk.   The nine-board team played the same opponents twice, as White and Black.

With the White pieces in the morning, they fell to a 2½-6½ defeat, but playing Black in the afternoon, managed to draw 4½-4½.

The only player to win both games was Stowmarket's Daniel Yarnton (82).   Captain Dave (pictured front left) scored 1½ points.

The final matches for both teams take place on Sunday 16 March.

The County First Teams take on Bedfordshire and Norfolk next Sunday (2 February).

The new ECF grades have been published this morning.

Here's the full list of standard-play grades for currently active players who are either members of clubs affiliated to the Suffolk County Chess Association, or who live in the county with no current club.   Juniors are shown by (J):

Name	Club	New grade	Old grade
Adam Hunt	Woodbridge School	233	232
Justin Tan (J)	Woodbridge School	227	229
Alan Merry (J)	Bury St Edmunds	223	227
Dagne Ciuksyte	Suffolk CCA	219	222
David Spence	Bury St Edmunds	206	206
Shaun Munson	Ipswich	205	204
Mike Harris	Bury St Edmunds	203	209
Adam Taylor (J)	Manningtree	201	190
Ed Player	Ipswich	200	205
Graham Moore	Suffolk CCA	192	190
Steve Gregory	Ipswich/Bury St Edmunds	189	190
Mark Le-Vine	Bury St Edmunds	188	188
Tim Lunn	Ipswich/Bury St Edmunds	184	181
Ted Matthewson	Ipswich	183	183
Steve Ruthen	Bury St Edmunds	180	176
Mike Cook	Ipswich	176	181
Chris Davison	Bury St Edmunds	176	182
Martin Fogg	Ipswich	176	174
Rob Sanders	Sudbury	176	171
John Peters	Bury St Edmunds	175	169
Nick Savage	Ipswich	175	174
Rob McCorry	Bury St Edmunds	174	179
Luke Hill	Ipswich	173	170
Somton Ukken	Bury St Edmunds	172	176
David Brown	Saxmundham/Bury St Edmunds	171	175
Silas Peck (J)	Ipswich	171	162
Ian Wallis	Ipswich/Bury St Edmunds	171	178
Robert Cope	Bury St Edmunds	167	166
Phil Hopkins	Felixstowe	167	171
Michael Clapham	Ipswich/Bury St Edmunds	161	159
Malcolm Lightfoot	Saxmundham	161	163
John Feavyour	Saxmundham/Bury St Edmunds	160	151
Phil Hutchings	Manningtree	160	153
Mike Taylor	Bury St Edmunds	160	163e
Sam Brennan	Ipswich	158	158
Leon Burnett	Manningtree	158	154e
Richard Lamont	Bury St Edmunds	158	171
Andrew Shephard	Ipswich/Bury St Edmunds	155	157
Andrew Salmon	Clacton	154	153
Pete Smyth	Adastral Park	154	156
Anna York-Andersen	Suffolk CCA	153	153
Andrew Donnelly	Bury St Edmunds	151	148
John McAllister	Manningtree/Adastral Park	151	146
Kevin Greenacre	Ipswich	150	157
Adam Harvey	Bury St Edmunds	150	145
Bob Jones	Bury St Edmunds	150	157
Jon Collins	Bury St Edmunds	149	154
Stephen Pride	Bury St Edmunds	149	150
Bob Stephens	Clacton/Manningtree	149	146
Jim Buis	Manningtree	148	150
Simon Riley	Adastral Park	147	149
Vivian Woodward	Sudbury	146	147
Ed Kirkham	Adastral Park	145	138
Stephen Lewis	Stowmarket	145	143
Rob Kelly	Manningtree	144	145
Harold Thomas	Sudbury	144	146
Roger Holt	Bury St Edmunds	142	140
Nikolay Lastochkin	Suffolk CCA	142	140
Martin Tomes	Ipswich	141	142e
Laurie Pott	Bury St Edmunds	140	151
Mike McNaughton	Stowmarket	139	144
John Lambert	Clacton	138	140
Carl Phillips	Manningtree	137	137
Keith Woodcock	Ipswich	137	134
Kenn Butcher	Sudbury	136	143
Dave Pearce	Clacton	136	132
Laureano Garcia-Munoz	Bury St Edmunds	135	142e
David Green	Stowmarket	135	122
Les Jones	Ipswich	134	150
William Sait (J)	Bury St Edmunds	132	126e
Colin Roberts	Bury St Edmunds	131	134
Scott Taylor	Bury St Edmunds	131	147
Mark Weidman	Adastral Park	131	130
Martin Alvin	Clacton	128	132
Mark Bettley	Stowmarket	128	129
Mike Coughtrey	Clacton	128	115
Arthur McCormick	Saxmundham	128	128
Dick Myhill	Bury St Edmunds	127	129
Daniel Such (J)	Woodbridge School	127	125
Jakob Tulic	Sudbury	127	132
Dave Welsh	Clacton	127	122
Steve Lovell	Bury St Edmunds	126	127
Emilia Jewell (J)	Bury St Edmunds	125	124
Gary Hemsworth	Felixstowe	124	122
John Skelley	Saxmundham	124	115
Peter Keffler	Clacton	123	123
Anita Somton (J)	Bury St Edmunds	123	109
Rob Hayhurst	Stowmarket	122	120e
John Barratt	Stowmarket	121	126
Paul Harrison	Bury St Edmunds	121	121
Alonso Paez	Ipswich	121	117
Melvin Steele	Clacton	120	126
Adrian Sanderson	Manningtree	119	118
Roger Smith	Ipswich	116	106
Mike Spalding	Ipswich	116	115e
Ken Lunn	Ipswich	115	120
Chas Szentmihaly	Bury St Edmunds	115	112
Vicky Allen	Stowmarket	114	109
Rory Goldsmith	Suffolk CCA	114	114
Adele Lunn	Felixstowe	110	110
Andrew Todd	Clacton	110	112
Zac Vane	Bury St Edmunds	109	108
Dave Wild	Adastral Park/Felixstowe	109	111
John Player	Stowmarket	107	106e
Franceys Allen	Stowmarket	106	106
Phil Mortonson	Ipswich	106	101
Alex Sheerin (J)	Ipswich	106	121
Peter Massey	Bury St Edmunds	105	109
John Price	Manningtree	104	106
David Robertson	Felixstowe	103	97
Hugo Smith	Bury St Edmunds	103	100
Philip Chapman	Sudbury	101	98e
Artem Emelyanov (J)	Woodbridge School	101	101
Peter Collicott	Saxmundham	100	102
George Horan (J)	Bury St Edmunds	100	100
Andrew Paige	Saxmundham	99	107
Peter Chadwick	Saxmundham	97	98
Sean Colliety (J)	Bury St Edmunds	97	96
Adam Wilson	Ipswich	96	98
John Barty	Felixstowe	95	96
Greg Ellis	Bury St Edmunds	95	95
Hugo Brown	Saxmundham	93	95
Sean Horan	Bury St Edmunds	93	99
Gareth Young	Stowmarket	93	100
Alan Cross	Saxmundham	90	97
Yvonne Freiherr-Fenton	Bury St Edmunds	90	98e
Daniel Yarnton	Stowmarket	90	82
Dave Clark	Bury St Edmunds	87	97
Hugo Kelleway (J)	Woodbridge School	87	91
Nigel Lake	Clacton	87	99
Steve Peck	Ipswich	85	85e
Hugh Tawell (J)	Woodbridge School	85	84
Patrick Gembis (J)	Bury St Edmunds	83	64
Emile Kosviner	Bury St Edmunds	83	79
Alba Saenz de Villaverde (J)	Bury St Edmunds	83	83
Steve Moss	Ipswich	82	82
Arkaidy Stepanyan (J)	Woodbridge School	81	78
Harry Elman (J)	Woodbridge School	78	85e
Sid MacDonald	Sudbury	78	75
Nick Atkin	Bury St Edmunds	75	73
Jan Lengyel	Bury St Edmunds	73	77
Alan Story	Clacton	69	63
Derek Wootley	Bury St Edmunds	66	60e
Martin Scallon	Felixstowe	63	71
Ray Firman	Stowmarket	61	56
Gordon Fisher	Felixstowe	56	56
Alan John (J)	Bury St Edmunds	52	44e
Sohan Gowda (J)	Stowmarket	48	26e
Bethany Young (J)	Stowmarket	42	40e
Liya Baby (J)	Bury Knights	32	31
David Wood	Bury St Edmunds	21	19

This article is directed mainly at chess players who live in or near Ipswich.

There is still a website for the Ipswich Junior Chess Club - but no club exists!

The Club was active until the end of the Summer Term 2011, but has seen little or no activity since then.   The website mentions where and when the Club meets - I wonder how many children have turned up to find no chess club?

Junior Chess Clubs that rely solely on parental support are doomed to failure.   That is the clear evidence from other Suffolk clubs that have folded in living memory.   The Stowmarket Junior Club continued with John Player and Mike Ashman in charge, but John's son Ed soon outgrew the junior club and Mike sadly passed away.   So seven years after it was formed in 1988, the club folded.   There was a similar experience at Newmarket, when the junior club, run by a parent whose child gave up the game, folded several years ago.

Incidentally, para 27 of the Ipswich Junior Club's Constitution states: "In the event of the closure of the Club all assets will pass to another Suffolk Junior Club to be decided by the Management Committee."   Presumably there are a lot of chess sets and clocks sculling around somewhere as they haven't been allocated to the one remaining junior club in the county, the Bury Knights..

So, all you Ipswich chess-players - what are you going to do about this problem?   If you don't support a junior club in your town, your club will slowly decline.   As members pass away or leave, there will be no youngsters to take their places.   Other than 12-year old Alex Sheerin, there are no youngsters at the Ipswich Chess Club.

To achieve long-term continuity, a committed person (not a parent) is needed.   Ask amongst your members; there may be someone prepared to take this on.

If the Bury Knights can have 51 members, as at present, then Ipswich has the potential to double that number, given the relative populations of the two towns.

In the 'Sinclair 2013/14' tournament, Suffolk are competing against 19 other counties.   The event started on 1 November and to date 64 of the 160 games have been completed.   This is an email competition, a far cry from the days of 'snail-mail', when games could often take a year or more to complete.   Each team member plays two games, with White and Black, against the same opponent.

Suffolk are one of only six teams to remain unbeaten, so far.   Essex D are clear leaders with 7/7, with Essex C close behind on 4/5 (also unbeaten).   Suffolk have 3/4, with a win each from Bob Stephens on Board 7 and Bob Jones on Board 2, and two draws from Board 1 Ian Wallis.   The other Suffolk players, still to complete either of their games, are Silas Peck (Board 3), Phil Revell (4), Kevin Greenacre (5), Jim Buis (6) and Jakob Tulic (8).

The current crosstable can be viewed here.

Junior Chess in England has long sought a big-name sponsor.   Now, thanks to the hard work of Chess in Schools and Communities' (CSC) Malcolm Pein, Barclaycard have signed up to support the 'Yes to Chess' initiative.

Yes2Chess is a free online schools’ community, which primary schools from the UK, the USA. Germany, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Denmark will be eligible to join.   Each school may sign up to 100 pupils to the Yes2Chess server, where they will be able to play chess against children from other countries in a safe environment.   Only children who are registered to Yes2Chess by their school teacher or chess tutor will have access to the server, and there is no chat function.   No information on individual pupils will be captured, including pupils’ names.   Each child will have a unique username to which only their schools will have access.

Later this year, a series of online lessons will be issued, which can be enjoyed from the comforts of home or school.

Yes2Chess will also be hosting an online tournament, which will allow schools to put their chess expertise to the test.   Every school can enter an unlimited number of teams, each consisting of five players, who must have been born after 1 January 2002.   The winning teams from each country will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to London to take part in the final.

Click here to sign up for Yes2Chess.

Read more about the initiative here.

This game between two Suffolk players featured recently in Kevin O'Connell's Saturday chess column in the East Anglian Daily Times.   Here it is again, with my own annotations.   It featured in a 4NCL match between Iceni 2 and Anglian Avengers 3.

Dominic Carter from Saxmundham is a newcomer to Suffolk chess, whilst 12-year old Alex Sheerin has been making quite a name for himself, both within his club (Ipswich) and nationally, where he has already represented an England team.

Following the request a few days ago for reports from team captains, I'm pleased to have received the following from Dave Robertson, captain of the Felixstowe team in Division 3:

"Division 3 appears to be wide-open with few points separating the top and bottom teams.   Felixstowe has had some disappointing results, compared to last year’s opening campaign.   We were top of the league (well Division 3 anyway!) until just before Christmas 2012.   But this season has seen results not going as well, despite the arrival of our new strongest player – see later.   The highlight of our season so far was our home clash with Clacton, who, on paper, brought the strongest team we have yet faced at Felixstowe.   We won 3½ - ½, by far our best result for a long while.

The arrival of Phil Hopkins has strengthened the team, taking over Board 1 responsibility; he has a 100% record from that pinnacle.

Unfortunately we have temporarily lost the services of Garry Hemsworth (pictured right in photo), as he has undergone minor heart surgery and is unavailable to play at the present time.   We all wish him well and hope he will soon be back – he has been a stalwart of Felixstowe Chess Club, and is our second highest ranked player, now that Phil has joined us.

We are currently the holders of the u125 Cup.   We are through to the final of that competition again, awaiting the victors of the Ipswich v Clacton tie.   We are also in the u145 Cup, although our grades are lowly (three of us are u100).   We are still ‘alive’ having drawn 2-2 against Manningtree, and wait to play Ipswich (as are Manningtree) in this ‘three-cornered’ all play all tournament."

Felixstowe Chess Club is on Facebook.