Suffolk Chess

Manningtree's Adam Taylor travelled to Graz in Austria during half-term to play in an international tournament, the 'Casino Open'.

16-year old Adam (2045) was ranked 65th out of 88 competitors, who included 11 GMs and a similar number of IMs.   He performed extremely well to score five points out of nine, with a rating performance of 2231.   His 33-point rating improvement was the best of all competitors.

As the name of the tournament implies, it was played in a casino where U18s were banned.   So Adam (the only UK representative) and other juniors had to play in a small side room.   As it happens a fair number of top board games were also played in the side room!   As Manningtree captain Jim Buis points out, "Adam is in cracking form for us at the moment and his ECF performances for 2014 are running at c215".

Adam's results at Graz can be seen here.

Dave Clark (Bury St Edmunds) has unearthed the photo above.   It shows four members of the Bury B.R.S team.   The initials are believed to represent 'British Road Services'; such a team played in the very early days of the Bury Area Chess League, which was founded in about 1979/80.

On the reverse of the photo (see below) are the names, together with some historical information dated 1930.   If these gentlemen were playing chess in both 1930 and 1980, they must all have been in their 70s or 80s by the time the photo was taken.   So all will have passed away now.   Does anyone have more information about any of these?

Woodbridge School's Justin Tan played in Hungary over half-term in the Caissa GM tournament in Kecskemet and achieved his first IM norm.   He scored 4½/9 (+1, -1, =7) against a strong field averaging 2453; Justin was the lowest-rated player!   His win was against a 2462-rated GM.

Still only 16, Justin has a FIDE rating of 2328.   Unfortunately, he has not been able to play for the Suffolk First Team this season, but it is hoped that if Suffolk qualify for the national rounds, that he will be available.

Suffolk is very fortunate to have two of the highest-rated juniors in the UK; Alan Merry's rating is currently 2315.

Two weeks ago, the East Anglian Daily Times carried an article about Justin and this is reproduced below (click on the image to enlarge it).

Stowmarket's David Green has sent in a recent game he played in Suffolk League Division 3 against Dominic Carter from Saxmundham.   This happens to be the third game featuring Dominic in as many weeks!

Here's the game, with David's own annotations below:

English Opening:   Franceys Allen plays this against me quite a lot so I have checked out some lines to get at least equality for White.   According to Rybka the game somewhere became a line from the King’s Indian.
12   R(a)b1.. Just getting off the long diagonal and looking to support activities on the queen’s side.
13   d5.. aimed at kicking the knight to an unsuitable square and strengthening my centre.
13… Ne5   A poor move as it results in the doubling of the Black e-pawns and their eventual isolation and loss.
15…Nh4   The knight is aiming for f4 where it would be well placed but 16 g3 leaves it stuck on the side of the board and now prevents Black from playing f5 safely.   The slight weakening of the white squares around White’s king cannot be exploited as there is no black bishop on the white squares.
16… f5   Black plays this assuming he can take back with the g pawn which would give him a strong centre but there is a tactical refutation and so the doubled e-pawns become isolated and weak on a half open file.
17   exf5…   and only here did Dominic realise that he could not take with the g3 pawn.
17…gxf4?   18   Qf3! Attacking the loose knight which cannot be defended so has to move, but its only safe square f6 leaves the f5 pawn hanging.   Looking a bit further because of the possible discovered attack on the queen when the f-pawn is taken reveals no desperado discovery moves for the knight.   The only capture on d5 loses to Qe6 check and the knight is done for.   Dominic has to take with the rook and the black e-pawns now look awful.
18   Ne4   heading for the juicy e6 outpost via g5 while also blockading the e-pawn, thus keeping the Bishop blocked from the use of the long diagonal.
18….. Rdf8 pressures the pawn on f2.   There is a potential e6 fork of queen and rook but I could not work out the complex consequences of 19   Ng5   e4 which threatens the White queen and makes the c-pawn feel a bit unsafe.   It also liberates the fianchettoed bishop and is generally unpleasant for White, not bad for a doomed pawn!   I have a deal of respect for Dominic as a player and he had thought long and hard over this move.   Could he have seen something that I had not?   I chickened out and played safe.
19   Be2.. Attack and defence supports f2 attacks c5 for the second time and seals off the third rank from an invading rook on f3.   This was the right decision as Rybka gives me +1.22 for this move and does not mention Ng5.
20   Ng5 here comes the knight looking at e6.   Compare the active White knight with the poor horse out to pasture on h5.   Here Dominic sank into a very long think of about 20 minutes duration and came up with the pawn sacrifice 20… e4.
Here it was my turn to burn some time.   Options?   Take or not?   If take, what with?   Move the queen?
Maybe I was seeing phantoms in the mists but there is a possibility of a knight fork on g3 if I take with the queen.   What happens after the bishop comes to d5 and black sacs the exchange on f8 after the fork on e6?   Is the concentration of a queen & bishop battery, a rook and a knight on my king’s defences going to be survivable??   I could not tell so I played safe and just took the pawn with the knight, further protecting my f- and g-pawns. After all a pawn is a pawn.   This was the start of a steady loss of the black pawns.

The following moves were played when Dominic was in time trouble; he was down to some 3 minutes for five moves in a quite complex position.   He loses the game here.
26… Rf3xf6 puts the rook on an awkward rank as White begins a queenside attack.
27   b4   Rc6 and the Black rook is not happy here.   Now Black’s bishop controls the entire long diagonal but there is nothing to attack.   White’s centralised bishop defends f2 and attacks on the queenside.
28   Rfd1 grabs the open file and looks to seize the seventh rank.   It also keeps Black’s c6 rook on the sixth rank or the white rook will grab it and attack the roots of black’s pawn position.
28… g5 recognising the sixth rank problem and getting the g6 pawn to a defended square but at the cost of allowing a pig to appear on the seventh rank.
29   Rd7 a nightmare piece for Black that holds his king on the eighth rank for a while and is to be joined by its partner on move 31.   Doubled rooks on the seventh, a good centralised bishop, a king that is safe and a pawn up.   White is simply winning.   Rybka agrees and scores white +1.44.
32   a4 putting the White pawn on the opposite colour to black’s bishop.
32…. Rd6   Dominic understandably wants to get some play of his own and this move seems to do it by making White either get rid of one rook on the seventh or give up the d file.   Unfortunately it is just a mistake that loses another pawn due to a rook fork along the sixth rank.   It also allows white to swap off the bishops and get into a winning rook and pawn endgame.   White gladly reduces forces as he gets a 3 to 2 majority on the kingside and an outside passed pawn way over on the a-file.
37   Bxc5   there goes another pawn.
Now the winning method was fairly simple; to push the a-pawn, draw the king far away from the kingside to stop it and win by taking all Black’s poor kingside pawns.   If I can swap the rooks at the same time then the king and pawn game is winning.
46   Rg8 abandoning the a-pawn, forcing the Black king to take it and attacking g4 mistakenly weakened by 39….g4 some seven moves earlier.
So another pawn falls and black has a solitary rook pawn against White’s healthy three kingside pawns.
The next few moves see Black’s king rushing back to defend his pawns while White plods slowly forwards and eventually kills pawn number 8.   Now Black is facing three connected passed pawns supported by king and rook.   No contest.

While my play from here on was not the most efficient it gave Black no opportunity for perpetual check or stalemate.   When king and pawns appeared on the sixth rank with a rook that had free roam of the board then mate threats were everywhere.   One of them ended the game.

So two games played one after the other saw Dominic Carter first keeping all his pawns for a very long time and then losing every single one!

For the past year or so 12-year old Alex Sheerin of the Ipswich Chess Club and the Bury Knights Junior Club has been seeking the required 'norms' to qualify for the England Junior Squad.   He and his so-supportive Mum Jane have travelled up and down the country, seeking an elusive 'half-norm' that he still needed.   At least two trips to Liverpool were involved, but last weekend it was off to Swindon to play in the West of England Junior Championships, one of the toughest events on the circuit.

Alex played very well, scoring 4 out of 6 with three wins and two draws.   This means he has got the required half-norm and has been invited into the National Junior Squad.   He will not be able to go on any of this year's trips as they have all been selected but will be invited later in the year to trips for 2015.

Well done Alex!

The Bury St Edmunds Junior Chess Congress took place today at Moreton Hall Community Centre.

60 children (including 11 girls) took part, in four age-groups: Under 9, Under 11, Under 14 and Under 18.

The event was supported by the Moreton Hall Community Club, who provided the excellent accommodation free of charge.

The section winners were:

Under 9 - Alexander Hsieh (Cambridge) (the only player to score 6/6)
Under 11 - Alan John (Bury St Edmunds) (also winner of the BACL shield)
Under 14 - Karthik Saravanan (Lowestoft)
Under 18 - Seb Taylor (King's Lynn) and Patrick Gembis (Bury St Edmunds)

The Girls' prize was shared between four players scoring four points.   These included 16-year old Tasha Parrott (Bury St Edmunds) who was playing in her first tournament.

A total of £350 prize money was paid out, including first place prizes in each section of £50.00.

The tournament was an excellent opportunity for Suffolk Under 11 Team Manager Boby Sebastian to view prospective members of his squad to play in the Under 11 Inter-County Zonals on 15 March. The full results will appear soon on the Suffolk Grading website.

The 8-board Suffolk Correspondence team, captained by Jim Buis, is currently leading the Sinclair tournament.   They have scored 8 points out of 11, with five games still to finish.

Their lead will probably be short-lived, however, because other placings include:

Warwickshire B     8/13
Yorkshire C     7½/8 (!)
Essex D     7/7 (!!)
Northumberland A     6/8
Lincolnshire     6/10

At the other end of the 20-team table are:

Warwickshire C     ½/9
Worcestershire B     1/12

So far, Jim Buis, Bob Stephens and Bob Jones have won both their games, whilst top board Ian Wallis has drawn both of his.   Phil Revell and Jakob Tulic each have one draw and the only loss incurred so far is on bottom board, with Jakob.   The unfinished games are by Silas Peck (2), Kevin Greenacre (2) and Phil Revell (1).   We should get at least three draws, possibly more, from those games.

Last season, Suffolk finished with a total of 8 points (50%), so there's a very good chance that we will improve on that this season.

This season's Suffolk Ladies Championship is being competed by one adult (Vicky Allen) and three girls (Emilia Jewell, Bethany Young and Anita Somton).

Pictured below are Emilia and Anita, who played their match yesterday.   Although there are six years between them, there are only two grading points difference.   (Emilia - 125; Anita - 123).   Although Emilia won their match, Anita has the potential, given time and effort, to become Suffolk's top female player.

Current Ladies' Champion Emilia is leading currently, having won both her games.   Her final 'crunch' match will be when she plays former Ladies' Champion Vicky Allen, who stands on 1½/2.

Here's a game from last Sunday's 4NCL game between Graham Shepherd (Shropshire) and Dominic Carter (Iceni 2) in which Dominic somehow manages to retain all his pawns until the 38th move!.

This is the position after Black's 37th move:

White resigned after Black's 41st move.

The third 'Chess at the Apex' session saw numbers increase to 14, thanks mainly to a half-term influx of juniors.

It's free to play and everyone is welcome, regardless of age or ability.   Every Tuesday from 3.30 to 5.30 pm.