Suffolk Chess

The April FIDE Rating List, published today, shows 9-year old Anita Somton in 59th place amongst active English women, with a rating of 1468.   She is the youngest English girl to have a FIDE rating and has the highest rating in the whole of the UK for a girl born in 2004.

This weekend she plays at Daventry in the ECF Junior Squad Championships.   She will be attempting to repeat last year's success when she became the English Girls Champion (Under 9), based on her best three qualifying tournament performances in the English Youth Grand Prix.

She will celebrate her 10th birthday on Sunday.

Having finished as runners-up in the EACU County Championships (see report here), the Suffolk First Team will play Somerset, winners of the West of England Chess Union competition, at Milton Keynes on Sunday 18 May.   The match will be a quarter-final in the Minor section, for which there is a maximum average grade for the team of 180.

Ian Wallis, team captain for the EACU competition, has handed over the reins to me (Bob Jones), and I have been in contact with the Somerset captain to agree the venue and timings.   Milton Keynes is roughly halfway between Ipswich and Bath; it takes about two hours to drive there from Ipswich.   The match will commence at 13.00.

It also falls to me to select the team.   18 players have said they are available (what luxury, not having to chase people to play!), so two will be disappointed.   I will be sending out the team list shortly.   Our opponents are likely to have quite a strong team.   In their last WECU match on 8 March against Hampshire, Somerset fielded a 212 and 211 on the top two boards, and the full team averaged 179.

Unfortunately I will be on holiday in Scotland on 18 May, so Ian will return to the captain's role for the day.   If we are successful we will go forward to the semi-final, which is scheduled for Saturday 14 June (although it could be arranged for the following day, by agreement).   The Final will definitely be on Saturday 12 July, but perhaps it's a bit early to start thinking about that.

With one round still to play, Viswanathan Anand has won the World Candidates Tournament and will have another crack at Magnus Carlsen in the World Championship in November.

He is a point and a half clear of the rest of the field.   There are more details here.

The oldest competitor in the competition, Anand was written off by most chess pundits before play started as 'yesterday's man'; odds of 10-1 or higher could be obtained.

With three wins, ten draws and no losses from his 13 games, he is clearly in good shape and will no doubt be a tough test for Carlsen.

On Monday we reported on the weekend's 4NCL results, mentioning Justin Tan's draw against GM Robin von Kampen (2603).

As Kai Tan (Justin's father) commented, Justin (White) missed a tactic that would probably have given him a win!

This was the position after Black's 29th move:

Here, Justin played 30. Rxd7? and the game ended soon after when Justin was forced to give perpetual check.   He should have played 30. Qh8+   Kf7   31. Qh5!   Justin's own annotations continue 31... Be8   32. Rg1   Kg8   33. Rxg6   Rxd2   34. Nxd2   Bf8   35. Rxg7+ and White will be a piece up.

This evening saw Cambridge Examiners take on Bury St Edmunds Scorpions (Shaun Munson, Steve Gregory, Tim Lunn and Ian Wallis).   For both teams this was the final match of the season.   Examiners needed a win to take the Division 1 title; prior to this match they were two points behind leaders (and current title-holders Linton A.

Ian was the first to finish, winning the exchange against Examiners' Rob McCorry, before a simple king and rook fork decided the game in Scorpions' favour.

The other three games lasted much longer.   Shaun was up against the only International Master in the League, Richard Tozer.   In an interesting rook and pawn ending, Richard eventually forced a pawn through, with Shaun a tempo behind.

Examiners' captain, 15-year old David Redman won a tricky ending against Tim Lunn, having a rook and pawn against Tim's bishop and pawn.

Finally, needing only a draw to secure the title, Steve Gregory and Akito Oyama eventually settled matters peacefully.

This was a special triumph for young David Redman, who has taken on the role of captain for the first time.

The only two teams capable of catching Manningtree, Ipswich A and Ipswich C, fought each other to a standstill last night, drawing 2 - 2.   This means that neither can now win Division 1.   Ipswich A are four points behind, with a match in hand, but even if they were to win that match 4 - 0, they would have fewer wins than Manningtree (see Rule 28 which defines what happens if teams are tied).

So it's many congratulations to Manningtree, one of the smaller clubs in the Suffolk League!.   It's the first time in their history that they have been Suffolk Champions.

When they come to Bury for their final match of the season on 10 April, the obligatory winning team photo will be taken (and published here).

The team has been unchanged for eight of the nine matches played so far, with the following individual results:

Adam Taylor   7/9
Leon Burnett   6/9
Phil Hutchings   5/9
Jim Buis   2½/8
John McAllister   1/1

Manningtree's only loss during the season was at home to Bury St Edmunds A, in December.

The photo below appeared in last Thursday's edition of the East Anglian Daily Times.   It was sent to me by Rani Pert (mother of Nick and Richard) who suggested that the lad on the right is Simon Lunn.   I think she is right.   But does anyone know who the others are (and confirm it is Simon, who would have been nine years old at the time)?

As you may be able to make out from the caption below the photograph, it was taken in March 1984 at a junior chess tournament at King Edward School in Bury St Edmunds.

A total of 24 Suffolk players travelled to Hinckley and Daventry for the fourth 4NCL weekend.

Justin Tan (1½), Adam Hunt (1) and Dagne Ciuksyte (0) played for three different teams in Division 1.   Justin scored an excellent draw on Saturday against Dutch GM Robin van Kampen (2603).

In Division 2 Anglian Avengers 1 stumbled in their bid for promotion, losing to a lower-rated Cambridge University team 2½ - 5½ on Saturday, but managing a 4 - 4 draw against Hackney yesterday.   Suffolk individual scores were: David Spence 1½, Alan Merry 1, Shaun Munson 1, Ed Player ½, Adam Taylor ½ and Mark Gray ½.   AA1 now need at least two wins and a draw from the final three-day weekend in May if they are to achieve their aim of promotion to Division 1.

There are four Suffolk-based teams in Division 3: Anglian Avengers 2 and 3, and Iceni 1 and 2.

Anglian Avengers 2 won both their matches and are now in 2nd place in the table, which has been newly extended to 63 teams by the addition of the teams from the Northern section.   The two Suffolk players involved, Steve Gregory and Graham Moore, both won one game and lost one.

Anglian Avengers 3 also won both their matches.   Silas Peck won both his games, as did Keith Woodcock (although the second one was by default).   Martin Fogg scored 1½, whilst Ian Wallis and Phil Hopkins scored 1 each.

The two Iceni teams had mixed fortunes over the weekend.   Iceni 1 won 4½ - 1½ on Saturday, but lost to the same score on Sunday.   Iceni 2 were heavily out-rated in their matches, losing by 2 - 4 and 1½ - 4½.   Individual Iceni scores were: John Peters 1, Steve Ruthen 1, John Feavyour 1, Peter Collicott 1, Vivian Woodward ½, Jon Collins and Bob Jones both failed to score.   Paul Botham played only on Sunday (and lost).   John Peters' success on Sunday was particularly noteworthy, beating an opponent graded ECF 193.

Please note the following important dates:

SCCA Committee Meeting - Tuesday 6 May (venue to be agreed)

SCCA Annual General Meeting - Tuesday 10 June (at Ipswich Chess Club)

Clubs wishing to submit any proposals to amend the Rules or Constitution should do so to me () by 10 May at the latest.   These will then be included on the AGM Agenda, to be published on that date.   Individuals wishing to make any proposals must do so via their respective clubs.

There's plenty of Suffolk interest in Division 1 of the Bury Area League.   Not only are there three teams from Bury St Edmunds, but one of those teams, Bury Scorpions, consists entirely of players from Ipswich.

Captained by Ian Wallis, the Scorpions are having a fundamental effect on which team ends up as League Champions.   Last Tuesday they managed to draw 2 - 2 against leaders Linton A (with Shaun Munson beating CM David Coleman 204).   This put a spoke in Linton's wheel and they now stand just 2½ points clear of their nearest challengers Cambridge Examiners, who have a game in hand.   And that's not all.   Next Thursday, Scorpions entertain Examiners, who will be anxious to leap-frog Linton and claim top spot, with both teams then having one more match to play.

Here is the current league table:

Team	Played	Points
Linton A	11	40
Cambridge Examiners	10	37½
Bury St Eds Scorpions	10	25
Bury St Eds Scarabs	11	19½
Bury St Eds Cobras	10	19
Cambridge Choristers	9	18½
Ely Beet Bishops	9	12½

At the other end of the table, Ely appear doomed to relegation, despite having one or two matches in hand over the teams immediately above them.