Suffolk Chess

The cross-tables for the Congress are now available on Dave Wild's grading website.

Click on the following to see your section:

Open
Major
Intermediate
Minor

Please let me know if you spot any errors.

10-year old Anita Somton returned today from the European Youth Championships where she finished on 4½ points from nine games.   This was a slightly disappointing result, as she was on 4/6 before finishing with two losses and a draw.

Nevertheless, to finish midway in such a strong event is no disgrace.   It must have been extremely tiring for one so young to have to play nine long games over the 10-day period.

No doubt she will bounce back with some good games in the League - she is due to play at Bury tomorrow!

A new Chairman was elected at a Committee Meeting of the Bury Knights Junior Chess Club, held this evening.   He is Boby Sebastian, father of promising juniors Alan and Adam John.   Boby replaces Damian Wallace, who has been in charge for the past four years.

Several initiatives were discussed at the meeting, including a more formalised coaching structure.   Local players who are prepared to come along on Friday evenings, even if only on the odd occasion, will be welcomed.

The Club's finances are extremely healthy and it was agreed to set up a bursary fund to provide funding for members who are selected to represent their country or county.

It is hoped to arrange a match soon with the newly-formed Colchester Junior Chess Club.

Too shattered, both physically and emotionally, to write a full report, so here's a summary of the results:

The Open section was won, as expected, by top seed Grandmaster Matthew Sadler (see photo).   Three players shared second place, including Adam Taylor and David Spence.

Two players shared first place in the Major (u170) section: Richard Lamont, who plays for both Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, and Cambridge City's John Daugman.

The Intermediate section (u145) was won by Stephen Moss (who writes an occasional chess column for the Guardian newspaper), whilst the Minor (u120) winner was Marek Biernacki, from Sutton Coldfield.

Local players who won cash prizes were:

Ian Wallis (u190 grading prize)
Ed Kirkham and Kevin Greenacre (3rd= in the Major)
Colin Roberts (best win in the Major)
Les Jones (2nd= in the Intermediate)
William Sait (Inter Junior)
Vicky Allen (Minor 2nd=)
Alan John (u60 grading prize)
Adam John (best win in the Minor)

A total of 162 played (166 entered, but four withdrew before the congress started).

Many, many thanks to all the people who made the event a success.   Next year (24/25 October 2015) I expect to be playing, not organising!

Following four withdrawals (including Alex Sheerin who's unwell, and Competitions Secretary David Green, for whom work must come first) and two late entries, the (final?) number of entrants is 164.

There are 44 entrants in the Open.

Spectators are welcome to come and watch - the viewing balcony will be open from 10.30 to 17.00 on Saturday and from 10.30 to 16.00 on Sunday.

Little Red Riding Hood turned up at the Bury St Edmunds Chess Club this evening and played a couple of friendly games.

This LRRH is only six years old and is sister to two older boys who were playing (and winning) in a Bury Area League match.

All three are members of the Bury Knights Junior Chess Club, which meets tomorrow evening before the start of half-term.

Entries now number 166, including two who haven't paid yet (and therefore don't appear on the list of entrants).

The Open section is now super-strong, with 12 players graded over 200.   The median player is graded 187.

The largest section is the Minor, with 50 entrants (including 19 juniors).

Additional grading prizes will now be paid, as well as various Junior prizes.

There are only a few places remaining, so get in quickly if you want to play but haven't entered yet!

It's too early in the season to judge whether the estimated grades of new players are correct, or need amending.   However, the following newcomers have played at least one game in the Suffolk League:

Bury St Edmunds

Alan Broadway   90
David Clark   60
Adam John   23R
David Lampshire   120
Trevor Webster   90

Felixstowe

Henry May   75

Manningtree

Andrew Lewis   204

Some of the above will have played the necessary nine games by the end of December, and will therefore get a 'proper' grade in the January 2015 list.

Clubs not mentioned have no new players yet.

Anita won her second game today and will be on Board 2 tomorrow, playing the fifth seed.   Her game will be on the live boards, from 12.00 UK time.

The photo above shows Anita being coached before today's game by IM Lorin d'Costa.

Stowmarket Chess Club's Gareth Young wrote the following piece just before the current season started.   Food for thought...

"So here I am enjoying the sunshine and the blue sky, and feeling very blessed to have three lovely children (two of whom also enjoy playing chess as I do) and also feeling blessed to live in a pretty part of England even if it is flat. (Suffolk will always be home to me). My thoughts turn to chess and how it’s not long before the new season gets underway, and I really must start to read some chess books to improve my game as I had a very flat season previously and keen to improve.

But then my thoughts suddenly change to what was happening 100 years ago when dark clouds were hovering over Europe and how events back then have changed our world to what it is today. If you didn’t know by now I am talking about the Great War, where a young generation of men answered the call and left these beaches to fight for freedom. Little did anyone know of the horrors that would lay ahead; many young men would not return home and many that did were broken men. There couldn't have been many distractions for the men on the front line but I’m sure chess must have been one that could have given them some form of relief from the everyday horrors that they had to live with.

If it wasn't for these men and women I wouldn't be feeling lucky to have what I have got. And my question is? Is there any room in Suffolk chess where we could honour these generation of men as a mark of respect? Because if it wasn't for them we all wouldn't be enjoying the game."