Suffolk Chess

18-year old Alan Merry (2347), who has already achieved the required number of norms to become an IM (he just needs to get his rating to 2400), beat the experienced FIDE Master Peter Sowray in the final round of the Brambles Masters last weekend.   Here is the game (Alan is White), with a few annotations:

(Edited to amend IM to FM)

This will be the last article for a week or so.   The next will be on Monday 5 January.

Today sees the last of the Christmas puzzles - four puzzles to bring the total up to ten.

Please send your answers to all the puzzles to me, .   The best set of answers will win a book prize!

Puzzle #7

White to play and draw.
Puzzle #8

White to play and mate in 4.
Puzzle #9

White to play and mate in 3.
Puzzle #10

White to play and mate in 3.
Remember, no computers.   Good luck!

If you are suffering from the excesses of Christmas Day (and Boxing Day), then here is the perfect cure - a couple of (fairly) tough puzzles for you to solve.

Don't forget, wait until tomorrow before sending in your answers to all four days' puzzles!

Puzzle #5

White to play and mate in 3.
(After White's first move, Black has six possible moves.   You will need to find the answers to all six.)

Puzzle #6

White to play and win.

A very Happy Christmas to all our readers!

It being Christmas Day, here are a couple of 'Christmas tree' puzzles.   The numbering follows on from yesterday:

Puzzle 3

It's White to play and mate in 2 (easy).

Puzzle 4

White to play and mate in 5 (difficult).

Good luck - and remember, wait until Saturday before sending in your answers.   And, try and solve them without using your computer!

Here are the first of the puzzles which will feature over the next four days.   Please don't post your answers in the comments section, but wait until you've seen all four days' puzzles.   Then you can submit your answers to me and perhaps win a prize!

Puzzle 1

Black to play and win:

Puzzle 2

Black to play and force checkmate:

Over the past week or so, Alan Merry (Elo 2347) has been playing in the 14-player Brambles Masters, in Hampstead.   With half the field rated over 2400, Alan was hoping to gain some points that would bring him closer to the 2400 rating he needs for his IM title.

Starting with an excellent draw against the eventual joint winner, top seed GM Fier from Brazil, Alan stood proudly on three points after the first five rounds with a likely improvement of 30 rating points.   But things then went badly wrong, and he lost in rounds 6, 7 and 8.   He recovered with a good win in the final round today against IM Peter Sowray (2385).   So instead of gaining the 53 points he needed, Alan will probably just manage to ease his rating over 2350.

The final cross-table can be viewed here.

As can be seen left, Alan featured on the cover of the British Chess Magazine for November 2014.

Starting on Wednesday (Christmas Eve) and continuing until Saturday, there will be a series of puzzles for you to solve.   Please don't show the answers in the comments sections; instead, wait until you've solved all four days' puzzles, then send your solutions to me, .

There will be a book prize for the best set of answers!

David Green, the Suffolk League's Competitions Secretary, has provided the following 'half-time' report:

"At the halfway point of the season I offer a few thoughts and observations on how the rule changes and new competitions have worked so far.

Overall I feel that the competitions are running well.   The Suffolk League fixtures have all been played on time.   The Under 125 fixtures have just been published.   The initial round of the Cup and Plate has been completed and the fixtures for the first knock-out matches for both the Cup and Plate have been scheduled and the first of these has been played.

Fixture postponements

We did not change the rule regarding the acceptable reasons for postponing a fixture but we did change the Competitions Secretary who oversees these postponements!   Clearly I see things a little differently from our previous Competitions Secretary and there were some minor complaints when I insisted on the application of our newly revised rules as they stand.   Certain 'gentlemen's agreements' that allowed postponements because of player non-availability were seen to be in contravention of our brand new rule book.   These agreements were cancelled despite pleas that they were established custom and practice.

Defaults

We changed the default rule from always on the lowest board to the board on which the player was absent.   Some concern was expressed within the rules revision sub-committee about the possibility of tactical defaulting.   So far such fears appear to be baseless as there has been a similar level of defaults to the previous seasons that were run under the old rules.   There may be more defaults ahead as substitutes reach the limits on the number of times they are allowed to play but that is a separate issue.   Let us hope this will be a very small number.

Substitutions

For all their complexity the new substitution rules only apply to clubs with more than one team in the league and all seems to be working as intended.

The database produced by Dave Wild to track the main teams, substitutions for higher teams, lower teams and teams in the same division is working well; without it I am certain I would not have been able to cope with the detailed record-keeping that rule 5.4 requires.   Thanks again go to Dave Wild for his excellent coding skills.

Penalties

As I hope you are all aware I do not want to use penalties to ensure rule compliance.   However I feel I need to be fairly rigorous when captains fail to meet the requirement to be accurate and punctual when entering the match results.   The whole database is only as good as these match result entries and until they are entered, confirmed and approved, the rest of the functions, in particular the substitutions monitoring system, are out of date.

In this area I have applied a penalty and have had to be proactive and warn captains of the consequences of their late entry of results.   Perhaps we need to be more careful in teaching any new captain how to enter results and ensuring that every new captain has the correct access to the database.   Once asked, Dave Wild is always very quick to set up a new captain and to ensure correct access but if he is not asked then how can he or I know that such action is needed?

There have been no ineligible players fielded although Ipswich did default a game for match purposes and then agreed and played a friendly game on that board with an ineligible player filling the slot.   That gave the player who had travelled to Ipswich a graded game, avoided a penalty and was, I believe, the correct and proper action.

Cup and Plate

There have been some minor misunderstandings of the new Cup and Plate rules in particular Rule 1 which allows teams to opt out if they wish and Rule 2 where a player may play for only one team.

Conclusion

So far the new rules and the new Comps Sec seem to be doing what is expected.

I wish you all a Happy Christmas and New Year and if the second half of the season is as good as the first half I will be very satisfied with my efforts."

Now in its 13th year, the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival goes from strength to strength.   The 2015 event starts on 26 January.   To date the Masters section has an amazing 248 entrants, including some 70 Grandmasters!   David Spence is the only Suffolk player entered.

The Festival has a total prize fund of £175,000, with a first prize in the Masters of £20,000.

Subsidiary events include the Challengers and Amateurs, with both week 1 and week 2 sections.   The total entry in the Festival currently exceeds 450.

Whilst no other Suffolk players have entered so far, it is understood that David Brown intends to play.   He, and others, have until 16 January to enter if they wish to avoid paying a late entry fee.

Immediately after Christmas (28 December), Bury's Anita Somton (128 ECF) will travel to London to take part in the Under 12 section of the London Junior Chess Championships.   The results will be published here after the event.

Entrants must have achieved a good score from one of a number of qualifying tournaments.   Anita scored 5/6 in the Under 14 section of the Woodbridge Junior on 23 November.

Anita will play nine games over the three-day event.   She will be able to play in the same section next year, as she is currently an Under 11.