Saturday, 31 January 2015

Gibraltar latest (and other events)

David Spence won his fifth round today, leaving him on 2½ points, or 50%.   His reward in Round 6 is Black against an Israeli Grandmaster...


Alan Merry is on 2½/3 (equal second place) in the 1st 4NCL FIDE-rated Congress, which is taking place at the Holiday Inn, Birmingham Airport, this weekend.


Tomorrow (Sunday) sees the Suffolk Under 160 team facing Cambridgeshire and Norfolk.   The results will be published here in the evening.


13-year old Alex Sheerin (Ipswich and Bury Knights) is playing in Camberley this weekend in the South of England Junior Championships.   We'll let you know how he gets on.


Friday, 30 January 2015

New grades and nominations

With the new ECF grades having been published, Competitions Secretary David Green has indicated that the new grades should be used for board order purposes as from the start of next week.

Some clubs may wish to take this opportunity to re-nominate their teams(s), as allowed under the rules.   This may be necessary because some members' grades have changed considerably, necessitating a change in board order for existing nominees.   It may also be considered desirable to amend the nominated boards because a current nominated member has not played for a given team and is unlikely to do so for the remainder of the season.

Re-nominations should be sent to before Monday 2 February.


Thursday, 29 January 2015

Latest from Gib

After three rounds of the Gibraltar Masters, David Spence is on 50%, with a tournament performance of 2216, just below his current rating.   In Round 4 he faces an IM from Georgia with a rating of 2486.   That would be a good one to win!

Also playing, in the Challengers A section, David Brown (Saxmundham and Bury St Edmunds) had a poor start, losing his first three games.   But he won the fourth and now plays a 2074 from Norway in Round 5.


Wednesday, 28 January 2015

East Anglian Team Championships

On 12 January, details were given on this website of the forthcoming East Anglian Team Championships, taking place in Bury St Edmunds on Sunday 1 March.   Organiser is keen to receive news of possible entries.

If your club is hoping to enter, please get in contact with Patrick as soon as possible.   He will be at the Under 160s match in Newmarket this coming Sunday.



Tuesday, 27 January 2015

Gibraltar Masters starts today

The super-strong Tradewise Gibraltar Masters started today, with Suffolk's only representative, David Spence (2231), seeded 142 out of 253 entrants, playing White against GM Eduoard Romain (2638).

Featuring on one of the live boards, an unbalanced but relatively equal position had been reached after 30 moves:

Black has just played 30... R(e7)-e5.   The game continued 31. Qa6?   Qa4 is level.   ... Kh7   32. Bb7   Qd8   33. Qb6   Qd3+   34. Ka2?   Kc1 is White's only chance.   Rb5   35. Qa6   Qc4+   0 - 1.   After Ka1, Qa4+ Kb1, Qb3 is winning easily.

Tomorrow, David faces a 2014-rated player from Spain.

The top seed is GM Veselin Topalov, amongst a total of 72 Grandmasters!


Monday, 26 January 2015

New grades published today

The ECF grades for January 2015 are now live.

Looking at Suffolk players, there are six members of Suffolk-based clubs graded over 200.   Justin Tan, still only 17 years old, has improved by four points to 243, putting him equal or above several English grandmasters.   Alan Merry is back where he belongs, improving by 12 points to 226.   Suffolk's third junior, Adam Taylor, is up to 207.   These three occupy three of the four top Suffolk places, interrupted only by Dagne Ciuksyte, who is on 210.   Other Suffolk-based players over 200 are David Spence and Manningtree's Andrew Lewis, both on 207.

Other notable increases (+8 points or more):

Alan John (Bury St Edmunds)    +39
Kevin Greenacre (Ipswich)    +14
Les Jones (Ipswich)    +10
Ken Lunn (Ipswich)    +10
Alonso Paez (Ipswich)    +10
Anita Somton (Bury St Edmunds)    +10
Ted Matthewson (Ipswich)    +9
Ed Kirkham (Adastral Park)    +9
Jon Collins (Bury St Edmunds)    +9
Andrew Salmon (Clacton)    +8
Daniel Yarnton (Stowmarket)    +8

12-year old Alan John recorded the third greatest improvement of all English players, only four points adrift of the largest increase of 43 points.

Anita Somton is the highest-graded Under 11 girl in England.

Sunday, 25 January 2015

The five A's

Pictured above are the four Bury Knights members who played this weekend in the Junior 4NCL, as well as Amy, the 6½-year old sister of Alan and Adam John.   All five have names beginning with the letter A!

After completing their five matches in Division 1, the Bury Knights team finished in sixth place out of the ten teams, having won two and lost three.   Had one of their two individual losses in the final round been a win, the team would have finished in second place.

Scores (out of five) were:   Alex Sheerin - 2½; Anita Somton - 3; Alan John 2.   In Division 2, Adam John scored 3 points.  

The event was an excellent experience for the young team, who will hope for a higher placing in next year's Junior 4NCL.


Saturday, 24 January 2015

Junior 4NCL

A team from the Bury Knights is playing this weekend in the Junior 4NCL at Hinckley.

On top board is Karthik Saravanan (151), borrowed from Lowestoft to boost the strength of our team.   The other team members are Alex Sheerin (126), Anita Somton (128) and Alan John (58).

The team lost their first two matches today, but won the third.   Tomorrow they play two more matches in Division 1 of this Swiss Team competition.

Also playing, though not for the Bury Knights, is 8-year old Adam John.   He is 'guesting' for the Midland Monarchs in Division 2, where he has won one game out of three so far.

This sort of competition is very tough, with some of the strongest juniors in the country taking part.   To be able to win matches in Division 1 shows the potential of the young Bury Knights team.   The four members of the club who are taking part have an average age of just 11¼.

Friday, 23 January 2015

'It's not all black and white', says judge

Two well-known chess players, who have both played before in Suffolk tournaments, have featured in a recent Telegraph article.

Their respective surnames have given rise to some amusing comments on Facebook (see below).   I guess Geoff will be upset by the verdict and Russell will be laughing all the way to the bank...


Thursday, 22 January 2015

Woodbridge School reach Zone Final

Woodbridge School is competing in this season's National Schools Chess Championships.   On Tuesday this week their six-board team beat Southend High School for Boys 4 - 2 and now face Haberdashers' Aske School in the Zone Final.

This competition is based on 12 regional (Zone) finals.   A total of 97 schools have entered the Under 19 Open section (for players born after 31 August 1995).

The Woodbridge team is strong, with Justin Tan (239) on top board.   The rest of their team are: Lai Chun (110R), Taisei Tsuroka (ungraded), Hugo Kelleway (91), William Read (91R), and Harry Rennell (77R).

If Woodbridge win their Zone Final, they will play two further rounds between February and May.   The remaining schools then qualify for the Finals, to be held at Uppingham School on 2/3 July.

Good luck to the team!

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