Suffolk Chess

With three or four matches remaining, five teams seem to be in with a chance of promotion to Division 1.   Leading the pack are Saxmundham A, who were surprisingly held to a draw this evening by Stowmarket A.   On Board 1 Stephen Lewis (137) got the better of John Feavyour (165).

At the opposite end of the table, Bury St Edmunds D are the likely candidates for relegation, despite holding Clacton to a draw this evening.

Here's the current league table:

Division 2

Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
Saxmundham A	8	5	1	2	20½
Sudbury	8	5	1	2	19
Ipswich D	8	4	1	3	18
Clacton	9	3	3	3	18
Adastral Park	8	3	3	2	17
Stowmarket A	9	3	1	5	14½
Bury St Edmunds D	8	0	2	6	9

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Today is the 600th post since it started in September 2012.

The following position was reached yesterday in the County First Team match against Hertfordshire.   John Peters (176) was Black and his opponent was graded 160.

It's White to play.   White resigned as he couldn't see a way to save the game.  . What would you have played?

It was close, but Suffolk managed to win both matches today in the EACU County Championships, at the Turner Hall in Newmarket.

On paper, Suffolk should have won both matches easily, as they outgraded opponents Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire by some margin.

Top Suffolk scorers were:

Shaun Munson   2
Rob Sanders   2
Nick Savage   1½
Ian Wallis   1½
Phil Hopkins   1½
Andrew Shephard   1½

Suffolk beat Hertfordshire 9½ - 6½ in the morning, and scraped home 8½ - 7½ against Bedfordshire in the afternoon. At one stage it appeared that Suffolk would lose the PM match, but last-to-finish Steve Gregory managed to eke out a win both for himself and the team.

Three counties - Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk - now have nine match points from their six matches.   But Suffolk are third when game points are taken into consideration.   The final matches on 8 March are crucial, with Suffolk facing Hertfordshire as well as current league leaders Cambridgeshire.

Suffolk are current Minor Counties Champions.

The Suffolk League Division 1 is fast becoming a tale of two clubs, with a third club - Manningtree - helping to cloud the issue.

The three Ipswich teams currently occupy three of the top four places, whilst the three Bury St Edmunds clubs are firmly rooted to the foot of the table.

Manningtree are the current League Champions and the recent addition of Andrew Lewis (207) to their squad makes them very tough opponents.   They have a match in hand over the leaders, Ipswich C, and a 4 - 0 win would bring them up to within half a point.

With Ipswich B having two matches in hand over Ipswich C, as well as two of the Bury teams, it looks almost certain that one of the Bury St Edmunds teams will be relegated.   Here is the current table:

Division 1

Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
Ipswich C	9	7	1	1	24½
Ipswich A	8	6	1	1	22
Manningtree A	8	4	3	1	20
Ipswich B	7	2	3	2	14
Bury St Edmunds B	9	1	4	4	14
Bury St Edmunds C	8	2	0	6	11½
Bury St Edmunds A	9	0	2	7	9

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Tomorrow, the County First Team is playing against Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.   Full results and a report will appear here during the evening.

Back in August last year, Alex Sheerin was a member of the six-board England team that won the John Robinson Cup, in the quadrangular Under 14 match held at the University of Stirling, against similar teams from Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

He was recently given the trophy to hold, each team member having a couple of months to share it.

The photo (left) was taken today at the Bury Knights Junior Club, where Alex (ECF 128) finished in third place to Anita Somton (138) and William Sait (127) after the seventh and final round of the Delancey UK Schools Chess Challenge.   Anita won all seven games in the competition, whilst William lost only to Anita.

David Spence had a strange tournament.   Despite the huge entry, the closest rated opponent he played was 147 points (lower).   He played four titled players - two GMs and two IMs, losing to all four.   But he scored 5/6 against the lower-rated players, whose average rating was just 2043.

David's tournament performance was 2241, 10 points above his current rating, but because of the imbalance in his opponents, he will end up losing one rating point!   You can see his playing record here.

The tournament was won by GM Hikaru Nakamura on 8½ points, with English GM David Howell runner-up on 8 points.

Last Saturday, we mentioned Alan Merry and Alex Sheerin, respectively playing in the First 4NCL FIDE-rated Congress and the South of England Closed Championships.

Alan (2349) was on 2½/3 after the first day, but lost in Round 4 to FM James Jackson, who is rated 36 points lower.   But he bounced back in the final round, beating junior Matthew Wadsworth.   Unfortunately, Alan, who needs to increase his rating to 2400 to obtain the IM title, lost some 8 or 9 rating points from the event.   Nevertheless, Alan finished equal third out of 43 entrants.   The results can be viewed here.

Alex, playing in the Under 14 Closed section, where all entrants were invited, faced a very strong section, with only five players from the total entry of 36 graded lower than him.   He scored 1½ points with a grading performance of 102.   The full results can be seen here.

David Spence will be playing the final (tenth) round in the Gibraltar Masters tomorrow.   He's currently on 4/9.

I (Bob Jones) went to Creeting St Mary Primary School today, where I was invited to play against six members of their chess club. (Modesty forbids me giving the results).

The club meets every Tuesday after school, under the tutelage of local man Bill Mackintosh.   There are currently 17 eager children who attend each week.

The school is a model of what can be done.   All that's needed is an enthusiast who is prepared to give up his or her time.   The rewards are great, because the children's enthusiam is infectious.

On 29 January, Engaines Primary School of Little Clacton organised their third bi-annual Invitation Tournament   It was held at Whitton Community Primary School in Ipswich for teams of six of primary school age.   This year two teams from Engaines, two from Whitton and one from Hamford Primary Acadamy, Walton-on-the-Naze took part.   It was played during school time, with games played over four rounds of twenty minutes on each player's clock.

Engaines A (pictured above) won convincingly with 23½ points from 24 games; Engaines B were runners-up on 16½ points, with Whitton A 11, Hamford 5 and Whitton B 4.   The Engaines 'A' team consisted of (l. to r.) Nathan Butcher, Casey Chambers, Ryan Spendlove, Amber Coleman, Luke Simpson and Tobias Lunnen.

Engaines are coached by Clacton's John Lambert, having been runners-up with their 'A' team in the National Yes2Chess Tournament in July 2014.   They were far too strong for Whitton, who are coached by Steve Gregory, although in fairness Steve has only been involved for a few months.

It is envisaged that the event will be staged at Hamford Primary in June or July when at least three other schools have expressed an interest in taking part.   Engaines would be pleased to hear from other schools (contact ).

Yes2Chess is closing entries for the coming year at the end of February, so there is still time for schools to enter teams of five which must include at least one girl.

Suffolk's Under 160 team played Norfolk this morning, winning 9½ - 6½, and then in the afternoon drew 8 - 8 with Cambridgeshire.   This was the second time this season that Suffolk has drawn against Cambridgeshire.

The morning match always looked good for Suffolk, and the win was achieved before the last few games had been completed.   There were wins for six of our players, with a further seven obtaining draws.

The Cambridgeshire match appeared to be going Suffolk's way, with the score at 7 - 5 with four games remaining.   But two losses and a draw brought the score to 7½ each.   It was left to your captain to salvage a draw in an unbalanced position, with Queen against Rook, Knight and a couple of pawns.

There were two wins for 'new boy' Steve Lovell, with several scoring a win and a draw: Kevin Greenacre; Martin Fogg; Andrew Donnelly; Colin Roberts and Keith Woodcock.

In the other matches, Hertfordshire lost both their matches, to Cambridgeshire and Norfolk.

The League table now stands as follows:

Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
Cambridgeshire	4	2	2	0	6
Suffolk	4	1	3	0	5
Norfolk	4	2	0	2	4
Hertfordshire	4	0	1	3	1

The final matches take place in three weeks' time, on Sunday 22 February.   So far, 11 players have confirmed their availability.