Suffolk Chess

Tomorrow sees the start of the five-round Gt Yarmouth Congress, taking place at the Town Hall.   To date, 95 people have entered, a 10% increase on last year.   Of these entrants, a quarter are from Suffolk clubs.

You can see who's playing and follow their progress on the grading website here.

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There will be no more articles until next Friday as I'm on holiday in Scotland.

The final match in both leagues took place this evening, with Bury St Edmunds Cobras losing to Ely Beet Bishops.   This result condemns Cobras to Division 2 of the Bury Area Chess League next season.

It hasn't been the best of seasons for the Bury club, with their 'A' team being relegated from Suffolk League Division 1, and their 'D' team relegated from Division 2.

The photo above shows this evening's match, with Cobras playing on the right (Mike Harris, John Peters, Jon Collins and Somton Ukken).

With only the Cup and Plate Finals, the Norfolk & Suffolk Cup Finals, and one Under 125 match remaining to be played, many Suffolk players will be switching off their chess brains for the summer.   But does this have to be the case?   Some clubs do continue to meet over the summer months, some formally, with a published programme; others informally, perhaps in a local bar.

To give players an idea of what is available, will all clubs please let me know (by ) if they are (or are not) meeting during the May to August period?

For starters, the Bury St Edmunds club will be continuing its tradition of meeting every fortnight, with the first meeting on 14 May.   There will be a programme of events to which non-members are welcome to attend.

The Finals of the new Suffolk Cup and Plate competition are due to be played next Tuesday (28 April).

The Cup Final will be between Ipswich A and Ipswich B, whilst the Plate Final will be between Saxmundham A and Ipswich F.

The last semi-final was played this evening, when Ipswich F beat Bury St Edmunds D 3 - 1 in the Plate.

The home teams have yet to be decided by the organiser, Rob Sanders.

In an article in today's Daily Telegraph, Nigel Short has declared that "Girls just don't have the brains to play chess", claiming they are not 'hard-wired' to play the game well.

This is rather ironic, as he has a +3, =5, -8 record against Judit Polgar!

Short has attempted to defend himself, by asserting, "Men and women do have different brains.   This is a biological fact."

In Suffolk we only have a few girls and women playing chess, so it's difficult to compare.   But Anita Somton (who had her 11th birthday earlier this month) and is on the verge of becoming Suffolk Ladies' Champion, may have something to say about this.   She is the highest-graded Under 11 girl in the country and #13 amongst all Under 11s.

Last year, Bury's Jon Collins was one of only two English players to travel to Las Vegas to take part in this extraordinary event.   With almost six months to go before the tournament starts on 8 October, a total of 437 players have already entered, including 119 in the Open section (43 GMs!).   Apparently, Jon is considering playing again this year.

The first deadline for entries has already passed, so the entry fee has now increased (from $1000) to $1250.   That's a huge sum, to which must be added the cost of travel and accommodation, but the prizes are good!   The Prize Fund is a million dollars.

Read more about it here.

It's not too late to enter the Great Yarmouth Chess Congress, which is taking place next weekend at the Town Hall.   You can download an entry form here.

The Prize Fund is £1,700, with a £400 first prize in the Open.   There are four sections: Open, u170, u145 and u120.   The Congress is part of the EACU Grand Prix and is also a qualifier for the British Championships in July.

To avoid disappointment, it is recommended that you contact the organiser- (click on his name for email or ring 01603 460513).

Cambridge Examiners, last year's champions, have retained their title in Division 1 of the Bury Area Chess League.   Their winning margin over runners-up Linton A was six points.   A further point behind were Bury St Edmunds Scorpions, a team consisting entirely of Ipswich players (Moore, Gregory, Wallis, Lunn, Peck).

Player of the Year was Examiners' captain, 16-year old David Redman, who was unbeaten over 12 games (won 6, drew 6).   In the BACL, the award goes to the player with the best percentage.   Steve Gregory won eight and drew one.

The photo above shows the Examiners' main team: left to right, Akito Oyama, David Redman, Rob McCorry, IM Richard Tozer.   Examiners managed to field this same team for ten of their twelve matches.

The team has an average current grade of 198, higher than any other team in either the Bury Area League or the Suffolk League.   Richard Tozer is the only International Master in either league who plays regular league chess.   Akito (204) is still only 15 years old, whilst David, a year older, is graded 196.   The strength of their team is underlined by the fact that they only lost five individual games during the whole season - and one of those was a default loss!

A recent incident at the US Championships, when GM Wesley So was defaulted by the arbiter for 'making notes', has highlighted the relevant FIDE rules and caused many people to ask what actually is allowed.

Let's look at the wording of the relevant rules:

8.1b   "The scoresheet shall be used only for recording the moves, the times of the clocks, offers of a draw, matters relating to a claim and other relevant data."

11.3a   "During play the players are forbidden to use any notes, sources of information or advice, or analyse any game on another chessboard."

Wesley So had been previously warned by the arbiter about making notes on his scoresheet, so on this occasion he had a duplicate scoresheet underneath the official one on which he was seen writing some notes.   It appears that these 'notes' were reminders to himself.   In his Round 1 game, he had written, "Use your time you have a lot of it" at the bottom of his scoresheet.   The note on his second round scoresheet read, "Sit down for the entire game.   Never get up."   These are the sort of messages that coaches would give to up-and-coming kids, not something that a Grandmaster would be expected to have to remind himself of!   So was warned twice by the arbiter and told that a third instance would result in a default.   It was in Round 9 that So used a duplicate scoresheet, under the official one, on which he wrote, "Double check and triple check" and "use your time."   This resulted in So being defaulted for this game.

As has been pointed out on the unofficial ECForum, it does show up an unexpected hole in the drafting of the FIDE Laws, in that whilst "taking notes" on the scoresheet is outlawed, there appears no direct prohibition about making notes on a separate sheet.

Then there's the question of what is allowed.   For example, can you circle or underline a move number (e.g. move 30 in the Suffolk League)?   Can you put a dot after a move because you would like to check out this move on your computer when you get home?   Certain things must (or must not) be done, for instance, recording offers of a draw with a (=) sign; recording the moves in algebraic format; not writing down your moves before you make them.   The scoresheets supplied to players at the 4NCL show move 40 in bold type, which saves you the embarrassment of having to circle it and being defaulted for so doing!

Two Bury St Edmunds teams are fighting to stay in Division 1 of the Bury Area Chess League.

With just one match each to play, there's one point between the bottom three teams: Bury Scarabs (18½ points), Ely Beet Bishops (18) and Bury Cobras (17½).

Scarabs play their final match tomorrow, when they have to play the League Champions, Cambridge Examiners.   If they can score 1½ points, they will survive relegation.

Then the following Thursday, Cobras entertain Ely in what is likely to be the 'crunch' match.   Cobras need to win to guarantee their survival, whilst a poor Scarabs result tomorrow and, say, a draw between Cobras and Ely, could mean that Scarabs would be relegated.   It's all too close for comfort!