Suffolk Chess

The national UK Schools Chess Challenge, sponsored by Delancey, reached its second stage today.   67 children from a number of Suffolk schools who qualified from their local competitions, gathered at Woodbridge School for the Suffolk Megafinal.

Entrants needed to score four points (out of six) to guarantee qualification for the third stage, the Gigafinal, which takes place on 11/12 July in Manchester.   It was also possible to qualify by being the highest scorer (both boy and girl) in each age-group.

Three players scored the maximum six points: Arthur Nath (under 8B) - Meadows Montessori, Ipswich; Adam John (under 9B) - Bury Knights; Anita Somton (under 11G) - Bury Knights.   Arthur Nath has an excellent pedigree - he is former Suffolk Ladies' Champion Vicky Allen's grandson!

The leading boy in each age-group is awarded the title 'Supremo', whilst the leading girl becomes a 'Suprema'.   The following results are incomplete and will be updated soon:

Under 7B - Harry Young
Under 7G - Tia Martin
Under 8B - Arthur Nath
Under 8G - ??
Under 9B - Adam John
Under 9G - Annabelle Carter
Under 10B - Aaron Saenz de Villaverde
Under 10G - Juliet Porter
Under 11B - ??
Under 11G - Anita Somton
Under 12B - Mario Saenz de Villaverde
Under 12G - ??
Under 13B - Alex Sheerin
Under 13G - Bethany Young
Under 14B - ??
Under 15B - ??
Under 16B - Patrick Gembis
Under 16G - Alba Saenz de Villaverde
Under 17B - William Sait

Eleven of the above Supremos and Supremas are from the Bury Knights or the Bury St Edmunds club.

Good luck to all the above, as well as the other qualifiers, at the Gigafinal.

For the last two years, the title has been held by Emilia Jewell, from Bury St Edmunds.   But this year the Suffolk Ladies' Champion is 11-year old Anita Somton, also from Bury St Edmunds.   Currently graded 138, Anita was the top seed of the five entrants, which included three juniors.

Unfortunately, it proved impossible for Emilia and Anita to play each other, due to examination pressures.   However, Anita had already won three games and was assured of at least a share of the title, as Emilia had earlier lost to Stowmarket's Chris Hargan.

Anita is the youngest-ever winner of the Suffolk Ladies' title.   The previous youngest was Emily Orton, who won (jointly, with Vicky Allen) in 1995, at the age of 13.

The final table and all individual results can be seen on the Grading website.   Many thanks to Vicky Allen for organising this event.

This afternoon, three Upper schools competed for a new trophy, the Bury St Edmunds Senior Schools Championship, donated by the Bury Knights Junior Chess Club.   The event was hosted by County Upper School.

Each school provided a team of four players, which each person playing opponents from the other two schools.

It is important that older children keep playing chess and one purpose of this competition was to encourage this.   In fact, although nine of the twelve participants were former members of the Bury Knights JCC, only four are currently playing regular adult league chess.

After the first round, King Edward VI School led on 3 points, followed by St Benedict's RC Upper on 2.   As results came in from Round 2, it was clear that the Championship would hinge on the very last game to finish, between Fraser Fallows of King Edward VI and Clement Wallace of St Benedict's.   With the scores tied at four points to each school, Clement, in time trouble (each player had 30 minutes for the game), blundered and lost his queen; Fraser soon mopped up the remaining pawns to win the game and the title for his school.

The photo (left) shows the winning team: Adam Illoul, Patrick Gembis (capt), Fraser Fallows, and Jake Jarvis.

The final scores were:

King Edward VI - 5
St Benedict's - 4
County - 3

The only players to win both games were Fraser Fallows and Paul Anders (County Upper).

A couple of weeks ago, I asked clubs to let me know if they will be open over the summer months.   I've heard from only two - Stowmarket and Saxmundham.

Stowmarket Chess Club will be open as usual every Tuesday evening at the Bowls Club from 7:30 pm when half a dozen members are expected to be regular attendees.   Club President David Green asks that anyone who wants to come along, calls him on 01449 673783 to confirm someone will be present.

Arthur McCormick reports that Saxmundham Chess Club will be open as usual during the summer on Tuesday evenings 7.30 pm onwards.   Some nights will be busier than others and it's down to luck who turns up but we usually manage a minimum of a couple of players.

So with Bury St Edmunds Chess Club open every fortnight on Thursdays, there are a number of opportunities for members of other clubs that are closed over the summer to maintain or improve their skills.

EDIT (8 May)

Since writing this, I have heard from Sudbury, who are open "most" Mondays; and Felixstowe, also open, on Tuesdays.

For the second year running, current cup holders Bury St Edmunds have won the Suffolk section of the Norfolk & Suffolk Cup.   They beat Ipswich yesterday evening in a very close match.   In fact, the score was a 3 - 3 draw, but Bury won on bottom board elimination.

The individual results were (Ipswich players first):
Board 1 - Graham Moore 0 - 1 Mike Harris
Board 2 - Steve Gregory 0 - 1 Ed Player
Board 3 - Silas Peck 0 - 1 John Peters
Board 4 - Ian Wallis 1 - 0 Steve Ruthen
Board 5 - Nick Savage 1 - 0 David Brown
Board 6 - Ted Matthewson 1 - 0 Richard Lamont

Ipswich were without two of their top players - Shaun Munson and Mike Cook - which may have affected the final result.

After four games had been completed, Ipswich led the match 3 - 1, but wins by John Peters and finally Mike Harris, ensured that Bury St Edmunds were the eventual victors.

Bury St Edmunds will now host Broadland Chess Club, whom they beat in last year's Final.   Tha date for this match has not yet been fixed.

In the photos, the Bury team is facing the camera.

This report has been submitted by Adrian Sanderson.

I’d like to let everyone know that Hadleigh Chess Club still exists; we are affiliated to SCCA and play chess on Friday evenings between September and April.

We are still unable to enter teams in any of the Suffolk league competitions because we cannot justify hiring a venue and it would be very difficult to be sure of raising a team of four at any time, particularly for away games.

Our six members have again enjoyed very pleasant playing conditions throughout the season with refreshments at Ray Ling’s home.   Twenty-three games were played in the club championship.   However we again had a few draws in the knock-out so there were thirty-one in all.

As in previous years we held an all-plays-all Black and White Club Championship.   Rupert Avis, Ray and I played most of our games by the end of February.   The pattern was similar to the previous year in that Graeme Jones and Martin Hill found it more difficult to complete their games due to pressure of work and David Johnson couldn’t come very often because of family matters.   The season finished in April and Rupert was again the winner with seven points from nine games completed.

In the knock-out competition I beat Martin in the final after a long drawn-out semi-final of three draws with David, the decider being played at his home.   In the other semi-final Martin beat Ray.

If any of our many former members or anyone else in the Hadleigh area would like to play with us on Friday evenings from September they would be very welcome.   We would like to think we could be in a position to consider entering teams in the Suffolk League at some time in the future.

The photo above shows (left to right): Rupert Avis, Adrian Sanderson, Martin Hill, Ray Ling.

Anyone interested should ring me on 01206 322500 or Ray Ling on 01473 823015.

The last three rounds (9 to 11) were held over this Bank Holiday weekend.   The usual host of Suffolk players (26) travelled to Hinckley (for Divisions 1 and 2) and Daventry (Division 3).

In Division 1, Justin Tan beat GM Matthew Turner on Saturday, but lost to GM David Smerdon on Sunday.   Today he was paired against his mentor, Adam Hunt.   The result, somewhat predictably, was an 11-move draw.

Adam lost against GM Matthew Sadler in Round 9, but salvaged a draw on Sunday.

Alan Merry suffered two losses in rounds 9 and 10, but bounced back with a win today against an IM.   The best performance by any Suffolk player over the weekend was by Dagne Ciuksyte, who won all three games, albeit against lower-rated opponents.

In Division 2, Anglian Avengers 1 won two of their three matches and finished by heading the relegation pool, thus ensuring their survival in Division 2 next season.   Individual scores were:
Andrew Lewis 2½/3
David Spence 2½/3
Ed Player 2/3
Graham Moore 1/2
Steve Gregory 2½/3
Silas Peck 2/3 (unbeaten)

16 Suffolk players were involved in Division 3 matches, featuring the two Iceni teams, as well as Anglian Avengers 2nd and 3rd teams.   Individual scores were:
John Peters ½/3
Ian Botham 1/2
Ian Wallis 2/3 (unbeaten)
Mike Cook 2/3 (unbeaten)
Martin Fogg 2/3
Malcolm Lightfoot 2/3 (unbeaten)
Bob Jones 0/1
Steve Lovell 1/2 (unbeaten) + 1 default win
Dominic Carter 1½/2 + 1 default win
Richard Lamont 1/2 + 1 result not known
Keith Woodcock 1/2 + 1 result not known
Steve Peck 0/2 + 1 result not known
Nick Savage 1/2 (unbeaten)
John Feavyour 1/2
Jon Collins 0/2
Peter Collicott 1/1 + 1 default win

It was particularly annoying that Iceni 2's opponents today could only muster three players.

The final points total for each of the four Suffolk-based teams in Division 3 are (18 points were needed for promotion):
Anglian Avengers 2 - 14
Iceni 1 - 11
Iceni 2 - 10
Anglian Avengers 3 - 8

Anyone interested in playing 4NCL chess next season should contact the captains of the Suffolk-based teams - and .

The English Youth Grand Prix is open to all young players, who gain points from a range of events throughout the season.

Manningtree's Adam Taylor is the Under 16 Champion for 2015, having won the Under 15 title in 2014 and the Under 14 title in 2013!

The title is awarded by calculating the best three tournament performance grades from qualifying events.   Adam's best three performances were:

Golders Green Congress - 238
e2e4 High Wycombe Congress - 226
Bury St Edmunds Congress - 222
TOTAL = 686

Adam's nearest competitor scored 662.

You can view all 24 title holders (from Under 7 to Under 18, boys and girls) here.

With the final pairings completed last week, the 2014/2015 Stowmarket Club Championship has come to a close.   Top seed Stephen Lewis finished top of the standings with a 100% record, with second seed Dave Green close behind, scoring 4/5.

Twelve of the sixteen participants were separated by a single game or less, with 3rd and 14th only one point apart in the final scoring.   Heading this group were Daniel Yarnton (whose only loss came against Stephen) and John Player (the only player unfortunate enough to be paired against both Stephen and Dave).

Players achieving grading performances 15 points or higher than their January 2015 grades were Stephen Lewis (+24), John Player (+21), Gareth Young (+15) and Jay Kellichner (+21).

The final standings are shown below:

Key:
SoPS = sum of progressive scores (first tiebreaker)
SoOS = sum of opponents scores (second tiebreaker)
GP = grading performance (as per official gradings)
(Player grades are as at July 2014)

A total of 22 players from Suffolk clubs travelled to Gt Yarmouth last weekend for their annual congress.

The Open was won jointly by David Spence and IM Adam Hunt, who shared first place with Essex player John Anderson.   David Spence beat Alan Merry in Round 4.   Other Suffolk scores in the Open were:
Steve Gregory   3½
Alan Merry   3
Graham Moore   3
Chris Davison   2
Ian Wallis   2
Silas Peck   1½
Tim Lunn   1½
In addition, former Suffolk player (and Tim's brother) Simon Lunn scored 2 points.

Under 170:
Martin Fogg   3
Somton Ukken   3
Richard Lamont   3

Under 145:
Bob Stephens   3½ (= 3rd)
Anirta Somton (J)   3
Alonso Paez   3
Keith Woodcock   2½

Under 120:
Roger Smith   3½ (= 2nd)
Alan John (J)   3
Adam John (J)   2½
Tom Roy (J)   2½
Steve Peck   2
Ralph Martin (J) 1½

(J) = Junior