Suffolk Chess

13-year old Alex Sheerin, from Ipswich, was selected to play for England in the annual Glorney Gilbert International, which took place in Co. Meath, Ireland in July.   Teams from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Ireland competed in four sections:

The Glorney Cup is for teams of five Under 18s; the Jessica Gilbert Cup is for teams of three Under 18 girls; the John Robinson Cup is for teams of six Under 14s; and the Bernadette Stokes Cup is for teams of six Under 12s.

Alex played on Board 6 in England's John Robinson Cup team.   He scored 4/6, losing only one game and received the board prize for gaining the most points for England in his section.   England finished second to Ireland.   See the full results here.

The photo shows Alex when he won the Under 13 section of the UK Chess Challenge Megafinal in May.   He is being presented with his trophy by Neil Tetley, Headmaster of Woodbridge School.

Oh, by the way, Alex is now officially taller than his Mum, Jane!

The UK Schools Chess Challenge, sponsored by Delancey, the specialist real estate investment and advisory company, celebrated its 20th year in 2015.   From its start in 1996, when 23,000 children from 700 schools and clubs entered, Mike Basman's dream of organising the largest chess tournament in the world has come to fruition.   By 2006 numbers had increased to 74,000.   Since then, the total entering has declined a little, but still attracts more than 50,000 children from around the UK.

A dozen Suffolk schools entered, as well as the Bury Knights Junior Chess Club.   Local rounds are followed by a regional round (the 'Megafinal'), held at Woodbridge School for Suffolk entrants.   Top scorers are then invited to the 'Gigafinal', which for Suffolk players is held in Manchester (a second Gigafinal is held in Reading for southern counties).

Just 67 qualifiers from the two Gigafinals then qualified for the 'Terafinal'.   Whilst all the three previous rounds are based on age and sex, for example Under 8 Boys, Under 12 Girls, the Terafinal mixes all the Gigafinal winners in one section.   The only school or club to have two qualifiers in the Terafinal was the Bury Knights!   At the Northern Gigafinal, Adam John won all six games in the u9B and Anita Somton scored 5½ points in the u11G.   They are pictured below:

At the Terafinal, both Adam and Anita won their first games.   9-year old Adam, graded 93 ECF, faced 157-graded Peter Isaksen from Berkshire, who is three years older.   In trouble early on, Adam mixed things up and forced Peter into a number of long thinks.   In time trouble, Adam's opponent made a number of poor moves.  

In the following position, Adam (White) played 1. Nd2.   The game continued ... Kf6   2. Nb3   g5? (the king needs to defend c6)   3. Nd4   g4   4. Nxc6   gxf3+?   5. Kxf3   Kg5?   6. Nd4   Kf6   7. Ne2   Kg5?   8. Ng1   Kf6   9. Nh3   Ke5   10. Nxf4 winning easily.

Unfortunately, Adam's first round win meant that he lost his next three games against higher graded opponents (159, 136, 117), but he finished with a draw and a win to score 2½ points.   Anita continued L,W,L,W,L, losing to three high-graded opponents (181, 166, 176) to finish on 3/6.

These were excellent results for both Adam and Anita, with a 103 performance for Adam and 141 for Anita.

The Bury Knights Junior Chess Club, the only non-school chess club in the county, held their first meeting of the Autumn Term this evening.   A total of 36 children turned up to play, exceeding expectations.

The Club has experienced considerable success in recent years, with two of its members qualifying for the UK Chess Challenge Terafinal, held recently in Loughborough (more on this soon).   Some members travel considerable distances to attend, including one from Ipswich (whose father works in Felixstowe), two from Stowmarket and one from Thetford.

Next week, the top group of eight members will benefit from coaching by Ed Player.   It is hoped that other members of the adult club will also help out on occasions.

Former member 16-year old Alba Saenz de Villaverde (86 ECF), whose two younger brothers Mario and Aaron still attend the club, is working towards her Duke of Edinburgh Gold award, and her voluntary work will include coaching the 'novices' at the club - see photo below.

Sadly, 11-year old Anita Somton (142 ECF) has moved away to live in Derbyshire, so the club's strongest player is now 12-year old Alan John (111 ECF).

With the recent retirement from BT of Ed Kirkham, the last remaining link with Adastral Park was severed.   Sadly, therefore, their chess club has had to fold.

But rather than lose all their members from Suffolk Chess, the good news is that most of their members have transferred to the Felixstowe club, effectively merging the two clubs.   This has enabled Felixstowe to support two teams this coming season, one in Division 2 and one in Division 3.   Each team will have a mix of Felixstowe and ex-Adastral players.

At a recent visit to the Royal British Legion, home of the Felixstowe club, several ex-Adastral members were present, including Ed Kirkham, Mark Weidman and Richard Doyle.

Over the weekend of 11/12 July, five players competed for the title of Suffolk Champion.   With one player dropping out, the all-plays-all format meant that each entrant received a bye.   The Champion, who won all four games, was 18-year old Alan Merry, whose grading performance for the event was an amazing 250.

Other scores (out of 4) were:
Steve Gregory, Adam Taylor, Andrew Lewis - 2 points
Silas Peck - 0 points
Steve Gregory beat Andrew Lewis in their individual game and finished with a grading performance of 207.

In the first round, Alan (Black) faced second seed FM Andrew Lewis (White).   Here is the game (kindly supplied by Andrew), which lasted only 22 moves:

Andrew commented, "Alan was simply too good for the rest of us and this was accurately reflected in his crushing 100% score line.   Not a great game by yours truly, but the quality of Alan’s preparation and play is certainly evident.   Well done to Alan.   And thanks to Tim (Lunn) for organizing the event."

It's the 1st September, which to me signals the start of the chess season!   The kids are back to school tomorrow, which means that the junior club in Bury starts up again on Friday.   Competitions Secretary David Green has been extremely busy over the past few weeks, sorting out the fixtures for the leagues and cups.   They can now be seen in full on Dave Wild's Results Website.

These fixtures were published a couple of weeks ago, so if any club wishes to make any changes, they have until 15 September to request them.

Traditionally, most players leave chess alone over the summer, but several youngsters have been heavily involved in national competitions.   Also, the County team played (and lost) in the Final of the Minor Counties Championship.   Alan Merry had a stunning victory in the Suffolk Closed Championship and some adults have been playing in Europe.

More on each of these topics will be covered in further articles on this website.   There should be a new article every day, but if you wish to be reminded, simply enter your email address in the 'Follow by Email' box on the right of your screen, and you will receive an email to inform you every time a new article has been published.

In recent weeks I have been endeavouring to fulfil my presidential duties my visiting all the clubs that compete in the Suffolk League.   Visits to Ipswich, Felixstowe and Saxmundham have taken place already and will be followed this evening by Stowmarket.   Then over the next two weeks, it'll be the turns of Clacton and Sudbury.   Manningtree is still to be arranged.   Sadly, we have lost the Adastral Park club, but most of their members have moved to Felixstowe, enabling them to field two teams this season.

So, keep watching this website and please feel free to send in articles, news snippets and even games for publication.

A few chess players are meeting up at the Dove in Ipswich every Wednesday from 8.00 pm onwards during the summer months.   Pictured above at this week's meeting are Luke Hill, Andrew Shephard, David Brown, Michael Clapham and Ian Wallis.   Ted Matthewson took the photo.

Other chess players are welcome to attend.

Suffolk's First Team, inspirationally captained by Ian Wallis, has won their way through to the National Final by beating Hertfordshire in the semi-final by 12 points to four.   This exceptional result followed on their quarter-final victory against Worcestershire, when they won 13 - 3.   In the 32 individual games that have been played so far in the national rounds, not one Suffolk player has lost a game!

11 players have featured in both matches, with Richard Lamont and Ian Wallis winning both their games.   Eight others have scored 1½ points: Alan Merry, Shaun Munson, Graham Moore, Nick Savage, Tim Lunn, Silas Peck, John Peters and Ted Matthewson.   Martin Fogg drew both games.

Suffolk will now face Essex (whom they beat convincingly last season in the semi-final) in the National Final, taking place in Warwick on Saturday 4 July.   As current holders of the Minor Counties trophy, Suffolk will be keen to retain the title.

The Suffolk Closed Championships will be held at Ipswich Chess Club on Saturday 11 July and Sunday 12 July.

There are two sections: the Championship and the Challengers.

The Championship is a six-player all-plays-all tournament.   The entrants will be:
Alan Merry (226)
Andrew Lewis (207)
Adam Taylor (207)
Stephen Gregory (194)
Shaun Munson (194)
Silas Peck (178)

The winner of the Championship will receive a trophy and will be Suffolk Champion for 2015.

If numbers permit, the Challengers will be a Swiss tournament.   The winner of the Challengers will gain an automatic qualification for the Championship in the following year.   There will also be an Intermediate trophy for the highest placed player graded under 130.

Both sections will be over five rounds, using Suffolk League time limits (30 moves in 75 minutess, then an extra 15 minutes to finish).   All games will be submitted for grading.

The timings
Saturday 11 July (venue open 9:00am)
1st round: 9:30am - 12:30pm
2nd round: 1:30pm - 4:30pm
3rd round: 5:30pm - 8:30pm

Sunday 12th July (venue open 9:30am)
4th round: 10:00am - 1:00pm
5th round: 2:00pm - 5:00pm
Prize giving will take place no later than 6:00pm (in the unlikely event of a play-off match).

Entry Fee and prizes
The entry fee will be £3.50 for ECF Direct Members.   This will cover the cost of venue, and some light refreshments.   Please note that there are NO money prizes.   Trophies will be presented at the end of the tournament.

Where to find it
Ipswich Institute, Admirals House, Tower Street, IP1 3BE.   The entrance can be found off Tower Street (down from the Tower Ramparts bus station).   If heading down the (alley) side entrance to Tower Ramparts shopping centre, the double doors are on your left - set in an alcove with an iron gate.   To enter, press the buzzer, then open the door when you hear the return click.   Once inside, the room is at the top of the stairs (on the left).

From 2014
Suffolk Champion: Dagne Ciuksyte
Challengers Winner: Silas Peck
Intermediate Winner: Alex Sheerin

If interested please contact Tim Lunn: 07882 470473, or email [email protected]

Yesterday, Bury St Edmunds Chess Club hosted Broadland Club in the Final of the Norfolk & Suffolk Cup.

This was the Bury St Edmunds team before play started:

(left to right):
Steve Ruthen (Board 4), Mike Harris (1), John Peters (3), Ed Player (2), David Brown (6), Richard Lamont (5).

Broadland's team averaged 188, whilst Bury St Edmunds could only manage 180.   Broadland had a grading advantage on four of the six boards.

After two hours play all matches were level, although Ed, John and Richard seemed to have slight positional advantages.   Steve Ruthen was the first to finish, after he accepted a draw offer from Ken McEwan.   This was followed by a draw on Board 6, when Daniel Frean accepted David Brown's draw offer.

Meanwhile, on Board 1, Mike Harris was struggling with a bad bishop against Richard Polaczek's good knight.   Eventually Richard (graded 224) prevailed and for the first time Broadland took the lead.

Ed Player achieved a smooth win against Roy Hughes, despite getting into his usual time trouble.   He had to make moves 25 to 30 in 38 seconds, which he achieved with four seconds to spare!   John Peters missed a pin and had to take a draw against Gerald Moore.   So with the score at 2½ - 2½, it was all down to Richard Lamont, facing Terry Turner.   After an exchange of all four rooks, Richard's bishop was no match for Terry's passed pawn and Richard was forced to use his queen to prevent the pawn from promoting.   Richard bravely declined a draw with less than a minute remaining, but eventually agreed the draw with only seconds on his clock.

So, with four draws on the bottom four boards, it was Ed's excellent win on Board 2 that had to be eliminated in order to break the tie.

Congratulations to Broadland, whose name will appear on the cup for the first time.   Below is their winning team, together with non-playing captain Paul Badger, holding the trophy.   (left to right): Gerald Moore, Terry Turner, Ken McEwan, (Paul Badger), Roy Hughes, Richard Polaczek, Daniel Frean.