Thursday, 10 September 2015

Clacton on show

Clacton Chess Club competes in both the Suffolk League and the North Essex League, a total of three teams.   Their Secretary John Lambert is unclear as to why Clacton play in Suffolk, especially as some long distances are involved when travelling to matches.   When the opponents are Bury St Edmunds or Saxmundhgam, Ipswich is used as a halfway venue.   Probably the longest journey is to Stowmarket, some 40 miles each way.

Last Tuesday I continued my visits to the clubs in the SCCA by visiting Clacton Chess Club at the Holland Public Hall, where a warm and friendly welcome was received.   In the photo above, those playing include Martin Alvin, Mike Coughtrey (nearest), John Lambert, Melvin Steele (next board), Andrew Salmon.   In the left background is Dennis Brown who is playing junior Alex O'Brien.   Others not easily discerned included Richard O'Brien and Nigel Lake.


Wednesday, 9 September 2015

Suffolk's Correspondence team gain promotion

Suffolk's eight-board Correspondence team, playing in the Sinclair (Division 2) section of the County Correspondence Championships, have won promotion to Division 1.   Scoring 9½ points out of a possible 16, they finished in third place out of the ten teams entered.   Both the teams finishing first and second (Essex C and Yorkshire C) are unable to be promoted, as the rules do not permit more than two teams per county in Division 1.

Each team member played two games by email against the same opponent, with Black and White.   Individual scores show that most of Suffolk's points were gained on the top four boards:

Board 1   -   Ian Wallis   2
Board 2   -   Bob Jones   2
Board 3   -   Silas Peck   1½
Board 4   -   Phil Revell   2
Board 5   -   Kevin Greenacre   1   (two draws)
Board 6   -   Jim Buis   0
Board 7   -   Bob Stephens   1   (two draws)
Board 8   -   Jakob Tulic   0

Captain Jim Buis reports: "I mentioned at the County AGM that after well over 40 continuous years of playing for the county correspondence/email team I am going to take a break from this form of chess and am stepping down as captain.   Therefore Suffolk is looking for someone from within the current team to take over the role of captain.   It is not an onerous task and I will be more than happy to help during the transition.   It's nice to finish on a high, so thanks and well done everyone."

If anyone is prepared to take on this 'non-onerous' task, please contact me (Bob Jones).


Tuesday, 8 September 2015

A bridge too far

From Ian Wallis, Suffolk First Team captain:

Every run has to come to an end and so it was for Suffolk at the National Counties Final day on 4 July this year.   As Bob has already mentioned in his first blog this month, Suffolk’s first team narrowly lost to Essex in the Minor Counties Final, thus losing its proud boast to have a 100% record for all teams that have reached the national final (Minor Counties and U125 [as was then] in 1995 and Minor Counties again in 1998 and 2014).

The final was always going to be a challenge when we learnt that Essex had overcome Somerset in the other semi-final and would be out for revenge from their comprehensive defeat we had inflicted on them the previous season.

We were also handicapped with the unavailability of some of our top boards.   I therefore had to restructure the team to be able to field as competitive one as possible.   Fortunately, Suffolk is blessed with strength in depth nowadays and I was still able to muster a team with an average grade of exactly 180.   On paper the strongest possible, however I was concerned that in doing so I had to push players up the board order and I felt that we could be potentially exposed on the top boards.

There was not much else that could be done, so we set off to Coventry with high hopes.

The pre-match events could not have gone much worse.   The Essex match captain hadn’t arrived when captains were called to confirm team lists and toss the coin for colours, so a stand-in was found and whether it was beginner's luck he won the toss and chose White on odd boards.   This was unfortunate as I would have preferred White on odds due to the board order of the team.   No matter it was a 50/50 call; we would just have to overcome this slight set-back.   The Essex team was a formidable one and matched our average grade of 180!   No margin for error here then.

Next thing, teams were being called to the board for a 13:30 start?!   Hang on, wasn’t the start supposed to be 14:00?   This is what I had thought and conveyed to the team.   Four players hadn’t arrived by the time the match started and a stressful (for your team captain) 20 minutes elapsed until we were at full strength.   Subsequent questions produced a confused picture in that some of the controllers were of the opinion that the match started at 14:00; however the official rules on the website had been changed to 13:30 and this is what the organisers adhered to.

As was usual in the final stages, my game was one of the first to finish.   Whereas in the previous rounds I was leading from the front to victory, this time the reverse was true; my loss seemingly leading to the defeat of the team. After the first four games we were trailing 3 - 1.   The match evened itself out after this with results trickling in over the course of the afternoon.   With two games remaining we had reduced the difference to one point, the score being 7½ – 6½ to Essex.   However we needed to win both games as board count was against us.   This looked increasingly unlikely and so it proved to be with the penultimate game going to Essex.   They had secured 8½ points and sealed victory.   The remaining game was academic as far as the result of the match was concerned which was just as well as a superior position petered out to a draw and the final result of 9 - 7.

The full results can be seen here (follow links to Minor Counties and click on 'Essex' in the final column)


Monday, 7 September 2015

Suffolk players in Riga

Three Suffolk players travelled to Riga in Latvia in August, to take part in the Riga Technical University Open, one of the biggest chess festivals in Northern Europe.   There was a strong field of more than 190 entrants in the 'A' section, which included 27 GMs and 28 IMs.   The nine-round tournament was won by Alexei Shirov (Latvia) and Robert Hovhannisyan (Armenia), both unbeaten on 7½ points.

FM Alan Merry finished in 41st place on 5½ points.   He gained 29 rating points (to 2369), taking his rating tantalisingly close to the 2400 he needs for his IM title.   He played three GMs, scoring 1½ against them.   His best win was against 2540-rated Russian GM Kirill Alexseenko.

Adam Taylor scored 5 points to finish in 70th position, gaining 89 rating points to improve his rating to 2278.   He drew against the only GM he played.

After a poor start (0/2), Ed Player recovered to score 4½ points.   He achieved creditable draws against players rated 2408, 2397 and 2300.

Sunday, 6 September 2015

Alex plays for England

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!


Saturday, 5 September 2015

UK Schools Chess Challenge

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.


Friday, 4 September 2015

Bury Knights are back

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).


Thursday, 3 September 2015

Adastral merge with Felixstowe

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.


Wednesday, 2 September 2015

Alan Merry is Suffolk Champion

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."


Tuesday, 1 September 2015

New season about to get underway

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.


Newer Posts Older Posts Home