Suffolk Chess

At the Suffolk County Chess Association AGM in June it was agreed that "the Committee should propose a revised Constitution by the end of 2015.   Members will consult by email."

Amendments to the existing Constitution (which was last modified in 2013) have already been suggested by Colin Roberts (Immediate Past-President) and David Green (Competitions Secretary).   These will be incorporated into a draft version which will be sent to Committee members by next weekend.

Members are then requested to comment and to suggest any amendments that they feel are necessary.   When a version has been agreed by the Committee, it will be put to the SCCA AGM for ratification in June 2016.

If any other Suffolk player would like to receive the draft version, please .

Congratulations to Manningtree's Adam Taylor, who has achieved his first title - FIDE Master!

At a recent tournament in Barcelona, his 'live' rating went over 2300, although it has subsequently dropped to its current 2292.   The 'magic' number of 2300 is required for the FM title and it doesn't need to be a published rating.

As recently as January this year, Adam's rating was only 2048.   So his rating increase in just nine months has been meteoric.   Now it's onward and upward to his next target, that of International Master.   Adam will require a rating of 2400, as well as three IM 'norms', i.e. performances in rated tournaments of at least 2450.

Alan Merry's experience of playing against his highest-ever rated opponent, Michael Adams, yesterday, in the Isle of Man Pokerstars tournament, ended in complete disaster.   Alan managed to make a horrendous blunder as early as move 7.

Players of club standard who play the Caro-Kann or the Scandinavian should be familiar with the trap involving White's Qe2.   This not-so-subtle move pins Black's e-pawn.   This was the position after White's 7th move (Qe2):

It's essential that Black now retreats his queen to either b6 or c7.   Instead, Alan played the disastrous 7...Ngf6??   He could've resigned immediately after Adams' next move:   8. Nb5!.   The queen is attacked and Nd6+ is threatened.   The queen can only go to b6, when Nd6+ wins everything.   Alan played on for a further 14 moves before resigning, but his position went from bad to terrible.

For us mere mortals, it's somehow gratifying to see that an aspiring IM can make such an error.   But our sympathies must lie with Alan, who must be feeling awful after that game.   Today he has a chance to make amends, facing another GM in Round 6.

EDIT (16.00/Thursday).   Alan has just bounced back today, beating a 2500 GM in 32 moves!

Ipswich Chess Club wants to develop its membership to include juniors and newcomers, by introducing them to social and competitive chess.   To encourage this, the club will be holding two Open Evenings on Wednesday 21 October and Wednesday 9 December.

This is an excellent initiative, and if successful, more sessions will be run in the New Year.

The target audience is school teachers and accompanied juniors, as well as anyone else interested in improving their game.   Basic knowledge of chess is needed, and discussion and participation will be encouraged.   Each session will include a short coaching presentation, followed by practice with club members.

For further information contact , or ring him on 07791 082574.

The Pokerstars tournament in the Isle of Man is well under way (see earlier report), with today's fourth round pitching two Suffolk 18-year olds against each other.   Both Alan Merry and Justin Tan were on two points out of three.   Alan had the White pieces and after 26 moves had secured a strong positional advantage:

It's White to play.   Alan played 27. Qc4!   Not an obvious move, but one that Stockfish likes a lot.   The immediate threat is 28. Rf5, which wins a pawn.   Justin played 27... Qd6?!, threatening the g3 pawn.   Alan pressed ahead with 28. Rf5, and after ... Qxg3, 29. Bxc5   Qe3+   30. R1f2, White is +3 on the computer.

The game ended with Alan having a queen and three pawns against Justin's queen.   You can view the game on the ChessBomb site.

Alan has a dream draw tomorrow in Round 5 when he will play Black against tournament favourite and top seed Michael Adams.   The game starts at 13.30.

Ed Player and Dagne Ciuksyte are on 1½ points out of four.

At the first weekend of the Junior 4NCL (see Saturday's report), the Bury Knights team found life tough in Division 1.   They drew two matches and lost the other three, to finish in last place.

Nevertheless, this was a great experience for the players.   Individually they recorded some excellent wins.

On top board, Alex Sheerin (137) scored 3/5, losing only the first game (when he declined a draw offer!).   His two wins were against 148 and 154 opponents; he finished with a grading performance of 152.

Adam John (93) on Board 3 also won three games, for a performance of 109.   Unfortunately he lost two games against opponents with similar grades due to playing too fast.   Undoubtedly he will learn from this.

Alan John (111) had to face former Bury Knights member Anita Somton (142) in Round 5, with a predictable result.   Anita now plays for the Robin Hood team.   She scored 3½/5 for a 148 performance.

Bury Knights Tom Roy found it tough on Board 4, failing to record a win or draw.

The photo above shows the Bury Knights team (left to right) Tom Roy, Adam John, Alan John, Alex Sheerin.

Friday's Guardian reported that a man had been stabbed to death during a game of chess.   It reported, "What started as a peaceful game between friends ended tragically with a man losing his life.   The court heard how, on the night of the murder, the accused, Mr Fishti, had left the shared Leyton High Road flat with two friends, leaving Mr Suditu and a third flatmate playing a game of chess in the kitchen.   Fishti returned a short time later, alone, and complaining about having been stopped by a homeless man who had asked him for 50p.   He grabbed a knife from the kitchen and left the flat, only to return moments later, placing the blade on a kitchen worktop.   Irate, he then disrupted the chess game between Suditu and the third flatmate and threw the board in the air, provoking a reaction from Suditu.   In the ensuing struggle, Fishti stabbed Suditu in the chest before fleeing."

We may see occasional reactions from players when they lose, either storming out of the venue or, in some cases, knocking over the pieces and refusing to shake hands.   Fortunately, nothing as bad as this has ever happened here in Suffolk, and we pray that it never will.

A team from the Bury Knights is playing in the Junior 4NCL, taking place this weekend in Birmingham.

The Bury team finds itself in Division 1 (12 teams), whilst Division 2 has 18 teams.   The average grade of the team determines which division they play in.   The Bury team (Alex Sheerin, Alan John, Adam John and Tom Roy) has an average grade of 102.

Bury Knights lost their first two matches, but drew the third.   They are currently lying in 10th place in the table, having scored 4½ points from their 12 games.   Adam is top scorer on 2, with Alex on 1½, Alan 1 and Tom yet to score.

Their progress can be followed on the main 4NCL website here.   They play their final two matches tomorrow, Sunday, starting at 09.30 and 13.00.

After two rounds (of the scheduled four) Peter Svidler has taken complete control of the Final of the World Cup in Baku.   He won both games, largely due to blunders by his opponent Sergei Karjakin.

The second game today, with Svidler playing Black, reached the following position with White to play:

According to Stockfish, almost any sensible rook move, such as Rc2, Rd2, Re2 or Rb1 is a draw.   But Karjakin played 37. Rb5, an error that he compounded after ... Kh8, with 38. Rd5??, an almost incomprehensible blunder.   Of course, 38. Bxf7 is answered by ... Qxb5, but would have been better than 38. Rd5.   From a level position, Karajakin was -5 in just two moves.   He resigned after Black's next move (Nb6).

Svidler needs only a draw from the last two games to win the tournament.   The consolation for Karjakin is that as a finalist in the World Cup, he has qualified for the Candidates, taking place in March next year.

With four matches this evening (three in the Suffolk League and one in the Bury Area League), there were 32 players at Moreton Hall Community Centre.   At a push, the Bury St Edmunds club can accommodate six matches, but four is quite sufficient when it comes to finding players.   In fact, five of the eight teams playing were from Bury; next week there are six teams playing.   For a club whose demographic is varied - it includes 14 juniors and 8 retired people - it is often difficult to find players on a regular basis.   For this reason, the club operates a 'squad' system, with between six and eight members in a squad for each team.   Sometimes this works well, with just four people available; at other times the captain may have to choose from six or seven who would like to play.   It's a difficult balancing act, deciding how many teams to enter.

This season, Bury have entered 21 teams in the various leagues and competitions:

Bury Area League   -   7
Suffolk League   -   5
Suffolk Under 125   -   2
BACL Roger Goldsmith   -   4
Suffolk Cup & Plate   -   2
Norfolk & Suffolk Cup   -   1

Who'd be Bury Match Secretary?

Postscript: The above was written (but not uploaded) this afternoon.   Now back from the club and a big apology must be made to the 11 Ipswich players whose games were interrupted by an outburst from one of our (Bury) members.   This was completely unprovoked; be assured that strong measures will be taken against the offending person, whose actions let down the good name of the Bury St Edmunds Chess Club.