Suffolk Chess

78 children from around East Anglia, aged between 6 and 18, played in the Woodbridge Junior Open yesterday.   There were five sections: u8, u10, u12, u14 and u16/18.   This tournament, organised by IM Adam Hunt, is one of the qualifying events for the London Junior Championships.   Players in the Under 8 section needed 4 points to qualify, whilst those in the Under 10 and Under 12 sections needed 3½ points for the Minor section at London, or 4½ points for the Major section.   Several youngsters managed to achieve their desired qualification certificates.

Suffolk prizewinners included the following:

Under 18  Winner   -   Alex Sheerin (Ipswich)
Under 18   3rd place:   -   Alan John (Bury St Edmunds)
Under 12   Winner   -   Teddy Yang (Leiston)
Under 12   2nd place   -   Jaden Jermy (Bury St Edmunds)
Under 12   =3rd place   -   Adam John (Bury St Edmunds)
Under 10   =3rd place   - Toby Martin (Bury St Edmunds)
Under 8   2nd place   -   Rowan Kent (Woodbridge)
Under 8   =3rd place   -   Tia Martin (Bury St Edmunds)

The five prizewinners from Bury St Edmunds are all members of the Bury Knights Junior Chess Club (pictured right including Alex Sheerin, former Bury Knights member).

Separate trophies were awarded to Woodbridge School pupils who performed best in each section.

A large number of photos taken during the event can be viewed as a slideshow here (click on 'Slideshow').

The Suffolk First Team took on Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire today at Newmarket.   Despite fielding a weakened team, Suffolk won both matches, 9 - 7 and 13 - 3 respectively.

Five players won both games: Ian Wallis, Mike Cook, Tim Lunn, Richard Lamont and David Brown (1 by default).   Mike Cook has now won all four games this season for the county.

These results confirm Suffolk's position at the head of the league table, which can be viewed here.   Bedfordshire did Suffolk a huge favour by beating Norfolk 9½-6½.   It now seems likely that the two matches against Cambridgeshire on 7 February and 13 March will be crucial in deciding the EACU Championship.

Several Suffolk players have drawn most of their league matches this season:

Division 1   -   Tim Lunn   5 draws/5 games;   Bob Jones   3/3;   Phil Hutchings   3/4;   Kevin Greenacre   3/4;   Mike Cook   3/5;   Simon Riley   3/5.

Division 2   -   Martin Alvin   4 draws/4 games;   Jim Buis   3/4.

Division 3   -   David Green   3 draws/4 games.

It's interesting to note that there are fewer draws in the lower divisions.   In Division 1, 27 games out of 68 have been drawn (40%).   In Division 2 it's 30% (18/59) and in Division 3 only 24% (16/67).

There have been just two defaulted games so far this season, one in Division 2 (Manningtree B) and one in Division 3 (Ipswich F).

54 years ago, the Under 21 British Junior Championship in Aberystwyth featured two local players - Vivian Woodward and John Feavyour.   At the time, John lived in Saxmundham, whilst Vivian was from Leicestershire (he was then the Leicestershire under 21 and senior champion).   Now a member of Sudbury Chess Club, Vivian has provided the original game score (above) and the game can be played through below (it may take a few seconds to load).   The notes to the game are Vivian's, apart from the possible ending after John's resignation.

Soon after, Vivian gave up chess for 30 years, but John continued playing.   Perhaps they should now play a challenge match, where John may be able to get his revenge!

One of the more common names amongst Suffolk chess players is ... Adam.   There are six of them, including an International Master and a FIDE Master.

IM Adam Hunt (Woodbridge)	FM Adam Taylor (Manningtree)	Adam Harvey (Bury St Edmunds)
Adam Wilson (Ipswich)	Adam Leigh (Bury St Edmunds)	Adam John (Bury St Edmunds)

But Adam is far from being the most popular name amongst active Suffolk players.   According to the grading database, the leaders are:

John:   (Barratt, Barty, Feavyour, Kent, Lambert, McAllister, Peters, Player, Price)   =   9
David (& Dave):   (Brown, Clark x 2, Green, Mabbs, Robertson, Spence, Wild, Wood)   =   9
Michael:   (Clapham, Cook, Coughtrey, Harris, Schalit, Spalding, Usher)   =   7
Andrew:   (Donnelly, Lewis, Molloy, Paige, Salmon, Shephard)   =   6
Also, there are four Richards, four Martins and four Stephens (or Steve).

Who's going to the London Chess Classic?   This prestigious event is taking place at the Kensington Olympia, between 4 and 13 December.

The main tournament is the final (and third) leg of the Chess Grand Tour.   Nine players are competing in this nine-round event (Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Veselin Topalov, Alexander Grischuk, Vishy Anand, Anish Giri, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Levon Aronian), to which Michael Adams has been invited as England's No.1.   Topalov is the current leader.   There is a total prize fund of over a million dollars!

The Final of the British Knockout Championship will take place between 4 - 9 December. Seven of England's top players, as well as Scotland's Jonathan Rowson, will be competing for a first prize of £20,000.   The quarter-finals and semi-finals will be held on 1 and 2 December at the nearby Hilton Hotel, with the two finalists battling it out over six games at the Classic.

Also taking place between 4 and 11 December is the FIDE Open, which has a guaranteed prize fund of £15,500.   To date 26 GMs have entered, as well as a host of IMs and FMs.   Amongst the 205 entrants is Bury's Ed Player, who is also playing in the Super Rapidplay (see below).

Manningtree's Adam Taylor is playing in the 5-round Weekend Open (4 - 6 December), as well as the 10-round Super Rapidplay (12 - 13 December), which has a massive entry of 238 players.

You can watch some of the world's best players for just £20; that's the cost of a daily ticket, which can be purchased online.   Women and anyone aged under 25 can watch for free - all you need to do is register online.   Tickets include access to the Auditorium, where the games will be played, as well as to the live Grandmaster commentary room and all other festival events areas.

The European Team Championships concluded on Sunday, with England's teams finishing 10th (Open) and 23rd (Women).   Both results were rather disappointing, as the teams had been seeded 5th and 18th respectively.

In the Open section, all except bottom board Gawain Jones under-performed, especially Luke McShane, whose performance of 2466 was more than 200 points below his current rating.   England finished with 11 points (four wins, three draws), whilst winners Russia scored 15 points (six wins and three draws).

In the Women's section, England's top board Jovanka Houska played extremely well, scoring 7/8 to gain the silver medal for Board 1, with a performance of 2614.   Suffolk's Dagne Ciuksyte had a disappointing event, losing her last two games against lower-rated opponents.   This was the position from her last-round game, where White (Dagne) is to play in a level position against her opponent from Azerbaijan.   Dagne erred with 39. Kxg2??   Instead 39. Rxe5 or Rd5 maintains equality.   After 39... Rd2! Dagne had no answer to the threats on f2.

As at the start of this week, there are some unusual features in both the Suffolk League and the Bury Area League.

In all three divisions of the Suffolk League, the lead is shared by two teams.   In Division 1, Ipswich C and Bury St Edmunds C have both scored 9½ points from four matches.   In Division 2, Sudbury and Ipswich D have scored 10½ points from four matches.   And in Division 3, Ipswich E and Ipswich F are equal on 11 points from four matches.   Also, in all three divisions, several other teams are very close behind, making this season one of the most closely fought in recent memory.

Meanwhile, over in the Bury Area League, there's a 'first'.   Linton's three teams are all heading their respective divisions.   Linton A lead Division 1, Linton Blacks Division 2, and Linton Whites Division 3.   Between their three teams Linton have played 11 matches, winning 10 and drawing one.   Not a bad start to the season!

You can view the latest tables by clicking on the respective leagues:

Suffolk League
Bury Area League.

The initial round of the Suffolk Cup & Plate was completed last Tuesday, when Sudbury thrashed Felixstowe B 4 - 0.   The draw has now been made for the next round.   Because of the number of teams playing, several byes are necessary.   The aim, of course, is to get four teams into the semi-finals of both sections.

The 11 teams and their sections are as follows:

Cup - Bury St Edmunds E; Saxmundham A; Felixstowe A; Ipswich B; Sudbury and Manningtree A

Plate - Bury St Edmunds D; Ipswich F; Saxmundham B; Manningtree B and Felixstowe B

So, to decide the semi-final line-ups, two matches are needed in the Cup and one match in the Plate.   These are as follows:

Cup - Saxmundham A v Manningtree A (to be played on Tuesday 15 December); and Ipswich B v Bury St Edmunds E (on Tuesday 22 December).   Felixstowe A and Sudbury both receive a bye.

Plate - Ipswich F v Felixstowe B (on Tuesday 22 December).   Bury St Edmunds D, Saxmundham B and Manningtree B are straight through to the semis.

It's not often that a game from Suffolk League Division 3 features on this website, but here is one between Bury St Edmunds' Chas Szentmihaly (right) and Felixstowe's Dave Robertson.   It was played recently in the Suffolk Under 125 Cup.   Aged 84, Chas is Bury's oldest member, who swears that good health in old age is related to the food that you eat.

The game has its errors, as might be expected from players graded 108 and 104.   But the finish is good!