Suffolk Chess

Last evening there were five matches taking place at the Bury St Edmunds Chess Club, the most there has ever been.   40 players packed the room, with analysis boards also available in the bar area.

This was the last match at the Club for David Wood (pictured right), who is moving to live and work in Colchester.   David has been a mainstay of the Club for the past couple of years, running three teams and always willing to assist with setting up and packing away.   He enjoyed a brief period of celebrity last year when he was amongst a dozen or so nominations for ECF 'Player of the Year'.   Someone had noticed that his grade was the lowest 'A' grade in England; he ended up with as many votes as Alan Merry!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This will be the last article for three weeks.   No more until 27 February!

After the final round of the Tradewise Gibraltar Masters, two players finished on 8/10: top seed Hikaru Nakamura from the USA and French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (usually referred to as 'MVL').

The two then had to take part in a play-off.   After four close-fought draws, Nakamura eventually prevailed in the fifth (Armageddon) game.   He wins the first prize of £20,000.   He won this event last year too.

Anna Muzychuk from Ukraine won the women’s award, scoring 7/10.

Justin Tan finished on 6 points, with a performance rating (2463) just 17 points above his current rating.   David Spence had an excellent tournament, gaining 36 rating points, taking his live rating to 2176.   In the first six rounds David scored three points against five GMs!   He finished on 4½ points.

The best English performance was by Gawain Jones, who finished =3rd on 7½ points.

With just one round to play, the Tradewise Gibraltar Masters is heading for a dramatic finale.   No fewer than eight players share the lead on 7/9, with a further nine players (including England's Gawain Jones) on 6½ points.

Suffolk players:   Justin Tan is on 5½ and David Spence has 3½ points.

The final round starts early tomorrow (Thursday) at 10.00 GMT, with live games from the top players available here.   The final round pairings can be viewed here.

It seems highly likely that there will be a tie for first place, in which case there will be a play-off in the afternoon.   The tie-break rules state:

"In the event of a tie for first place, there shall be a speed play-off.   If there are four or fewer players tied for first place, there will be a speed knock-out play-off for the first prize of £20,000.   If three players tie for first place, the player with the highest performance rating will be seeded directly into the Final of the Play-Off; the other two players will contest the Semi-Final.   If more than four players tie for first place, the four players with the highest performance ratings shall qualify for the play-off to decide the first prize."

Top seed Hikaru Nakamura is amongst the players on seven points, and must be favourite to win the huge first prize.

After 13 hard-fought rounds the super-strong Tata Steel Masters tournament ended on Sunday with World Champion Magnus Carlsen winning by a clear point from the rest of the field.   His nearest challenger, Fabiano Caruana, surprisingly lost in the final round, when a win would have drawn him level with Carlsen.   This is the fifth time that Carlsen has won this tournament.

The final table can be seen here.

Michael Adams, the only English participant, had a disappointing event, winning only one of his games (and losing four).

In Carlsen's final game, he reached the following theoretically drawn position after 57 moves.   Carlsen was White against Diren Ling.   It's Black to play (57... Re2+):

Carlsen now spent the next 42 moves, trying to force an error.   It finished amusingly (see following position):

97. Rg3+   Kf1   98. Kf3   Rf2+   99. Bxf2   Stalemate!

Nine Suffolk Juniors travelled to Yateley Manor, near Camberley, in Surrey for the South of England Junior Championships.   This event attracts some of the strongest juniors in the country, many of whom are seeking a 'norm' to qualify for the National Junior Squad.

The best individual result was by 9-year old Adam John, who scored 3½/5 in the Under 11 section, gaining a half-norm.   His brother Alan also achieved a half-norm in the Under 13 section, scoring 3/5, as did Tom Roy, with 3/5 in the Under 11s.

Other scores were:
Ralph Martin (u13) - 2½/5
Toby Martin (u9) - 3/6
Amy John (u9) - 3/6
Tia Martin (u8) - 2/6
Tania Roy (u7) - 1½/6 (and 1/6 in the u8s)

The results for Alex Sheerin (u14) are not currently available.

The County Under 160 team faced Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire at the Turner Hall in Newmarket today.   Finding a team of 16 had proved very difficult, with no fewer than 36 potential players being contacted.   The eventual team was considerably lower-graded than usual.

The morning match was against Cambridgeshire, who outgraded Suffolk on every board!   But there were some excellent performances from some of our so-called 'weaker' players, with draws on the bottom four boards.   With just one game (mine) remaining, Cambridgeshire led 8 - 7, but my opponent eventually gave up the struggle when three pawns down.   This drawn match is Cambridgeshire's only flaw this season, having won all the other three matches they have played (they beat Norfolk 9 - 7 in the afternoon).   They head the league table with seven points.   Herts have 5, Suffolk 3 and Norfolk 1 point.

In the afternoon, Hertfordshire also outgraded us, this time on boards 3 to 16.   Unfortunately, Suffolk lost (again), having lost to them back in December.   The score this time was a convincing 5½-10½.

Stephen Lewis (Board 4) won both games, whilst Alan Watkins (Board 1) and John Barratt (Board 13) scored 1½ points.   Six other players scored one point.

John Lambert won an entertaining sacrificial game against Hertfordshire's Michael Flatt, reproduced below:

Eight children from the Bury Knights Junior Chess club are playing this weekend in the above tournament at Yateley Manor in Surrey.   It is one of the qualifying events for the National Junior Squad.

They are playing in the following age-group sections:

Alan John (117)   -   u13
Ralph Martin (72)   -   u13
Adam John (116)   -   u11
Tom Roy (87)   -   u11
Toby Martin (30R)   -   u9
Amy John (42R)   -   u8
Tia Martin (23R)   -   u8
Tania Roy (-)   -   u7 & u8

The results can be found on the Tournament Director website (not yet fully updated).   The Under 7 event was played today, whilst the Under 8 section is tomorrow.   The other sections are played over the two days.

Former BKJCC member Alex Sheerin is also playing, in the Under 14 section.

The 13-round all-plays-all Tata Steel Masters reaches its conclusion on Sunday, with World Champion Magnus Carlsen in a clear lead on 8 points out of 11.   Fabiana Caruana is second, a point behind, whilst Diren Ling is third on 6½ points.   Carlsen still has to play Ling, as well as Wesley So, over this weekend.

At the other end of the table, England's Michael Adams is propping up the table on 4 points.   In Round 9 he was beaten by Carlsen in a 66-move marathon.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, over in Gibraltar, Suffolk's David Spence is enjoying the Tradewise Masters, having scored 2/4 against four GMs (+1, =2, -1). Provided he doesn't inbibe too much (don't look at the photograph - reproduced courtesy of Sophie Triay), he must be in with a chance of an IM norm.   His rating performance so far is 2447, just three points short of the required level (over 9 or 10 rounds).

IM Justin Tan is on 2½/4 and needs a few good wins if he is to acquire the sought-after GM norm.

The other Suffolk player in Gib is David Brown, who played in the Challengers A event which ended today.   He scored 1½/5, but lost 31 rating points.

The Tradewise Gibraltar Masters has reached the third round, which was played today.   The sensation of Round 1, as far as Suffolk is concerned, was David Spence's win against a 2506-rated female Chinese GM.   David (2140) is seeded 187 out of the 255 entrants.   You can play through the game, and read John Saunders' amusing police-related puns here.   For his efforts, he had to face another 2500 GM in Round 2 (which he lost) and a third GM in Round 3, which he drew.   He now faces yet another GM in Round 4, having gained 22 rating points so far.

Justin Tan had a default win in Round 1 (did his opponent fail to turn up?) but lost to a highly-rated GM in Round 2.   He beat a lower-rated opponent in Round 3 and now faces a WGM in Round 4.

Live games and commentary are available daily from 14.00 GMT.

The new January 2016 ECF grades were published this morning.   Suffolk Grader Dave Wild has worked his usual miracle: he has updated his website already to show all the new grades.   You can view them here.   To check out the full ECF grading database, click here.

The top grades (over 200 ECF) of those who either play in the Suffolk League or who represent Suffolk are:

Name	Club	July 2015	Jan 2016	+ / -
Justin Tan	(Suffolk)	238	235	-3
Adam Hunt	(Suffolk)	229	229	=
Alan Merry	(Suffolk)	221	226	+5
Dagne Ciuksyte	(Suffolk)	216	223	+7
Adam Taylor	Manningtree	214	217	+3
Andrew Lewis	Manningtree	215	216	+1
David Spence	(Suffolk)	216	215	-1
Francisco Garcia-Mendoza	Bury St Edmunds	e200	204	(+4)
Mike Harris	Bury St Edmunds	201	203	+2
Graham Moore	Ipswich	200	201	+1

There are few surprises, although the following lists show those players who have either improved (or declined) by ten points or more (Juniors = J):

Name	Club	July 2015	Jan 2016	+
Alan Watkins	Bury St Edmunds	e141	165	(+24)
Adam John (J)	Bury St Edmunds	93	116	+23
Ralph Martin (J)	Bury St Edmunds	50	72	+22
Richard Dickinson	Bury St Edmunds	85	105	+20
Tom Roy (J)	Bury St Edmunds	67	87	+20
William Moody (J)	Bury St Edmunds	96	111	+15
Martin Tomes	Ipswich	139	153	+14
Fraser Fallows (J)	Bury St Edmunds	68	79	+11
Bob Stephens	Manningtree	135	146	+11

Name	Club	July 2015	Jan 2016	-
Nathan Barnes	Clacton	158	146	-12
Ed Kirkham	Felixstowe	164	152	-12
Colin Roberts	Bury St Edmunds	135	124	-11
Hugo Brown	Saxmundham	107	97	-10
Ray Firman	Stowmarket	84	74	-10

In addition, there are a number of players who have their first-ever standard-play grade:

Name	Club	Jan 2016
Adam Leigh	Bury St Edmunds	141
Jaden Jermy (J)	Bury St Edmunds	94
Trevor Wright	Felixstowe	63
Michael Schalit	Ipswich	43

If you spot any errors or omissions, please let know.