Suffolk Chess

Recently, Alan Merry's International Master title (at the age of 19) was great news for Suffolk Chess, as a 'home-grown' talent.   But a generation ago, it was the Pert twins, Nicholas and Richard, who were the first local players to achieve FIDE titles.   Nick has since gone on to become the county's first Grandmaster (at the age of 20).   There are 27 years between these two photos - can you tell who is who?   The Perts are now aged 36.

But have I got them the right way round??

This was the Suffolk Under 11 team that travelled to Newton Abbot in 1990 and finished runners-up (by half a point) to the eventual winners of the National Under 11 Inter-County Finals.   How many players can you name?

Clue 1: There's a GM and an IM (and they're related).
Clue 2: Only one person is currently playing regularly in Suffolk.   Which one?


Answers in Comments please.

There are 35 currently active Suffolk players who feature in the 1991 grading list.   See the table below to compare their grading progress over the years:
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Name	Current Club	Grade 1991	Grade 2017	+/-
Franceys Allen	Stowmarket	111	106	+10
Vicky Allen	Stowmarket	96	90	-21
Paul Botham	Iceni 4NCL	185	171	-14
Dennis Brown	Clacton	67	35	-32
Hugo Brown	Saxmundham	92	92	=
Jim Buis	Manningtree	160	147	-13
Kenn Butcher	Sudburyt	148	139	-9
Michael Clapham	Ipswich	121	162	+41
Richard Doyle	Felixstowe	93	107	+14
John Feavyour	Saxmundham/Bury St Eds	159	164	+5
Gordon Fisher	Felixstowe	60	46	-14
Kevin Greenacre	Ipswich	146	151	+5
Chris Hargan (nee Forsdyke)	Stowmarket	59	94	+35
Adam Harvey	Bury St Edmunds	140	140	=
Gary Hemsworth	Felixstowe	129	117	-12
Roger Holt	Ipswich	155	148	-7
Bob Jones	Bury St Edmunds	128	143	+15
Les Jones	Ipswich	152	136	-16
Ken Lunn	Ipswich	123	113	-10
Tim Lunn	Ipswich/Bury St Edmunds	149	165	+16
Shaun Munson	Ipswich/Bury St Edmunds	157	193	+36
Alonso Paez	Ipswich	124	130	+6
Andrew Paige	Saxmundham	115	104	-11
John Peters	Bury St Edmunds	123	175	+52
Laurie Pott	Bury St Edmunds	144	153	+9
Dave Robertson	Felixstowe	88	107	+19
Andrew Salmon	Clacton	139	158	+19
Rob Sanders	Sudbury	163	192	+29
Adrian Sanderson	Manningtree	136	116	-20
Roger Smith	Ipswich	116	96	-20
Mike Spalding	Ipswich	115	118	+3
David Spence	(Unattached)	111	203	+92
Scott Taylor	Bury St Edmunds	149	104	-45
Ian Wallis	Ipswich/Bury St Edmunds	178	188	+10
Alan Watkins	Bury St Edmunds	122	158	+36

David Spence has the greatest improvement (92 points) but he was a little lad in shorts back then.   Second is John Peters with +52 (also a Junior in 1991).   The best improvement by an adult is Michael Clapham (+41).

Congratulations to Hugo Brown and Adam Harvey, whose grades are exactly the same!   19 players have improved, whilst 14 have declined.   The average change across all 35 players is +6 points.

Apologies if anyone has been inadvertently omitted.

12-year old Jaden Jermy lives in Thetford but plays his chess in Suffolk (Bury Knights and Bury St Edmunds).   On Saturday he travelled to Norwich to take part in the Norfolk Junior Championships, which are open only to children living in, born in, or attending school in Norfolk.

Jaden scored 5½/6 in the Under 14 section, and is now the Norfolk Under 12 and Under 14 Champion!

As reported here, Jaden is now a full member of the England Junior Chess Squad and expects to be selected to play for England some time this year.   He is hoping to raise funds to cover his travel and coaching costs.

Any contribution by local chess players will be much appreciated!

Nine Suffolk Juniors attended a training day yesterday in Brentwood, organised (amongst others) by International Master Richard Pert.

The photos below show the Bury Knights' members (Milan Biju, Rowan Kent, Adam John, Amy John, Isaac Kim and Tom Roy), as well as the Woodbridge School children Rowan Kent (again!), Marina, Georgia and Theo Pommier.   Behind them in both photos is GM Matthew Sadler, England's highest-graded player at 282, who was helping to coach the children, along with Richard's twin brother GM Nick Pert.

This was the second 'Train and Play' event organised by Richard Pert and Robin Slade, Head Coach of the Chelmsford Junior Chess Club.   The next one will be held on Sunday 2 April and entries can be made here.

The English Chess Federation is proposing to abolish Game Fee.   You can read a paper on this topic here.

To summarise, Game Fee is currently payable at the rate of £2.50 per game.   This applies to all players who are not ECF members.   The ECF would like to introduce a system whereby players are allowed three competitive (graded) games free of charge, before they are required to join the ECF.   The three 'free' games would be allowed for each league than a person plays in.   So a person who plays in both the Suffolk League and the Bury Area Chess League, would be allowed three games in each league before needing to take out Bronze membership.

Game Fee as it stands at present, involves often small amounts being invoiced to clubs.   This is not considered cost-effective.

Leagues will be invoiced £25.00 for each person who exceeds the three-game limit (£15.00 for Juniors).   Leagues, in turn, will obviously invoice the relevant club.

This proposal does not affect 'Pay-to-Play' fees in congresses.

Most club players would struggle to play a single game, blindfold.   We tried it at the Bury St Edmunds Club several years ago, and only Alan Watkins was able to master the technique.   So imagine playing five, or ten, or.... even 48 games, simultaneously, blindfolded.

Uzbekistani, GM Timur Gareyev (2618), the self-styled 'Blindfold King', who is now based in the USA, took on 48 opponents recently at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.   A detailed report, which includes an interesting history of blindfold chess, can be seen here.

For the record Timur won 35, drew 7 and lost only 6.

The photo above was taken in 1990 (or thereabouts).   It shows the Suffolk Junior Championships when they were held in the Ipswich Corn Exchange.   Entries in the '90s often exceeded 300 children.

In those days we had an effective Junior Chess organisation, as can be seen from the chart below.   What we desperately need now is for someone to take up the challenge of organising and promoting chess for children within the county.   Both Essex and Cambridgeshire, and to a lesser extent Norfolk, have strong arrangements, with coaching and other events.

It has been too long with no Junior Organiser for the county.   Apart from the Bury Knights, Woodbridge School and a few state schools, there's not a lot of chess being played by children in Suffolk.   The Bury St Edmunds Junior Congress on 5 March has so far attracted more entrants from Cambridgeshire, than from Suffolk!

If anyone - a parent perhaps - is interested in promoting junior chess within the county, please have a chat with me.   I did the job for ten years (1988 to 1997) and it was an amazing, rewarding experience.

The following has been received from Patrick Ribbands:

The EACU Team Championships will take place at Moreton Hall Community Centre, Bury St. Edmunds, on Sunday 9 April.

There will be four sections: Open, Team 600, Team 500 and Team 400.

Teams consist of four players from the EACU but not necessarily from the same club.   EACU players are those living in or from clubs located in or affiliated to Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk or Suffolk.   Also eligible are people born in the county, or with five years' residence in the county at any time, or currently attending a school college or university in the county.

The Team 600 section is for teams with an aggregate grade of 600 or less in the January list though for this calculation anyone with a grade under 100 will be taken as 100.

The Team 500 section is a team with an aggregate grade of 500 or less though for this calculation anyone with a grade under 75 will be taken as 75.

The Team 400 section is for teams with an aggregate grade of 400 or less though for this calculation anyone with a grade under 50 will be taken as 50.

There will be a cash prize for the team with the most game points in each section but the number and value of prizes will depend on the number of entries.

The event uses the county match format of two rounds starting at 10.00 and 14.30.   If digital clocks are available for all boards of a match, the time control will be 36 moves in 80 minutes, followed by 10 minutes to finish the game, with an increment of 15 seconds per move from move one.   Results will be submitted for grading

The exact format of the competition will depend on the number of entries.   The entry fee is £20 per team payable on the day.   Any player who is not a member of the ECF will need to pay an extra £5.   The clubs that won the top division of the six EACU county leagues (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and the Bury League) in 2015/16 are entitled to enter a team of entirely their club players at half price into the Open.

Tea and coffee will be provided free of charge.   Enquiries and entries should be made to or to 01223 842197.   Entries by 28 March if possible please, though an early indication that you might raise a team would also be much appreciated.   Later entries will be at the organiser's discretion.

If you do not have four players for a team Patrick should be able to put you in touch with others who would like to play.

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Let's see plenty of entries from Suffolk!

Alan Merry, our home-grown International Master, is enjoying some excellent results this year.

In early January he entered the Shropshire Congress, where he scored 4½/5 to take the first prize of £1000.   His only draw was against top seed GM Mark Hebden.

Then in the 4NCL in mid-January he won both his games, whilst at the end of the month he played in the Norfolk Rapidplay, winning all six games!

February saw his first loss, when he was beaten by GM Stephen Gordon (2506) in the 4NCL, but bounced back the following day by beating GM Tamas Fodor (2511).   Finally, last weekend he won both his games in the EACU County Championship.

Here's a full list of his results:

Event	Opponent	Grade	Result
Shropshire Congress   (6-8 Jan)	T Sygnowski	202	Win
	P Davies	167	Win
	GM M Hebden	246	Draw
	R Maciol	202	Win
	IM J Cox	218	Win
4NCL   (14-15 Jan)	J Blackburn	198	Win
	IM R Bates	231	Win
Norfolk Rapidplay   (29 Jan)	P Walton	147	Win
	D Hall	170	Win
	R Hughes	185	Win
	D Spence	203	Win
	A Brett	197	Win
	M Hughes	185	Win
4NCL   (11-12 Feb)	GM S Gordon	241	Lost
	GM T Fodor	245	Win
EACU First Team   (19 Feb)	FM G Kenworthy	204	Win
	B Van der Velden	208	Win

That's 15 wins, one draw, and one loss.

Alan's ECF grade is 232 and his grading performance over these 17 games is 250.   Meanwhile, his Elo rating has crept up to 2411.