Suffolk Chess

This past week has seen three matches in each of Divisions 1 and 3 of the Suffolk League.   Manningtree A moved to the top of Division 1 with a convincing 3 - 1 win over Ipswich A, whilst the other two Ipswich teams, C and B, faced each other with Ipswich C running out winners by the narrowest of margins,   This match saw two surprising individual results, with Silas Peck (179) beating Graham Moore (200), and Martin Fogg (171) beating Ian Wallis (189).   The other Division 1 saw newly-promoted Saxmundham A beat a weakened Bury St Edmunds B 2½-1½.

The only player with a 100% record is Manningtree's Andrew Lewis, who has won all three games.

In Division 3, the two Ipswich teams played each other, with E beating F 3 - 1.   Both the Bury St Edmunds teams won, with D beating Felixstowe B 3 - 1 and E winning 3½-½ against a Stowmarket Rooks team that contained three members of the same family - Dad Gareth Young, daughter Bethany and 7-year old Harry playing in his first-ever league match.

Two players have a 100% record - Phil Mortensen (Ipswich) and Adam Leigh (Bury St Edmunds).

There are two tournaments taking place next weekend, both within easy reach for Suffolk players.

The Herts 64th Annual Congress is being held at the County Hall in Hertford.   This is a five round tournament, with Open, u170, u140 and u110 sections.   There will be three rounds on Saturday (7 November) and two rounds on Sunday.   You can enter online, or email the organiser, .

As of today's date, 72 players have entered (the organisers are hoping for 150 by next weekend).   The only Suffolk players to have entered so far are Graham Moore (Open) and David Wood (Minor).   Closing date/time for online entries is 17.00 on Friday.

The Norfolk Rapidplay takes place on Sunday 8 November, at the City of Norwich School.   There are sections for Open, u160, u120 and u100, as well as separate Junior sections for Under 13s, Under 10s and Under 8s (ages as at 31/8/2015).

is the tournament organiser (01603 451572).   Entries to be received by Thursday.

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The Junior 4NCL, planned for the weekend of 21/22 November, has had to be cancelled, negotiations with the hotel (near Reading) having fallen through.   A team from the Bury Knights had planned to enter.   The remaining two weekends for the Junior 4NCL will now be 9/10 January and 12/13 March 2016.

Suffolk players Justin Tan and Adam Taylor are finding life tough in the Under 18 Open section of the World Youth Championships in Greece.   After four rounds, Justin is on 2½ points and Adam is on 2.

Justin is yet to play an opponent who is higher-rated than him, having lost in Round 3 to a lower-rated player from Iran.   However, if he can win the next few rounds, he should have an opportunity to challenge the top seeds in this eleven-round event.   Today he plays an untitled Georgian opponent.

Adam has won both his games with White, but has lost his two Black games.   Today he faces a lower-rated opponent from Armenia.

Live games can be viewed from 13.00 GMT daily (except tomorrow Friday, which is a rest day) here.   Justin's game is on today's live boards.

Perhaps the most outstanding result from the Open section of last weekend's Bury St Edmunds Congress was the draw obtained by David Spence against top seed and eventual joint winner GM Matthew Sadler.   David played a solid game throughout; at the end the draw was the only sensible decision.

Edit.   The game continued for a further 18 moves or so.   David will provide the missing moves soon and the page will be updated.

Edit 2.   Remaining moves now added.

Recently, Ipswich Chess Club opened its doors for an Open Evening, having contacted 45 local schools to invite interested pupils and teachers to an event that was informal and informative.   Tim Lunn, one of the club's senior players, gave a short presentation on king and pawn endgames, after which the audience (a mixture of inexperienced youngsters and Ipswich club members) practised the ideas over the board with each other.

After half an hour of queened pawns, draws and stalemates, Tim then returned to the display board to talk about the King's Indian Defence and to illustrate a particularly violent example of this strategy.

The club have their next Open Evening on Weds 9 Dec 9 at 7 pm, when Ted Matthewson will be the guest presenter.

After two rounds of the FIDE World Youth & Cadets Championships in Halkidiki, Greece, the two Suffolk players, IM Justin Tan and FM Adam Taylor are on 1½ points and 1 point respectively.

In Round 1 Justin appeared to fall for a neat trick in a Sicilian opening, which cost him a queen and a pawn for three pieces.   This was the position after Justin's 7th move with Black (... a6?!):

His lower-rated Italian opponent banged out 8. Bb6!, probably to Justin's surprise.   Justin played 8... axb5   9. Nxb5   Bb4+, when 9 ... Ra5 would probably have been better, vacating a square for his queen.   The game continued 10. c3   Ba5   11. Nc7+!   Black is just about forced to take with his queen, as 11... Ke7 would be followed by 12. Bc5+, 13. Nxa8 and 14. Bf8, with a disastrous position for Black.   In the game, Justin fought tenaciously throughout a long game (83 moves), using his three pieces to thwart danger from his opponent's queen.   No doubt Justin was pleased to have a more straightforward game today, which he won.

Adam won his first round yesterday, but faced a strong Iranian IM today and was ground down in a difficult knight endgame.

Both Justin's first game and Adam's second can be viewed in full on the 'Live Games' section of the tournament website.

The fourth and fifth rounds of the Bury Congress were played today.   The main prize-winners were as follows (Suffolk players in bold):

Open   -   GM Matthew Sadler, FM Alan Merry   -   4½ points, sharing £750 prize money.   Nine players were joint third on 3½ points, including David Spence, IM Dagne Ciuksyte and Edmund Player.

Major   -   Natasha Regan, Andrew Waters   -   4 points, sharing £375 prize money.   Four players scored 3½ points, including Phil Hutchings (Manningtree) and Somton Ukken (now Nottingham).

Intermediate   -   David Bird, Rich Wiltshir   -   4 points, sharing £300 prize money.   Six players scored 3½ points, including Andrew Donnelly and William Sait (both Bury St Edmunds).

Minor   -   Francois Swiegers   -   4½ points, winning £160.   Four players shred second place on 4 points.   Amongst those on 3½ points were Scott Taylor, Zac Vane and Jaden Jermy (all Bury St Edmunds).

The full cross-tables are now available on the Congress website.

Full marks to Steve Lovell, Congress Secretary, for all his hard work to ensure the event was a great success!   Thanks too to John Wickham and Paul Kemp for ensuring the pairings and results were available at the appointed times.

147 entrants are playing in this year's Bury St Edmunds Congress, with top seed GM Matthew Sadler.   There are four graded sections: Open, Major, Intermediate and Minor.

The event is being run by John Wickham, with assistance from Paul Kemp and Steve Lovell.

All results are being posted on the Congress website.   At the time of writing, only the first two rounds can be viewed, but Round 3 should be added very soon.

Click here for the results.

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The first round of the World Youth Championships will take place tomorrow.   Live games can be watched here.

The FIDE World Youth Championships begin tomorrow in Halkidiki, Greece.   The Under 18 Open section of 116 entrants includes two GMs and 16 IMs.   IM Justin Tan (2445) is seeded 8 and FM Adam Taylor (2292) is seeded at 46.

The event is over eleven rounds, with next Friday as the only rest day.   Games commence daily at 15.00 local time and a number of live games can be viewed here.

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Also starting tomorrow is the 33rd Bury St Edmunds Congress, at the Apex.   There are 150 entrants, with a strong Open entry of 41.   These include a record number of players (11) graded 200 and over.   It is hoped that round-by-round results will be published on the Congress website.

There is only one unbeaten team in Division 3: Ipswich F, who have won both their matches.   The division is currently led by Saxmundham B and Ipswich E; both have won two matches and lost one and have amassed a total of 8 points.

At the other end of the table, Felixstowe B (3½) and Bury St Edmunds E (2½) have beach played three matches but are yet to record a win.   They drew against each other when they played last week.

Individually three players have a 100% record (2/2): Adam Leigh (Bury St Edmunds), Phil Mortonson and Mike Spalding (both Ipswich).