Suffolk Chess

The Womens' World Championship has been won by China's Hou Yifan.   She convincingly won the ninth game of her ten-round match with Ukraine's Mariya Muzychuk, to gain an unassailable lead of six points to three.

See the earlier article for more information.

Many congratulations, once again, to Mike Cook on retaining the title of Champion of Ipswich Chess Club for 2016.   Mike remained unbeaten throughout the six round competition, winning four games outright and dropping only two half-points, namely to Steve Gregory and Ted Matthewson.

Over two years have now elapsed since any Ipswich Chess Club member (it was Steve Gregory) has been able to defeat Mike in the Club Championship.

A grand achievement by Mike who is a worthy winner.   In just over two months' time, Mike will celebrate his 80th birthday!

Thanks to Les Jones for this report.

The Suffolk Junior Open tournament, organised by IM Adam Hunt, was held at Woodbridge School on Sunday.   There was a disappointing entry of only 59 juniors.

There are trophies at every age-group from Under 7 to Under 18, but some sections were not competed for.

The following Suffolk Champions were awarded trophies:

Under 8   -   Rowan Kent (Woodbridge School)
Under 9   -   Marina Pommier (Woodbridge School)
Under 10   -   Adam John (Bury Knights JCC)
Under 11   -   Jaden Jermy (Bury Knights JCC)
Under 12   -   Jake Cartwright (Woodbridge School)
Under 13   -   Ralph Martin & Alan John (both Bury Knights JCC)
Under 14   -   Alex Sheerin (Ipswich CC)
Under 15   -   Joe Ross (Ipswich School)
Under 18   -   Lai Chun (Woodbridge School)

As can be seen, most of the winners are from Woodbridge School and Bury Knights JCC.   It would be good, in future, to see other clubs and schools more represented.

Suffolk's First Team, captained by Ian Wallis, narrowly lost both their matches today.   Norfolk reversed the scoreline from earlier in the season, winning 8½-7½, whilst Cambridgeshire ran out winners by 9 points to 7.

The Suffolk team was a little weaker than usual, missing top board Alan Merry amongst others.   However, reserves David Brown (1½/2) on Board 15 and Malcolm Lightfoot (2/2) on 16 both performed admirably.   No one else won both games, but top board David Spence, as well as Mike Cook, scored 1½ points.

Cambridgeshire, who also fielded a relatively weak team today, are EACU Champions for 2015/16, with Suffolk runners-up.   The final table can be seen here (although this is subject to change if Hertfordshire's results are made 'double-headers').

The 10-round Final, between current World Champion and World No.4 Mariya Muzychuk from Ukraine and China's World No.1 Hou Yifan started on 2 March.   After eight rounds Hou leads 5 - 3, so Muzychuk needs to win both the remaining games to stand a chance of retaining her title.   Although she has drawn six of the games so far, she is yet to win a game against the challenger, who will have the White pieces in tomorrow's game.

The showdown is taking place in Mariya’s home city of Lviv, Ukraine.   The opening ceremony was a lavish and well-attended affair, as can be seen here.

Games can be viewed here.

Manningtree Chess Club have radically updated their website - see here.   It now includes detailed match reports (worth a read, even if your team is not participating).

Other clubs, notably Ipswich (whose website is more than two years out of date) should take notice.   These days it's vital to have an online presence.   If a chess player is moving to your town, he or she will Google 'Chess/Town'.   If you want to attract new members, make sure your website looks good and, importantly, is up-to-date.

John Lambert has sent in the press cutting below, from the Clacton Gazette of 5 February:

John adds: "As you can see the event has grown in popularity.   Melvin Steele and I now coach at Engaines Primary whilst Steve Gregory coaches at Whitton Primary in Ipswich.   We expect to have more entrants in the June competition, so if any other Suffolk Junior school with a team of six would like to participate then they should get in touch with either or .   Engaines A only dropped three points out of their 36 games."

Manningtree's Bob Stephens has agreed to take over from long-serving Jim Buis as the County Correspondence captain.   This is excellent news, and will ensure that Suffolk can continue to participate in the annual competition.

The current situation in Division 1 (Ward-Higgs) is that Suffolk have scored 3½ points out of a possible seven (all draws!).   Unusually, these results all come from the top four boards; none of the bottom four boards have finished any of their games.

Suffolk are mid-table and provided some of the outstanding matches are won or drawn, we should avoid relegation.   This would be quite an achievement, having been promoted last season.

The Suffolk First Team is due to play against Cambridgeshire and Norfolk on Sunday this week.   The match against Cambridgeshire is important, as it will most probably decide the EACU Championship.   Cambs are currently top, with 10 points from six matches, whilst Suffolk are second, with 8 points from five matches.

On 7 February, Suffolk played Cambridgeshire in the morning, losing for the first time this season by the score of 5½-10½.   The only Suffolk player to record a win was top board Alan Merry.   In the afternoon, Suffolk were due to play Hertfordshire, but they were unable to field a team, so the Suffolk players all went home early!

There is some debate amongst the EACU county captains as to what should be done.   It seems that some 'double-headers' may need to be played.

The Suffolk Chess website is back in action today, after a four-week 'holiday'!

The Junior Congress at Bury St Edmunds today attracted 109 entrants, by far the highest entry in recent years.   The venue, Moreton Hall Community Centre, was crowded, with parents having to find seats in various rooms of the Centre.   The Under 18, Under 11 and Under 9 sections were held in the Main Hall, whilst the Under 14 section took place in the Conference Room.

27 girls entered, nearly 25% of the total.   Most of the entrants came from Cambridgeshire, with only 38 players coming from Suffolk.   This was disappointing; several schools in Ipswich are now running chess clubs, but only the Meadows Montessori school managed to send four entrants.

The section winners were:

Under 18 - Karthik Saravanan (Gt Yarmouth)
Under 14 - Julius Jackson (Cambridge)
Under 11 - Alexander Hsieh (Cambridge)
Under 9 - Aarnavh Trivedi (Balsham, Cambs)

Karthik is the East Anglian Junior Champion for 2016.

Suffolk prizewinners included:

Alex Sheerin (Ipswich) 2nd in the Under 18s
Adam John (Bury Knights) 3rd= in the Under 18s
Daniel Garcia-Leon (Bury St Edmunds) 2nd= in the Under 14s
Tom Roy (Bury Knights) 3rd= in the Under 11s
Ralph Martin (Bury Knights) shared the u13 prize (in the u14s)
Rowan Kent (Woodbridge) and Amy John (Bury Knights) shared the u8 prize (in the u9s)