Wednesday 30 June 2010

Captain's Blog Star Date 29-June-10

Heathcote Arms win vs. Braunstone in the Horrid Cup & I win a game too! The side outgraded Braunstone by 66 points, and in the end it showed as we won 7-1.

I didn't see any of Pete's game against Roy Lathwood, or Ray's against Vince Tangney, but both HA players racked up 100%. I beat Steve Barlow playing Black, and then proceeded to lose with White. Frankly, as we'd amassed a total of 4 League wins between us last season, the games weren't going to win any brilliancy prizes.

I saw the end of Rob's second game with Guy Closs. Guy ended up losing on time despite having material advantage, although Rob only had 15 seconds left too. It is understandable that Guy is leading the Minor section of the County Championship given the way he is playing.

We then retired to the bar for the social activities.

Friday 25 June 2010

County Champs

Last night in the Minors, Ray defeated Dave, and i drew with Dennis Wilkins.

In the Open, Rajan and Graham B drew.

David Reynolds, the leader in the Major section, was mated, in the middle game, by John Daniel.

This coming Tuesday, at the Heathcote, HA2 have a Harrod Cup match against Braunstone and i play my second game of the Major against David Reynolds - wish me luck.

Colin

Monday 21 June 2010

Ross Vs Reynolds

Last Thursday i was panned by David Reynolds. Text below with helpful comments courtesy of Fritz.

{C01: French: Exchange Variation} 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. Nf3 Bg4 5.
h3 {White threatens to win material: h3xg4} Bh5 6. c4 Bb4+ 7. Nc3 Nf6 8. Bd2 O-O 9. Be2 Ne4 10. Nxe4 dxe4 11. Bxb4 exf3 12. Bxf8 fxe2 13.Qd3 Qxf8 14. g4 Bg6 15. Qxe2 Qb4+ 16. Kf1 Nc6 17. Re1 h6 18. Qd1 {the final mistake, not that it matters anymore} Qxc4+ 19. Kg2 Nxd4 20. Re7 Qc6+ 21. f3 Ne6  22. Rd7 Re8 23. Kg3 Bc2 24. Qd2 Ba4 25. Re1 (25. Rd5 {
the last chance for counterplay} Bb5 26. Rd1) 25... Qxd7 0-1

This Tuesday, the first team play at home in their Chapman Cup match. There is unlikely to be much casual chess this week as several of the HA2 squad will instead be playing in the Counties at Wigston on Thursday.

Colin

Friday 11 June 2010

Ross v Parsons CC (minor) 2010

I played Stan in the minor section of the County Champs on Wednesday. We swapped off queens early and later entered an opposite coloured bishops endgame. In a very drawish position, it ground to a halt by move 50.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nc3 a6 4. d4 d6 5. dxc5 dxc5 6. Qxd8+ Kxd8 7.
Bg5 Nc6 8. O-O-O+ Bd7 9. Bxf6 gxf6 10. Nd5 b5 11. Nb6 Ra7 12. Be2 e6 13. g3 Rb7
14. Nxd7 Rxd7 15. Rxd7+ Kxd7 16. Rd1+ Kc7 17. Bf1 e5 18. Bh3 Bd6 19. Nh4 Rd8
20. Nf5 Nd4 21. Bg4 Nxf5 22. Bxf5 h6 23. Bg4 Rg8 24. Bh5 Rg7 25. Rd3 c4 26. Rf3
Be7 27. b3 Ba3+ 28. Kb1 cxb3 29. cxb3 Be7 30. Rc3+ Kb7 31. Rd3 Kc7 32. h3 Bc5
33. Rf3 Be7 34. Rd3 Bd6 35. Rc3+ Kb7 36. Bg4 Rg8 37. Rd3 Kc7 38. Kb2 Rd8 39.
Rc3+ Kb7 40. Rf3 Be7 41. Kc2 Rd4 42. Rd3 Bc5 43. Rxd4 Bxd4 44. f3 Bf2 45. Bh5
Bxg3 46. Bxf7 Kb6 47. Bg6 Kc5 48. Kd3 Kb4 49. Kc2 Ka3 50. Kb1 Draw Agreed.

Next Tuesday there will be a club night. It now does not look like i will be able to get there.  I will be playing David Reynolds in the Majors on Thursday.

Colin

Friday 4 June 2010

County Champs 1st Round


There were mixed results for Heathcote Arms players in the first round of the CCs.
Dave Ricketts was the first to win a point when his opponent did not arrive.
David Reynolds had gone to the Heathcote Arms, first, and so was late arriving. Whilst he was waiting for David, Rob opened with e4 and started the clock. This was an unusual move for Rob as he is usually a d4 man, and it was a move that he came to regret as David beat him with his French Defence.
Ray managed a decent draw with the black pieces against Dennis Wilkins.
Some bloke from up north beat Graham Sharpe's Caro Kann.
There was a lot of head shaking as Graham B lost with the white pieces against Phil Horspool.
As usual, i was on the last board still playing. In a double edged game that could have gone either way, John Daniel declined my offer of a draw and a couple of moves later allowed me to capture his queen. There followed a number of moves to make very quickly and John resigned when we reached the time control. This was my best result in over a year.

Open Section
Sean Hewitt (FIDE 1951) 1-0 Graham Sharpe (FIDE 2198)
Graham Booley (FIDE 1906) 0-1 Phil Horspool (FIDE 2146)

Major Section
John Daniel (130) 0-1 Colin Ross (112)
Rob Ensor (NG) 0-1 David Reynolds (128)

Minor Section
Dennis Wilkins (109) Draw Ray Beach (90)
Dave Ricketts (104) 1-0 Win by Default Alan Butler (92)

Afterwards, those of us who were still around had a beer with Sean in the bar.

There is a lot of chess to play over the summer and not many dates have yet been fixed. We want to continue to have some decent club nights too, but whether these happen in any particular week will depend on what else is going on. I will try and indicate here in the blog whether club night will happen or not.

There will definately be a club night on Tuesday 8th June as Dave and Ray will be there. I will not be at club night as i will be playing a CC game against Stan Parsons at the Red Admiral on Wednesday 9th.

Well done everyone,

Colin