Thursday 28 February 2013

HA2 Vs Melton 3


4-0, an unusual match result for HA2.


26 FebHeathcote Arms 2vMelton Mowbray 3
4 - 0
1B151Harrison, Peter1 - 0Wallace, Robert135
2W131Manger, John1 - 0Gist, Elizabeth130
3B119Ross, Colin1 - 0Smith, Peter95
4W91Beach, Ray1 - 0Walton, Alison70

My game below: the two moves 24...Bh3?? throwing away my first win in ages, and 26 f4?? having it thrown right back at me, are particularly bad.



News for Junior Players

Please see the link

http://www.lrca.org.uk/newlrca/index.html


Warwickshire

Follow Gordon and John this weekend at

http://www.kcc1975.org.uk/Kenilworth_Chess_Club/WOCC2013.html

Well done everyone,

Colin.

Sunday 24 February 2013

Major League Cup 4th Round


21 FebWillowbrook 1vHeathcote Arms 1GD
1½ - 2½2
Handicap0 - 0
1½ - 2½
1B173Burgess, Ray½ - ½Sharpe, Graham19623
2W163Graf, Roland1 - 0Cowley, Michael147-16
3B158Pattinson, John0 - 1Booley, Graham152-6
4W130Busby, Michael0 - 1Manger, John1311

Thursday 21 February 2013

Minor League Cup Heathcote Vs Braunstone


Guy rang me on Tuesday evening to tell me that Braunstone could only come with three. 'Three what. What are you on about?' was my response, as i had quite forgotten that there was a Cup Match.

I assembled a team with an hour to go. Hacker and Ray were the first to answer the phone and agree to play.

I collected Dave from a Nimby meeting at The Plough - It seems that many houses may be appearing in Littlethorpe.

Given my lack of organisation it did not seem right to demand that Braunstone default a board and we decided therefore to decide the match over three boards.

Things didn't go well.

Dave tried like crazy for a perpetual but failed. I was doing alright until the inevitable time trouble and then self destructed. Ray waited until my resignation before toppling his own king over.



19 FebHeathcote Arms 2vBraunstone 3GD
0 - 3?
Handicap½ - 0
½ - 3
1B119Ross, Colin0 - 1Lathwood, Roy115-4
2W95Ricketts, Dave0 - 1Reid, Patrick1027
3B91Beach, Ray0 - 1Martin, Paul10615
4W?**DEFAULT**0 - 0**DEFAULT**??

Well done Braunstone.


Colin.


My game below:


Tuesday 19 February 2013

Nottinghamshire Vs Leicestershire U100s


Gordon Reports:

Saturday February 16th 2013.

Nottinghamshire v Leicestershire

I arrived at Ray’s house at the time arranged where Ray had the car doors open ready for the off.  I got into the passenger seat and to my surprise Drew opened the back door and entered.
Ray handed me a sat nav and a piece of paper with a post code written on it. I asked him if he had an address he said that the post code is all he had, “It is somewhere near a church”, he said. Being technically useless I managed to switch the sat nav on and then handed it to Drew to enter the post code details.
As we made our way up the M1 Ray did say that it was in Bramcote. “Well that cuts it down a bit “, I sarcastically retorted, Ray just laughed.
We found the venue, a community hall, (so much for the church).  I was pleased to see a number of chess players whom we have met while playing in the league. 
My game (with my reasoning up to where I fluffed it) was against Colin Smith I played white:
1.e4 d5 2. d3 d4 3.g3 e5 4.f4 Nc6 5. a3 Nf6 6. Nf3 Bg4 A nice safe opening 7. h3 to chase away his bishop Bxf3 8. Qxf3 My queen is out early but in a good position? exf4 9. gxf4 rather than queen takes as he may pressure my queen with Nh5. Qd7 Preparing to castle queensside. 10. Bg2 with a threat on that diagonal hoping to move e5 0-0-0 . He castled on the queensside making my queen and bishop diagonal  a stronger threat. It also makes it easier to bring his rooks together.  11. 0-0 I castled to move my king off the e-file to avoid a possible threat from his rook h5 another threat on g4. 12. f5 My thinking here was to weaken his knight move to g4, not seeing his next move threatening my queen Ne5. 13. Qe2 This was okay the pawn on the f-file was protected as well as the pawn on the e-file with the queen still on a white diagonal to get into a threatening position. It also opened the white diagonal for an indirect threat on b7.  Be7 bringing his rooks together into play on the eighth rank and another possible threat on g4 .14. Nd2 I was now chasing his knight on e5 to make way for my pawn to move to e5 opening the threat to b7 g5 I considered en passant but could not work out any advantage? 15. Nc4 Nxc4 A knight exchange, even on material but opening the diagonal to my advantage. 16. dxc4 Bc5 An indirect threat on my king and more pressure on g4. 17. Qd3 to stop a discovered check with d3 slightly weakening g4 Rdg8 he now wants to move in for the kill?. 18. e5 a threat on his knight with only one safe move Ne8. 19. b4 to move his bishop and make way for my queen Be7. 20. f6 an extra little push, opens the diagonal for his queen to attack g4 again but also opens it up for me and blocks his king after  Bd8. 21. c5 h4. 22. Bb2 g4. 23. Qe4 threatening check Qc6. 24. Qf5+ Qd7 and this is where I messed all my hard work up, instead of playing Bxb7+ and winning. 25. Qe4 c6
I played on but went a piece down in the end game then my king was slowly pushed back, I therefore resigned.

I didn’t see the games that Drew and Ray played but talking to them on the way home, Drew had a game which suited his style of play and he soon made short work of his opponent (didn’t get his name) cornering him into check mating himself? Well done Drew.
Ray took full advantage of the time allowed; he was drawn against one of the few strong lady chess players. He told me he sacrificed two pieces for one forcing his opponent into doubling up on one of her pawns which he judged to give him an advantage in the end game. He did take two more pawns for that extra piece and accepted the ladies resignation like the gentleman he is. Well done Ray. 

Gordon









 

Saturday 16 February 2013

Postponed Major League Cup Match

Raj's brother played for HA1. Both looked as if they might have trouble making the first time control. Conor succeeded in trapping his opponent's queen in the centre of the board.


12 FebHeathcote Arms 1vBraunstone 1GD
1½ - 2½-51
Handicap0 - 1
1½ - 3½
1B196Sharpe, Graham½ - ½Colburn, Paul182-14
2W174Ganger, Rajan1 - 0Salisbury, Michael167-7
3B151Harrison, Peter0 - 1Bingham, James16514
4W129Ganger, S0 - 1Reid, Connor85-44

Wednesday 6 February 2013

Braunstone 6 Vs HA3

Graham H had some fun on board 1. Gordon went material ahead and hung on. A slower and more deliberate Drew played well, but did not take the point. Ray went a piece up against Conor early on. The late middlegame looked completely even, however, and Ray offered Conor a draw. Conor thought for a long time, before shaking Ray's hand and saying that he would rather play on. Ray went on to lose in the endgame.

The match result was a draw.


05 FebBraunstone 6vHeathcote Arms 3
2 - 2
1B100Khawaja, Okash0 - 1Hewitt, Graham110
2W85Reid, Connor1 - 0Beach, Ray91
3B90Gulab, Vijay1 - 0Harbidge, Drew60
4W80Ridge, David0 - 1Milner, Gordon43

Graham's game below:




Events

The Grinder is at it again. Warwickshire 2013:
http://www.kcc1975.org.uk/Kenilworth_Chess_Club/WOCC2013.html
Please let John know if you want to go.

Next Week

HA1 play at home in the League Cup on Tuesday, and away in the League at Wigston 2 on Thursday.

Club night on Tuesday, or a week off for the rest of us.

Well Done Everyone,

Colin.

Sunday 3 February 2013

From our Nottingham Correspondent (3)

A touch later than I planned, but I thought I'd let you know how things are going "north of the border".

Gambit 3 are looking on course to achieve the pre-season aim of avoiding relegation, standing 2nd in Division 2 after 8 matches. Things are a bit tight, though, as just three points separate six teams between 2nd and 7th. Two more wins from the remaining six matches should see us home and dry. I've had a mixed bag of results so far - winning against a clubmate with a grade of 177 probably the highlight, after a couple of poor results in the autumn.

The table and fixtures can be found here: http://nottschess.org/2012_13/d2.html# We are, of course, grateful to Gambit 2 who have kindly gifted us four of the nine points gained so far - the second win coming despite their captain drafting in members of the first team!

The county championships were held in mid-January (last year's had been postponed to June). Being four points over the upper limit for the Minor section meant that a repeat of last year's performance (5/5) was unlikely, but I was disappointed with 2/5, especially having missed an easy win in the first round (a game I drew). The weather put a few people off coming, so ultimately the Open section was an all-play-all with six players. Mike Barnes won the title, his sixth overall.

The Nottingham Congress will be in April, a few weeks after Easter. I'll be there physically, though as it's less than a week after I fly back from Sri Lanka, I have a ready-made excuse of jetlag should I play badly!

See you there!

Rob.

Saturday 2 February 2013

HA3 Vs Braunstone 5; Syston 1 Vs HA2


HA3 Vs Braunstone 5

Graham H had a blow out on the way to Croft and by the sounds of it had a narrow escape . Graham tried to contact me, but I did not pick up the message in time. We therefore defaulted the first board.
Judging by the January grades, the Braunstone 5 team was a strong one, but Ray managed a draw.
















29 JanHeathcote Arms 3vBraunstone 5
½ - 3½
1B?**DEFAULT**0 - 1Reid, Patrick102
2W91Beach, Ray½ - ½Read, Barry105
3B60Harbidge, Drew0 - 1Martin, Paul106
4W40Sanders, Gary0 - 1Reid, Connor85


Syston 1 Vs HA2

Over at Syston, the home team appeared to be in no hurry to begin. We started the clocks though at ten to eight. John was dominating his game, but then fell foul of a perpetual. Pete had been an hour or so behind on time and lost out to his 'Dad'. Graham B had looked good against Brian Galligan, but ended up down on material. I played the black side of a Nimzo-Indian against Parin Suchak and lost - a game that i need to go back and look at.


29 JanSyston 1vHeathcote Arms 2
3½ - ½
1B181Galligan, Brian1 - 0Booley, Graham152
2W139Pourmozafari, Ben1 - 0Harrison, Peter151
3B113Stone, Robert½ - ½Manger, John131
4W119Suchak, Parin1 - 0Ross, Colin119

My game below:



This coming week:

Braunstone 6 Vs HA3, Tuesday 5th February
Wigston 2 Vs HA1, Thursday 7th February.

Well done everyone,

Colin.