Blaby District Chess Club at the Heathcote Arms

January Grades

2012-01-28T21:03:00.000Z

For the first time, we have new grades in January - out today. The new grading website is at: http://ecfgrading.org.uk/

Ref	Name	Sex	Age	Club(s)	Category	Standard	Previous	Category	Rapid	Previous
263015B	Beach, Ray	M		Blaby District aka Heathcote Arms	A	87	105	D	105	85
106989F	Booley, Graham M	M		Blaby District aka Heathcote Arms	A	147	147	C	141	138
107208A	Bray, Dave J	M		Blaby District aka Heathcote Arms	B	165	170	D	170	168
283532A	Bubb, Andrew D	M		Blaby District aka Heathcote Arms	D	33	40
282104H	Bubb, Michael A	M	15	Blaby District aka Heathcote Arms	D	41	36
108975E	Cowley, Michael H	M		Blaby District aka Heathcote Arms	B	154	159	C	160	153
263024C	Ensor, Rob	M		Blaby District aka Heathcote Arms	B	134	128	E	146
161682B	Ganger, Rajan	M		Blaby District aka Heathcote Arms	A	178	173	D	174	171
112216C	Harrison, Peter K	M		Blaby District aka Heathcote Arms	B	149	149	E	163	151
112575J	Hewitt, Sean D	M		Widnes	A	156	158	E	150	150
250159E	Manger, John D	M		Blaby District aka Heathcote Arms	A	133	119	D	130
263017F	Ricketts, Dave C	M		Blaby District aka Heathcote Arms	C	93	93	D	94	96
272934K	Ross, Colin	M		Blaby District aka Heathcote Arms	A	120	118	D	94	93
283533C	Sanders, Gary	M		Blaby District aka Heathcote Arms	E	44	50
118781J	Sharpe, Graham J	M		Blaby District aka Heathcote Arms	B	195	181	D	192	191

HA1 (3-1.5) Braunstone 1

2012-01-26T21:47:00.000Z

HA1 won in their Major League Cup fixture on Tuesday.

24 Jan		Heathcote Arms 1		v	Braunstone 1		GD
				3 - 1			-31
Handicap				0 - ½
				3 - 1½
1	B	181	Sharpe, Graham	½ - ½	Robinson, John	169	-12
2	W	170	Bray, Dave	1 - 0	Salisbury, Michael	167	-3
3	B	173	Ganger, Rajan	1 - 0	Colburn, Paul	155	-18
4	W	159	Cowley, Michael	½ - ½	Bingham, James	161	2

Minor League Cup Team Lose on Handicap

2012-01-25T20:02:00.001Z

Fairly evenly matched sides, in the third round of the Minor League Cup, meant only a half point handicap difference - in favour of Braunstone. This proved to be enough to swing things Braunstone's way though as we drew 2-2 over the boards. Dave lost first to Paul Martin, Ray then to Toby Hoch. I went a pawn up, then two, and my opponent resigned in the end game with a rook and knight against my rook, bishop and two pawns. Rob had a knight and six pawns against his opponent's bishop and five pawns and won on time with ten minutes to spare.

24 Jan		Braunstone 2		v	Heathcote Arms 3		GD
				2 - 2			16
Handicap				½ - 0
				2½ - 2
1	W	125	Hall, Nick	0 - 1	Ensor, Rob	128	3
2	B	110	Hill, Cyril	0 - 1	Ross, Colin	118	8
3	W	100	Hoch, Toby	1 - 0	Raymondov	105	5
4	B	93	Martin, Paul	1 - 0	Haka Dave	93	0

Next Tuesday (31st January), HA1 play at home against Braunstone 2, and HA3 play at home against Syston 3.

Rob will be leaving us in about three weeks. He has agreed to play us all in a sim before he goes.

Well done everyone,

Colin.

Oadby Vs HA3

2012-01-21T21:11:00.000Z

Haka Dave was the first to finish with an early checkmate. In the post game analysis, Dave described this as a sucker punch, but all his pieces seemed to be working together and had been pointed at his opponent's king.
Michael had been material up and looked the favourite in his game, but let this slip away. There were some serious tactical chances focussing on the f7 square in the opening. Drew was struggling from early on. Gordon had been even well into his game, but then gave a rook away.

I was able to grind out a win against Don Candlin. Last to finish was Ray who agreed to Mike Thornton's offer of a draw in an even position.
Well done everyone. This Oadby side (although missing its usual top board player) was one of the strongest we have met this season.

19 Jan		Oadby 1		v	Heathcote Arms 3
				3½ - 2½
1	B	126	Candlin, Don	0 - 1	Ross, Colin	118
2	W	100	Thornton, Mike	½ - ½	Raymondov	105
3	B	100	Jagdev, Sam	0 - 1	Haka Dave	93
4	W	98	Glenton, Ivor	1 - 0	Milner, Gordon	60
5	B	96	Williams, Ted	1 - 0	Bubb, Michael	36
6	W	70	Gutteridge, John	1 - 0	Bubb, Andrew	40

Next week has been set aside for League Cup matches. On Tuesday, HA1 play at home against Braunstone 1, and HA3 play away against Braunstone 2.

Well done everyone,

Colin.

Willowbrook 2 Vs Heathcote Arms 1

2012-01-20T18:28:00.003Z

Graham B Reports:

Never take anything for granted. Although we out graded the opposition by between 30 and 50 points on each board, Dave and Mike decided to make hard work of it.

Raj and I won quite quickly (my opponent gave me his queen after 9 moves) but Dave gave a pawn away for nothing, managed to win it back but in doing so everything came off and he was left with an equal king and pawn ending.

Mike fluked a draw by repetition because his opponent didn't realize he was winning and seemed happy to take a draw against a higher grade.

The only interesting game was Graham S which went down to the last few seconds. It all looked very blockaded with 6 pawns each, 2 rooks and opposite colored Bishops, but a slight positional error by his opponent allowed Graham to get his bishop behind enemy lines and win a pawn, and push on for the win.

A better start to the new year than last season.

Graham B

19 Jan		Willowbrook 2		v	Heathcote Arms 1
				1 - 4
1	B	150	Hart, Gavin	0 - 1	Sharpe, Graham	181
2	W	135	Pratt, Dave	0 - 1	Ganger, Rajan	173
3	B	130	Collins, RF (Bob)	½ - ½	Bray, Dave	170
4	W	128	Busby, Michael	½ - ½	Cowley, Michael	159
5	B	94	Adams, Mick	0 - 1	Booley, Graham	147

Syston 1 (2-2) Heathcote Arms 2

2012-01-19T07:45:00.000Z

Peter the President Reports:

We drew 2-2 . Their board 1 couldn't play because of personal reasons. They were a player short, so we all moved up one and, unfortunately, Ray didn't get a game . I withstood Ben's onslaught - when we put the clocks back he'd got more time than he started with! Rob lost the exchange and the game to Cyril and John ran out of time against Rob Stone after losing a piece and then winning it back.

Peter the President

17 Jan		Syston 1		v	Heathcote Arms 2
				2 - 2
1	B	137	Pourmozafari, Ben	0 - 1	Harrison, Peter	149
2	W	133	Johnson, Cyril	1 - 0	Ensor, Rob	128
3	B	113	Stone, Robert	1 - 0	Manger, John	119
4	W	?	DEFAULT	0 - 1	Beach, Ray	105

Ashby 4 (5-1) HA3

2012-01-13T12:20:00.000Z

As Ben noted in his blog, the University did not show on Tuesday.

10 Jan		Heathcote Arms 2	v	Leicester University 1
			4 - 0
1	B	?	1 - 0	MATCH DEFAULTED	?
2	W	?	1 - 0	MATCH DEFAULTED	?
3	B	?	1 - 0	MATCH DEFAULTED	?
4	W	?	1 - 0	MATCH DEFAULTED	?

On Thursday evening, Ashby 4 had been good enough to agree to six boards in our HA3 match against them. Ashby are in a similar position to us with lots of new and improving players eager for games.

We literally started the evening with our backs against the wall. A bit later in the evening, our backs were metaphorically against the wall too.

Haka Dave and Michael both finished with losses at 8.20PM, Gary and Gordon both followed. Drew and myself were the last to finish and both managed draws. So, a decent evening of chess with some friendly hosts, but a 5-1 loss. Neil Roberts, the Ashby 4 Captain, has suggested another six, or even a seven, board return match when they come to us in a few weeks from now.

12 Jan		Ashby 4		v	Heathcote Arms 3
				5 - 1
1	B	111	Jones, Peter	½ - ½	Ross, Colin	118
2	W	105	Williams, Richard	1 - 0	Ricketts, Dave	93
3	B	80	Brindley, Jonathan	1 - 0	Milner, Gordon	60
4	W	80	Roberts, Neil	1 - 0	Sanders, Gary	50
5	B	80	Holmes, Stephen	1 - 0	Bubb, Michael	36
6	W	55	Nicholson, Brian	½ - ½	Bubb, Andrew	40

League matches next week:

Tuesday 17th, Syston 1 Vs HA2
Thursday 19th, Willowbrook 2 Vs HA1
Thursday 19th, (A very strong) Oadby Vs HA3

Well done everyone,

Colin.

University's No Show Used For My Gain

2012-01-12T12:16:00.001Z

Tuesday the 10th rolled around, and considering that I had nothing better to do, I decided to roll over to Heathcote Arms for two reasons:

1) To scope out the new Leicester University side and 2) To see some old friendly faces (Old and friendly used in no particular order)

Come 745pm, nobody had showed up from the University side and Raymondov, The Grinder, were amongst the familiar faces, looking forward to what was a re-match with the Uni side. I also realised that in the blog about the Leicester congress, I had said that I was looking forward to seeing the Heathcote players in a league match or two. I since realised that Wigston 5 are not in the Heathcote 2 or 3's division. (Note to self, check facts before posting).

Well, it appears that the Uni side had disappeared to Wyld-land, (coined from Haka Dave). Standing in the bar with the Grinder and Raymondov, we decided to play a friendly or two. This was after various quips about coming to see the 'Masters in action' at Heathcote.
Raymondov paired with The Grinder.

There were two faces that I wasn't familiar with (One was called Peter I think)
Peter reported that he had a text from Colin to say that the Uni had let Heathcote know at 805 that they weren't coming due to it not being the Uni's term time. Fair enough I suppose, but there must be some form of gag in there. Term-initis? Uni-itis. Nasty diseases.

A chap called Gordon showed up too, just looking for friendlies I guess, so I was paired with him.
Two games of pretty poor chess resulted in me beating Gordon twice, once as white, once as black.
Gordon was a very nice chap and was very gracious in defeat.

I then wandered over to the Raymondov vs Grinder game to see a very interesting position. Pawns in the middle, pieces developed and just as I joined, The Grinder trapped Ray's Bishop (Ray could have gotten out of it, but didn't see it) - (Like everybody else, I am brilliant when I am watching games, less than brilliant when playing them). The Grinder doubled his rooks, picked his rook up to exchange and realised that this was not as good a move as it should be. Ray created a mate threat, with a Queen in front of a Bishop and then used his Queen to proceed to check John's King with forks, removing a pawn and a Knight and John knocked his King over. (He may have wanted to pick it up and throw it across the room given that he was probably slightly better positionally).
After having a nice conversation and catch up with Ray and John, having a joke or 10 on the way, I left the Heathcote Arms feeling like I seen some friendly faces and won a chess duel.
Job done

Ben Vaughan
Wigston Chess Club

Happy New Year

2012-01-02T20:10:00.000Z

Happy New Year Everyone.

There will be a club night down at the Heathcote this Tuesday.

Maybe we will see you there. Any new players welcome.

Colin.

Website Traffic - Big in Japan?

2011-12-17T12:29:00.005Z

Colin asked earlier in the month about where our traffic was originating, and the audience location is traceable. In terms of pageviews since the start then the traffic top nine is as follows:

Japan

India

Germany

Russia

China

Canada

Netherlands

In the last month the traffic has originated as follows:

Russia

Germany

Japan

China

Georgia

Latvia

Slovakia

Spain.

I enjoyed the opportunity to get an 80's music reference into the blog title.

With reference to the performance at Kirby on Thursday, as widely predicted, my trusty old straight-talking chess critic Fritz showed that I blew a winning position in grand style. At move 7 it suggest d7-d5 "and Black can already relax". I, of course, played d7-d6. Notwithstanding that, at move 20 my coefficient was about 6. At move 30, it was about 3, at 40 we were level, and I resigned on move 47. I would like to say I was feeling sorry for my opponent, as he'd had a bit of a car shunt earlier in the day, but the truth is I WAS RUBBISH. As I told Colin on the way back, I'm thinking about taking up bowls, as they seem to have nice badges, and there might be the possibility I might not be so terrible at that.

Loss for HA3 at Kirby Muxloe

2011-12-17T11:02:00.002Z

Before the match, both sides had been keen, and had agreed, to play five boards. On the night, however, we arrived with six. This was fine. Kirby nominated the next person to walk through the door as a new board 1. It was Jim Cowley. Everybody else moved down a board.

The first result was a welcome win for Michael against Scott Turner. If memory serves - i think Michael lost to Scott at the Heathcote Arms last time they met. At this point, in the remaining games we were looking alright: Gordon was a rook up on board 3, Haka Dave was a piece up on board 2, Drew on board 5 was a piece down but still kicking and i think Gary was slightly down on material on board 4. On board 1, there was material parity, but I thought i had a slight edge in position.

Drew then lost, and this was quickly followed by a loss for Gary. The rest of us played on for a while only to see some decent positions dissolve. Gordon lost his additional material and then the game. Dave had two rooks against rook and bishop and a passed pawn that could only be stopped by sacrificing material. As usual, i had met the time control with seconds to spare and my 30th move needlessly dropped a pawn. Things went downhill from there.

Kirby Muxloe 2 win matches only slightly more often than we do, so they asked us to leave so that they could celebrate by dancing naked around the Christmas Tree. I don't think that they were joking.

15 Dec Kirby Muxloe 2 v Heathcote Arms 3
5 - 1
1 B 108 Cowley, Jim 1 - 0 Ross, Colin 118
2 W 60 McEachran, Ewan 1 - 0 Ricketts, Dave 93
3 B 60 Shaw, Peter 1 - 0 Milner, Gordon 100
4 W 56 Kellock, Jim 1 - 0 Sanders, Gary 50
5 B 55 Turner, Scott 0 - 1 Bubb, Michael 36
6 W 50 Bowles, Les 1 - 0 Bubb, Andrew 40

15 Dec	Kirby Muxloe 2	v	Heathcote Arms 3
	5 - 1
1	B	108	Cowley, Jim	1 - 0	Ross, Colin	118
2	W	60	McEachran, Ewan	1 - 0	Ricketts, Dave	93
3	B	60	Shaw, Peter	1 - 0	Milner, Gordon	100
4	W	56	Kellock, Jim	1 - 0	Sanders, Gary	50
5	B	55	Turner, Scott	0 - 1	Bubb, Michael	36
6	W	50	Bowles, Les	1 - 0	Bubb, Andrew	40

At Christmas, the Division 5 table looks like this.

Division 5

Pos	Team	Pl	W	D	L	GPD	Pts
1	Braunstone 5	8	3	4	1	7	10
2	Syston 4	6	3	2	1	8	8
3	Red Admiral 2	7	3	2	2	5	8
4	Oadby 1	5	4	0	1	4	8
5	Syston 3	5	3	1	1	6	7
6	Ashby 4	6	1	2	3	-6	4
7	Kirby Muxloe 2	6	2	0	4	-3	4
8	Heathcote Arms 3	7	0	1	6	-21	1

League Matches

Our next League matches are as follows: HA2 plays at home against Leicester University 1 on Tuesday 10th January; HA3 plays away against Ashby 4 on Thursday 12th January; HA1 plays away against Willowbrook 2 on Thursday 19th January.

Cup Matches

Our next Cup matches both take place against Braunstone and both take place on Tuesday 24th January. HA1 play at home against Braunstone 1,and HA3 play away against Braunstone 2.

Club Nights

I am not sure if there will be much of a club night on Tuesday 20th December, but i will be up there at 7.30 if anyone wants a friendly. There will not be a club night on Tuesday 27th, but i suspect that by Tuesday 3rd January we will all be itching for a game.

Well done everyone,

Colin

Loughborough 2 (1.5 - 3.5) HA1

2011-12-16T20:46:00.001Z

Graham B Reports:

Rob and John came to the 1st team's rescue on Wednesday, when Graham and Raj couldn't make the match.

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view), their opponents didn't put up much resistance and both won quite easily. John had managed to take both rooks off of their original squares by the 12th move!!

Dave survived a scare against Jim Miller, who launched an attack against h2 with Bishop and queen, which resulted in him being 2 pawns up. Thought he was only going to stay 1 pawn up and offered a draw which Dave accepted and then realized the move Jim had just made was a blunder - so a draw was probably a fair result.

Mike's game fizzled out to a draw when Mike realized he could take a draw to give us the match.

I didn't play the opening very well, but managed to nick a pawn somewhere and was a pawn up in a queen and pawn ending. Terry offered me a draw, which I turned down knowing I couldn't lose, but I let my time drift away and had to settle for the draw in a won position.

I put Dave, Mike and my poor opening play down to the fact we spent 15 mins driving round Loughborough trying to park!!

This puts us 2 points clear at the top of Div 2 going into the Christmas break. Let's hope that lightning doesn't strike twice. We were top of Div 1 at Christmas last year and never won another match!!

Merry Christmas everyone,

Graham B

14 Dec		Loughborough 2		v	Heathcote Arms 1
				1½ - 3½
1	B	157	Miller, James	½ - ½	Bray, Dave	170
2	W	130	Hickman, Peter	½ - ½	Cowley, Michael	159
3	B	122	Adcock, Terry	½ - ½	Booley, Graham	147
4	W	100	Cragg, N	0 - 1	Ensor, Rob	128
5	B	80	Cragg, O	0 - 1	The Grinder	119

Division 2

Pos	Team	Pl	W	D	L	GPD	Pts
1	Heathcote Arms 1	7	6	1	0	15	13
2	Braunstone 2	6	4	1	1	7	9
3	Wigston 3	6	2	3	1	-2	7
4	Ashby 1	5	2	2	1	3	6
5	Ashby 2	7	2	1	4	-5	5
6	Melton Mowbray 2	7	2	1	4	-6	5
7	Willowbrook 2	5	0	2	3	-4	2
8	Loughborough 2	5	0	1	4	-8	1

HA2 (1-3) Hinckley 1

2011-12-15T18:20:00.002Z

Peter the President Reports:

Had to play in the alley and at 7.15 we had no heat! The landlord rallied round and set the fire and after a while it was warm as toast! Rob came off worst against Howard and the Albin Counter Gambit. John drew and Ray lost, but i didn't see anything of their games. I was up against it all game, I decided to offer Peter a draw and made a total blunder with the move, but then found a way out with a perpetual that if he didnt take was curtains. So HA2 lose another one!

Peter the President

13 Dec		Heathcote Arms 2		v	Hinckley 1
				1 - 3
1	B	149	Harrison, Peter	½ - ½	Gibbs, Peter	167
2	W	128	Ensor, Rob	0 - 1	Phillips, Howard	134
3	B	119	The Grinder	½ - ½	Radesk, Brian	113
4	W	105	Raymondov	0 - 1	Smith, Jason	106

Division 3

Pos	Team	Pl	W	D	L	GPD	Pts
1	Latimer 1	7	5	2	0	12	12
2	Market Harborough 1	6	3	2	1	7	8
3	Wigston 4	6	4	0	2	6	8
4	Melton Mowbray 3	7	3	2	2	-2	8
5	Hinckley 1	7	3	0	4	-3	6
6	Heathcote Arms 2	7	1	2	4	-6	4
7	Syston 1	6	0	3	3	-4	3
8	Leicester University 1	6	1	1	4	-10	3

University of Leicester Vs HA2 Result

2011-12-11T12:15:00.002Z

Last week's HA2 result has now reappeared. Here it is:

30 Nov		Leicester University 1		v	Heathcote Arms 2
				2½ - 1½
1	B	135	Wei, Elyn	1 - 0	Peter the President	149
2	W	135	Gomes, Matthew	1 - 0	Ensor, Rob	128
3	B	80	Kularatnam, Ahalya	0 - 1	The Grinder	119
4	W	80	Tan, Ce Dong	½ - ½	Raymondov	105

Over the last year, interest in our website seems to have grown. Recently, we have been having 500+ hits per month, and for November we had around 850 hits. Not bad for a chess club with fewer than 20 players. It would be interesting to know who visits us. If any of our readers out there want to submit a guest blog, then e-mail it to me and i will put it up on Boxing Day.

Colin.

Record Score

2011-12-07T20:23:00.001Z

Nine-Nil / Nine-Nil / Nine-Nil / Nine-Nil / Nine-Nil / Nine-Nil / Nine-Nil

...Join in anytime you like...

Nine-Nil / Nine-Nil / Nine-Nil / Nine-Nil / Nine-Nil / Nine-Nil / Nine-Nil

06 Dec		Heathcote Arms 2		v	Latimer 1
				0 - 4
1	B	149	Peter the President	0 - 1	Nwachukwu, Chino	170
2	W	128	Ensor, Rob	0 - 1	Potter, Karl	162
3	B	119	The Grinder	0 - 1	Slater, Brian L	123
4	W	118	Ross, Colin	0 - 1	Hill, Granville	120

06 Dec		Heathcote Arms 3		v	Syston 4
				0 - 5
1	B	105	Raymondov	0 - 1	Veitch, Robert	105
2	W	93	Haka Dave	0 - 1	Mitton, Judith	96
3	B	100	Milner, Gordon	0 - 1	Martin, Maurice	93
4	W	36	Bubb, Michael	0 - 1	Agger, Reg	86
5	B	40	Bubb, Andrew	0 - 1	Mundy, Rob	70

Well done to absolutely no one.

Colin

p.s. Something weird has happened on the LRCA website to the HA2 / University result from last Thursday. The match took place, and the result was late appearing - and now it has disappeared again. When it returns, we will post something here.

Next week: HA2 at home to Hinckley on Tuesday, HA1 away at Loughborough on Wednesday, and HA3 away at Kirby Muxloe on Thursday.

HA3 and HA1 Both Play at Home

2011-12-01T08:07:00.000Z

Gary was the first to finish. His opponent laughed out loud before unleashing a knight attack on Gary's queen whilst discovering a queen and bishop mate in one along the long diagonal. Five minutes later, in a return friendly, Gary had his revenge as he removed a queen for free whilst discovering check. This prompted an immediate resignation.

Michael and Drew were both fine in the openings, but went on to be outplayed in the middlegame.

My own game had been looking drawish for a while. I had black. We were down to pawns and same coloured bishops with Barry having a pair of isolated double pawns. When we got to the time control Barry offered me a draw. Being only slightly better, and the match being lost, i took it.

Read Vs Ross

29 Nov		Heathcote Arms 3		v	Braunstone 5
				½ - 3½
1	B	118	Ross, Colin	½ - ½	Read, Barry	101
2	W	50	Sanders, Gary	0 - 1	Hoch, Toby	100
3	B	36	Bubb, Michael	0 - 1	Martin, Paul	93
4	W	40	Bubb, Andrew	0 - 1	Tangney, Vince	76

I did not see any of the HA1 match, but there looks to have been a straightforward win for the home team.

29 Nov		Heathcote Arms 1		v	Ashby 2
				4 - 1
1	B	181	Sharpe, Graham	1 - 0	Gibson, Paul	152
2	W	173	Ganger, Rajan	1 - 0	Hayden, Lawrence	137
3	B	170	Bray, Dave	½ - ½	Dove, Tom	139
4	W	159	Cowley, Michael	1 - 0	Reynolds, David	125
5	B	147	Booley, Graham	½ - ½	Wyld, Nick	121

Next week:

HA2 Vs Latimer 1, and HA3 Vs Syston 4 both at home on Tuesday.

I will be contacting people for their availabilities.

Well done everyone,

Colin.

Bobby Fischer Documentary on TV Tonight

2011-11-30T09:18:00.002Z

BBC4 9PM Wednesday 30th November.

Bobby Fischer - Genius and Madman (90 minutes)

It is not clear whether this is the same film as Bobby Fischer Against the World (which is the same length and came out in the summer) or something different - should be worth a look anyway. It centres on the World Championship Match.

Stuck in Icelandic traffic! Really?

Colin.

It is indeed the same film - excellent stuff.

League Cup Matches & CCs (Major) Play Off

2011-11-25T20:24:00.001Z

Running three League Cup teams is altogether a different thing from running three League teams. The principal difference being the stricter barring rules in the Cup competitions which commit all players to a specific squad once they have played once for that team.

It became obvious to us that we were not going to be able to field three teams in the League Cups this week. HA1 and HA3 were both a player short and HA2 was going to be two players short. On Monday, we took the decision to fold the HA2 cup team. I contacted Peter Poolan at Melton to default the match and apologise. I also contacted Iain Dodds to withdraw the team from the rest of the Minor League Cup.

We had been hoping to play Rob in HA2, but with HA2 out of the picture, we were able to donate him to the HA1 squad. This just left the problem of getting an HA3 team out.

In a discussion between Iain Dodds and Mike Salisbury, the decision was made that since only one round of the competition had been played, and since there might still be problems in playing an HA3 side, that we could play HA2 players in the HA3 side. This reduced the chances of us having to fold HA3, too, in future rounds and also enabled us to play John and Ray rather than the higher rated Pete (who would have been able to play for HA3).

HA3 had a 1.5 point head start. I was not around on the night, but from what i hear, Drew and Michael (or maybe Michael and Drew) finished first and second. John then won, and it all came down to Ray's game with bits all over the place. Ray losing, then winning, and then his opponent achieving a perpetual.

A 3 point to 2.5 point win after the handicap was added.

22 Nov		Heathcote Arms 3		v	Braunstone 3		GD
				1½ - 2½			65
Handicap				1½ - 0
				3 - 2½
1	W	119	The Grinder	1 - 0	Closs, Guy	118	-1
2	B	105	Raymondov	½ - ½	Barlow, Steve	91	-14
3	W	40	Bubb, Andrew	0 - 1	Tangney, Vince	76	36
4	B	36	Bubb, Michael	0 - 1	Reid, Patrick	80	44

A draw over the boards, but a loss after the handicap for HA1.

23 Nov		Loughborough 1		v	Heathcote Arms 1		GD
				2 - 2			20
Handicap				½ - 0
				2½ - 2
1	B	173	Mitchell, John	½ - ½	Sharpe, Graham	181	8
2	W	167	Eagleton, Greg	1 - 0	Bray, Dave	170	3
3	B	136	Fraser, Michael	½ - ½	Booley, Graham	147	11
4	W	130	Hickman, Peter	0 - 1	Ensor, Rob	128	-2

On Thursday, it was my play off against David Reynolds and Bob Collins for the Major Section of the County Championship. The format was for each of us to play two games, one with white and one with black with a time control of 20 minutes each. If after the first round there was a tie, we were to do the same again with half the time limit.

We spun some coins and it was David with white versus me with black in the first game. David opened with g4 and some unusual stuff. I was quickly in trouble losing a pawn and with some threats against me. I was able to reorganise though - forced him to double some pawns - swapped off queens and was able to pick up the pawn to equalise. I then had a mate threat with a rook along the seventh - David defended against that but allowed me to knight fork his king and rook. An exchange up, for a while i felt that things were going well, but then ran in to the inevitable time trouble and, returning the earlier favour, allowed David to knight fork my two rooks. Game over.

David then had the black pieces against Bob. David, by now warmed up, piled on the pressure, and then some more pressure, against Bob's kingside and Bob had no chance.

With David 2-0 up, he could not be caught and so there was no point in Bob and I playing a third game. Bob, and The Grinder (who had come to lend some support), and i retired to the bar for a few halves.

Next Tuesday:

HA1 play at home against Ashby 2
HA3 play at home against Braunstone 5

There will probably be the chance of some friendly games for anyone popping down on spec.

Well done everyone,

Colin.

Ay Caramba!

2011-11-16T07:44:00.000Z

HA3 were at home against Red Admiral 2.

Michael lost out to the more experienced Calvin Burton.

Gordon was a piece down but hung on against Stan and made him work for it.

Haka Dave started out looking worse, but ended up with Queen and King against Bishop and King. His opponent offered him a draw two moves from mate - this was refused. There was some confusion after this game as Peter (with a barely detectable twinckle in his eye) told his Captain that a draw had been agreed.

As usual, i was last to finish. I had been equal on material throughout, but an isolated queen's pawn, having been a thorn in my side for most of the game, proved too much of a weakness in the ending.

15 Nov		Heathcote Arms 3		v	Red Admiral 2
				1 - 3
1	B	118	Ross, Colin	0 - 1	Carter, Andy	110
2	W	93	Ricketts, Dave	1 - 0	Barabas, Peter	80
3	B	100	Milner, Gordon	0 - 1	Parsons, Stan	82
4	W	36	Bubb, Michael	0 - 1	Burton, Calvin	79

Next week, we have League Cup matches:

HA3 is at home against Braunstone 3 on Tuesday 22nd November.
HA2 is away at Melton Mowbray on Wednesday.
HA1 is away against Loughborough in the Major League Cup on Wednesday.

On Thursday, i take part in the play off for the County Championship Major Section.

Well done everyone,

Colin.

Latimer (1) 3-2 HA (2)

2011-11-12T20:36:00.004Z

Peter the President Reports:

Karl sent me a text about 6pm on Tues asking if we could play 5 boards. I said I'd ask at the club. Gordon was there and keen to play. So we arrived to find we were outgraded on every board. Gordon played really well only to lose out in the end to a very strong opponent. Ray won nicely. I was a pawn up against Chino and he sacrificied a second pawn to block the position. I offered a draw missing a trick to win the exchange pointed out to me afterwards. Shucks! Rob did really well to hold out against Karl, which left the match at 2 - 2 with John's game the decider. He was recovering from the lurgy and his stamina wilted at the end unfortunately. So, our first defeat but well played by everyone as we nearly upset the odds.

Peter the President.

10 Nov		Latimer 1		v	Heathcote Arms 2
				3 - 2
1	B	170	Nwachukwu, Chino	½ - ½	Harrison, Peter	149
2	W	162	Potter, Karl	½ - ½	Ensor, Rob	128
3	B	123	Slater, Brian L	1 - 0	Manger, John	119
4	W	126	Gurney, Roy	0 - 1	Beach, Ray	105
5	B	120	Zainuddin, Zaime	1 - 0	Milner, Gordon	100

Heathcote Arms (1) 4-1 Ashby (1)

2011-11-09T17:54:00.001Z

Graham B Reports:

This match was not as easy as the score line suggests, one thing Ashby do is make you grind out your results, and apart from Graham's rather exciting game that's what we did.

Rajan's was a slow positional game that eventually just strangled Chris Tipper's position and it cracked under Rajan's and the clocks pressure.

Dave looked like he had won an early pawn, but then realized his opponent could allow his own bishop to be blocked in on a7 & b8 and get the pawn back, Dave said from this point he didn't think he was better but Roy decided to swap pieces off which gave Dave an easy winning ending.

After 2hrs 35mins Mike and Larry had only took off 1 major piece and 1 or 2 pawns each and although Mike had queen and 2 rooks on the g file he couldn't break through and Larry wasn't doing anything. I think his last 5 or 6 moves were Qe7,Qd8,Qe7,Qd8,Qe7- draw agreed.

Graham's was a typically solid game until Richard sacked a rook on h6 to give him an attack on Graham's King, which looked like a winning attack, however, Graham doesn't give in and manages to manoeuvre his king toward his queen, although Richard was still threatening mates and forks with only a queen and knight. Graham has to give his rook back, gets Richards knight off for his bishop and goes into the ending 2 pawns down (Queen & 5 against Queen & 3) but has done enough to eventually get the draw. An ending well worth seeing, I will try and get a copy from Graham.

So, a hard fought win keeps us top of Div 2 and on course to return to div 1 next season.

Graham B

P.S. pleased to see Michael get a win

08 Nov		Heathcote Arms 1		v	Ashby 1
1	B	181	Sharpe, Graham	½ - ½	Vann, Richard	163
2	W	173	Ganger, Rajan	1 - 0	Tipper, Christopher	147
3	B	170	Bray, Dave	1 - 0	Evans, Roy	143
4	W	159	Cowley, Michael	½ - ½	Hayden, Lawrence	137
5	B	147	Booley, Graham	1 - 0	DEFAULT	?
				4 - 1

Braunstone (5) 2-2 Heathcote Arms (3)

2011-11-08T22:12:00.000Z

HA3 are on the scoreboard at last. Everyone started solidly enough. Gary was the first to succumb. Then Michael pulled off a fabulous win when his opponent resigned a bishop and a rook down with only pawns remaining. Drew had chances but lost out against Paul Martin. It was down to me to draw the match. Things had been even for most of my game, but then my opponent blundered a rook.
We are now no longer bottom of the table.

Well done everyone

Colin.

08 Nov		Braunstone 5		v	Heathcote Arms 3
				2 - 2
1	B	101	Read, Barry	0 - 1	Ross, Colin	118
2	W	100	Hoch, Toby	1 - 0	Sanders, Gary	50
3	B	93	Martin, Paul	1 - 0	Bubb, Andrew	40
4	W	76	Tangney, Vince	0 - 1	Bubb, Michael	36

Shropshire Vs Leicestershire

2011-11-08T08:06:00.000Z

Leicestershire lost 10-6 to Shropshire on Saturday. As usual, Heathcote Arms players were in action.

Section: Minor open
Home Team: Shropshire					Away Team: Leicestershire
Venue: Shifnal					Date: 5^th November
Team having white on odd boards:					Result reported by: Graham Booley
Board	ECF Code	Grade	Home team players’ names	Score	Score	Away Team players’ names	Grade	ECF Code
1	118369C	205	N.Rutter	0	1	Mark Hebden	241	112455K
2	110539F	190	N.Ferrington	½	½	Martin Burrows	200	125697L
3	240985K	188	G.Cooper	½	½	Ray Burgess	182	107674H
4	112969H	182	J Hopkins	1	0	John Denton	174	109613J
5	107574D	178	R Bryant	½	½	John Robinson	169	118096E
6	110730G	176	J Footner	1	0	Richard Vann	163	163691B
7	183527A	160	P Kitchen	½	½	Brian Galligan	173E
8	117515E	159	G Pugh	1	0	David Farrall	168	213110K
9	106353F	159	J Bashall	1	0	Alfonso Jimenez	164	279527K
10	240258D	156	C Lewis	½	½	Patrick McDermott	158	115247G
11	245834C	151	N Paul	1	0	Jim Miller	157	115535A
12	256377A	150	A Tonks	1	0	Jim Bingham	161	106748F
13		143	R Gillispie	1	0	Greg Adcock	157	130161F
14	240291K	146	J Whittaker	½	½	Mike Cowley	159	108975E
15	116900C	130	W Peck	0	1	John Pattinson	157	116818G
16	179346K	129	S Tennent	0	1	Graham Booley	147	106989F

HA2 Vs Syston 1

2011-11-03T21:07:00.000Z

I was just there for the club night, but there was an exciting match at the Heathcote on Tuesday. Ray was the first to fall, then Pete - who i think had dropped a rook somewhere resigned in what looked a very complex middle game position.

Rob scored one for the home side - he had been up three pawns, but Cyril had been hanging on as hard as he could. Rob then found a way to simplify and get the queens and rooks off. Cue resignation from Cyril.

This left things up to John to win in order to draw the match. I had to leave before this game concluded and things had looked drawish when i left, but then John does tend to play good endgames and obviously found a way.

01 Nov		Heathcote Arms 2		v	Syston 1
				2 - 2
1	B	149	Harrison, Peter	0 - 1	Galligan, Brian	173
2	W	128	Ensor, Rob	1 - 0	Johnson, Cyril	133
3	B	119	Manger, John	1 - 0	Gist, Elizabeth	124
4	W	105	Beach, Ray	0 - 1	Stone, Robert	113

Next Tuesday, 8th November, HA3 are away against Braunstone 5 and HA1 are at home against Ashby 1.
On Thursday, 10th, HA2 are away against Latimer 1.

Well done everyone,

Colin.

Graham Sharpe is County Champion

2011-10-30T19:47:00.000Z

It had been a close competition amongst Leicestershire's best this year. Graham, and Alan Byron had each scored 5/6 in the County Championship and met on Thursday for a play off.

Alan Byron Said:

Graham won one and drew one. The first was not that exciting and Graham held on well in an ending and in the second I sacked a piece for two pawns and the attack but he defended well and I blundered an exchange which meant it was a rook for a pawn and curtains! I'm pleased for Graham though, I thought he played the best chess this year.

League Cups - HA1 Win, HA2 Lose

2011-10-29T14:12:00.000+01:00

A good result for HA1.

25 Oct		Heathcote Arms 1		v	Willowbrook 1		GD
				2½ - 1½			-30
Handicap				0 - ½
				2½ - 2
1	B	181	Sharpe, Graham	1 - 0	Graf, Roland	164	-17
2	W	170	Bray, Dave	½ - ½	Pattinson, John	157	-13
3	B	159	Cowley, Michael	0 - 1	Deacon, Paul	156	-3
4	W	147	Booley, Graham	1 - 0	Tate, Michael	150	3

A bad result for HA2. My Bxh7+ sacrifice on move 9 probably didn't help.

27 Oct		Latimer 1		v	Heathcote Arms 2		GD
				4 - 0			-139
Handicap				0 - 3
				4 - 3
1	W	170	Nwachukwu, Chino	1 - 0	Manger, John	119	-50
2	B	162	Potter, Karl	1 - 0	Ross, Colin	118	-44
3	W	123	Slater, Brian L	1 - 0	Beach, Ray	105	-18
4	B	120	Zainuddin, Zaime	1 - 0	Ricketts, Dave	93	-27

On Tuesday, 1st November, HA2 play at home against Syston 1.
On Wednesday, HA1 play away against Melton 2.

There will also be a club night on Tuesday.

Well done everyone.

Colin.

HA3 Win in First Round of Minor League Cup

2011-10-26T20:10:00.000+01:00

Peter the President Reports:

Well apart from yours truly we were heavily outgunned by Latimer (Drew was 80 points below his opponent) the upshot being that we needed a point to secure victory. They obligingly lost the toss and being the unselfish guy I am, I chose white for me! I did presume correctly that it would be up to me. When Mr Colver went completely wrong in the opening, yippee! Gordon lost very quickly and disappeared, so I have no report on that. Michael and Drew battled on courageously against a lot stronger opposition and although they both succumbed should take heart that they made their opponents work for their spoils. So although we lost 3-1 the 2.5 points generously awarded to us meant victory which pleased Drew especially!

25 Oct		Heathcote Arms 3		v	Latimer 2		GD
				1 - 3			(118)
Handicap				2½ - 0
				3½ - 3
1	W	149	Harrison, Peter	1 - 0	Colver, John	139	(-10)
2	B	100	Milner, Gordon	0 - 1	Garland, Michael (snr)	128	(28)
3	W	40	Bubb, Andrew	0 - 1	Hill, Granville	120	(50)
4	B	36	Bubb, Michael	0 - 1	Ramli, Mohd	100	(50)

Peter the President

Various News Items

2011-10-19T18:50:00.000+01:00

News From Graham B

HA1 are now playing their league cup match on Tuesday 25th October. Thanks to The Swallow agreeing to the switch because we couldn't field a team on 27th.

Graham Sharpe will play his County Champs play off against Alan Byron on Thursday 27th October at Wigston. Good luck to him - spectators welcome.

News From LRCA

Swallow Inn move again.
Kirby Muxloe have a nice new website at www.kirbycastlers.org.uk
The County First team annihilated Greater Manchester - several HA players were in action.

News available in full from:

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

News from Colin

Somehow, i have managed to force a play off in the County Champs (Major Section) with Bob Collins and David Reynolds. This will be played at Wigston on Thursday 24th November.

Colin

Half Term Break and League Cup First Round

2011-10-14T21:24:00.000+01:00

The season has only just begun, but half term is already upon us - this means no chess next week. This will then be followed by the first round of the League Cups, and then a return to League Chess the following week.

Upcoming games for each of the teams as follows:

HA1

Cup - Thursday 27.10.11 Away against Swallow Inn
League - Wednesday 2.11.11 Away against Melton

HA2

Cup - Thursday 27.10.11 Away against Latimer 1
League - Tuesday 1.11.11 Home against Syston 1

HA3

Cup - Tuesday 25.10.11 Home against Latimer 2
League - Tuesday 8.11.11 Away against Braunstone 5

I will be e-mailing the HA2 and HA3 squads to sort out the Cup fixtures.

Congratulations to The Grinder, by the way, for achieving a grading prize at the Atkins.

Colin

HA2 Victorious Away at Hinckley

2011-10-14T21:12:00.000+01:00

Peter the President Reports:

A steady start for all concerned. I got into a great position against Howard and set myself up for a sacrifice then got cold feet and my position was dead. Howard offered me a draw, i checked on the other games: Rob was better, John was even, and Ray a pawn down but solid. Then Mr Clay inadvertently sacrificied his queen so i shook my opponents hand and then Mr Bailey thought his queen needed sacrificing as well! Game over. Ray did his best to lose, but Brian just wouldn't let him! So a 3-1 victory.

13 Oct		Hinckley 1		v	Heathcote Arms 2
				1 - 3
1	B	134	Phillips, Howard	½ - ½	Harrison, Peter	149
2	W	122	Bailey, Barry	0 - 1	Ensor, Rob	128
3	B	112	Clay, Terry	0 - 1	Manger, John	119
4	W	113	Radesk, Brian	½ - ½	Beach, Ray	105

Peter the President.

HA1 Vs Melton Mowbray 2

2011-10-13T20:32:00.001+01:00

Graham B Reports:

A pretty straight forward win apart from mike got a draw from a dead certain loss

11 Oct		Heathcote Arms 1		v	Melton Mowbray 2
				4 - 1
1	B	173	Ganger, Rajan	1 - 0	Billingham, John	168
2	W	170	Bray, Dave	½ - ½	Reynolds, Tom	164
3	B	159	Cowley, Michael	½ - ½	Wallace, Robert	139
4	W	147	Booley, Graham	1 - 0	Cope, Shaun	125
5	B	149	Harrison, Peter	1 - 0	Keightley, Andrew	76

Aw Nuts!

2011-10-12T19:51:00.001+01:00

HA3 were away at Syston (Against Syston 3. Syston 4 are in the same division).

The evening started with Stuart Hollingworth hitting Haka Dave over the head with a book and telling him 'don't look at me like that'. Apparently this knocked some sense into him as Dave was the only one of us to come away from Syston with anything resembling a point (or, actually a half point). Dave managed a miracle draw having been an exchange and three pawns down - he was the first to finish.

Drew started well against Stuart, but lost out in the end. Having been a pawn up from a Steinitz Defence Ruy Lopez, I proceeded to mess things up and lose the pawn back - followed a little later by a rook. Michael lasted the longest and was outplayed in a minor piece endgame by the ever solid Ron King.

11 Oct		Syston 3		v	Heathcote Arms 3
				3½ - ½
1	B	107	Cresswell, Peter	1 - 0	Ross, Colin	118
2	W	108	Leonard, John	½ - ½	Ricketts, Dave	93
3	B	101	Hollingworth, Stuart	1 - 0	Bubb, Andrew	40
4	W	90	King, Ron	1 - 0	Bubb, Michael	36

Well done everyone,

Colin

This Week

2011-10-10T20:25:00.000+01:00

All the teams are in action again this week.
On Tuesday 11th October, HA1 play at home to Melton 2. Anybody who is free is welcome to come along and watch, but there is unlikely to be a club night.
On the same night, HA3 play away against Syston 3.
On Thursday 13th October, HA2 play away against Hinckley 1.

Good luck everyone,

Colin.

Proof You Can Some of the People Some of the Time...

2011-10-08T11:36:00.003+01:00

Extract from report on the Atkins from MCCU web-site

The Leicestershire annual tournament attracted over 100 players and was ably controlled by Andrew Morely [sic] and his team.

http://www.mccu.org.uk/news_archive/11leics_cong.htm

The art of swindling

2011-10-07T21:13:00.008+01:00

As some of you will know, I was drafted into the HA1 team at Ashby last night - payment in kind for a room at the inn known as Graham Booley's house. So down I drove from Sheffield whereupon I arrived in Ashby around 7pm. Feeling peckish, I enjoyed the delights of Chicken Donner Meat and Chips in my car before braving the torrential rain and dashing into the Ivanhoe club.

My opponent was Chris Tipper, an old foe whom I seem to have the Indian sign over. He plays the Birds, and opening I never know what to do against as you will see.

[White "Tipper, Chris"]
[Black "Hewitt, Sean"]

1. f4 d5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. e3 Bg4 4. Bb5 a6 5. Bxc6+ bxc6 6. O-O e6 7. Qe1 Bxf3 8.
Rxf3 Nf6 9. d3 Be7 10. Nd2 O-O 11. Kh1 c5 12. e4 c6 13. e5 Nd7 14. Qg3 f6 15.
Qh3 f5 16. Nf1 Rf7 17. Bd2 Rb8 18. b3 g6 19. Ne3 a5 20. g4 Rg7 21. Rg1 Nf8 22.
Qh6 Qd7 23. a4 Bd8 24. Qh3 Rb7 25. Rfg3 c4 26. dxc4 dxc4 27. Nxc4 Qd5+ 28. Qg2
Rbd7 29. Rd3 Qxg2+ 30. Rxg2 Rxd3 31. cxd3 Rb7 32. Bxa5 Bxa5 33. Nxa5 Rb4 34.
gxf5 exf5 35. Nxc6 Rxb3 36. d4 Ra3 37. a5 Ne6 38. Rf2 Rc3 39. d5 Nc7 40. Ne7+
Kf7 41. d6 Ne6 42. Kg2 Ra3 43. Nc6 Rc3 44. Nb4 Rc4 45. Nd3 Rd4 46. Rf3 Ra4 47.
Kg3 Rxa5 48. Nb4 Nc5 49. Nc6 Ne4+ 50. Kh3 Rd5 51. Nb4 Rd4 52. Nc6 Rd2 53. Nb4
g5 54. fxg5 Nxg5+ 55. Kg3 Nxf3 56. Kxf3 Rxh2 57. Nc6 Rh4 58. Nd8+ Ke8 59. Ne6
Kd7 60. Ng5 h6 61. Nf7 Ke6 62. Nd8+ Kxe5 63. d7 Kd6 0-1

Sorry Chris!

06 Oct		Ashby 1		v	Heathcote Arms 1
				2½ - 2½
1	B	163	Vann, Richard	1 - 0	Bray, Dave	170
2	W	147	Tipper, Christopher	0 - 1	Hewitt, Sean	158
3	B	143	Evans, Roy	0 - 1	Cowley, Michael	159
4	W	139	Dove, Tom	½ - ½	Booley, Graham	147
5	B	137	Hayden, Lawrence	1 - 0	Manger, John	119

Ben Says

2011-10-07T18:27:00.000+01:00

And so I arrived at the Leicester Congress in a non-playing capacity, having been roped into assisting with the running of the congress. After circulating around the college for half an hour trying to find the entrance, it was probably better for my rating that I wasn't playing, but over the whole weekend, I couldn't help but feel that I had missed out.

I was given the badge that read controller - a slight surprise, I can't even control a football properly (which is why I no longer play football). Having toyed with the idea of immediately defacing it by scrawling 'Fat' in front of the word controller, I carried on with my duties. My Fiancee was present too on the Friday night, no badge for her, although her prefix would have been 'fit', judging by the gazes of various people. I think that certain members now look at me as if to say 'How the hell did you pull that?'

So wandering around various games was very interesting, with the odd nod of the head to Haka Dave, watching Ray, Colin and Rob proved to be very entertaining. I think I spent most of the time in the Minor room seeing who had messed up a position first. (Usually Ray). Wandering round the Major and Open room was more a case of looking at the boards pretending to be in authority than actually knowing what they were doing. That's probably why they are better than me at chess.
I think that Colin can be very pleased with his Congress, I felt that he may have been in for a prize, given his first 3 sessions, it was a shame to see him lose his momentum. I felt that Rob was a dark horse for the congress, one to watch, an emerger from the light (you get the picture), and I am not sure that he took any money home either. And that leads to Ray, good old Ray, giving pieces away and losing on time to Paul Martin in the closest bullet type finish that I have ever seen. He did the Gentlemenly thing and resigned. A disappointing congress for Ray.

Having said all of that, fair play to everyone that entered, braver souls than me and I hope that the entrants gained more out of the tournament than I did (I gained sore legs from so much standing and walking and a new chess scorepad).

Suffice to say that I will look forward to trips to Heathcote Arms later in the League season, Web Guru Colin, Haka Dave and Raymondov are always good for a laugh off of the chess board and I look forward to seeing you all again.

Ben Vaughan

Wigston Chess Club

A Few Thoughts of A Tournament "Controller" Aged 21 and a Bit

2011-10-07T15:17:00.002+01:00

As previously alluded to by Colin in his earlier post about his Curate's Egg of a performance at the Atkins, I was a controller last weekend. As in previous years I had poled up on Friday afternoon to move tables and set-up boards, pieces and clocks. Having (eventually) got through the College reception, by fleeing the fierce receptionist by sneaking out the door and wandering around the back of the building I found Andy Morley, the Tournament Head Honcho in Sean Hewitt's absence, already hard at work.

Ben Vaughan had previously agreed to assist, but of him there was no sighting. (At this stage I wondered whether he had gone to that mysterious chess nirvana – Wyldland.) However, Hayley (sorry – don’t know her surname) did show up to assist. In addition to being an extra, enthusiastic, pair of hands, she added some glamour and brought our average age down considerably.

We were set up in good time, and once we’d finished Ben put in an appearance. (Better late than never…) At this stage Andy gave me my badge. Frankly, I was surprised that I was a controller, but having given the matter some thought, it is clear that Andy couldn’t get “Table Shifter, Setter-Upper & General Factotum” on a reasonably-sized badge. He’d obviously been on that training course about valuing employees, by giving them an important-sounding title and a badge. However, he didn’t fool me, cos I’ve done that course too.

As people appeared, my newfound status seemed to amuse one or two. (Well rather more than that – Colin, John, Rob, Steve Wylie, Stan Parsons, Andy Carter all spring to mind, to name but a few.) It also became clear that the badge made me a lightning conductor – on Friday evening, I received volleys from people about the lack of signage on the front of the building (fair enough) and the roadworks (not a lot I can do about that, folks). For the first round, we’d made a faux pas in that all the clocks were set to 80 minutes rather 100 minutes. I’ll plead a Nuremberg defence – we were just obeying orders, weren’t we Andy?

There was some interesting chess on the Friday night. Although I spent the majority of the time in the Minor room over the weekend, on Friday night I saw some of the game on the top board, where Mark Hebden was playing. He didn’t seem completely focused initially, and Mr. Morley noted fairly early on that that a win wasn’t going to be routine. (I wouldn't have dared venturing any opinion from where I stand in the chess food-chain.) In fact the game finished as a draw, making the Open section interesting for the rest of the weekend.

In the Minor section, there were good wins for Colin and John (who readers will remember I tipped weeks ago.) Ray used the majority of the available time, but lost to a higher-rated opponent. (Rob had originally been scheduled to play, but had taken a late half-point bye so as not to intrude on his busy social life.)

On Saturday morning after the first half an hour I bailed out to have a mosey around the fleshpots of sunny Leicester. After lunching, I returned to find that there was still one Minor game going on – surprise, surprise, it was Colin Ross. As noted in his blog, he spawned the most amazing win. Saturday afternoon saw both Colin and John drawing, in wildly differing circumstances. Colin agreed something verging on a Grandmaster draw, to keep his powder dry for Sunday, whilst John had ground out a small advantage in an endgame. It was the sort of situation that that you’d bet your house on John, but on inexact move led to the game ending in a draw. Ray, having lost in the morning, had a full point bye in the afternoon.

I turned up rather tardily on the Sunday morning, having taken the opportunity of going for a long run first (healthy body, healthy mind – I hope). At this point, it was clear that the Heathcote challenge for the Minor was hitting the buffers. Both Colin and John lost. John’s opponent, one of the eventual winners, rather comprehensively beat him up, and John tipped her as the winner. Frankly, I can’t remember what happened to Colin. Rob won again - being the last match in the Minors to finish, to get to 3 points. Unfortunately Ray lost again.

The other highlight of Sunday morning was seeing my fellow controller Ben resplendent in a white outfit looking, for all the world, like a walking advertisement for Persil or Daz. (Important! Other soap powders are available.) I was called into action by one of the younger competitors who needed help in opening his water bottle. I was also called into action to reset clocks – unfortunately, I cocked that up on one occasion, by moving one of the player’s clock to twenty to rather than twenty-five to. What a pillock. I also took an interest in the end of that game, as there was a time scramble, with the win occurring with less than 1 minute remaining. After the game, one of the spectators (no name, no pack-drill) took me to task for not intervening as he felt that the player short on time wasn’t playing fair, but his opponent didn’t complain, and I didn’t believe that there was clock abuse.

The final round of the Minor produced a win for John but losses for everyone else from the Heathcote. As a result Rob missed out on third place. Ray had the (dubious) honour of being the last game in the whole tournament to finish, his grindfest against Paul Martin finishing with Ray resigning very shortly after Rajan’s game in the other hall finished.

Roll on 2012…

HA2 Draw at home to Melton

2011-10-07T07:55:00.000+01:00

Peter the President Reports

Can't give you an exact recollection as i was too engrossed in losing against Alan Jex. I was three pawns up but after playing really well i ran out of time . He had offered me a draw earlier but he was the said three pawns down . Rob had too many horses in his stable so he gave one away . John won comfortably, i think. Ray and his opponent were at Julian Clarys nightclub , queens all over the place ! In the end 2-2 and an apology from your captain.

Pete

Red Admiral (2) 4-0 Heathcote Arms (3)

2011-10-06T19:34:00.001+01:00

Welcome to Gordon who played his first competetive game for us. The best performance of the night was from Gary, who, although material down, put up a decent fight against Amber.

Michael started well, and had some well placed pieces, but overlooked an attack in the centre of the board and then had cause to regret not having castled.

Drew played against Peter, a new player for the Red Admiral with an Eastern European accent. Most of the time that Peter had used on his clock was from forgetting to hit the clock - he used hardly any thinking time at all. He might turn out to be a smidge stronger than 80.

On the night, Gordon was outplayed by Andy, but did fine with the clock and recording the moves.

05 Oct		Red Admiral 2		v	Heathcote Arms 3
				4 - 0
1	B	110	Carter, Andy	1 - 0	Milner, Gordon	100
2	W	102	Carter, Amber	1 - 0	Sanders, Gary	50
3	B	80	Barabas, Peter	1 - 0	Bubb, Andrew	40
4	W	80	Brown, Matthew	1 - 0	Bubb, Michael	36

Our next match is on Tuesday 11th. The handbook says that this is a home match, but, in fact, it will be played at Syston.

Well done everyone.

Colin.

ATKINS 2011 - THE RISE AND FALL OF COLIN

2011-10-05T07:16:00.025+01:00

The first surprise of the weekend was that Haka Dave was at the Atkins. The second surprise of the weekend was that he was wearing a badge with the word 'Controller' on it. I will not steal his thunder, but leave Dave to describe his experiences in a separate blog. If anyone else wants to e-mail me any info about their weekend at the Leicester Chess Congress, i will post it here, too.

Round 1

Terry Adcock Vs Colin

My kingside was looking vulnerable and my pieces were not very active. My b pawn was under threat from the white Rook. Time to do something, but the b pawn also needs to be protected. 18...Qa3 gets the queen out and also indirectly defends the pawn, but Terry missed this and played 19 Rxb7. Then i played 19...Qa6+ winning the rook. The game went on for another 33 moves. I had to skip around some stalemate tricks later on, but the damage was done. 1 point out of 1.

Round 2

Mick Harper Vs Colin

This game almost went to the full four hours. In this position, i had just offered my opponent a draw and had that declined. At this time, I had two minutes left on the clock and my opponent had ten. Both pawns were Rook pawns and there was no way that either of us would have been able to promote them. If anyone is better then it is me with the black pieces, but even then all white has to do is get his king in front of the pawn. White now blew it completely with Rh6 - putting the rook on the wrong square and then releasing it. My opponent had meant to play Rh5+, but instead gifted me his rook - and then, realising what he had done, resigned. 2 points out of 2. Things are going well.

Round 3

Colin Vs Gavin Hart

In the afternoon, i was placed on board 1 with the white pieces against Gavin Hart - the eventual joint winner of the Minor tournament. Gavin's bishops and queen had been giving me some hassle for a while, but, so far, i had been able to deal with this and pick up an extra couple of pawns. I was by now, however, extremely tired (weekend congresses are endurance events as much as anything else) and conscious that i might very well make a mistake, so i offered my opponent a draw. This was accepted. Two and a half points out of three put me in a very good position at the end of the Saturday.

Round 4

Colin Vs John McKeon

On Sunday morning, the leaderboard had seven of us all on two and a half points - very close.
With the white pieces, 25 Rh4?? (intending to double up on the h-file) allowed 25...Bg3 forking my two rooks. Disaster. Two and a half points out of four.

Round 5

Andy Collins Vs Colin

By now, i was playing down on board 6. I was in trouble almost from the start. I carried on, however, until this truly horrible position was reached when resigning was definitely the least painful thing to do.

The final result for me was two and a half points out of five - about what i usually get, but, after a great start on the Friday and Saturday, i had been hoping for more.

Colin

Minor Section Of The County Championship

2011-09-24T10:05:00.002+01:00

At Wigston on Thursday, Ray & I played each other in the sixth round of the Minor Section. At the beginning of the evening, the situation was that I had 2/4 and Ray had 3/4 with two rounds to go. There was a chance that Ray could still catch Roy Lathwood who had a perfect record, but still has to play Ray.

I checked my games database and I hadn’t played Ray competitively, although we know each other well from casual games on club nights. When Ray and I met up to travel to Wigston, the sainted Mrs B. reminded us “boys” we shouldn’t fall out whatever the result.

Cue the music – Dum, dum, dummm…. Dum, dum, dummm. (That Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”, in case you can’t beat the intro.)

Slightly naughtily (and completely falsely), I had suggested to Raymondov on the way I had spent the day studying openings against e4, but he didn’t fall for that and opened e4 anyway. I tried playing the Silician, on the basis that a symmetrical game would be grist to Ray’s mill. As at the Swallow Inn last time out, this wasn’t frankly a success and in a handful of moves that fine judge Fritz has White more than a pawn up. Then Ray blundered on move 17 when he gifted me a bishop, although his move immediately follows a Black move that is also granted the imfamous??. At this point, an audience has assembled – there were only a very small number of games going on and Messrs Manger & Ross both appeared to watch how it isn’t done – I assume that they were in need of a laugh, and there was no comedy on the telly.
On move 22, Ray got the piece back as a result of him spotting my Bishop was overloaded. Following this, my King came under a serious assault, and the situation looks dire. (Evoke Churchillian rhetoric – We will never surrender…) Fortunately, once again, some scrambling defence allows me to hold out, and then on move 28 Ray blundered again and allowed me to skewer his Rook against his Queen with my Bishop. At that point Ray had some time left, but got so engrossed in trying to find a solution that he allowed his clock to run down, enabling a win on time to be claimed.

I think truthfully Ray had a bit of an off-night, and the chess maxim that the winner is the player who makes the second last blunder applied here in spades.

The result means that Roy Lathwood is the winner of the Minor section, as he now can’t be caught. Ray & Roy still have to play, and theoretically I need to arrange a game with the Elusive Mr. Wyld, who didn’t show up (again) for his game with Paul Martin.

Below is the game with Fritz added notation and comments, although I have removed some of the variations.

Beach, Ray - Ricketts, Dave [B50]Leicestershire County Championships Minor Section Rd 6 Wigston, 22.09.2011B50: Sicilian: 2...d6, Miscellaneous 1.e2-e4 c7-c5 2.Nb1-c3 d7-d6 3.Ng1-f3 g7-g6 “last book move” 4.Bf1-c4 e7-e6 5.0-0 Bf8-g7 6.d2-d4 Bc8-d7 7.Bc1-f4 Qd8-c7? At this point Fritz notes “Black is behind in development.” As Basil Fawlty would say this is a statement of the bleeding obvious! 8.Rf1-e1 c5xd4 9.Nc3-b5 Bd7xb5 10.Bc4xb5+ Nb8-c6 11.e4-e5 0-0-0 12.e5xd6+- Qc7-b6 13.Qd1-d3 Ng8-f6 14.Nf3-g5 Rh8-f8 15.a2-a4 h7-h6 16.Ng5-e4 g6-g5?? [16...Nf6xe4 17.Re1xe4 e6-e5+/=] 17.Bf4-e5?? “throws away the game [17.a4-a5 finishes off the opponent]” 17...Nc6xe5-+ 18.Qd3-a3 Nf6xe4 19.Re1xe4 Rd8xd6 [19...Qb6xd6 “seems even better” 20.Qa3-g3-+] 20.Ra1-d1 [20.Ra1-e1 “doesn't get the cat off the tree” – A real Fritzism (presumably this a a literal translation of a German phrase for getting out of the guano) 20...Ne5-g6-+] 20...a7-a5 [20...Rf8-d8!? “and Black can already relax”] 21.Rd1-e1 [21.c2-c4 “does not save the day” 21...Qb6-c7 22.b2-b4-+ ] 21...Rd6-d5 [21...Ne5-g6-+ “and Black takes home the point”] 22.Re4xe5-/+ Rd5xe5 23.Re1xe5 Qb6-d8 [23...Kc8-b8!?-/+] 24.Re5-c5+= Kc8-b8 25.Qa3-b3 [25.Qa3-g3+!? “should be investigated more closely” 25...Kb8-a8 26.Bb5-e2= ] 25...Qd8-b6=/+ 26.Qb3-c4?? [26.Qb3-g3+ “was a good chance to save the game”] 26...Rf8-d8-+ 27.b2-b4 a5xb4 28.Qc4xb4 [28.a4-a5 “the only chance to get some counterplay” 28...Qb6xa5 29.Qc4-d3-+] 28...Bg7-f8 [28...Bg7-f8 29.Rc5-c8+ Rd8xc8-+ ] 0-1
There won’t be a club night on Tuesday, as there is the League Presentation Evening and Charity Quick-Play on Wednesday night at Syston, where we are picking up two trophies, which I reckon is 18% of those presented to teams – a good result for a club of our size. It is a good night, and the Quick-Play (15 minute games) is a giant time scramble, but fun to take part in.

There will also be a reasonable contingent of Heathcote players at the Atkins Congress next weekend, so if you have a couple of hours to spare and you want to see some good players, come down and you can observe some very strong players in action at the top of the Open Section.

Then week-commencing 3rd October the new League season for 2011-12 starts.

End of Summer / Start of New Season News

2011-09-14T21:27:00.001+01:00

We had a fairly exclusive club night on Tuesday - just five of us. Not for the first time recently, Haka Dave was both mysterious and absent.

The Open section of the County Championships reaches its conclusion this Thursday at Wigston. John Denton (4/6) plays Alan Byron (4/6) and our own Graham Sharpe (4/6) plays Paul Colburn (3/6).

Next Tuesday, there will not be a club night as Ray and Dave will be playing, on Thursday, at Wigston in the Counties (according to the schedule, against each other. Ray with the white pieces). Depending on how well Roy Lathwood does in his last two games, Ray and Dave could still be in contention.

This year's LRCA Prize Giving ceremony and Charity Rapidplay will be at Syston on Wednesday 28th. Great fun, but maybe a little too much chess for one week if you are playing in the Atkins too.

The (Atkins) Leicester Chess Congress (www.leicesterchess.co.uk) begins on Friday 30th September and finishes on Sunday 2nd October and will be held at Regent College. I will be there with The Grinder, Graham B, Raymondov and maybe some others. Rob, i think, is torn between this and a literary festival somewhere. This is a good weekend and i always say that it is worth showing up just for the bookstall. Steve Wylie, in fact, probably will show up just for the bookstall.

Cyril Johnson is organising a team rapidplay. This was set for 24th September in Rearsby, but has now been postponed. When i hear any news, i will write something here.

During the first week of the new season, all three of our teams will be in action. Stand by your telephones.

HA2 play at home against Melton 3 on Tuesday 4th October.
HA3 play away against Red Admiral 2 on Wednesday 5th October.
HA1 play away against Ashby 1 on Thursday 6th October.

Colin

RICKETTS-LED HARROD CUP TEAM ALMOST WINS AGAIN – BUT DOESN’T

2011-09-09T15:15:00.001+01:00

For our last Harrod Cup fixture of the summer, we were away at the Swallow Inn. Both teams were marooned in mid-table, so it was a fairly meaningless fixture. Despite trying to rope in some of our less-strong players, due to circumstances, I was forced to pick myself.

Having previously talked up John Manger, the Grinder picked this match to lose his first rapidplay game of the season. This was in his second game against Bob Collins. The first game had finished in some controversy, in that John had mated Bob, but then Bob had claimed a draw on time, as John had hit the clock. This wasn’t disputed at the time, but well-lubricated discussion in the bar afterwards amongst ourselves, and a brief reading of the LRCA Handbook FIDE information, indicate that the game ended at the point of the completion of the mating move, so the draw claim wasn’t valid. (Where are Sean or Cyril when you actually need them?) If the match mattered, then we might have made an issue of this, but as we were consigned to mid-table mediocrity win, lose or draw there is no point.

Ray (Comrade) Beach obviously felt the benefit of his trip to Russia and, with considerable aplomb, dispatched his opponent twice in short order. (It might, however, be that he was taking his frustrations over the non-appearance of his opponent on Tuesday for a re-arranged County Championships game.)

Colin found his opponent Mick Busby too strong, and failed to make any contribution to the scoreboard.

I won my first game, playing white, and found that my second game was the match decider. Playing Black I made an absolute pig’s ear of my Sicilian opening, and found myself with a centralised King and both bishops on their original squares and still blocked in by the b, d, e & g pawns quite a long way into the game. If it had been a standard play game I would probably have resigned, but in the first game my opponent had got himself into time trouble and then blundered, so I continued to hope. I improved my position by swapping off Queens and then a Bishop. Eventually I went a piece up, but at the expense of a passed pawn on the seventh rank. My extra piece was pinned to the King, and as the clocks ticked down, my opponent repeated the position twice and then we agreed a draw. Thus the match was drawn. As this was the final game (and my opponent had recorded the moves) the game opening & ending was subject to some analysis. I think I am unable to disagree with Paul Deacon’s comment that I ought to have been “creamed”.

Bob Collins (“119”/ 120) – John Manger (“122”/UG) ½ - ½, 1-0
Mick Busby (“122”/122) – Colin Ross (“102”/93) 1-0, 1-0
Gavin Hart (“120”/U/G) – Dave Ricketts (“98”/96) 0-1, ½ - ½
Michael Adams (“86”/86) – Ray Beach (“85”/85) 0-1, 0-1

Overall Result 4-4

Given that under the grading rules we were out graded by 40 points this was a good result.

In the bar, we got a text from Graham Booley indicating that the Wylie Cup side had been successful at Wigston, thereby retaining the trophy. (See report below.)

On a TripAdvisor front I thought that the Swallow Inn was a very good venue, but if they are selling cheap beer (Titanic @ £2 a pint) apparently you should avoid this!

There will be a Club night on Tuesday. Hopefully, there will be a reasonable turnout. We need to get practising, as the season is less than 4 weeks away.

The Return of Raj Clinches Wylie Cup Victory

2011-09-09T14:38:00.013+01:00

In a tense final match a double from Rajan and 1.5 from Mike helped us retain the Wylie cup.

Although a draw would have given us the title on tiebreak over Melton it was better to do it with a win.

Martin Burrows was too strong for Graham in their 2 games and Dave took the inevitable 2 draws against Dodds (although Dave says he was completely lost in the 1st when Iain agreed the draw).

Rajan managed to hold his nerve in the 1st game, an easy pawn up throughout, it came down to a knight and pawn ending with both players seconds left and Phil cracked first taking the knights off to allow both players to Queen but Rajans King was next to Phil's pawns and there was no perpetual available - win for Rajan, his 2nd win was a more straight forward win.

Both Mike's games went to the wire as usual although he was always winning his first, going a pawn up early on and just slowly pushing home his advantage, a draw was agreed in his second game, with 6 and 4 seconds left on the clocks.

So, well done everyone and we now look forward to the new season.

08 Sep	Wigston 1		W - B	B - W	Heathcote Arms 1
			3½ - 4½
1	193	Burrows, Martin	1 - 0	1 - 0	Sharpe, Graham	188
2	153	Dodds, Iain	½ - ½	½ - ½	Bray, Dave	168
3	145	Harlow, Phil	0 - 1	0 - 1	Ganger, Rajan	163
4	131	Pike, Andrew	½ - ½	0 - 1	Cowley, Michael	153

Graham Booley

County Championships and Plans for Next Week

2011-09-01T20:03:00.001+01:00

County Championship (Open)

Graham Sharpe, 4/5, is in joint first position alongside Alan Byron and John Denton with one round to play. In the last round, Graham (with the white pieces) plays Paul Colburn; and John Denton and Alan Byron play each other.

Also in the Open section are:
Rajan 2.5/4
Sean 2/5
Graham B 2/4
The sixth and final round of the Open is on 15th September, although games may take place on different mutually agreed dates. Sean and Graham B play each other in round 6.

County Championship (Major)
On Tuesday at the Heathcote, i was eventually able to take the full point from Guy Closs in my last Counties Game of the Summer (77 moves ending in checkmate with only seconds left on the clock).
This leaves me with 4/6. Leading the competition is Bob Collins with 4/5 and Matt Wilson to play. A draw or better against Matt secures the silverware for Bob. A loss for Bob would result in a play off with me and possibly one or more of the following:
David Reynolds 3/5, Jez Wells 2/4, Matt Wilson 2/4
Guy and Brian Slater are now out of the running.

County Championship (Minor)
Roy Lathwood is running away with this with 4/4.
Haka Dave is second on the table with 2/4 (Dave's earlier win against Dennis Wilkins no longer counts since Dennis withdrew from the competition).
Raymondov is third on the table with 2/3.

Next Week / Upcoming Matches

Raymondov plays Nick Wyld in their County Champs fixture at the Heathcote Arms. There is unlikely to be a club night as most of us will be doing things later in the week.
Heathcote Arms (Harrod Cup Team) plays away against the Swallow Inn on Thursday 8th September.
Heathcote Arms (Wylie Cup Team) plays away against Wigston, also on Thursday 8th, in what hopefully will be a successful defence of the title.

Good luck everyone,

Colin

County Championship Update 25th August

2011-08-26T07:14:00.000+01:00

Thursday night saw my best win in a quite a while:
Ross,Colin - Slater,Brian

County Champs (Major) Leicester, 25.08.2011

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Nge2 Nc6 6.a3 Bxc3+ 7.bxc3 Nf6 8.Nf4 Qd8 9.Bb5 Bd7 10.0–0 0–0 11.Bd3 e5 12.Nh5 exd4 13.Bg5 h6 14.Nxf6+ gxf6 15.Qh5 Ne5 16.Qxh6 Nxd3 17.Bxf6 Qxf6 18.Qxf6 Nc5 19.Qg5+ 1–0

We were finished in under an hour.

Haka Dave won his game against Ben Vaughan a couple of minutes later.

The Grinder came down to Wigston to watch and was so engrossed in the games that we were unable to catch his eye when we left.

Raymondov is currently on tour in Russia.

On Tuesday, there will definitely be a club night and i will be playing my last Counties game against Guy Closs.

Colin

Hold the Front Page - A Ricketts-captained Team Actually Wins

2011-08-17T15:12:00.004+01:00

Last night we played against Syston 2 in the Harrod Cup. Having managed to beat Syston 1 8-0 previously (albeit without any "assistance" from me), it was a fixture that we had reasonable hopes of winning, even allowing for me picking myself.

On the top board our main man John Manger played Stuart Hollinworth, and bagged two points. John has really turned into Mr. Dependable this Summer, and I am off to William Hill after finishing this blog to put a few quid on him for the 2012 David Ward Memorial Trophy. Stuart said that (at least with regard to the second game) John always had the edge. I played Judith Mitton. In the first game, playing White, I completely messed up the opening, and having castled in opposite directions, I found myself the exchange down. However, my opponent soon found herself in time trouble, and by the point when her flag dropped, I had a pawn on her seventh rank. In the second game, Judith dropped a piece early on to a pawn fork, and then later dropped a bishop too. I then, without any subtlety or finesse, removed her pawns and pushed my pawns forward, to win. Ray played Reg Agger, and won his first game, although I can't provide any information. He lost his second game after dropping his Queen. Gary picked up his first rapid-play win in his first game, but his opponent repaid the compliment in the return. Well done to Gary on that milestone.

John Manger (U/G) - Stuart Hollinworth (104) 1-0, 1-0
Dave Ricketts (96) - Judith Mitton (86) 1-0, 1-0
Ray Beach (85) - Reg Agger (U/G) 0-1, 1-0
Gary Sanders (U/G) - Rob Mundy (U/G) 1-0, 0-1

Final Score 6-2.

Unfortunately, we had to play in the Bar, due to the presence of the Women's Institute and the Royal British Legion.

Also down was Sean Hewitt, to play Paul Colburn in the County Championships. He lost....

Mo Martin, who was non-playing Captain of Syston, gave John the sobriquet of "The Grinder". Maybe that is what chess needs - a bit of razzamatazz. Suggestions for other names for club members gratefully received.

It is unlikely that there be a club night next week, as some of us are engaged in the unequal struggle that is the County Championships, others are gadding about, and I don't think the Wylie Cup side are in action.

County Champs (Major) - Ross Vs Collins

2011-08-16T19:32:00.001+01:00

Last night, i played a County Champs (Major Section) game against Bob Collins.
With the white pieces, i had decided on the plan of attacking like crazy. In this position, i played 8 Bxf7+ following this up with the knight check and some threats against the King and Queen.

In this position, i played 15 Qf7+. This was blocked by Qe7 and then a couple of moves later the king escaped over to c7 where i was unable to reach it and, with things looking like they might be turning to Bob's advantage, we agreed a draw.

In the diagram below, Fritz gives 15 Nf7 Qf8, 16 d4 as being enough to win the point (i am not so sure though).

This result leaves me with 2 points from 4 games with two to play.

Bob now has three points from four games, and David Reynolds (we think) has 2.5 points from three games.

Tonight, there is a Harrod Cup match at the Heathcote against Syston 2.

Good luck chaps,

Colin.

Another Great Wylie Victory

2011-08-10T12:16:00.000+01:00

Graham B Reports

Last night's result. Sorry, I didn't have chance to see the other games apart from John's last ditch win, so I can't give any comment.

This win puts us a top of Wylie cup, 1 point clear with Wigston to play on 8th September.

09 Aug	Heathcote Arms 1		W - B	B - W	Braunstone 1
			5 - 3
1	188	Sharpe, Graham	½ - ½	½ - ½	Salisbury, Michael	178
2	153	Cowley, Michael	0 - 1	½ - ½	Colburn, Paul	158
3	137	Booley, Graham	1 - 0	1 - 0	Bingham, James	140
4	122	Manger, John	½ - ½	1 - 0	Wells, Jeremy	136

Colin Reports

Well done to our first team for their performance above. A great result against a strong Braunstone 1.

In the Harrod Cup, we have been drawn at home against Syston 2. Haka Dave has offered Syston a choice of dates of Tuesday 16th August and Tuesday 23rd August - the rules of the competition dictate that they must accept one of these. The chances of being able to get a friendly game at the Heathcote Arms on either of these two nights is high.

Over the next couple of weeks, there will also be some County Championship activity at Wigston with the Open section competing in round 5 on Thursday 18th August (with Graham Sharpe still top of the leaderboard), and the rest of us competing on Thursday 25th August.

Well done everyone,

Colin.

Another Ricketts-Led Harrod Loss

2011-08-03T15:16:00.002+01:00

Last night we played Hinckley in the Harrod. Unfortunately we lost...

Graham Booley volunteered as Board 1 (as Pete Harrison was being all artistic) and played Peter Gibbs, and despite putting up a good fight lost both his encounters. The one very bright spot was John Manger, who beat Jason Smith on both occasions. I played Barry Bailey, and was comprehensively outplayed in the first game, when I was Black. In the return, I went a piece up early on, and after we repeated the position three times, neither Barry nor I claimed the draw. For me it was subsequently proved a mistake, but at 3-1 down at half-time, I felt there was no real choice but to play on. Ray and Terry Clay won one each.

Graham Booley (137) - Peter Gibbs (168) 0-1, 0-1
John Manger (122) - Jason Smith (126) 1-0, 1-0
Dave Ricketts (98) - Barry Bailey (92) 0-1, 0-1
Ray Beach (85) - Terry Clay (95) 0-1, 1-0

I might be getting a phobia, but we've had three Harrod Cup fixtures, and in two we've been beaten. The fixture I wasn't there for, the side won.

There was a good turn out with Bubbs Major & Minor, Gary & Gordon turning up.

On Tuesday the serious players have a Wylie Cup match (and John Manger has won a well-earned promotion to that side after his 4-0 Record in the Harrod), and Ray & I are coming to play some beer chess and watch the experts. So there will be a club night.

Update on the County Championships

2011-07-29T14:55:00.002+01:00

Last night Ray & I played in the County Champs Minor Section. Ray won with a neat mate against Ben Vaughan, and I lost to Toby Hoch. I never felt I got started, but my Silicon Buddy Fritz suggests that things were pretty level to Move 25 ish, when I instituted an unsound Exchange Sacrifice.

Tuesday we've got a Harrod Cup match vs Hinckley at the Arms and possibly some casual chess.

New Grades

2011-07-24T21:29:00.002+01:00

The new grades have been issued today.
From now on, the ECF will be producing grades twice a year with the next ones appearing in January.

The full online grading database, where you check the grades of individuals or whole clubs can be found at

http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/

Ref	Name	Age	Category	Standard	Previous	Change
263015B	Beach, Ray		A	105	90	+15
106989F	Booley, Graham M		A	147	153	-6
107208A	Bray, Dave J		B	170	168	+2
283532A	Bubb, Andrew D		E	40
282104H	Bubb, Michael A	15	E	36
108975E	Cowley, Michael H		B	159	156	+3
263024C	Ensor, Rob		B	128	139	-11
161682B	Ganger, Rajan		A	173	167	+6
112216C	Harrison, Peter K		B	149	138	+11
112575J	Hewitt, Sean D		A	158	156	+2
250159E	Manger, John D		C	119	122	-3
263017F	Ricketts, Dave C		C	93	99	-6
272934K	Ross, Colin		A	118	102	+16
283533C	Sanders, Gary		E	50
118781J	Sharpe, Graham J		B	181	192	-11

Colin

County Championship Update

2011-07-22T14:15:00.000+01:00

Graham B Reports:

Draws all round for Heathcote contingent in county champs last night for Sean, Rajan and Graham Booley.

Sean had a straight forward draw, he tried to counteract Phil Harlow's usual prep by playing something new, The centre game, but it still calmly went down to opposite coloured bishops and a draw was agreed.

Rajan won the exchange against John Robinson, but Johns bishop pair were strong enough to hold out against Rajan's Rook and knight and the draw was agreed.

I had a first!! in my game against Mick Tate, draw by mutual consent due to injury/illness, Mick suddenly jumped up from the board and limped out the room with cramp, he thought it might be something worse so an ambulance was called and then cancelled as he felt better, by this time we had agreed to call it a draw. I think I was slightly better and about take a pawn on A5 which would have made for an interesting game.

Some shocks in other games as Martin Burrows and Phil Horspool both lost.

All games should be available on the LRCA website.

Some bad news; Rajan, having moved to Northamptonshire, will not be playing for us next season. We wish him luck and will miss his entertaining games.

This will leave the 1st team short on strength so if anyone knows any players 160ish looking to change teams and want to play board 2 or 3 in 2nd division let them know we have a vacancy!!

Graham

The Grass Arena

2011-07-20T20:20:00.000+01:00

Graham B Reports:

Graham Sharpe has already played his round four match in the county champs and beat top seed Ilian Mladenov with the white pieces, the game is available on the LRCA website http://www.lrca.org.uk/lrca/cc2011/open.html

He now shares the lead with Alan Byron on 3.5. They will meet in round 5.

Colin Reports:

We had another good turnout for club night on Tuesday. There will not be one next week, on Tuesday 26th, however, as quite a few of us will be competing in the County Championships at Wigston on 28th July.

The following week, Tuesday, August 2nd, we play at home in the Harrod Cup against Hinckley and there may also be the opportunity of some casual games.

The Atkins 2011 (Leicester Chess Congress)

Details of this year's Leicester Chess Congress are now online at:
http://www.leicesterchess.co.uk/

Our club is always wells represented amongst the competitors, and we have been known to win prizes.

The Grass Arena

The grass arena - the 1991 film based on the autobiography of John Healy - has now appeared on You Tube in 6x15 minute sections. The film details Healy's descent in alcoholism and violence in the parks of London, before he discovers a considerable talent for violence over the chess board. The chess begins in part 4 when he learns to play whilst in prison. Whilst there is not actually very much chess in the book, there is loads in the film. Well worth a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DekQDNXdneA

Well done everyone

Colin

Quiet Spell

2011-07-14T06:36:00.001+01:00

We are going through a bit of a quiet spell at the moment. On Tuesday, we had a club night with a decent turnout, but there are no actual matches this week.

Next week there will definitely be a club night on Tuesday (so come down if you can), and the two Grahams, Sean, and Rajan compete in the Open section of the County Championship on Thursday.

There will be a home match in the Harrod Cup against Hinckley at some point before 3rd August.

The next match for HA1 will be in the Wylie at home against Braunstone 1. Date to be confirmed.

New grades will be out by the end of the month. They should appear on the gradings page on this site automatically - but as soon as i know about them, i will write something here.

Colin

Another Wylie Win

2011-07-07T19:59:00.001+01:00

Graham B Reports:

Another 2 out of 2 for Mike (down to last seconds again) helps us see off a weakened Melton team. thankfully Graham Lee and John Denton were both unavailable for the opposition.

This win puts us at the top of the Wylie cup table.

05 Jul	Heathcote Arms 1		W - B	B - W	Melton Mowbray 1
			5 - 3
1	188	Sharpe, Graham	1 - 0	½ - ½	Billingham, John	165
2	168	Bray, Dave	½ - ½	½ - ½	Reynolds, Tom	164
3	153	Cowley, Michael	1 - 0	1 - 0	Wallace, Robert	147
4	137	Booley, Graham	0 - 1	½ - ½	Jex, Alan	139

On Tuesday, we also had a decent turnout for some friendlies.

Next week there are no organised matches and no County Championship activity, so we should have a busy club night. We will not have Haka Dave, however, as he has a date.

Colin

County Champs

2011-07-01T08:57:00.000+01:00

A good evening for Heathcote Arms players in the lower sections of the County Championship:

Dave maulled Dennis Wilkins; i drew with David Reynolds; and Ray swindled a win from Paul Martin, having earlier dropped his queen.

The position below comes from Ross Vs Reynolds:

In this position, i played 34 Nxg5 not really knowing if it was the right thing to do. Fritz, however, gave this move a ! The game continued: 34...Nxg5+, 35 Kxf4 Nh3+, 36 Kg3 Ng5, 37 f4 Ne4+ (Fritz now gives black a slight edge), 38 Kh4 Kc7 (black with a stronger edge), 39 g5 Kd7 and a draw was agreed in this position:

After 35 Nh3+, Fritz gave the better continuation: 36 Kf5 Kc7, 37 g5 Kd6 with white having the better of it.

After our games, John Manger appeared and we all watched the Byron Vs Morley game, from board 1 in the Championship section, in what turned out to be a superb display in endgame technique.

Alan Byron with two bishops and a king, promoting his last pawn to a knight to avoid stalemate and Andy Morley trying every trick in the book (and some not in the book) to force a draw and almost succeeding many times over. This game will be well worth a look when it appears later on the County Championship site http://www.e2e4.org.uk/countychamps/2011/open.htm

Next week, back at the Arms, HA1 play in the Wylie, and some beer chess for the rest of us.

Well done everyone,

Colin.

Defeat at Syston for our First Birstall Cup Team

2011-07-01T08:54:00.001+01:00

Owing to an organisational hiccough our team arrived at Syston a player short.

28 Jun		Syston 1		v	Heathcote Arms 1
				3 - 2½
1	W	?	Galligan, Brian	1 - 0	Ensor, Rob	139
2	B	135	Pourmozafari, Ben	0 - 1	Manger, John	122
3	W	129	Johnson, Cyril	1 - 0	DEFAULT	?
4	B	109	Gist, Elizabeth	1 - 0	Beach, Ray	90

Ray reports: I commited all the mistakes that are possible on a chess board and lost badly to Liz Gist, John won against Ben Pourmozafari, and Rob had a great game, but lost in the end after two and a half hours.

Three Matches in One Night

2011-06-25T14:51:00.000+01:00

Heathcote Arms (Chapman/Birstall 2) Vs Kirby Castlers 1.
The evening did not start well as i forgot to collect Dave on the way to the club and then had to tear down the road to Narborough to pick him up and be back for the start of our match.
These two teams were very evenly matched on grade. A total of only 14 points difference in Kirby's favour meant that there was no handicap bonus. Kirby won the toss and opted for white on the even boards. Michael had appeared to open well and quickly had a knight fork on his opponent's rook and queen. He took his eye off his defence, however, and was mated soon afterwards. Drew lasted rather longer. In a completely lost position, but continuing to play anyway, i almost fell off my chair when John Walker offered me a draw - Needless to say i accepted. Equal on material, Haka Dave's game was completely closed. Having had his offer of a draw refused, Dave shortly afterwards claimed one anyway under the threefold repetition rule.

21 Jun		Heathcote Arms 2		v	Kirby Muxloe 1
				1 - 3
1	W	102	Ross, Colin	½ - ½	Walker, John	115
2	B	99	Ricketts, Dave	½ - ½	Hill, Eddie	100
3	W	80	Bubb, Andrew	0 - 1	Kellock, Jim	80
4	B	60	Bubb, Michael	0 - 1	Gonzaga, Edda	60

Heathcote Arms (Wylie) Vs The Swallow Inn (aka Scraptoft Valley)

A good win for our Wylie Cup side.

21 Jun	Heathcote Arms 1		W - B	B - W	Swallow Inn 1
			5 - 3
1	188	Sharpe, Graham	0 - 1	½ - ½	Burgess, Ray	177
2	168	Bray, Dave	1 - 0	1 - 0	Deacon, Paul	159
3	153	Cowley, Michael	1 - 0	1 - 0	Tate, Michael	154
4	137	Booley, Graham	½ - ½	0 - 1	Graf, Roland	143

Heathcote Arms (Harrod) Vs Syston
With a total of 497 grade points in a competition where the maximum grade limit is 500, this was a strong Harrod Cup side, but was only slightly stronger than that of the Syston, the host team. An 8-0 victory was an excellent result for us and will compensate a bit on the cup table for our 7.5-0.5 point defeat against Wigston in the first round.

21 Jun	Syston 1		W - B	B - W	Heathcote Arms 1
			0 - 8
1	137	Johnson, Cyril	0 - 1	0 - 1	Harrison, Peter	151
2	114	Stone, Robert	0 - 1	0 - 1	Ensor, Rob	139
3	109	Gist, Elizabeth	0 - 1	0 - 1	Manger, John	122
4	100	Martin, Maurice	0 - 1	0 - 1	Beach, Ray	85

Well done everyone.

Next Tuesday, there is unlikely to be a club night as our first Chapman team competes away at Syston, and several of the regulars will be competing in the County Championships at Wigston on the Thursday. There will, definitely, however, be some activity at the arms on Tuesday 5th July as HA1 compete at home, and there will certainly be a club night.

Colin.

Club Night and Plans for Next Week

2011-06-15T20:51:00.001+01:00

Last night we had seven regular players along at the Arms for some friendlies. We were also joined by Gordon who used to play club chess some years ago and saw the website. Pete also popped in for a chat later in the evening.

Tuesday 21st is going to be busy as we have HA1 playing at home in the Wylie, HA3 playing at home in the Birstall, and Dave and HA2 playing at Syston in the Harrod. Gordon is also going to come back.

If we have any other readers out there who fancy a friendly game of chess or would like to come and see what we get up to, come down on Tuesday. This time of year seems to be when we attract most of our new players. With a bit of practice over the summer, there is no reason why any new players could not be competing in one of our teams come the new season in October.

Our first Birstall Cup side plays away at Syston on the 28th.

Colin

Chess on Radio 4

2011-06-13T15:07:00.003+01:00

I have noticed that the Radio 4 Afternoon Play on Thursday at 1415 is a docu-drama about the Polgar sisters. The Sunday Times listings say that the play is about how they became "pawn stars"(!!) - I like my puns but that is a bit much.

Club Night and Approaching Cup Fixtures.

2011-06-12T12:40:00.000+01:00

There will be a club night on Tuesday 14th June.
On Tuesday 21st, HA1 play in the Wylie at home against the Swallow Inn (Scraptoft Valley), and our second Birstall Cup side play at home to Kirby Castlers.
Our Harrod Cup team has been drawn against Syston 1 away. A date has not yet been agreed, but it will be on a Tuesday before the end of the month.

Colin.

A Ricketts Rarity - My Second Win of 2011, and my Fourth since the Start of 2010

2011-06-04T12:02:00.003+01:00

As Colin notes, I won on Thursday night, although he rather bigged up the win with his description of a combination.

We were fairly level to Move 25, and then I over-pressed a lot to open up my opponent's King-side, and went 2 pawns down, and Paul also had a pawn on the 7th Rank. At this point Fritz was very down on me, having sprinkled my moves with a bunch of "??"s (collective noun - a disaster of "??"s?) and told me I was totally lost. In practice, I had doubled Rooks on the open h File, so still thought I had chances. In the end, under some time pressure, Paul blundered, and I won, collecting a ! on the way.

It's a bit worrying that, based on the last 18 months, I won't win again until early in 2012...

Club AGM and County Champs

2011-06-03T20:47:00.000+01:00

Hi All,

The club AGM took place on Tuesday. Minutes will be circulated soon.

On Thursday in the County Champs, i lost to Matthew Wilson. Having prepared against his King's Indian Attack all week, he deviated on move 5. I went up a pawn for a while, but was outplayed.

Ray lost out to Toby Hoch.

Dave pulled off a very neat combination to finish off Paul Martin - i will let Dave fill in the details.

Well done everyone.

Club night at the Heathcote on Tuesday.

See you there,

Colin.

Harrod Cup, HA1 in the Chapman, and Championship Section of the Counties.

2011-05-30T18:15:00.001+01:00

Harrod Cup

Michael was our hero of the day scoring a half point in his second game, having had chances in the first.
Gary's board was at the other side of the room, so we didn't see much of what was going on there. Dave and i did not do well.

24 May	Heathcote Arms 1		W - B	B - W	Wigston 1
			½ - 7½
1	102	Ross, Colin	0 - 1	0 - 1	Wilson, Matthew	135
2	98	Ricketts, Dave	0 - 1	0 - 1	Eastlake, Charles	125
3	80	Sanders, Gary	0 - 1	0 - 1	Winterton, Paul	102
4	60	Bubb, Michael	½ - ½	0 - 1	Vaughan, Ben	100

Chapman Cup

A strong Shepshed team narrowly took a win from our first Chapman Cup side.
Heathcote's chances in the Birstall Cup now look better.

24 May		Heathcote Arms 1		v	Shepshed 1		GD
				1 - 3			76
Handicap				1½ - 0
				2½ - 3
1	W	153	Booley, Graham	0 - 1	Toothill, Andrew	170	17
2	B	138	Harrison, Peter	0 - 1	Farrall, David	165	27
3	W	139	Ensor, Rob	½ - ½	McDermott, Patrick	164	25
4	B	122	Manger, John	½ - ½	Bennett, Kevin	129	7

Championship Section of the County Championships (Second Round)

Draws for both Grahams (leaving both on 1.5 points). Wins for Sean and Rajan (leaving both on 1 point).

1	Salisbury, Michael W	Braunstone	1.0	2087	Mladenov, Ilian	Loughborough	1.0	2194	0-1
2	Sharpe, Graham	Heathcote Arms	1.0	2186 *	Morley, Andy	Wigston	1.0	2074 *	½-½
3	Deacon, Paul	Scraptoft Valle	1.0	1922 *	Byron, Alan M	Wigston	1.0	2183	0-1
4	Burrows, Martin P	Wigston	1.0	2168	Colburn, Paul J	Braunstone	1.0	2003	½-½
5	Booley, Graham M	Heathcote Arms	1.0	1790	Horspool, Phil	Wigston	1.0	2138 *	½-½
6	Robinson, John K	Braunstone	0.0	2001	Harlow, Phil	Wigston	1.0	1810 *	½-½
7	Denton, John R	Melton Mowbray	0.0	2062	Farrall, David J	Shepshed Rooks	0.0	1869	1-0
8	Potter, Karl H	Spinney Hill WM	0.0	1899	Nwachukwu, Chino	Spinney Hill WM	0.0	1938 *	0-1
9	Hewitt, Sean D	Heathcote Arms	0.0	1923	Wilson, Matthew R	Wigston	0.0	0 *	1-0
10	Jimenez, Alfonso	Loughborough	0.0	1857	Ganger, Rajan	Heathcote Arms	0.0	1919	0-1

This week, our club AGM is on Tuesday (bring your cheque book), where there might be the chance of a few friendlies after the business of the evening, and the lower sections on the Counties will be at Wigston on Thursday.

Well done everyone,

Colin.

Hertfordshire v Leicestershire

2011-05-26T19:38:00.000+01:00

Two Heathcote Players featured in the Minor Counties Quarter final against Hertfordshire:

MATCH : Hertfordshire v Leicestershire DATE : 21st MAY 2011

SECTION : Minor Counties Quarter Final VENUE : Bugbrooke

1 SIMON KNOTT 127688J 214 0 M. HEBDEN 112455K 242 1

2 STEVE SWANSON 119944E 204 0.5 A. BYRON 107857E 197 0.5

3 PHIL BONAFONT 174940H 195 0 I. MLADENOV 193 1

4 JEREMY FRASER-MITCHELL 110893B 192 1 M. BURROWS 125697L 190 0

5 JERRY RUDGE 118313J 188 1 P. HORSPOOL 113015J 186 0

6 PAUL BYWAY 107862J 187 0.5 G. SHARPE 118281J 192 0.5

7 STEVE LAW 114126A 184 0 A. MORLEY 115787F 178 1

8 PETER RICE 174755B 178 1 S. SHEAHAN 118836H 172 0

9 TARISAI SAVANHU 234993A 175 1 R. BURGESS 107674H 173 0

10 BARRY MORRIS 115807H 170 1 J. DENTON 109613J 177 0

11 CHRIS MAJER 114822K 165 0 J. ROBINSON 118096E 170 1

12 ANDY TINKER 120439H 165 0.5 P. MCDERMOTT 115247G 164 0.5

13 DAVID BOWER 107067J 164 0 J. MITCHELL 115634C 162 1

14 MACE CARNOCHAN 266747C 159 1 D. FARRALL 213110K 165 0

15 PAUL KENNING 234286J 150 0.5 S. HEWITT 112575J 156 0.5

16 ALAN GORE 170188F 149 0 J. PATTINSON 116818G 155 1

TOTAL 8 TOTAL 8

Wylie First Round

2011-05-19T20:12:00.000+01:00

Graham B reports a 4-4 draw against Loughborough.

18 May	Loughborough 1		W - B	B - W	Heathcote Arms 1
			4 - 4
1	185	Sheahan, Sean	½ - ½	½ - ½	Sharpe, Graham	188
2	164	Mitchell, John	1 - 0	1 - 0	Hewitt, Sean	156
3	155	Eagleton, Greg	0 - 1	1 - 0	Cowley, Michael	153
4	118	Adcock, Terry	0 - 1	0 - 1	Booley, Graham	137

Chapman Cup Massacre

2011-05-18T18:47:00.000+01:00

I think Wigston was expecting to play our first team.

On the night, our team was essentially HA3. The grade difference gave us the maximum handicap bonus. We therefore only needed a draw on one of the boards in order to win the match. Wigston won the toss and chose the white pieces on the even numbered boards.

We rarely, if ever, get to compete with players as strong as this, but we surprised ourselves at how long we are able to last. Unsurprisingly, against the County Champion, i was the first to bite the dust at around 9PM. We were 23 moves in and the outcome by then was obvious so rather than drag things out any further, i resigned. Alan was kind enough to talk me through the game afterwards and showed me lots of ways that i could have hung on for longer, but still lost. This was really useful. Afterwards, Fritz was not able to tell me anything that Alan had not.

Michael, with the black pieces, pioneered the Bubb Gambit: 1 Nf3 e5, 2 Nxe5 f6, but after an interesting start was able to exert some real pressure with his major pieces down the kingside files forcing his opponent into some serious thought.

Ray was in a rook and minor piece endgame against Phil Harlow, and according to Alan, missed a win.

Dave, too, managed to get to the endgame even on material, but his bishop and king were hemmed in by his own pawns, and eventually his position crumbled.

17 May		Heathcote Arms 2		v	Wigston 1		GD
				0 - 4			199
Handicap				3½ - 0
				3½ - 4
1	W	102	Ross, Colin	0 - 1	Byron, Alan	197	50
2	B	99	Ricketts, Dave	0 - 1	Smith, Stephen	148	49
3	W	90	Beach, Ray	0 - 1	Harlow, Phil	145	50
4	B	60	Bubb, Michael	0 - 1	Wilson, Matthew	135	50

So, our second Chapman Cup team goes out in the first round. We have the consolation of being entered into the Birstall Cup as first round losers.

Well done everyone.

Tonight, HA1 play in the Wylie.

Next Tuesday, at the Arms, we have two home matches: a Harrod Cup match (against Wigston), and our first Chapman Cup team play against Shepshed.

Colin.

The 2nd George Winterton Pairs Competition

2011-05-14T13:35:00.000+01:00

On Tuesday we met at home for the second George Winterton Pairs Competition - our annual friendly against the Red Admiral.
We used Harrod/Wylie Cup time controls and each pair played one game with the white pieces and one with the black. Pairs played without consultation and so had to work out what their team mate was thinking as well as their opponents.

Round 1

The first round went 2-1 to the Red Admiral. This should really have been 3-0, but Paul and Richard lost on time despite being two bishops up.

Rob Ensor & John Manger (1-0) Paul Wyley & Richard Smith
Colin Ross & Ray Beach (0-1) Andy Carter & Mick Slater
Drew & Michael Bubb (0-1) Stan Parsons & Calvin Burton

Half time refreshments consisted of a choice of Chicken or Vegetable Curry with Poppadoms and Pickles, or Faggots, Chips and Mushy Peas.

Round 2

Our decision to substitute myself and Ray with Pete & Dave paid off with a win on board 2 at the end of a hard fought game against Andy and Mick. Round 2 finished 1.5 to 1.5 points and the match finished 3.5 points to 2.5 in the Red Admiral's favour making it two wins out of two to them.

Rob Ensor & John Manger (Draw) Paul Wyley & Richard Smith
Pete Harrison & Dave Ricketts (1-0) Andy Carter & Mick Slater
Drew & Michael Bubb (0-1) Stan Parsons & Calvin Burton

Well done everyone. Another fun, pressure free, evening. We look forward to next year.

On Tuesday 17th May, Heathcote Arms 2 (HA3) plays at home against Wigston in the Chapman Cup, and on Wednesday, HA1 plays away in their defence of the Wylie Cup at Loughborough.

Colin.

Blaby District Chess Club at the Heathcote Arms

January Grades

HA1 (3-1.5) Braunstone 1

Minor League Cup Team Lose on Handicap

Oadby Vs HA3

Willowbrook 2 Vs Heathcote Arms 1

Syston 1 (2-2) Heathcote Arms 2

Ashby 4 (5-1) HA3

University's No Show Used For My Gain

Happy New Year

Website Traffic - Big in Japan?

Loss for HA3 at Kirby Muxloe

15 DecKirby Muxloe 2vHeathcote Arms 35 - 11B108Cowley, Jim1 - 0Ross, Colin1182W60McEachran, Ewan1 - 0Ricketts, Dave933B60Shaw, Peter1 - 0Milner, Gordon1004W56Kellock, Jim1 - 0Sanders, Gary505B55Turner, Scott0 - 1Bubb, Michael366W50Bowles, Les1 - 0Bubb, Andrew40

Division 5

Loughborough 2 (1.5 - 3.5) HA1

HA2 (1-3) Hinckley 1

University of Leicester Vs HA2 Result

Record Score

HA3 and HA1 Both Play at Home

Bobby Fischer Documentary on TV Tonight

League Cup Matches & CCs (Major) Play Off

Ay Caramba!

Latimer (1) 3-2 HA (2)

Heathcote Arms (1) 4-1 Ashby (1)

Braunstone (5) 2-2 Heathcote Arms (3)

Shropshire Vs Leicestershire

HA2 Vs Syston 1

Graham Sharpe is County Champion

League Cups - HA1 Win, HA2 Lose

HA3 Win in First Round of Minor League Cup

Various News Items

Half Term Break and League Cup First Round

HA2 Victorious Away at Hinckley

HA1 Vs Melton Mowbray 2

Aw Nuts!

This Week

Proof You Can Some of the People Some of the Time...

The art of swindling

Ben Says

A Few Thoughts of A Tournament "Controller" Aged 21 and a Bit

HA2 Draw at home to Melton

Red Admiral (2) 4-0 Heathcote Arms (3)

ATKINS 2011 - THE RISE AND FALL OF COLIN

Minor Section Of The County Championship

End of Summer / Start of New Season News

RICKETTS-LED HARROD CUP TEAM ALMOST WINS AGAIN – BUT DOESN’T

The Return of Raj Clinches Wylie Cup Victory

County Championships and Plans for Next Week

County Championship Update 25th August

Hold the Front Page - A Ricketts-captained Team Actually Wins

County Champs (Major) - Ross Vs Collins

Another Great Wylie Victory

Another Ricketts-Led Harrod Loss

Update on the County Championships

New Grades

County Championship Update

The Grass Arena

Quiet Spell

Another Wylie Win

County Champs

Defeat at Syston for our First Birstall Cup Team

Three Matches in One Night

Club Night and Plans for Next Week

Chess on Radio 4

Club Night and Approaching Cup Fixtures.

A Ricketts Rarity - My Second Win of 2011, and my Fourth since the Start of 2010

Club AGM and County Champs

Harrod Cup, HA1 in the Chapman, and Championship Section of the Counties.

Hertfordshire v Leicestershire

Wylie First Round

Chapman Cup Massacre

The 2nd George Winterton Pairs Competition