Quiet Spell

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.