Almost at the end of the season now - Tuesday 29th March 2011.

Drew fell quite early to a Q x h7 mate. Ray had been a piece up, but ended up drawing. Michael scored a triumphant win when he exchanged a bishop for queen early on and carried the pressure through until the end. My pawn structure had been awful from early on, but we entered a prolonged endgame and i had a bishop whilst my opponent had a knight. Things looked sticky for a while, but my opponent eventually blundered by putting his knight and king on the same diagonal. Cue bishop. A 2.5 to 1.5 win against Kirby lifted us from the bottom rank of division 5. Fantastic!

29 Mar		Heathcote Arms 3		v	Kirby Muxloe 2
				2½ - 1½
1	B	102	Ross, Colin	1 - 0	Walker, John	115
2	W	90	Beach, Ray	½ - ½	Kellock, Jim	80
3	B	80	Bubb, Andrew	0 - 1	Turner, Scott	80
4	W	60	Bubb, Michael	1 - 0	Gonzaga, Edda	60

There was more serious stuff going on in our Division 1 match. Dave, Mike, and Graham had all drawn, leaving things up to Pete and Rajan. Both were under pressure and when Pete conceded defeat, Rajan's opponent offered him a draw. HA1 must now beat Wigston 1 to avoid relegation.

29 Mar		Heathcote Arms 1		v	Shepshed 1
				2 - 3
1	B	167	Ganger, Rajan	½ - ½	Toothill, Andrew	170
2	W	168	Bray, Dave	½ - ½	Bowley, Rupert	167
3	B	156	Cowley, Michael	½ - ½	Henfrey, Robert	171
4	W	153	Booley, Graham	½ - ½	McDermott, Patrick	164
5	B	138	Harrison, Peter	0 - 1	Farrall, David	165

There will be a club night on Tuesday next week - shame on you if you do not come down.
On the week after, there will be: HA1 facing Wigston 1 at home on Tuesday 12th - and apparently there will be a curry afterwards; On Wednesday 13th, HA3 face Oadby away, and HA2 face Kirby Muxloe 1 away on Thursday 14th.

This should just about wrap things up for the League season.

Sean has already sent some information out about the County Champs.

There should also be some information out soon about the Summer Cups.

Well done everyone,


Colin.

Change to Result of 4th Rnd Minor League Cup Match

Don't worry. HA2/3 has still won the Minor League Cup. There has, however, been an amendment to the result of the fourth round match against Melton. On the night, the two Captains worked out grade differences and concluded that there was no handicap. It later emerged, however, that there should have been a half point head start in favour of Melton. This means that the match changes from being a draw to a loss for us.
We have accepted this. The change means that HA2/3 scored 8 points out of a possible 10 rather than 9 points out of a posible 10. This still leaves us ahead of all our rivals - so no real harm done.

Colin.

Last Round of the League Cups

Major League Cup

HA1 were still in with a shout on Tuesday. Alas, it was not to be.

22 Mar		Heathcote Arms 1		v	Loughborough 1		GD
				1½ - 2½			-24
Handicap				0 - ½
				1½ - 3
1	B	192	Sharpe, Graham	½ - ½	Sheahan, Sean	172	-20
2	W	168	Bray, Dave	½ - ½	Eagleton, Greg	161	-7
3	B	156	Cowley, Michael	½ - ½	Miller, James	158	2
4	W	153	Booley, Graham	0 - 1	Jimenez, Alfonso	154	1

HA1 still have a match in hand, but can no longer catch Loughborough 1. Loughborough took the Cup through this win.

 Minor League Cup

On Wednesday, HA2/3 went to Loughborough to play their second team. We outgraded them to the point where Loughborough started with a 3 point head start, but this turned out to be a strategy that worked out. The two youngsters on boards 3 and 4 are good, improving rapidly, and they absolutely refuse to give up (my game lasted 76 moves and my opponent was playing with a lone king against some heavy material - consequently i did not get to see much of anyone else's games). I do know that Rob opened with e4 (!?), and, in a Sicilian, quickly gained his opponent's queen via a discovered check.

23 Mar		Loughborough 2		v	Heathcote Arms 2		GD
				0 - 4			142
Handicap				3 - 0
				3 - 4
1	W	118	Uski, Ville	0 - 1	Harrison, Peter	138	20
2	B	60	Gordon, Stewart	0 - 1	Ensor, Rob	139	50
3	W	60	Trusz, Ashish	0 - 1	Ross, Colin	102	42
4	B	60	Kohli, Sameer	0 - 1	Beach, Ray	90	30

The (almost) final table looks like this:

Pos	Team	Pl	W	D	L	GPD	Pts
1	Heathcote Arms 2	5	4	1	0	5	9
2	Spinney Hill 2	5	3	1	1	5	7
3	Braunstone 2	5	2	1	2	4	5
4	Loughborough 2	5	2	1	2	3	5
5	Melton Mowbray 2	5	2	1	2	-2	5
6	Wigston 1	5	2	0	3	-4	4
7	Hinckley 1	4	0	2	2	-4	2
8	Market Harborough 1	4	0	1	3	-7	1

We have won the Minor League Cup.

Well done to everyone, especially Pete Harrison who won all of his five games.

Anyway, back in the league:

• HA2 have a couple of weeks off.
• HA1 play at home against Shepshed and, to avoid relegation from the first Division, they really need a win.
• HA3 play at home against Kirby Castlers 2.

Well done everyone.

Colin

The Master Game

Amazingly, after having seemingly been lost for years, 12 episodes of the Master Game have appeared on You Tube. Follow the link.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Sirb0b1

You may have to open it in a new window.

Colin

Melton Vs HA1 on 16.03.11

16 Mar		Melton Mowbray 1		v	Heathcote Arms 1
				3 - 2
1	B	203	Lee, Graham	½ - ½	Bray, Dave	168
2	W	165	Billingham, John	1 - 0	Cowley, Michael	156
3	B	164	Reynolds, Tom	1 - 0	Booley, Graham	153
4	W	153	Jex, Alan	0 - 1	Harrison, Peter	138
5	B	147	Wallace, Robert	½ - ½	Denton, Bruce	135

HA2 and HA3 both at home 15.03.11

HA2 managed a draw. Mike C had a good win. Bruce Denton has returned to chess after a long break and managed a respectable draw against Stuart Hollingworth. Welcome Bruce. Haka Dave made it two games in  a row with no losses. Rob hung on 'til the bitter end in a rook and pawn endgame two pawns down.

15 Mar		Syston 2		v	Heathcote Arms 2
				2 - 2
1	B	119	Leonard, John	0 - 1	Cowley, Michael	156
2	W	116	Stone, Robert	1 - 0	Ensor, Rob	139
3	B	107	Hollingworth, Stuart	½ - ½	Denton, Bruce	135
4	W	97	King, Ron	½ - ½	Ricketts, Dave	99

A very strong Spinney Hill team were always going to inflict some damage against us. Our openings all looked fine. Ray and i both missed wins.

15 Mar		Heathcote Arms 3		v	Spinney Hill 2
				½ - 4½
1	B	102	Ross, Colin	½ - ½	Slater, Brian L	133
2	W	90	Beach, Ray	0 - 1	Garland, Michael (snr)	126
3	B	80	Bubb, Andrew	0 - 1	Pyke, David	120
4	W	80	Sanders, Gary	0 - 1	Davis, Richard T	101
5	B	60	Bubb, Michael	0 - 1	Hill, Granville	95

Well done everyone.

Next week it is League Cup matches:

HA1 play at home on Tuesday 22nd against Loughborough 1. Supporters welcome.

HA2/3 play away on Wednesday 23rd Loughborough 2.

Cheers,

Colin

County Match

Graham B Reports:

Club players Rajan, Graham Sharpe and Sean helped the county to a 10-6 win against Derbyshire on Saturday to secure our final spot in the national stages.

Section:  MINOR
Home Team: LEICESTERSHIRE					Away Team: DERBYSHIRE
Venue: CROFT					Date: 12th March 2011
Team having white on odd boards:					Result reported by:
Board	ECF Code	Grade	Home team players’ names	Score	Score	Away Team players’ names	Grade	ECF Code
1	118781J	192	Graham Sharpe	0.5	0.5	R Evans	192	110349A
2	115787F	178	Andrew Morley	0	1	D Latham	191	210988J
3	118836	172	Sean Sheahan	0.5	0.5	S Gilmore	183	111264J
4	107674H	173	Ray Burgess	0	1	T Bould	172	107033C
5	163691B	165	Richard Vann	0.5	0.5	A Downham	159	127966L
6	118421A	167	Mike Salisbury	1	0	D Jarvis	163	173444B
7	118096E	170	John Robinson	0.5	0.5	J Hoddy	166	112778A
8	108577D	167	Paul Colburn	0	1	P Moore	153	115733E
9	115247G	164	Patrick Mcdermott	0	1	R Hedges	152	256196H
10	161682B	167	Rajan Ganger	1	0	P Kelman	143	165437J
11	115634C	162	John Mitchell	1	0	L Allread	153	166478F
12	213110K	165	David Farrall	1	0	K Dalley	140E
13	259469K	161	Greg Eagleton	1	0	M Hill	148	1126699
14	115535A	158	Jim Miller	1	0	D Pickering	139	117100J
15	112575J	157	Sean Hewitt	1	0	D Hoddy	140	210955E
16	106748F	157	Jim Bingham	1	0	N Atkins	137	265846L
				10	6

Graham B