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.

Club Night and Approaching Cup Fixtures.

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

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

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.