January Grades

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.