Last League Matches for HA1 and HA3.

HA1 had a walkover on Tuesday as Loughborough 2 were unable to raise a team. With 12 match wins, 1 draw and a loss; they finish well clear of the field at the top of Division 2 and so next season will be back where they belong.

HA3, on the otherhand, were soundly thrashed by the visiting Kirby Muxloe 2. Everybody had been looking solid enough for at least the first hour, before collapsing in the middlegame. This was the final position in my own effort. I resigned here with the black pieces as i could not see a way of stopping the white c-pawn from promoting.

Walker Vs Ross 2012

27 Mar		Heathcote Arms 3		v	Kirby Muxloe 2
				0 - 5
1	B	118	Ross, Colin	0 - 1	Walker, John	133
2	W	60	Milner, Gordon	0 - 1	McEachran, Ewan	95
3	B	50	Sanders, Gary	0 - 1	Shaw, Peter	60
4	W	36	Bubb, Michael	0 - 1	Kellock, Jim	56
5	B	40	Bubb, Andrew	0 - 1	Gonzaga, Edda	10

HA2 play their last league match tonight (Thursday 29th March).

Next Tuesday there will be a club night at the Heathcote Arms - any new players welcome.

County Championship

This year's County Championship begins in late April for the lower three sections, and May for the Open. Rather than being based on teams, this competition is every man for himself and is always one of the highlights of the summer. Entrants so far from our club this year are:

Open Section.
Graham Sharpe (195) Current County Champion.
Sean Hewitt (156)
Graham Booley (147)

Challengers Section.
Nil

Major Section.
The Grinder (133)
Colin Ross (120)

Minor Section.
Haka Dave (93)

People have until Friday 13th April to enter.

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

Besides the County Championship, the Summer Cups and Club Nights, we should also have enough time for a Club Championship. We have not had one of these for a number of years - any ideas for a format would be greatly received.

Well done everybody and good luck to HA2 tonight.

Colin.

Major League Cup Round 5

20 Mar		Braunstone 1		v	Heathcote Arms 1		GD
				2½ - 1½			31
Handicap				½ - 0
				3 - 1½
1	B	169	Robinson, John	½ - ½	Sharpe, Graham	181	12
2	W	167	Salisbury, Michael	0 - 1	Ganger, Rajan	173	6
3	B	155	Colburn, Paul	1 - 0	Bray, Dave	170	15
4	W	161	Bingham, James	1 - 0	Cowley, Michael	159	-2

HA3 Lose in the Last Round of the Minor.

A one point handicap start for us owing to grading difference. Gary, and then Gordon, lost fairly early. Raymondov had two knights against a rook and bishop, but looked like he might pull off a draw. Not quite though.

Haka Dave was last man standing. At this point, i mistakenly told him that the score was 2-2, when, in fact, Syston already had three points and therefore the match. Anyway, the news that he had to avoid losing - even if this had been built on a false prospectus, seemed to increase Dave's motivation. He simplified into a king and pawn endgame swapping off the last pair of rooks whilst giving him the opposition. It was then a matter of marching king and pawns up the board with only one or two of the moves being dodgy.

20 Mar		Heathcote Arms 3		v	Syston 1		GD
				1 - 3			52
Handicap				1 - 0
				2 - 3
1	B	105	Beach, Ray	0 - 1	Hollingworth, Stuart	101	-4
2	W	93	Ricketts, Dave	1 - 0	Mitton, Judith	96	3
3	B	60	Milner, Gordon	0 - 1	Martin, Maurice	93	33
4	W	50	Sanders, Gary	0 - 1	Mundy, Rob	70	20

HA1 were playing at Braunstone on Tuesday, too.

Next Tuesday, 27th March, HA1 play at home to Loughborough 2, and HA3 play at home to Kirby 2.
On Thursday, 29th, HA2 play away at Market Harborough.

Well done everyone.

Colin.

HA1 & HA3 Both Play at Home.

Graham B Reports:

I was too engrossed in trying to prevent my own loss to comment on the other games, but it seemed a straight forward win.

 

Graham B

 

13 Mar		Heathcote Arms 1		v	Wigston 3
				3½ - 1½
1	B	181	Sharpe, Graham	1 - 0	Wylie, Stephen	150
2	W	173	Ganger, Rajan	½ - ½	Reeves, Andrew	146
3	B	170	Bray, Dave	1 - 0	Harlow, Phil	141
4	W	159	Cowley, Michael	1 - 0	Daniel, John	129
5	B	147	Booley, Graham	0 - 1	Eastlake, Charles	124

 

 

Colin Reports:

 

I think i was the first to finish - and managed a win. Gary, Gordon, and Michael then followed with losses. John then won his game. It was down to Drew to win his game and draw the match. He looked good, too, with a Queen, Knight, and Four Pawns against a Queen and four pawns. Both players had passed pawns - Drew's in the Centre - Brian's on the Kingside.

 

At this point, Drew brought his rook forward on the Queen side in order to take out the last remaining black pawn on that side. Having done this, he realised that black now had a passed pawn on the sixth rank and he could not get his rook back in time. oops.

 

On the postive side, Drew outplayed his opponent for a couple of hours leading up to this, and more wins are bound to follow soon.

 

 

 

13 Mar		Heathcote Arms 3		v	Ashby 4
				2 - 4
1	B	119	Manger, John	1 - 0	Williams, Richard	105
2	W	118	Ross, Colin	1 - 0	Page, Peter	80
3	B	60	Milner, Gordon	0 - 1	Roberts, Neil	80
4	W	50	Sanders, Gary	0 - 1	Holmes, Stephen	80
5	B	36	Bubb, Michael	0 - 1	Holmes, David	80
6	W	40	Bubb, Andrew	0 - 1	Nicholson, Brian	55

 

 

Well done everyone.

 

On Tuesday 20th March, HA1 and HA3 both play Cup Matches.

 

HA1 play away at Braunstone. HA1 then still have a sixth round to play next month and are in with a shout.

 

HA3 play at home to Syston in the last round of the Minor. Lifting the silverware is still mathematically possible (we can still reach 8 matchpoints), but unlikely given the high goal differences of Braunstone 2 and Melton 1.

 

A decent clubnight on Tuesday is likely, too.

 

Colin.

Derbyshire v Leicestershire Minor Open 10th March 2012

Graham B Reports:

Derbyshire v Leicestershire Minor Open 10^th March 2012

An epic battle ensued when Leicestershire met Derbyshire at Spondon on Saturday.

Leicestershire needed a draw to qualify for the nationals and a win to become Midland Champions, but a win for Derbyshire would see them through to the nationals and Leicestershire eliminated.

We fielded almost our strongest possible team, but Derbyshire turned up with a stronger than expected team which meant, with the exception of top board, there was very little in grade difference.

First blood went to Derbyshire, Simon Gilmore and Richard Vann swapped all the major pieces very quickly and once Richard swapped his last knight off for Simon’s bishop it was a straight forward pawn ending for Simon to win- 1-0 Derby.

Sean Hewitt evened the score; playing a nice combination to win material he then gave the exchange back for a won pawn ending. 1-1

A succession of draws followed, Graham Sharpe, Ray Burgess, John Robinson and Mike Salisbury, of these only Graham had a slight advantage, a pawn up and heading for Q+P ending when he allowed his opponent to grab a perpetual check. 3-3

At this point both Alfonso and Jim Miller were material down and losing but battling on valiantly (so in effect we were 5-3 down).

Chino and Sean Sheahan then completed nice wins; Chino gave up the exchange for extra pawns and positional advantage. 3-4 to Leicester.

Sean got out of tricky position with 2 pieces for a rook and forced the win. 3-5 Leicester. Alfonso and Jim finally succumbed. 5-5

We were now basically down to a 6-board match with wins looking likely from Mark and Patrick, loses from Alan and Martin and draws from Andy and Brian (8-8)

Mark and Patrick got their wins 5-7 Leicester.   

Martin then managed to force a perpetual check, an unexpected ½, Brian, who had been defending a pawn down, in Q,R+ opposite bishops, for most the game got the draw when his opponent decided to swap off the queen and rook, to an opposite coloured bishop ending and the draw was achieved. 6-8 Leicester nationals achieved.

Alan Byron then lost to make the score 7-8, Andy Morley looking slightly better, then had his usual time scramble and came out of it 2 pawns down and a certain loss, with a hour of play left everybody else except Ray and myself went to the pub expecting us to following quickly with a drawn match, but Andy doesn’t give in and spent 20 of his extra 30mins on the next move, trying to find an answer to his lost position.

This may have unnerved his opponent but after a couple of moves by Andy, his opponent had the opportunity to swop his queen and rook off for a won pawn ending but instead kept checking to try and get a bigger advantage and eventually used up a lot of his own time, with Andy 3mins against 5mins, his opponent played a couple more checks and offered the draw! 7½- 8½   to Leicestershire.

We retired to pub to disbelief from all present.

Well done to everyone.

Our next match is ¼ final against Cambridgeshire, scheduled for May 19^th, subject to confirmation.                  

Graham B

Midland Counties Chess Union COUNTY MATCH RESULT FORM

Section:  minor open
Home Team: Derbyshire					Away Team: Leicestershire
Venue: Spondon					Date: 10th march 2012
Team having white on odd boards: Leicestershire					Result reported by: Leicestershire
Board	ECF Code	Grade	Home team players’ names	Score	Score	Away Team players’ names	Grade	ECF Code
1	110349A	200	Ray Evans	0	1	Mark Hebden	241	112455K
2	210988J	195	Dave Latham	1	0	Alan Byron	200	107857E
3	113695B	180	Mike Johnson	½	½	Martin Burrows	200	125697L
4	107038C	177	Trevor Bould	½	½	Graham Sharpe	181	118781J
5	173444B	171	Derek Jarvis	½	½	Andy Morley	179	115787F
6	120518D	171	Andrew Toothill	½	½	Ray Burgess	182	107674H
7	105582D	165	Mike Alderson	½	½	John Robinson	169	118096E
8	265240H	168	Martin Howard	½	½	Brian Galligan	E173	287350D
9	115852B	166	Andy Mort	0	1	Sean Sheahan	170	118836H
10	105641	172	Ralph Allen	½	½	Mike Salisbury	167	118421A
11	139664H	168	Kevin Dalley	0	1	Chino Nwachukwu	170	275461H
12	111264J	162	Simon Gilmore	1	0	Richard Vann	163	163691B
13	166478F	152	Luke Alldread	0	1	Patrick Mcdermott	158	115247G
14	256196H	152	Roy Hedges	1	0	Alfonso Jimenez	164	279527K
15	112669G	150	Maurice Hill	0	1	Sean hewitt	158	112575J
16	117100J	140	Dave Pickering	1	0	Jim Miller	157	116818G
				7½	8½