25 Years of Chess

Littlethorpe Chess CLub formed 25 years ago in 1983 as Aylestone Chess Club and to celebrate a Littlethorpe -v- The Rest of the League match was played last night to celebrate. Played over 21 boards, each player played his opponent twice (once with each colour - ala Harrod / Wylie Cup) in all your moves in 30 minutes rapid play with food laid on at half time, courtesy of Jim and Tina from The Plough.

The match was delicately poised at 9½-10½ to the visitors at half time but, despite a valiant effort, the match was eventually lost 19-23. Nevertheless a fun time was had by all, and we look forward to the 30 year anniversary!

 

Board	Littlethorpe	White	Black	The Rest
1	Clarke, Brandon	1-0	1-0	Morley, Andy
2	Hewitt, Sean	½-½	1-0	Miller, Jim
3	Salisbury, Mike	½-½	½-½	Jex, Alan
4	Cowley, Mike	1-0	0-1	Farrall, David
5	Harrison, Pete	0-1	1-0	Colburn, Paul
6	Deacon, Paul	1-0	1-0	Watkinson, Phil
7	Graves, Chris	½-½	0-1	Potter, Karl
8	Townsend, Ray	0-1	1-0	Pattinson, John
9	Sim, George	0-1	0-1	Tipper, Chris
10	Salter, Dick	½-½	0-1	Hayden, Larry
11	Wylie, Steve	1-0	1-0	Reynolds, Dave
12	Johnson, Andy	1-0	0-1	Daniel, John
13	Draper, Peter	0-1	0-1	Robinson, Darryl
14	Townsend, Gary	0-1	0-1	Slater, Brian
15	Townsend, Arthur	0-1	1-0	Lathwood, Roy
16	Townsend, Andrew	1-0	1-0	Davis, Richard
17	Beach, Ray	0-1	0-1	Findley, Laurence
18	Ricketts, Dave	1-0	0-1	Findley, Paul
19	Engels, Aaron	1-0	½-½	Closs, Guy
20	Townsend, Steve	0-1	0-1	Parsons, Stan
21	Tribouilloy, Herve	0-1	0-1	Butler, Alan
	19			23

Littlethorpe 1 into the Chapman Cup Final

Littlethorpe 1 make it ! Even after the captains best efforts to lose it , Littlethorpe sail into the cup final . Up against an Ashby side chosen to maximise the handicap we found ourselves needing to win 3 - 1. The captain (myself) was under the delusion that this was draughts , his opponent quickly showed him the error of his ways ! That mean't the other three had to win.
I don't need to say anymore . Thanks to Sean , Steve and especially Graham B for bringing home the bacon. Onwards to the final !

Results
C.Tipper 0 - 1 Sean Hewitt
L.Hayden 1 - 0 Pete Harrison
T.Dove 0 -1 Steve Wylie
V.Armstrong 0 - 1 Graham Booley

Littlethorpe 2 out of Chapman Cup

On Tuesday night, Littlethorpe 2 lost narrowly to Market Harborough in the Semi-Final of the Chapman Cup. With a half point bonus due to grade difference, we needed two points from four boards to be sure of victory. First, Howard drew on the top board; Colin then won on the fourth; Andy lost on the second; and that left Dick needing a draw on three. Market Harborough, needing a win, were not going to offer or accept any draws, however, and this game went right to the end of the time available with their man gaining the edge in the closing few minutes. The results were:

Phillips, Howard (119) Draw Oppenheim C (125)
Johnson, Andy (117) 0 - 1 Thomson J (117)
Salter, Dick (86) 0 -1 Hatton P (112)
Ross, Colin (70) 1-0 Gilbert J (87)

Market Harborough beat Littlethorpe 2.5 points to 2.

New 2008 Grades Published

The ECF have today published the new 2008 grades. Click here to see what your new (or first) grade is.

The new list needs a little explanation. Firstly there are [as usual] 2 cateories of grade, standardplay and rapidplay (shown as R_Grade). But each player now has 2 grades in each category!

Why? Well, there has been deflation in the grading system for a number of years and the ECF have sought to fix that this year. The 2008 Grade coloumn shows your new grade calculated in the normal way - this is your official grade and will be used for County matches, congresses etc. The New Style grade is the deflation fixing grade. It will become the official grade next year 2009 and in advance of that the Leicestershire League has decided to use this grade for league games in 2008-9.

Anything the 2nds can do !

We couldn't allow the second team to progress further than us , just imagine the crowing back at the club !! So albeit because Wigston had a weakened team , we were only 1/2 point down in the handicap stakes . With the "boy wonder" on our side how could we fail ?!
Sean's early win set us fair , then Brandon unfortunately fell foul of perpetual check , but Graham and myself both won to see us comfortably home 31/2 - 1

Result :
Steve Smith 1/2 Brandon !/2
John Daniel 0 Sean 1
Ray Townsend 0 Pete H 1
Brian Shuter 0 Graham B 1

Well done to everyone , and as the draw has been kind to us we'll hopefully meet the seconds in the final !!

Wylie Cup v Loughborough

So we (Graham Sharpe, Brandon Clarke, Sean Hewitt and Howard Phillips) racked up to play a strong Loughborough team. There were a total of 4 grading points in it!

Brandon got us off to a great start putting Alan Jex to the sword. Then Terry Adcock dropped a piece against Howard to put us 2-0 up. I won the exchange so all looked well but then it all went wrong and in the end I was lucky to get a draw with Dave Farrall. Finally John Mitchell beat Graham to leave us 2.5-1.5 up at the break.

Round 2 and Brandon won easily again to put us back on track but I got seriously duffed up to put us back on a knife edge. Graham drew his second game putting us 4-3 up but unfortunately [for us] Terry Adcock got a fearsome kingside attack and there was no way Howard could survive.

So very close on paper and so it proved over the board ; 4-4 the final result.

Littlethorpe Giant Killers Do Enough

Littlethorpe 2 qualified for the Semi-final of the Chapman Cup last night.
We played six boards, at home, against an extremely strong Scraptoft Valley team.
With a 4.5 point bonus due to grade differences, we only needed 1 point from the six games to give us 5.5 of the available 10.5 points and win us the match.

Results were:

Howard Phillips (119) 0 Alan Edwards (180) 1
Andy Johnson (117) 0 John Pattinson (132) 1
Mick Slater (75) 0 Mick Tate (131) 1
Lloyd Clarke (71) 0 Bob Collins (128) 1
Colin Ross (70) 1 Dave Pratt (109) 0
Ray Beach (68) 0 Mick Busby (94) 1

Outgraded on every board, we put in some good performances. Lloyd lost on time from what was at least a drawing position, and Howard, too, looked set for a draw.

In the semi-final we will be at home against Market Harborough on Tuesday, 5th August.

In the other semi, Littlethorpe 1 play away against Ashby.