County Champs and Summer Cup Fixtures

County Championships

Not for the first time, a rival chesser had used this site to book up against me.

Things did not seem to be going well, but for a short while I thought I might just be able to mate my opponent in the middle of the board - if only...



Elsewhere is the room,

Raymondov lost to N Chalashnakov
Golf Man lost to Paul Findley
The Grinder drew with Andy Pike in the Challengers.

This week, it the Major and the Open Section of the Counties on Thursday. The draws have not yet been published.

Summer Cups

HA1 plays at home on Tuesday 11th against Willowbrook in the Wylie Cup.
HA2/3 plays at home against Wigston 1 in the Harrod. This will likely either be on the 11th, or the 18th.

Well done everyone,

Colin.

Summer Cups and County Championships

This week, we were pretty busy with the first round of the summer cups:

Chapman Cup

We took an absolute pasting from a stronger Wigston side.

21 May		Heathcote Arms 2		v	Wigston 1		GD
				0 - 4			111
Handicap				1½ - 0
				1½ - 4
1	W	139	The Grinder	0 - 1	Cohen, Gerry	173	34
2	B	117	Not as big boss	0 - 1	Eastlake, Charles	125	8
3	W	67	Drew the younger	0 - 1	Winterton, Paul	106	39
4	B	50	Golf Man	0 - 1	Poulacheris, Darren	80	30

Horrid Cup

A more respectable loss.

23 May	Hinckley 1		W - B	B - W	Heathcote Arms 1
			5 - 3
1	130	Phillips, Howard	0 - 1	½ - ½	Mad Mike	146
2	128	Rayner, John	½ - ½	0 - 1	The Grinder	143
3	123	Smith, Jason	1 - 0	1 - 0	Raymondov	99
4	116	Rist, T	1 - 0	1 - 0	Golf Man	50

In the next round, we play at home to Wigston 1 before 21st June.



Wylie Cup

A win! HA1 often wins the Wylie outright. Could they do it again?

23 May	Wigston 2		W - B	B - W	Heathcote Arms 1
			2½ - 5½
1	173	Horspool, Philip	0 - 1	0 - 1	Sharpe, Graham	185
2	156	Dodds, Iain	0 - 1	½ - ½	Ganger, Rajan	178
3	146	Wylie, Stephen	½ - ½	0 - 1	Bray, Dave	167
4	137	Vaja, Ricky	½ - ½	1 - 0	Harrison, Peter	151

In the next round, we play at home to Willowbrook before 21st June.


County Championship News


Minor - Thursday 30th May 2013

This Thursday, I play black against Andy Carter; Golf Man plays white against Paul Findley; and Ray plays white against N Chalashkanov.

Major

The second round has not yet been drawn.

Challengers - Thursday 30th May 2013

The Grinder plays black against Andy Pike.

The Open

The second round has not yet been drawn.


Club Night

A club night is unlikely this week owing to the County Championship games at Wigston on Thursday.


Eastlake Vs Ross

Oh dear...




Afterwards, I was asked why I played 34...h5 rather than taking the knight on d2 (which appears to be en pris). Ok, I could have resigned already and h5 was rubbish, but 35 Rxc4+ Kd5 (or Kd6, or Kd7) 36 Rd4+ and then 37 Rxd2 Game Over.

Eastlake Vs Ross after 34 Rg4

























Well done everyone,

Colin

Drew Wins Junior Championship, Next Week's Matches, and CCs Minor Ross Vs Slater.

Leicestershire Junior Championships

Congratulations to Drew on winning the Under 13s Section.


Chapman Cup.

HA2 (We only have one team, but we asked to be known as HA2) will be playing at home to Wigston on Tuesday 21st.

Harrod Cup.

We play away at Hinckley on Thursday 23rd.

Wylie Cup.

We play away at Wigston 2 on Thursday 23rd.

Ross Vs Slater

Here is the game that Mick and I played at Wigston last night. This had been postponed from two weeks ago. Wigston were holding their AGM upstairs, but they kindly allowed us to use the bar:



Well done Drew,


Colin.

Final League Standings, and County Championship.

HA1 will be relegated to Division 2 following its final league match loss to Shepshed 2.

07 May		Heathcote Arms 1		v	Shepshed 2
				2 - 3
1	B	196	Sharpe, Graham	0 - 1	Henfrey, Robert	174
2	W	169	Bray, Dave	1 - 0	Jimenez, Alfonso	157
3	B	174	Ganger, Rajan	½ - ½	McDermott, Patrick	155
4	W	164	Hewitt, Sean	½ - ½	Farrall, David	157
5	B	151	Harrison, Peter	0 - 1	Sheahan, Sean	157

Our final standings are as follows:

Division 1

Pos	Team	Pl	W	D	L	GPD	Pts
1	Wigston 1	13	12	1	0	27	25
2	Shepshed 1	14	7	5	2	9	19
3	Melton Mowbray 1	14	6	2	6	0	14
4	Shepshed 2	14	4	5	5	-5	13
5	Wigston 2	14	4	4	6	-2	12
6	Braunstone 1	14	5	1	8	-1	11
7	Heathcote Arms 1	14	4	2	8	-9	10
8	Ashby 1	13	2	2	9	-19	6

HA2 finished mid table.

Division 3

Pos	Team	Pl	W	D	L	GPD	Pts
1	Syston 1	14	9	2	3	22	20
2	Willowbrook 2	14	9	1	4	17	19
3	Loughborough 2	14	9	1	4	8	19
4	Ashby 3	14	8	1	5	-2	17
5	Heathcote Arms 2	14	6	1	7	5	13
6	Wigston 4	14	5	2	7	-11	12
7	Kirby Muxloe 1	14	3	2	9	-13	8
8	Melton Mowbray 3	14	2	0	12	-26	4

As usual, HA3 was stuck, like a postage stamp, to the bottom of Division 5 (although, we did have a few wins).

Division 5

Pos	Team	Pl	W	D	L	GPD	Pts
1	Wigston 5	16	12	2	2	22	26
2	Red Admiral 1	16	12	1	3	22	25
3	Braunstone 5	16	9	3	4	14	21
4	Syston 3	15	7	3	5	4	17
5	Ashby 4	16	5	3	8	-12	13
6	Braunstone 6	16	5	3	8	-4	13
7	Syston 4	16	4	2	10	-17	10
8	Kirby Muxloe 3	15	4	2	9	-13	10
9	Heathcote Arms 3	16	2	3	11	-16	7

County Champs

This year Graham S, Rajan, and Graham B are competing in the Open Section, The Grinder is competing in the Challengers and the Major. Raymondov and I are both competing in the Major and Minor, and, I think, Golf Man is joining the Minor late.

The Minor results from the previous week have not been published yet (perhaps because I have not yet played my game against Mick Slater), but I understand that Ray drew against Paul Findley.

This week, I was drawn (with the black pieces) against The Grinder - with predictable results:



On the same evening, Graham S played with the white bits against Rajan. I am told that Rajan won.

One of the last games going, was Mike Salisbury Vs Paul Deacon. R & K Vs R,K & P. There was a long struggle, but Paul was eventually able to convert the point.

No matches this week - maybe a few casual games at the Heathcote tonight, although Ray is otherwise engaged, and I probably will not be able to get there.


Well done everyone,


Four stone smaller and almost ready to run a 5K Boss.

This week's news and a game from Gordon.

Tuesday 7th May 2013

HA1 plays its last remaining league match of the season, on Tuesday, in what will probably be a relegation play off against Shepshed 2.

County Championship Competition

Two of the four sections began in Wigston last Thursday and the remaining two sections begin this coming Thursday.

Gordon's Game

Gordon has sent in one of his internet games from Gameknot and asks for constructive criticism of his play:



Good Luck to our first team,

Colin.

HA2 Vs Loughborough 2

My opponent left her king in the centre of the board - leaving me a target to aim at.

The other games all, more or less went the distance.

John's game was complicated and fell apart in the ending. I missed the end of Mike's game, but he had been a pawn up for most of it and had turned down a draw, but lost the game in the dying seconds.

Pete's game against Terry Adcock was a good one. Pete had been material up throughout, but Terry's pieces were more active and Terry had looked as though he would win despite being a bishop down in the closing stages. Pete was able to salvage a draw, however.

Ray and Gordon came down for a club night and Stan Parsons showed up to reclaim his butterfly.

Andy the landlord bought 8 tickets for John's Chess Set Raffle.

23 Apr		Heathcote Arms 2		v	Loughborough 2
				1½ - 2½
1	B	151	Peter the President	½ - ½	Adcock, Terry	122
2	W	147	Cowley, Michael	0 - 1	Gallant, Sam	128
3	B	131	The Grinder	0 - 1	Hickman, Peter	113
4	W	119	Not Quite As Big Boss	1 - 0	Kueppers, Christina	80

Here is my game against Christina Kueppers:





Graham B tells me that:


'Heathcote 1 still have a rearranged match against Shepshed 2, to be played at The Heathcote on Tuesday 7th May. This will probably be a winner takes all relegation battle, winner stays in div 1 loser is relegated.'

Well done everyone,

Colin.

HA2 Vs Kirby Muxloe 1; Red Admiral Vs HA3

We had several players unavailable this week, so on Tuesday we fielded a stronger HA2 than usual:

16 Apr		Heathcote Arms 2		v	Kirby Muxloe 1
				3 - 1
1	B	151	Harrison, Peter	1 - 0	Gray, Paul	138
2	W	152	Booley, Graham	½ - ½	Townsend, Ray	130
3	B	147	Cowley, Michael	1 - 0	Walker, John	129
4	W	131	Manger, John	½ - ½	McEachran, Ewan	118

On Wednesday, Stan had asked us if we could play up to six boards, but we could only manage four. Andy Johnson was back from the channel islands. Expecting to be facing me on board one, he had been using this site to study my games.

Drew lost, John fell victim to some tactics, i offered a draw in an even looking position. Paul was in a better position, but offered Ray a draw.

17 Apr		Red Admiral 1		v	Heathcote Arms 3
				3 - 1
1	B	136	Johnson, Andy	1 - 0	Manger, John	131
2	W	117	Wylie, Paul	½ - ½	Ross, Colin	119
3	B	115	Findley, Paul	½ - ½	Beach, Ray	91
4	W	98	Slater, Mick	1 - 0	Harbidge, Drew	60

Here is my game:



In the bar afterwards, we discussed the possibility of a joint club championship with the Red Admiral over the summer. Nothing was definitely agreed, but both clubs have players who would like additional rated games over the summer.

This was HA3's last League match of the season. HA1 has already had its last match. HA2 has its last match next Tuesday - a club night for the rest of us.

Well done everyone,

Colin.