End of the 2016 season

Heathcote 3 has had a good year thanks to our enthusiastic players and our team captain Ray. We have one game to play against Melton 4, the last game of the season for us. Our last game was against Kirby 4, we played 6 boards and managed to win 4 - 2.

A little bit of humour: We played a game against Syston on 8 March 2016, I was playing board 4 against Rob Mundy. We were tucked away in the corner of the dining room at the Heathcote Arms when suddenly water came pouring from the ceiling above fortunately it missed the board and the two of us. It brought all games to a halt with humorous remarks until we moved positions and play resumed as normal. Apparently Tuesday night is bath night.

HA2 Almost Win, but then Don't, at Braunsone 1.

Ben Vaughan (he of Wigston) reckons that I only write blogs these days when I have something to brag about...
This is utter nonsense, of course.


HA2 were playing away against Braunstone 1.Gordon and Ben showed up to support.


First, Ray lost to Mike Salisbury; then, against Richard Hanscombe, I managed my best ever win; Pete then beat John Robinson. Things were looking promising at this point, but then Mike's position, on board 1, collapsed against Paul Colburn. The match now rested on board 5 where Bill Roberts and Jez Wells were absolutely equal. Jez had, earlier, looked around the boards a couple of times and we think might have been considering a draw offer. It all went wrong for Bill under time pressure, however, in what had been a very close fight.  Pete said after the match that he had half been expecting a 5-0 defeat.

13 Jan		Braunstone 1		v	Heathcote Arms 2
				3 - 2
1	B	179	Colburn, Paul	1 - 0	Cowley, Michael	169
2	W	172	Robinson, John	0 - 1	Harrison, Peter	138
3	B	165	Hanscombe, Richard	0 - 1	Ross, Colin	108
4	W	153	Salisbury, Michael	1 - 0	Beach, Ray	93
5	B	140	Wells, Jeremy	1 - 0	Roberts, Bill	80

Colin.

Wigston 3 (1-4) Heathcote Arms 2

Following fast on the heels of Tuesday's HA1 defeat of Wigston 2, HA2 managed a 4-1 win against Wigston 3 on Thursday:

08 Jan		Wigston 3		v	Heathcote Arms 2
				1 - 4
1	B	139	Wylie, Stephen	½ - ½	Cowley, Michael	169
2	W	143	Pike, Andrew	½ - ½	Booley, Graham	160
3	B	132	Sim, George	0 - 1	Harrison, Peter	138
4	W	131	Chalashkanov, Nikola	0 - 1	Manger, John	132
5	B	124	Beasley, Neil	0 - 1	Ross, Colin	108

Here was my game against Neil Beasley:

HA3 (1-3) Ashby 4

First match of the new season for HA3. We opted to play the new shorter 80 minute time control. It was all over by 9PM.

07 Oct		Heathcote Arms 3		v	Ashby 4
				1 - 3
1	B	108	Ross, Colin	1 - 0	Brown, Mick	99
2	W	80	Roberts, Bill	0 - 1	Roberts, Neil	80
3	B	40	Milner, Gordon	0 - 1	Lassetter, Neil	75
4	W	40	Williams, Oliver	0 - 1	Worrow-Goodin, George	60

Mick Brown let me off the hook by trapping his bishop.



Colin

Ross Vs Dawkins CCs (Major)

I have not posted anything in ages, but could not resist this. From last night, my best win in a long time:



Colin

Colin's CC Second Round Games; Harrod Cup Second Round

A poor show from me in the second round of the major:



I scraped a draw in the second round of the minor:



Our Harrod and 2nd Chapman Cup team were both due to play last Thursday. Dave and Ray had both tried really hard to get two teams together, but there were simply not enough bodies available to play all the boards. We reluctantly decided to default the Chapman match against Latimer and try to field a full Harrod Cup team.

That didn't work, however, but we did pull off an amazing win thanks to Ray and Richard's performances.

19 Jun	Kirby Muxloe 1		W - B	B - W	Heathcote Arms 1
			3½ - 4½
1	140	Walton, David	1 - 0	1 - 0	**DEFAULT**	?
2	139	Walker, John	1 - 0	0 - 1	Ross, Colin	103
3	124	Skelley, John	0 - 1	0 - 1	Beach, Ray	92
4	97	Hill, Eddie	½ - ½	0 - 1	Maconnachie, Richard	90

Apologies to the Latimer and to David Walton for not providing any resistance.

Colin

HA1 Out of Chapman in Preliminary Round

A strong HA1 needed to win convincingly against a weaker Kirby + a 2.5 point head start.
This was not to be, however. John and Gordon's opponents perhaps being stronger that their provisional grades suggest:

22 May		Kirby Muxloe 1		v	Heathcote Arms 1		GD
				2 - 2			136
Handicap				2½ - 0
				4½ - 2
1	W	76	Shaw, Peter	0 - 1	Cowley, Michael	161	50
2	B	74	Bowles, Les	0 - 1	Harrison, Peter	151	50
3	W	60	Brown, Thomas	1 - 0	Manger, John	141	50
4	B	60	Woodhall, Henry	1 - 0	Milner, Gordon	46	-14

John's Analysis from his game against Thomas Brown:

1. d4 d5  2.c4 c6  3.e3 Nf6  4.Nc3 Bf5  5.Nf3 e6  6.Qb3 Qc7 (I probably should have played Qb6 but decided I wanted to keep the queens on) 7.a3 h6  8.h3 Nbd7  9.Bd2 Be7  10.Be2 O-O  11.O-O Ne4

12.Nxe4 Bxe4 (was going to play dxe4 here then touched my bishop!)  13.Rac1 dxc4  14.Qxc4 Nb6  15.Qb3 Bd6 16.Bb4 Bd5? 17.Bxd6 Qxd6  18.Qc2 (threatens 19.e4) Bxf3  19.Bxf3 Rfd8

20.Qc5 Nd5  21.Qxd6 Rxd6  22.Bxd5 Rxd5  23.Rfd1 Rad8  24.Rd2? e5  25.Rcd1 c5  26.Kf1 cxd4

27.Ke2 Kf8  28.f4 f6 (...exf4 looks better)  29.fxe5 fxe5  30.Kf3 Ke7  31.exd4 Ke6  32.Ke4 g5

33.g4 R8d7  34.Rd3 exd4  35.Rxd4 Re5 (I knew that after 35...Rxd4  36.Rxd4 Rxd4  37.Kxd4 Kd6 the position was a dead draw, but decided to try for the win. This was unwise as I had 5 mins left to my opponent's 25 mins!)  36.Kf3 (obviously not Kd3 losing a rook) ...Rf7  37.Kg2 Re2  38.Kg3 Rxb2  39.Rd6 Ke5  40.R1d5 Ke4  41.Rd4 Ke3  42.Rd3 Ke2  43.Rc3 Rf1 (threatens 44. ...Rg1  45.Kh2 Kf1 with a discovered mate) 44.Kg2

 

At this point I stopped recording moves. The position was maybe slightly in my favour, but lack of time told and my opponent played more accurately than me over the next 15 moves or so until I resigned in a lost position with my flag about to fall.

 

There was a round of applause for Tom from everyone present (including me). I guess he is around 14 years old, and may be in his first year in the league. He played at about 120 strength in my opinion and fully deserved his win at the end. I think he is one to watch!

  

John