Tiverton 4 Newton Abbot 4 (Peter Rooke Cup Final)

Thanks to Ivor Annetts for sending me this match report. The title to this post links to the Tiverton Club site, which features photos from this match, as well as this and other match reports.

On Sunday 18th April, Tiverton entertained a Newton Abbot team in the eight board final of the Peter Rooke Cup. The teams were evenly matched with Newton's aggregate grade of 1094 being superior to that of Tiverton by a mere seven points.

Although at the end, games won were equal between the two sides, Newton won the the trophy on board count. (This is a tie splitting procedure in which greater weight is given to the results of the higher graded players.)

First to finish was John Knowles on board six who was White against fourteen year old schoolboy Jeff Leung. John opened with his usual English 1 c4 but soon found himself facing a ferocious attack. John's king was a little draughty and was soon overwhelmed by Jeff's queen and two knights.

Meanwhile on board 8, Alan Maynard played the Scotch against John Doidge and managed to create a passed d-pawn. After massive exchanges, and with only one rook each, Alan's pawn reached d7. John's king was on g8 and after playing 23 Rd8, Alan's 24 Rc8 won immediately.

Stephen Thorpe-Tracey, Black on board 7 against Roger Hocking, won a kingside pawn and then a second one. With both kings exposed the extra pressure with the two extra pawns proved decisive.

On board 3, John Morrison was having a torrid time against Charlie Howard's Morra Gambit. John played the opening badly, found many of his pieces remaining on the back rank when his opponent was well developed. At one stage it looked as though he was fighting back, but Chartlie's superior development proved to be too strong.

Keith Atkins on board four found himself facing the Rubinstein variation of the French Defence orchestrated by John Allen. Keith won Black's e-pawn and created pressure down that open file which was ultimately sufficient to win the game.

On board one, Simon Bartlett faced a Tropowski from 16 year old Robert Thompson. Robert took the f6 knight and the game was played with Black having doubled f-pawns. Later Robert obtained a two - one queenside pawn majority and after the pieces were exchanged, Robert managed to infiltrate his king into the queenside position and this proved decisive.

With games at 3-3, things looked good for Tiverton because both boards two and five looked like imminent victories for Tiverton.

On board two, Ivor Annetts (White) kept things tight and controlled from his c3 Sicilian opening. But with the match appparently lost for Newton, the instruction to his opponent, Andrew Kinder, from non playing captain Trefor Thynne was, "Go for the win!". This led to a knight sacrifice and strong pressure on the queenside and then a direct attack against the White king. Ivor found that he was left with less than four minutes to make eight moves. Simple and calm thought afterwards showed that there was a winning backward bishop move for Ivor, but false analysis under time pressure led him to make a king move which gave his opponent checkmate in 1! Oh dear....

The last ganme to finish was the board 5 tussle between Jon Duckham - who has had an excellent comeback season - and schoolboy Alex Billings. From a Queen's Gambit, Jon won the exchange and at the end sacrificed that for a won king and pawn ending.

So 4-4 it was. Murmers of ,"We wus robbed" were heard eminating from the direction of board two. But all credit to Newton Abbot for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

Dorset Leagues

Today I'm focussing on the Dorset Leagues. The title to this post links to the Dorset Leagues' home page, which in turn has links to the league tables, and full match results.

In division 1 there are 4 teams, with each team playing each other twice. This league has now concluded, and congratulations are due to Southbourne A, who finished first by a single point. Southbourne A finished with 8 points (4 wins, 2 losses), just ahead of Dorchester A on 7 points (3 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses.) Third were Wimborne A with 5 points (2 wins, 1 draw, 3 losses), and last but not least Wimborne A with 4 points (1 win, 2 draws, 3 losses).

In division 2 there are also 4 teams playing each other twice, and like division 1, all of the matches have been played. In this league each team must have a total grade of 600, which means an average of no more then 150 per board. The winners were Dorchester B, who finished unbeaten on 10 points (4 wins, 2 draws). Just behind them were Wimborne B on 8 points (3 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss), and Weymouth B on 6 points (2 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses). Bringing up the rear were Bridport who failed to score a point.

In division 3 there are 8 teams, each playing each other twice, so 14 matches in total. In this league the teams must have a total grade of no more then 540, or 135 per board. There are still a few matches to be played in this division, and it's gone right down to the wire. Southbourne B currently lead with 17 points from 13 matches (8 wins, 1 draw, 4 losses). They are closely followed by Purbeck on 16 points from 13 matches (7 wins, 2 draws, 4 losses.), and Dorchester C on 15 from 12 (7 wins, 1 draw, 4 losses).

The final fixture for Southbourne B is against Wimborne D, who are currently in the bottom half of the table, whilst Purbeck and Dorchester C have still to play each other. This coupled with Southbourne B's greater game point total means that they are undoubtedly the favourites to win this league, although it's still possible for any of the 3 teams to finish first.

Just below these three teams, Weymouth C (13 points from 12 matches), Dorchester D (13 from 13), and Wimborne D (12 from 11) are all closely matched, whilst Poole (7 points from 12 matches) and Wimborne C (5 from 12) are both a long way back.

Cornwall Premier, Minor Leagues

As we're getting towards the end of the season, I thought it was time to provide an update on the standings in the various leagues in the south west. I'm starting today with the Cornish leagues. The title to this post links to the Cornwall Chess website. About half way down are links to the league tables and full results for both of the leagues.

In the Premier League there are 5 teams, with each team facing each other 3 times. Currently top of the league are Truro, who have 18 points from 10 matches (8 wins, 2 draws). They are closely followed by Camborne, who have 16 points from 9 matches (7 wins, 2 draws). Newquay and Falmouth both have 7 points, with Newquay having played 2 matches less. Godolphin are yet to get off the mark, and look like they've had some trouble raising a team this year, with a few matches being lost 5-0 by default. It looks like the crunch match in this league will be the last fixture, when Truro play host to Camborne on the 17th May.

I'm not entirely sure on the format for the Minor League, but I believe it's as follows (do correct me if I'm wrong): there are 8 teams, and each team faces each other twice, meaning 14 matches for each team in total. As things stand Falmouth B are in the lead with 18 points from 10 matches (8 wins, 2 draws). Just behind them are Liskeard A with 16 points from 11 matches (8 wins, 3 losses), and Liskeard B with 13 points from 11 matches (6 wins, 1 draw, 4 lossses). Camborne 'B', St Austell B, Truro B, and Falmouth C are all closely matched, with just 2 points seperating them, and Godolphin B are bringing up the rear, 2 points further back.

Teignmouth Rapidplay

Thanks to Ray Chubb for providing this report on the Teignmouth Rapidplay tournament.

The Teignmouth Chess Club meets on Tuesdays each week throughout the year, at the Alice Cross Centre, Teignmouth. Further information can be obtained from Ray Chubb, Secretary, e-m: ray.chubb@care4free.net or the Chess Devon web site www.ChessDevon.co.uk (linked to in the title to this post.)

Open:

1st Ben Edgell (Grade 206) Sedgemoor 5 / 6 Winner of the Walker Cup & £50

Joint 2nd= Graham Bolt (203) Exeter 4.5 / 6 Winning £15 each
Stephen Homer (183) Exeter
Allan Pleasant (170e) Wessex/Weymouth



Grading Prizes:
Under 170 Michael Richardt (162) Taunton 4 / 6 Winning £10

Under 155 Steve Dean (147) Sidmouth 3.5 / 6 Winning £4 each
Peter Halmkin (152) Teignmouth
Peter Jaszkiwskyj (154) Honary members Club, London
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Major: (U-145)

Joint 1st= Three scoring 5 / 6. Each winning £20. Major Cup awarded by tie-break.
Charles Keen (141) Exeter Winner of the Major Cup
John Maloney (121) Exeter
Allan Papier (131) Bristol and Clifton

Grading Prizes:
Under 130 Chris McKinley (127) Sedgemore 4 / 6 Winning £10
Under 105 John James ( 77) Plymouth 3.5 / 6 Winning £10

Junior Prizes:
Under 16 years. Freddie Sugden (131) Newton Abbot 3.5 / 6 Winning £10


Team Prize:
There were 13, 3 player teams. Two teams drew on 13 / 18 points.
Teams:
Newton Abbot; Exeter (Lions), (Tigers) and (Bears); Teignmouth (A), (B) and (C); Tiverton; Taunton; Brixham Boys; Weymouth; Wimborne; WW.

Joint Winners. Sharing £15.
Exeter Lions, comprising of Graham Bolt, Tim Paulden and Charles Keen.
Taunton, comprising of Ben Edgell, Mike Redman and Mike Richardt.
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Junior Event:

Under 12 years Winners of the Ian Mason Memorial Cup and 1st. place Trophies.

Jointly 1st Place Joseph Gabriel. Broadclyst School 5 / 6 Tomas Trott Broadclyst School
3rd. Place Thomas Koyla Broadclyst School

Best Under 11 years Scoring 4 / 6 and Winning Medals.
Reece Whittington Broadclyst School
Adam Batten Broadclyst School
Theo Slade Bude, Cornwall Junior
John Fraser Torquay Grammer School


Best Girl: Jointly. Nandeje Narayanan Churston
Sophia Robinson Broadclyst School

Team Prize:
Broadclyst School Team A won the team prize, winning £9. Comprising Joseph Gabriel, Simon Priddle and Tom Koyla.

General Notes.

The Congress was again fortunate to be on a day of fine weather allowing competitors to relax between game rounds in the gardens and on the patio of Trinity School.
The Congress was opened by Teignmouth Councillor Mayor Vince Fusco and Graham Hesse’ President of the Teignmouth Chess Club. This was the 29th Congress held at Trinity School, held by kind permission of Tim Waters, Headmaster, Trinity School. Teignmouth Chess Club organises and runs this very successful and popular event in the West Country chess calendar.

Open.

The defending Champion Ben Edgell did extremely well to retain his title again against such a strong entry to the Open Section. After round 5 there were only two players in contention (Graham Bolt dropped from contention after three drawn games), Ben Edgell (on 4.5, grade 206) and Allan Pleasants (on 4, grade 170). Their game was drawn and Ben Edgell emerged out right winner, to win the Open Section for the fourth time and retain the Walker Cup.

Major.

After round 5, Allan Papier (on 4), Clive Pemberton (on 4), Charles Keen (on 4) and John Maloney (on 5) were all in contention. Pemberton (131) lost to Papier (131) and Keen (141) beat Maloney (121), resulting in the three-way tie for first place. Charles Keen had beat John Maloney and John Maloney had beat Allan Papier so the Major Cup was awarded to Charles Keen of Exeter.


Congress Organisation.

The Congress is an annual event run by the Teignmouth Chess Club.
Ray Chubb organises the event on behalf of the Club.
John Ariss from Torquay and a member of the Teignmouth Chess Club, is a fully qualified English Chess Federation Congress controller and ran both the Open and the Major events for the Congress.
The Junior section was run by Mrs Joe Frost from Bantham, north Devon.

Twenty- First Frome Chess Congress

7th- 9th of May is the 21st Frome Congress, held at Selwood Middle School, in Frome. Last year there were 177 entrants, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a similar number again this year. The congress comprises of an open, a major (u170 grade), an intermediate (u140), and a minor (u115). This congress also incorporates the Somerset Championships, and for one person a spot at the British Championships is up for grabs.

The title to this post links to the Frome Congress home page, where one can get more details on the congress, as well as an entry form. As a slight side- note this year the Congress will be graced by ECF President CJ De Mooi on the Sunday.

Somerset League Division 1, Taunton 5-1 Frome

Thanks to Nick Wilson for this report, and Mike Richardt for forwarding it to me. The title to this post links to the Taunton Club website.

Last night was the much-delayed Taunton v Frome match in Div1. This was a home match for Frome, played, as usual, at Glastonbury. Thank you Glastonbury for allowing us to play at your venue for this match.

For those unaware, Taunton and Frome are currently joint leaders of Div1, with only the Taunton v Frome home and away ties being the sole matches remaining - the whole Div1 championship now boils down to the result of these matches. Exciting stuff!
For the first time in ages, we managed to put out a full team, and I was in the envious position of having to turn players away who would have been strong performers - e.g. Jorge, Martin, Alex. So the team was MikeRed, Mark, MikeRich, Dave, Nick and Stan. Special thanks to Mike Redman for travelling from work in Exmouth to make this game.

Being held on third party territory, each team had to bring three boards and clocks - a fact I only remembered on the day of the match... d'oh! A few frantic texts sorted it with MikeRich, Dave and myself bringing our own clocks, pieces, boards and tablecloths...

However on arriving at Glastonbury we found all the tables all nicely set out with boards. Looks like we won't need ours after all. I turned to tell Mike'n'Dave, but when I turned back, all the boards had been whipped away.. I tried turning away and back again, but to no avail - the boards were still gone. So we used ours.

I've had a poor season this year, so in this important match it only seemed fair to let Dave play above me, promoting him to board 4, with me on 5. Ok, so Frome are the home team... they'd have black on evens... so I'm on board 5.. I've got white - excellent!

On to the games, which finished in this order -

Board 4. Greg Sweetland 0 v Dave Littlejohns 1
This game was played at breakneck speed, with both players bashing out moves with seemingly little thought. They met the 35 move time control whilst other players were still in the opening. The game itself was pretty simple. Dave gradually simplified everything whilst gaining small advantages - first better pawn structures and then a pawn win. They were quickly in the endgame where Dave queened a pawn and wrapped things up.

(by now it was getting dark outside and the lights above board 1 weren't working, so board one was moved to the vacated, and brighter, board 4 spot)

Board 5 Nick Wilson 1 v G Berryman 0
My opponent got into a tangle in the opening with way too many knight moves - e.g. by move 12, four of his moves has involved moving a knight from b8 to g8! Needless to say, this allowed me time to develop and then pick off a pawn. By move 20, black's king was still un-castled, a knight sac on e6 opened things up. Black resigned 2 moves later.

(it was even darker now, so board two (which also suffered from having no lights above it) was moved to the now-vacated board five)

The next game to finish was a very close and double-edged tussle...

Pool Table (next door) Nick Wilson 0 v Dave Littlejohns 1
Dave broke off, but I got in amongst the balls and raced ahead. However, after a few rusty missed pots, Dave fought back and suddenly the game was all on the black. Dave should have won right there, having an easyish pot, but he missed, leaving me a complete sitter. To make things fun (and get our moneys worth from the 50p, we decided to have a opponent-nominated pocket for the black. This involved lots of crazy doubles and triples in attempts to pot into hopelessly inaccessible pockets. After a while we got bored and wanted to see how the match was coming on, so Dave let me try a simple cross table double. Easy! Yes, the black sailed in - only to be followed by the white! Arrgh! Dave wins.

We wandered back in to the playing area - apparently some idiots had been playing pool and making a lot of noise, distracting the players... oops.. Just as I was starting to feel slightly guilty about it I heard "Oh you f**king c**t!" shouted from the bar next door.. This was loudly repeated a few times with subtle variations, but all involving the same two key words. I think someone was having trouble with the in-pub skybox. It can be frustrating, but just turn it on and off - usually works... However, on the bright-side, all the pool noise was now forgotten!
Next game to finish was -

Board 1 Mike Redman 1 v C Purry 0
After a boring Petrov, both sides castled long. Mike forced black to damage his q-side pawns with a pin on the c6 knight. Form that moment on, black was on the back-foot, forever having to defend something looking increasingly indefensible. Mike sacced a pawn, and suddenly black was lost. A nice win.

So Taunton lead 3-0. from looking at the remaining games, both Mike and Mark had double-edged positions whereas Stan's was looking quite solid. I told Stan to consider a draw to secure the match.
So -

Board 6 G Udell 1/2 v Stan Wojick 1/2
Stan had the better of this game no doubt, and in post match analysis, we found a way to a clear win in the late opening - things are so easy to spot then! But in the heat of battle, Stan made no mistakes and was a pawn up. But the position was marred by long pawn chains and white's light bishop was much better than black's dark one. So in recognition of this, and the match position, Stan offered a draw to secure the match victory!

Taunton win - but the remaining matches are important as should Frome win next week, the aggregate score is used as a tie-break. So a heavy win tonight would dramatically increase Taunton's chances.

Board 2 G Jepps 1/2 v Mark Hassal 1/2
Gerry likes to sac'n'attack and this was no exception. By early middle game, he'd sacced a pawn to gain development and black's king was tied in the centre. Mark tried to kick away a bishop but Gerry initiated a series of exchanges with left him Q + B v 2R + N. But his Q+B were active and Mark's king was drafty. However both players were down to the last seconds on the clock an a draw was agreed.

Board 3 Mike Richardt 1 v Mark Leonard 0
This was a tricky game. I like things simple - one player attacks in one place and the other defends. But this game had stuff going on all over the board. Way too complicated for me! Anyway, things began to simplify and a nice zwischenzug from Mike at a key time gave him the advantage into a Q v 2R ending. A neat combination gave Mike the game, forcing either mate or the winning of a rook.

Final score - Taunton win 5 -1! A great result. But we haven't won overall yet - we need to continue next week to cement the victory.

Man of the match goes to Mike Richardt - an inspirational player in so many ways! But congrats to everyone - this was a great victory and we each played a big part!

Teignmouth Rapidplay

Thanks to Alex Conway for this report. The title to this post links to the Taunton Club website.

It is Saturday the 17th of April and we have just returned from a full days Chess in Teignmouth. I had arranged to get there in Mike Richardt’s Car (skippy, aww) which lead to us somehow arriving at the venue before anybody else! This of course leaves Taunton players in a position to clinch a large percentage as so far myself David Littlejohns, Mike Richardt and an in form Martin Worrall were the only people at a school in Teignmouth. I’m not entirely sure of the name of said school, but it was on the whole a nice playing environment with good lighting, enough space for a tournament of ample size to be held and even a school canteen that was able to cater for around 100 people. The canteen was today filled with sugary snacks, tea, coffee, energy drinks... Unfortunately our eager Taunton players were not yet allowed in to get their necessary caffeine fix as there was no way of us getting in! After relaxing ourselves into some seats within range of what we believed to be the playing area more people steadily trickled in that some of our players recognised to be here for some kind of chess event!

This lead to us eventually getting in to the playing hall itself and after some rushed entries from myself and Dave we were ready to play some chess. Since then we had also been joined by Roger Waters, Mike Ward and the formidable appearance of Mike Redman whose likelihood of turning up had been surrounded in smoke and mirrors!?!? Was he coming from Scotland, Exmouth, not at all? Clearly he was always going to be playing today and was in his usual kind of tournament mood; “100% or nothing”.

Shaping up to be an interesting contest, even if it would be just between those fine players of Taunton. The format was to be a 6 round Swiss tournament, where each player would have just 30 minutes for all of their moves with no increments per move and no additions to this 30 minutes for any endgames. Excellent, rapidplay as it should be done! It also emerged that Martin, Myself, Roger and Mike ward would be playing in the major section which was for those with a rapidplay grade under 145 along with about 40 other players of a similar calibre. Mike Richardt, Mike Redman and David Littlejohns would all be in the open section, which does what it say on the tin in the sense that it is open to anyone. In that case our big guns flexed their guns and waited eagerly to see just who was on the open pairing board. Personally I knew very few of the players that were participating, but recognised a few names, including Graham Bolt and Ben Edgell, who both have Rapid grades of around 200 ECF.

So on to the games themselves; this was between about 10am and 6pm. All 6 games were very closely packed together thanks to excellent timing from the Arbiters. As a result of this it means that what I can pass on from the tournament as it developed will be somewhat fragmented but here goes anyway!

Round 1 was underway promptly after the mayor of Teignmouth opened the event with a speech that showed his respect and appreciation for the tournament itself and also a sincere regret that he himself didn’t understand Chess to the degree that he would have liked. While I was still digesting this my game was underway without me realising and I’d subconsciously played some relatively solid looking stuff. This held out and I went on to win with relative ease.

After looking around afterwards I think I remember Mike Richardt getting a draw after a bit of bad luck in a blitzed K+P vs. K ending, Mike Redman got his win quite quickly but I think Martin lost his in a game that I saw none of. The legendary Dave Littlejohns secured a thrilling point by his standards; a slightly confused bye point! At this point I realised that talk of Taunton putting in some teams had come to fruition, we had entered 2 teams; Taunton A and Taunton B, not sure which way round it was but one of the teams was composed of Mike Redman, Mike Richardt and Ben Edgell. [Some explanation to the arbiter over how Ben Edgell could be classed as a Taunton player was required but all was merely a formality as our fearsome team lined up ready to do battle for their Bus Fare Home!]. The other Taunton team was made up of Alex, Dave Littlejohns and Martin Worral which [in view of this tournament being rapidplay] seemed to leave Taunton in good stead to compete for a team prize with either team! Mike Ward and Roger Waters were happy to go it alone and threatened to take down all who stood in their way!

The rest of the day developed alarmingly quickly; round 2 seemed to be immediately upon us. I netted a quick draw where my opponent tried a cheeky trick with the opening 1.e4 d5 2.ed Nf6 3.d4 Nxd5 4.c4 Nb4!? 5.a3! a3 saves the potentially awkward threats on c2. A tedious exchanging situation ensued and I offered a draw which my opponent gratefully took. I then took off to the canteen for a quick analysis of my game so not sure about the rest of the games from this round. I can’t remember any real upsets this round so I guess all results must have been reasonable. Many people in the canteen were too busy enjoying the light hearted clash of the titans of Ben Edgell v Matthew Haines and anyone else passing!

Round 3 was then upon us and I secured a win after some mistakes by my opponent. At this point it struck me that 2.5 out of 3 was a good score even if my section had 45 players in it so I began to eye the possibility of finishing near the top. Martin was also gathering pace, however, and was on 1.5 at this point, I think. Please correct me if I’m wrong Martin! Mike Redman seemed despondent after a draw at this point, @Mike, this was character building and was always meant to happen! Mike Richardt was still reasonably happy with his result but happier still with his form!

At this point a Lunch break was welcomed by all, and a bit of chat about the state of affairs of things at the time. The general feel was such that everyone felt the break was necessary but short-lived and before we knew it we seemed to be playing chess again! Not round 4 yet just a quick blitz that developed into an analysis of the play after an interesting sacrifice in a friendly in the canteen! It really was a packed day of Chess for all concerned, which was interesting given the circumstances of the tournament itself, and our friends and Taunton Players who were in positions to challenge for the lead late on.

This lead to me getting a little bit too caught up in the moment and playing for something more than just what seemed like a fair result, under the advice of a determined Mike Redman that I was to get 5.5 out of 6 by the end of the day. This lead to me getting aggressive very early in a quiet looking game between myself and one of the other front runners of the major section. It was a line of the Scotch opening that I knew well but chose to expand on the queenside with rapid pawn pushes. Unfortunately I miscalculated and quickly my worth adversary’s Kings bishop was causing problems on its fianchetto. This lead to me losing the initiative which in turn seemed to provoke me into more and more aggresive moves. Predictably I blundered the exchange and the endgame was too strong so I resigned. This one really crushed my spirit as it seemed that a top spot was out of the question, in hindsight I see that I mentally gave up and just tried to enjoy things. Mike Richardt brought home the bacon with a good win in this round. Really not sure about the position of anyone else in the overall tournament standings at this point, just that I was out of the running for the win as like Mike Redman on that day I was “either first or nowhere”. This gave me the chance to sit back and watch the next 2 rounds as Mike Richardt, Mike Redman and Martin all still felt as though they were in contention.

Round 5 came as the flow of Chess never seemed to end. This flow was fast being recognized as something that was welcomed for some and a nuisance for others. I lost to a shocking blunder that really killed my tournament but I considered my opponent to be fair and only doing what any chess player would do in that situation. After the results were in on this round it became apparent that on paper reigning champion Ben Edgell required only a draw in the final game to secure a win as he was on 4.5 out of 5. Martin looked set to finish well as he gained momentum after a disappointing start to the tournament. Alex will learn from your performance in this tournament Martin! Mike Redman realised that he was unable to win the prestigious trophy, which we were reminded was new for this year. This lead to his later actions of drowning his sorrows in a greasy burger. Dave Littlejohns seemed to have had an unpredictable game that lead to him being on 3 out of 5!? The question marks are not just to signify my confusion over just how many points Dave had at this stage of the tournament but really whether Dave’s game was unpredictable!

The final round was upon us and many games at this point were merely a formality *cough cough Alex*. I tried a flashy attack that gained me material but didn’t really give me a mating attack, I was keen to see the struggles on other boards so rushed things and ended up blundering again... From 2.5/3 at the end of round 3 to 2.5/6 at the end of the day, I really need more tournament experience but time is not on my side... As I went to see the struggles at the top of the open I realised that there were none- Ben Edgell had managed to draw in about 5 minutes clearly and a last round game between Mike Rich and Mike Red ended similarly quickly with 1.h4 a5 2.g4 b5 or something along those lines, a lot was lost in translation after the game! A struggle worth watching was Martin’s last round game, the position looked dynamic and he managed to judge some tactical exchanges to his advantage and sealed the win.

Once all was done I tried to see the good sides of the day itself and the good sides of my chess. It seems now that I have learnt a lot about tournament play and about chess as a whole. My apologies go out to my opponents, who thought that I may have spoiled a good game with my attitude at the time, but as said by many on the day in such situations; “that’s Rapidplay Chess!” The tournament finished with what seemed to me like a great amount of people left to digest the results and to applaud their fellow players who had performed admirably. Personally I was impressed by Martin Worrall, the man in form according to some of those at Taunton! His performance now strikes me as such that he was on a bad start and calmly played each game on the board as he saw things at the time. This lead to him getting good results and rising through from near the back of the pack in the u145 section to a final position in the league tables of 2nd but with 3 players in front of him on 5/6, so technically leaving him 4th in the overall standings out of 45 players. This really sticks in memory due to how much it relates to my experiences in the tournament. None of this was specifically said to me by Martin [apart from the facts of his position in the major section], however I see the parallels between what could of been going through his mind at certain points of the day and what were going through mine a lot. The difference was I mentally gave up after my loss in round 4, he didn’t give up after his loss in round 1. My lesson learned will be to try and play the board alone in the future. Not the man, not always the grade but always to look closely at the circumstances in which I am playing. Here I do not mean the event itself, I mean the points that are still possible and the points that are not if I really want to do my potential chess ability any justice.

My congratulations go to Ben Edgell who completed the impressive feat of winning the Teignmouth rapidplay for the third year running. Mike Richardt also is well worth my sincerest congratulations; he ended with a grading prize on 4/6 and was happy with the way he played! Mike Redman who appeared to be a perfectionist once more and was unhappy with 4/6. To you I can say that your character is being built more and more with this kind of thing, just do whatever you can to help yourself. Losing does hurt when the stakes are high but we can all learn something by it. Personally I intend to keep my emotions more reigned in where Chess is concerned and to think!
The Taunton team of Mike Richardt, Ben Edgell, and Mike Redman scooped a quick cash prize. Not sure what happened to it though, possibly spent by Mike Redman in an unnamed fast food place on the way to his next port of call. All I can say about that is that if that was indeed the case I will be very surprised if he got change out of the winnings! Personally I got nothing shiny for my days Chess or anything expendable at fast food restaurants. I did get a highly useful collection of experiences that I will also make sure helps my game and when anyone says “remember teignmouth rapid?” I will! Not just for the tournament itself but my experiences after it!