Exmouth 2 Tiverton 2 (Exeter League Div 2)

Thanks to Ivor Annetts for sending me this report. The title of this post links to the Tiverton Club page.

A brief report on this match. Results are coming so thick and fast I can hardly keep up!

Exmouth entertained us on Wednesday 14th April. The time limit was fast at 30 moves in 1 hour with all remaining moves in 15 minutes.

On board 2 John Morrison (Tiverton) playing White employed the Tarrasch variation against Dave Rogers' French Defence. Dave exchanged in the centre and this led to John being able to build up incredibly strong pressure along the e file. Dave's king became trapped in the centre and eventually his position collapsed.

Ivor Annetts (Tiverton), on board 1, drew the short straw in having to face Mark Abbot, a strong County player. Mark, with White, played a kind of Colle system to which Ivor failed to find a satisfactory response. Mark developed a strong king side attack and after errors from Ivor, who became very short of time, Mark won with a pleasing forced mate.

On board 4, Stephen Thorpe-Tracey (Tiverton) lost material against Fred Hodge and was technically in a lost position at the close. But Fred had insufficient time to prove his superiority and a draw was agreed.

So the match depended on the result of the game between, on board 3, John Knowles (Tiverton) and Bob Jones. This was another Tarrasch French and at the end John had the advantage of two bishops and an extra pawn against a rook. But with both players short of time, and after Bob was forced to give up his rook for bishop and pawn, his king was able to capture the last Black pawn leaving John with the lone bishop. So the game ended in a draw.

Newton Abbot 2 Tiverton 2 (Schofield Cup)

Thanks to Ivor Annetts for sending me this. The title to this post links to the Tiverton Chess Club site, which has this report along with pictures from the match amongst other things.

After a most exciting match on Saturday 10th April at Newton Abbot, it was Stephen Schofield the home team captain who lifted the Schofield (Ken, deceased of Exmouth and no relation!) Cup.

This one went right to the wire. Tiverton needed to win the match to take the trophy and only just failed to do so.

Stephen Thorpe-Tracey on board four (Black, Tiverton) found himself facing a King's Gambit. His opponent played extremely well and won significant material in a complicated position. The win for the home team was then straight forward.

On board three Keith Atkins (Tiverton) did all of the pressing but his opponent defended extremely well. Keith won a pawn and this advantage persisted into a rook and pawn endgame - three against two on one side of the board. This was not a straight forward win but Keith persisted and eventually prevailed.

The result of the match depended on two very close games on boards one and two. On board one, Ivor Annetts (Tiverton), played a c3 Sicilian against Stephen Schofield who responded with the increasingly popular fianchetto of the king's bishop. Ivor managed to squeeze a Black pawn weakness out of the position but in a knight and pawn ending this proved insufficient to win

On board two John Morrison (Tiverton) played a Nimzo-Indian against Charlie Howard. But he played badly in the opening and lost a pawn, For some time Charlie had all the play and the pawn advantage persisted. But later with the two bishops and tactical threats, John regained the pawn and looked to have the advantage. Charlie was short of time and the game developed into rook and black squared bishop against rook and white squared bishop with equal pawns. With less than two minutes left on his clock, Charlie invoked the 'two minute rule'. [For a draw to be declared the defending player, short on time, has to demonstrate that his opponent can not make progress by normal means.] After some head scratching, this was accepted by both sides and the game was duly declared drawn.

Three teams, - Tiverton, Teignmouth and Newton Abbot - contested this division of the DCCA League and the result was a three-way tie. Newton Abbot took the trophy on 'goal difference'. Tiverton came really close!!

Cornwall Chess Championships 2010

Somewhat missed this at the time, but the Cornwall Chess Championships took place over the weekend of March 5th-7th. The title to this post is a link to the Cornwall Chess site, which in turn has links for crosstables of the 2 sections at the Championships.

In the Emigrant Cup congratulations to David Saqui, who secured first outright with 4/5. David's best result was a round 3 win with black against Jeremy Menadue. Having reached 3/3 David finished with draws against Simon Bartlett and Gary Trudeau. 2nd= were Jeremy Menadue and Simon Bartlett, both of whom finished on 3.5/5. I don't know this for fact, but I assume that the tournament win makes David Saqui the Cornwall Champion for this year.

The winner of the Falmouth Cup was Cornwall county match captain Anton Barkhuysen, who scored 4.5/5. The crunch match was in round 4. Chris Reeves had started with 3/3, and at that point lead the field outright. Anton defeated Chris in round 4 to take the lead, and held onto it with a last round win against Colin Webb. Chris came back with a last round win to secure 2nd outright.

Somerset League results

A quick note for people in Somerset. Clicking on the title to this post takes you to a set of pages very helpfully set up by Gerry Jepps (I believe), which includes all of the individual results for each of the matches in the Somerset Leagues this season. It's worth checking that all of your results are correctly recorded, and there are no mistakes of any kind.

South Bristol A 1.5- 4.5 Thornbury

Thanks to Robert Radford for letting me post a copy of the match reports for South Bristol Chess Club. The title to this post links to the South Bristol Club website, which has as one of its links match reports for most, if not all, of the South Bristol Club's results for this season. I've included the latest one here:

1/4/10

South Bristol A Thornbury
1. Russell Barlow 0.5-0.5 Martin S Davies
2. George Crockart 0-1 David Dugdale
3. David Frydman 0.5-0.5 Michael G Boyce
4. Robert P Radford 0.5-0.5 Andrew Borkowski
5. David C Neagle 0-1 David O Vaughan
6. David R Jones 0-1 Lynda Roberts
1.5-4.5

The defeat at Horfield left us without any cushion points against rival championship contenders Thornbury. We still needed at least a draw to win the title outright, but they came to Whitchurch with their strongest side and looking determined, whilst we were missing Richard Garrett.

Dave and Mike ended with a lacklustre draw, which was soon followed by Dave Neagle losing to David Vaughan, rated 171 playing down on board 5!! (hmmn) Bob could only manage a draw against Andrew, who played solidly throughout, and does not appear to be rusty after his 18 month lay off. Then disaster struck as Dave lost to Lynda Roberts, in what should have been a drawn King + bishop ending.

We now needed two wins on the top boards. Martin made Russell an offer he just could not refuse without probably losing. So a draw was agreed.

George, who had turned down an offer of a draw from Dave earlier, stubbornly decided it was all or nothing and finished with exactly nothing! So Thornbury walked off with the points deservedly and probably the Championship, as it seems highly unlikely they will slip up against Hanham, or Clevedon.

Horfield results, 6th April

Thanks to John Richards and Alex Dunn for the following 2 reports from Horfield Chess Club, in the Bristol League. The title of this post links to the Horfield Club website. If any other captains have match reports they'd like featured, do let me know, either through here or by emailing me at edgellben@hotmail.com . I'm happy to credit the author, and include a link to the club's home page in return.

6/4/2010

Division 1

Horfield A Downend B
1 b Steve Dilleigh 0.5-0.5 Ian Ponter
2 w Derek Pugh 1-0 Geoff Taylor
3 b Chris Jones 0.5-0.5 Megan Owens
4 w John Richards 0.5-0.5 James Hennefeld
5 b Mike Levene 0-1 Paul Spiller
6 w Phil Nendick 0.5-0.5 Dave Tipper
3-3

Derek got us off to a good start, but I missed a win in my Maroczy Bind and no one else seemed to have very much. Mike was last to finish, and had a lost position on the board but a fighting chance on the clock. It wasn't to be.

Our season has gone completely off the boil, and we have now dropped to fourth place, but at least we got a point from this one. (JR)

Division 2

Horfield C Clevedon B
1 b Mike Gladstone 0-1 Stuart Iles
2 w Jim Boyce 1-0 Chris Strong
3 b Harvey Atkinson 0-1 Steve Roberts
4 w Howard Millibank 1-0 Andy Bellingham
5 b Alex Dunn 1-0 Doug May
6 w Graham Strickland 1-0 Harry Quigley
4-2

After three results Horfield were trailing 2-1 (Graham) but Howard, then Jim, and finally Alex, brought home the bacon. Alex was repeatedly offered draws by his opponent but did not have the common sense to find out what the match score was and nobody was reporting their results to him!! But he came through in the end.

Safe for another season. But a decline after last year's title win. (AD)

I should also thank John for pointing out how promotion/ relegation works in the Bristol Leagues, as I was previously unsure:

"By the way, it is two up, two down in the Bristol League promotions and relegations. However, that can, and often is, modified by the League Management Committee in June/July, who may decide to just relegate one team if they want to increase the number of teams in a division the following year, or if new teams are coming in."

Tiverton 2-2 Seaton

Thanks to Ivor Annetts for the following report:

On Wednesday 7th April, Tiverton played host to the Seaton Club in an Exeter & District League Division 3 match.

The teams were evenly matched apart from board one where Tiverton's Derek Allen (grade 111) was outgraded by Alan Dowse by a significant 19 points.

First to finish was Alan Brinkley, White, (gd. 96) on board three up against William Burls (gd.98). Unfortunately Alan lost a pawn in the opening and this advantage lasted through until all the pieces had been eliminated leaving William with a standard king and pawn win.

On board 4 Brian Connor, Black, (gd. 85) played Les Porter (gd. 88). Brian played an enterprising attacking game but unfortunately dropped a piece in the process. Les then developed an overwhelming attack. So two down with two to play!

On board one, Derek Allen played a most skilful game against his opponent. Alan Dowse's position became very cramped and Derek kept the pressure on. This led to a position where Alan, very short of time, was virtually in zugzwang - unable to move without making the situation worse. The resulting victory for Derek was rightly acclaimed by spectators from already completed games.

On board two, Stephen Thorpe-Tracey's (gd.103) victory against Lloyd Baal (gd.100) secured the drawn match for the home side. Stephen won a pawn in the opening, went on to win a piece and developed the almost inevitable overwhelming attack.

For photos from the match click on the title to this post, which takes you to the Tiverton Chess Club website.