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We have moved to the Austen Suite at the UK Paper Leisure Club - ME10 4DE
The Club Ladder Competition will start next week, 24th May - the rules have been circulated and the champion will be crowned at the next AGM. Remember, the more competitive games you play the stronger you, and the club, will become.
Sittingbourne’s famous Double
Event was held yesterday with great fun had by all. In an entertaining evening
everyone played exciting and pretty accurate chess, with the only obvious
blunder coming from the fat controller who seemed to
spend longer working out the pairing than some of the games took
to play! Next year Andrew has promised a reliable piece of software to
take the guesswork out of the equation.
However once the games started
the room was full of tension, white knuckles, and worried looks as team mates
waited expectantly for the comrade in arms to follow their line of thought.
Champion Team, with a100% score was the mighty duo of Merlin and the Dragon – the mighty warlock Merlin conjuring attacks in all of the games and with fine backup from the old dragon (a.k.a. Trefor) they swept all before them, including, much to young Merlin’s delight a crushing victory over his father.
The club was delighted to see a
new member turn up on the evening, although what John thought about the two and
a half hours of chaos was any ones guess! Combined
with Club Champion Keith, John showed that he has plenty of talent and the
mighty pair put in a great performance to finish in second place – we all hope
to see John regularly at the club.
Third spot was taken by ABBA –
better known as Andrew, Brian, Brian, Andrew the pair showed plenty of cunning
at the board with dancing queens and more attacks than Waterloo, the long hair
and thigh high boots were sadly missing, but maybe
next year!
Many thanks to everyone else who took part, it really is a fun way to play chess and pretty instructive too!
The club was very pleased to
welcome our friend (and foe) Tyrone from Rochester Club who partnered
Peter and Andrew
have recently represented
1. e4 e5
13. f4 pxfp
23. Nc5 h5
Position after 14.Be6
The Swiss is nearing the final round with Keith a strong favourite to regain his club title, with a large group battling for 2nd and 3rd places – but don’t forget that this is Chess, anything can happen yet!
I am an artist!
Before any wit out there adds their interpretation I will qualify my proud
statement.
I may not be an artist but I am getting better at drawing – last week saw me play 4 rated games and yes, you guessed correctly, 4 draws and now a total of 14 rated draws this season. Next season’s club championship may use the improved scoring method of 1 point for a win and 3 for a draw
The club Xmas
tournament was great fun, and superbly organised, as usual, by Brian Turner – 10
players entered: the first 2 rounds being played under ‘normal lightning’
conditions, then Brian’s unique handicap system took effect for rounds 3,4 and 5
– The winner was David Page who managed to avoid any piece handicaps and
finished with a superb 4 wins and a draw, runner up was Trefor with 3 wins and 2
draws – more importantly everyone had a good deal of fun and the chess was ( if
we avoid queens and kings left en pris) of a very good standard.
Congratulations to
everyone who took part and a BIG thank you to Brian.
The club will be closed Thursday 29th December but open and ready for action on 5th January 2012!
The Club Xmas Special will be held on Thursday 22nd December starting at 8pm, just turn up for an evening of fun exciting chess and mince pies!
Sittingbourne
scored their first victory of the season yesterday with a narrow and hard fought
win over
Peter Blundell
started well but just missed out after fine play from his opponent, but wins
from
Sittingbourne
picked up their first point of the season with a well deserved and exciting draw
against
Brian got the scorecard rolling with a walkover win and this was followed by a battling draw from Francis to keep the match level at the halfway point. In a mutual time scramble and with pieces seemingly randomly scattered over the board Trefor recorded a good win. With only one game still in progress everything hung on the result, a win for either player would give overall victory to their team. Peter played the ending well, with a good knight against a poor bishop, however the locked pawns prevented either king penetrating and his opponent defended superbly to hold a draw, a fair result for that game and indeed the match!
The new season has
started, with Sittingbourne now having 2 teams in the Kent leagues. Club Captain
Brain Turner should now be able to ensure that every player at the club has a
chance to represent Sittingbourne this season.
The club internal competition has also started with everyone determined to fight through and become Sittingbourne Champion by the end of the season . . Good Luck!
Our new venue has proved very popular with a spacious playing room and easy access to the bar for those wanting a coffee to inspire their play (or a guinness!!)
The club has now
closed for August and moved venue – so the next club night will be Thursday 1st
September
We have moved to
the Austen Suite at the UK Paper Leisure Club.
We are planning a special event for mid September and details of the Junior club will be online shortly
Well it was chess
Jim, but not as we know it . . . .
Seriously, 8 brave
souls turned up for the club’s first Chess 20-20 event – and very possibly the
first chess 20-20 played on the planet! Rules were simple – 20 minutes for each
game – If opponents were within 20 grading points of each other the 20 minutes
were shared 10 minutes each and if more than 20 points separated the players the
higher graded player had 5 minutes versus 15!
This led to many
blitz style finishes – and a few queens left en-prise ( hmmm guilty ) –
eventually after 7 fierce, fun and competitive rounds it proved that the
handicap was not severe enough on this occasion, with top seed Keith Hyde
finishing 1st with 6/7, Trefor Owens second on 5.5/7 and Karl Lewis and Peter
Blundell 3rd on 4.5/7
Well played everyone
The Summer League
has been completed – the time handicap ensured lots of exciting games and nail
biting finishes, with everyone having something to play for.
3rd
place went to Brian Turner who terrorized the top seeds with some rugged
defending: 2nd was Peter Blundell with a storming performance,
scoring 10/16 and playing exciting chess.
The winner and 2011
Summer Champion is Trefor Owens, who, with the help of lady luck, went through
the competition undefeated, conceding just 2 draws.
( …. Maybe someone else should set the handicaps next year! )
I played in the
2011 Weald Chess Congress last weekend, held near
I finished 3rd,
winning a modest cash prize, here is a position from my final round game. I was
black and in a very interesting French defence I had outplayed my opponent in
the middle game, a win would give me 2nd place!
However I had less than a minute left when my opponent offered a draw, I am afraid that I wasn’t brave enough to play … 48…. Rxe2 totally winning of course but I feared a loss on time so accepted the draw, as Dick Dastardly would say drat and triple drat!
Thanks to Keith for sending me the game score of his exciting title decider against Paul, here are 3 positions that will give a feel of the encounter.
White: Keith Hyde Black: Paul Fenn
Position 1 comes just out of the opening ( Nimzo-Indian)
Paul has just played 8.... e5, putting the question to white, does he move the attacked knight, or try Nxd5?
Position 2 comes in an exciting middlegame full of tactics
Paul has just played 21.... b5, white has many options, what would you play now?
Position 3 will test your endgame expertise
Paul has just played 42.... h5, threatening to make another passed pawn, can white defend?
Congratulations to Paul Fenn the new Sittingbourne Champion. Paul played last year's winner Keith Hyde in the final, both players proving that, this season, they were far and away the best two players in the league. In a tense and exciting game Keith came out of the opening with a slight edge, but during the middlegame Paul used his tactical ability to swing the game his way and entered a B v N ending a pawn up which he saw through to a fine victory.
Paul has long been one of Sittingbourne's strongest players and has had a few interesting games against some well known players. Here is a position Paul played a few years ago against Luke McShane!
Luke McShane is now a top Grandmaster and finished 2nd (with World Champion Anand) at the recent London Classic, at the time of this game he was 'merely' World U10 Champion - Paul of course was also still a school-boy when this game was played!
White to play:
Paul (Black) had outplayed the future GM but was held to a draw by perpetual check
Good news, the club is officially moving venue. From September our venue will be the Austen Suite at the UK Paper Leisure Club. We will have more room and a bar! and possibilities of reincarnating the Junior Club.
So, far we have 8 players in the Summer League – everyone will play each other twice, and already, with the time-handicaps working, we have seen some upsets. The great attractions of the Summer League are, anyone can win; it is easy to play 2 or 3 games in one evening and there is still time to enter – just turn up at the club!
The 2011 Summer League has started - but you are not too late to enter, just turn up at the club and move some pieces. This year's competition is time handicapped, so absolutely anyone could win . . . Even me!
Club member Roger Parry has been entertaining us recently with emailed puzzles, we have enjoyed them so much that by public demand they will now be online, over to Roger . . . . .
The club Doubles event has taken place, with a tremendous victory for the Chess Artists, Constable and Turner (or Paul & Brian to their friends!) all of the games were exciting and hard fought, with queen sacs, and blunders, galore. Runners-up, Karl and Peter took sole second place, thanks to some fine doubles play, alongside some brutal clock handling! and spirited performances were also seen all evening from Andrew & Ron and Keith & Norman. The last round saw everything to play for and the following position arose in the battle for 1st place
Chess Artists (White) v Andrew & Ron (Black)
The Black team had been playing superbly and is a piece up, however after white's last move a6, black now played g4? and Brian Turner took a fraction of a second to blitz out Qxb7mate. So close yet so far.
Many thanks to everyone for playing, we all look forward to the next chance to pair up and square up.
The club AGM is being held at 8pm on Thursday 28th April. Please let me know if you have any items to be discussed
Following the fun had by all at last year's Doubles event - I am pleased to announce that battle can be held once again, this coming Thursday (21st April) starting at 8pm. Teams will be selected on the night and the rules will be the same as last year, hopefully the evening will be as successful and as much fun!
No, not the legendary song by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush, rather a reminder that in chess, as in life, it is always worth fighting. The league game between David Page (white) and Trefor Owens (black) was a very strange affair, in a French, David made a complete mess of the opening and after 15 moves could have resigned, however Trefor then took his turn to blunder, reaching the adjournment in a completely lost position, a rook down, although 3 connected passed pawns added some considerable nuisance value. The resumption of the game saw white increase his advantage, but the black pawns slowly advancing. Eventually a pawn promoted,
leaving King + Queen v 2 Rooks + 2 pawns + King.
Here white played Kh3 and after Qg5 was unable to escape perpetual checks, however a6 still gives white chances to play on for a win. 1.a6 Qf6+ 2.Kg4 Qa6 3. Kg5 and the question is, can black stop the f pawn?? One of those games where both players played very well, and badly in the same game!
Roger Parry
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This is an important position: it can arise from the Kings Gambit Declined, but more likely nowadays from the Bishops Opening or the Vienna Game, when white plays a delayed f4.
Our position can arise after 1 e4, e5; 2 Bc4, Nf6; 3 d3, Nc6; 4 Nc3, Bc5; 5 f4, d6; 6 Nf3
In this position I recommend a little known idea of Tschigorin - - - 0-0; More normal are Bg4 or a6. The refutation of ..., 0-0; is supposed to be f5 followed by Bg5 and (if allowed) Nd5. White seems to have has an automatically winning K-side attack . . . but things are not so simple.
Black must counter vigorously in the centre: - 6..., 0-0; 7 f5, Nd4!; 8 Bg5, c6; This is the key position and white has 3 principal choices.
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(A) 9. Nxd4, exd!;
this is best although taking with the bishop is
OK too.
10 Ne2, d5; 11 Bb3, Re8; Black stands better - notice
that the pawn on f5 is undefended if white assays exd5.
If 10 Na4, Bb4+; (..., b5: is good as well) 11 c3, dxc; now if bxc, black plays Ba5; and if Nxc3, d5 with an excellent position in both cases.
(B) 9 Na4, b5; 10 Nxc5, bxc; 11 Na4, Qa5+; 12 c3, cxd; 13 Nxd4, exd4; 14 Bxf6, gxf; 15 Qxd3, Qxa4; which is a draw because white can play Qg3+ followed by taking on d6.
If black wants to win he can try (instead of ...,Qa5+;) 11 ..., cxd; and if 12 Nxd4, exd; 13 cxd, h6; with the idea of playing after 14 Bh4?, Qa5+, 15 Kf2, g5!; and if 16 fxg, Ng4+; wins. 11 ..., Rb8; is another possibility.
(C) 9 a3 - white tries to preserve his bishop. ..., d5; 10 Ba2, h6; if white takes on f6, his black squares are very weak. So 11 Bh4 is played. Now black has 3 possibilities: -
(C1) 11..., dxe; 12 dxe, Qe7; followed by ..., Rd8; If white plays 12 Nxe4, Be7; is about level.
(C2) 11..., Re8: protects the e-pawn and maintains the tension. It is not easy to find good moves for white, eg 12 Qd2?, Nxe4!; wins.
(C3) 11..., Bxf5?!; A move that Trefor Owens would like! Black's attack is very dangerous. 12 exf, Nxf5; and if 13 Bxf6, Qxf6; 14 Qd2, e4; looks strong.
White doesn't have to play 7 f5, but alternatives such as fxe or Bb3 shouldn't worry black players.
We have finally played our
on-off match with Snodland. The original fixture had to be postponed when
both team captains thought that it was an away match and ended up on their
opponent’s doorstep, we may well have seen our opponents en passant on the
M20!
Anyway the match has now been
played, and despite some very close games the result went the way of just
about all of our other matches this season, another loss, thankfully as far
as I know there is no relegation from the Stevenson Cup . . . yet!
Snodland were great hosts and thoroughly deserved their victory.