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AUSTINS v MONARCHS:- Tues 13 Nov 2018

Well, the first Monarchs game of the season got off to an ignominious start with a heavy loss to the Austins 31-23 on handicap.
The Monarchs lineup was
1.Pete Chrichton
2.Derek Blair
3.Dave Foster
4.Dave Humphreys

Pete was the only one to salvage a score with a quick draw against George Glover. Pete, with the white pieces, decided on a double fianchetto setup and an early, queen side expansion, but, after a flurry of exchanges, which left the position devoid of any real chances for either side, the game was agreed drawn on move 19.

Derek, with black, faced off against Bill Burgess. Opting for a Dragon Sicilian, the game became very tactical right from the start. Derek went for an aggressive charge down the h-file with Harry, the h-pawn! However, white was able to exchange off a well posted knight on g4 and quickly neutralise the king side pressure. Derek then took the bold, some might say reckless, decision to castle long, putting his king on the half open c-file. With white castled on the king side, we had a classic, opposite side castles duel. White, with two extremely active knights, invaded black’s position with tempi against his queen, and soon forced the win of an exchange. The game simplified down to a rook plus 7 pawns for white versus a bishop plus 5 pawns for black. White managed to generate two, powerful, connected passed pawns in the queen side, whose rapid advance forced Derek’s resignation on move 48.

Dave Foster, who has made a welcome return to the club this season after completing his studies, locked horns on board 3 with John Lydon. Dave, with white, went for the London system. Black forced open the c-file and gained a strong initiative by doubling his rooks there. Coupled with a queen side pawnstorm, black was able to force the win of a rook. From here the game was similar to Derek’s. Black penetrated white’s position with two, active knights coupled with the invasion of a rook on the 2nd rank. Dave was forced to resign after 35 moves.

I faced Bill Hardwick. Our last meeting was at the Summer Jamboree, where I managed to win. This time however, Bill got his revenge! He opted for a Reti opening, with an early fianchetto of the queen bishop. I couldn’t recall the last time that I had faced this line, and had no idea what the current theory was. I tried to steer the game down a Kings Indian Defence line. Having both castled short, I tried a well known attacking variation, involving locking the center, and playing for a king side pawn storm, supported by queen, both knights and bishops. Bill played another standard idea by attacking on the queen side. He forced open the c-file, and pushed his a and b pawns. I decided to ignore what he was doing, and went for a counter pawn storm on the king side. However, I badly misjudged the position that resulted in his advanced b-pawn on b6, which gave him an outpost for his rook on c7, allowing him to penetrate my position with an attack on my queen. The a2-g8 diagonal was also open. Then, I regained an early pawn loss with a capture with my knight. This left the knight on an undefended square. I realised that at the time, and fully intended to either re position it, or defend it later. You can probably quess what happened!! I forgot all about it and blundered it away on move 30, in my usual, suicidal, way!! The pressure eventually became too much and, rather than prolong the agony, I resigned on move 32

Scarborough Chess Congress 2018

The 42nd Scarborough Congress took place on October 26th-28th, with 306 entries spread over five sections. Tynedale’s one representative, Steve Larkin, played in the Minor section, for players graded 135 or under. Of the 78 entries in this section, Steve (grade 112) was ranked 72nd.

He took a bye in round 1 (Friday night) and on Saturday morning had black against a young French girl, Emma Bienvenu, graded 128 and ranked 27th. It was a long, hard game (three and a half hours), with Steve having a one pawn advantage but facing serious kingside threats. Eventually these were dealt with and Steve was able to launch his own kingside attack, with two rooks on white’s second rank, leading to checkmate.

In the afternoon Steve had white against David Watson (129) from Aughton, who was ranked 23rd. Steve attacked from the start, winning a pawn and preventing his opponent from castling. So far so good, but he carried on pressing at the expense of queenside development, and this proved decisive as David forced his way through in the centre, before pinning Steve’s queen on his king. Subsequent analysis with Fritz showed that, of Steve’s last 18 moves in a 26 move game, no fewer than eleven were deemed by Fritz to be very bad, which must constitute some sort of record!

Sunday morning saw Steve with black against Brian Crofts (134) from Chesterfield, ranked 19th. Brian put Steve under a lot of early pressure and won a central pawn, but it proved to be poisoned and white, with queen exposed, miscalculated and dropped a rook, before resigning a hopeless position soon afterwards.

In the final round on Sunday afternoon, Steve, with white, played Sajjad Dehghan-Afifi (132) from Northernden, ranked 11th. Steve had marginally the better of the opening, but was then simply outclassed by a better player. Having dropped a piece, Steve played on almost to the bitter end, but the outcome was never really in doubt.

So two and a half out of five and the pleasure, in every case, of playing opponents never before encountered, in a comfortable and very well organised congress. I recommend it to anyone who hasn’t been before or who hasn’t been in  recent times.

Northumberland Chess Congress

The 54th version of this event was held at The Parks in North Shields on September 28th-30th. Two members of the club took part, both in the Minor event for players graded under 135. Of the 42 entries in this section, Steve Larkin was ranked 26th, while Dave Foster appeared in the ranking list as 15th with a grade of 121 and playing for Wimbledon! Presumably a case of mistaken identity.

Dave played all five rounds, picking up 2 draws along the way, against John Eddershaw (96) and Peter Wright (81) for a score of 1/5. Steve took a bye on the Friday night, had an epic 4-hour game with Bill Noble (124) on the Saturday morning, only to lose. The afternoon saw the only 2 Tynedale entrants drawn against each other, with Steve prevailing after a tough tussle. Sunday brought another long game (3.5 hours) against Gary Pollard (120) of Morpeth, with Steve losing once again. In the final round he was drawn by mistake against a player who had withdrawn and so gained a one-point bye to finish by devious means on 2.5/5.

Jeremy Handley Memorial trophy 2018

Thrilling chess match in Tynedale

The third annual edition of the Jeremy Handley Cup between teams from Tynedale and Morpeth was played at Corbridge on October 4th. The trophy is in memory of Jeremy Handley, who during the course of a long chess career played first for Morpeth and then for Tynedale. The match is played over as many boards as the two clubs can manage, and on this occasion it was a seven-board affair, with the following line-up:
1. Gary Murphy (184) v James Tyrner (176)
2. Derek Harris (156) v Martin Seeber (156)
3. Tim Wrigley (151) v Bob Mitcheson (141)
4. David Wrigley (148) v Paul Richards (130)
5. Peter Crichton (141) v Barrie Crowther (105)
6. Steve Larkin (112) v David Watson (94)
7. Bruce Reed (110) v Dave Armstrong (63)
First blood went to Bob Mitcheson of Morpeth on board 3. His unusual opening – 1. e4 e6 2. Qe2 – rather threw Tim Wrigley, who pursued a policy of swapping off pieces only to find himself two pawns down in a lost game. Tim’s son David levelled the score with a nice checkmate, and Steve Larkin put Tynedale ahead with a forced rook capture. On boards 5 and 7, the Tynedale players both enjoyed a one-pawn advantage but could not make it tell, with both games ending as draws. That left Tynedale leading 3-2, with just the top two boards still playing. Time pressure was now added into the mix, and Morpeth’s Martin Seeber eventually managed to crack Derek Harris’s robust defence and win a decisive piece. 3-3 and the clock still ticking! All eyes were on the top board, where Tynedale’s Gary Murphy managed to break through James Turner’s kingside defence. With his king under pressure, and desperately short of time, James blundered, and the game and therefore the match went Tynedale’s way 4-3. Whoever said chess can’t be exciting!

Arrangements for 2018-19 season

Tynedale Chess Club will meet weekly on Thursdays from 7p.m. at the Corbridge Parish Hall, starting on Thursday September 6th. Come along to play friendly games or club championship matches.

AGM

The Club’s AGM will take place in the Dyvels at 7.00pm Thu 2 Aug 2018

South Shields B v Reivers

This match was played at South Shields on Thursday April 19th, with the following line-up:

1. Brian Towers (158) v Ian Mackay (137)
2. Ian Maughan (138) v Steve Larkin (116)
3. Eddie Czestochowski (131) v Derek Blair (112)
4. Chris Sayers (133) v Dave Humphreys (82)
5. Asanga Gunasekera v Default

Derek’s game finished first, when the loss of a piece early on proved too great a handicap.

Dave was holding his own till he allowed a lethal knight fork of King and Queen.

Ian notched up what he described as a fairly dull end-of-season draw.

And finally, Steve accepted the offer of a draw in a complex position with opposite-coloured bishops and Steve’s two pawns to Ian’s one.

So South Shields won 4-1 and both sides completed their season. Fortunately for the Reivers, there was nothing at stake, as they finished third from bottom of the division, having played 10 games, winning 3, drawing one and losing 6.

Many thanks to all 10 players who turned out for the side. The season’s statistics follow:

Steve  Played 9 Won 2 Drew 2 Lost 5   33%   Ave board 2.7

Dave H    ”     8      ”     2     ”     1    ”    5   c30%           ”         5.0

Ian            ”    7      ”     3     ”     3    ”    1     64%           ”         2.0

Peter C     ”    6      ”     1     ”     4    ”     1    50%           ”         1.3

Bruce       ”    5      ”     2     ”     2    ”     1    60%           ”          3.6

Derek B   ”    5      ”     0     ”     0     ”    5       0%          ”          3.8

Christine  ”   4      ”     2     ”     0     ”    2     50%          ”          4.8

Derek H    ”   3      ”     1    ”      2     ”    0     66%          ”          1.0

James (1 win) and Tim (1 draw) also played.

Tans v Jesmond Knights

The last match of the season and another fine performance from the Tans, but once again no match points. Outgraded by an average of 39 points, the Tans lost 1½-3½, but it was very even, and although the match score was probably fair, it could easily have been better for the Tans . All fought well and hard, but particular congratulations to David, who was disappointed to only draw with Merim Bilalic, a fide master graded 2267 (about ECF 210).

Thanks also, to Bruce (outgraded 157-111)  for a for a fine fighting display against John Turnock, very even right to the end, when John forced a rook’s pawn through. Finally many thanks to all who have turned out for the Tans this year.

Tans v Jesmond Knights
Played at Corbridge Thu 12 Apr 2018
David Wrigley	½½	Merim Bilalic
Tim Wrigley	½½	Chris Izod
Peter Crichton	0-1	Ed Dodds
Ian Mackay	½½	Andy Trevelyan
Bruce Reed	0-1	John Turnock
	1½-3½

 

Reivers v Gateshead

This match was played at Corbridge on Thursday April 5th, with with the following line-up:

1. Peter Crichton (143) v Denise Mosse (135)
2. Steve Larkin (116) v Bill Noble (126)
3. Bruce Reed (112) v Peter Wells (120)
4. Christine Moorcroft (92) v Alex Johnson (121)
5. Dave Humphreys (82) v Asa Bayram (u)

First to finish was Steve, who dropped a bishop for a pawn early on, and was then helpless to defend against a kingside attack. He was completely outplayed. 0-1

Next up was Christine, who pulled off a splendid victory, turning an even position decisively in her favour by attacking both of Alex’s rooks simultaneously, whereupon Alex resigned. 1-1

Dave, like Steve, went a piece down and struggled on for a while against an opponent who clearly knew what he was doing, before the pressure became too much. 1-2

Peter was two pawns up and looking strong, when an ill-advised knight move dropped a pawn and paved the way for a devastating kingside attack which Peter was helpless to resist. 1-3

Bruce’s game was closely contested throughout and was completely even when his opponent offered a draw, which Bruce accepted, the match result having already been decided. 1.5-3.5

Fortunately, nothing hung on the result, Gateshead’s relegation and the Reivers’ survival in division two having been settled in advance of this match.

Club Championship update

The first phase of the club championship is now over and has produced the following pecking order:

1. Tim Wrigley 3/3
2. Peter Crichton 2/2
3. Steve Larkin 2/4
4. Christine Moorcroft 1/1
5. Bruce Reed 1/1
6. Dave Humphreys 1/4
7. Derek Blair 1/4
8. Malcolm Reid 0/1 and Damian Rudge 0/2

So the draw for the knockout round is as follows:

Tim v Malcolm or Damian

Steve v Dave

Peter v Derek

Christine v Bruce