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How many ways, can you list, to draw a game of chess?

As a little challenge, give this a try for yourselves before reading on!

So far, I’ve counted no fewer than 7!!

1. Draw by agreement:- This can happen at any time throughout the game.
2. Draw by stalemate:- This most often occurs in endgames, but can, on rare occasions, happen in the middle game.
3. Draw by the 50-move rule:- If no pawn is moved or capture played in 50 moves, the game is a draw.
4. Draw by 3-fold repetition:- If the same position occurs, with the same player to play, three times in a game, the game is drawn.
5. Draw by perpetual check:- One side plays a series of checks that the other side can’t escape from.
6. Draw by insufficient material:- If all you have left is a knight or bishop plus king against a lone king, no checkmate is possible, and the game is drawn.
7. Draw on time:- This is the one that a lot of players forget about. If the only piece you have left is your king, then you cannot win on time!! Your opponent MUST checkmate you, within the 50-move rule, before his clock runs out, or the game is a draw.

I think that this is just about all. Unless you can add more!!

Dave Humphreys 09Dec18

MONARCHS v HAYDON BRIDGE

The game was played at the Tynedale Chess Club on Thursday 6th December. The team selection was in doubt up to the last minute. Two of the team mainstays, Pete and Bruce, both suffered illness. Bruce recovered in time to step into the breach. Sadly, Pete couldn’t make it, but, at the eleventh hour, Tim kindly offered to play, and took over Pete’s position on board one. With only 1 point between the handicap scores, it had all the hallmarks of being a close contest.
Board 1:-
Tim, playing black, was up against Phil Walters. Both are 2-handicap players, so they were strong and evenly matched. Phil opened with 1.e4, and Tim replied with 1…e6, the French Defence. *This is most commonly followed by 2.d4 d5, with Black intending …c5 at a later stage, attacking White’s centre and gaining space on the queenside. White has extra space in the centre and on the kingside and often plays for a breakthrough with f4–f5. The French has a reputation for solidity and resilience, although some lines such as the Winawer Variation can lead to sharp complications. Black’s position is often somewhat cramped in the early game; in particular, the pawn on e6 can impede the development of the bishop on c8. *[Ref:- Wilkipedia]. The opening transposed into the Advance Variation. With 3.Nc3, white blocked his c-pawn, which is commonly needed to support the pawn on d4. After 5…c5, unable to protect his pawn with 6.c3, Phil elected to play 6.dxc5, exchanging a center pawn for a wing pawn, ceding a small, but important central advantage to black. Development followed normal lines, with Black playing an early 9…f6 to demolish white’s center altogether. More cracks appeared in white’s strategy when he played 14.Na4. Here, the knight was UNDEFENDED. As is often the case, undefended pieces become a magnet for tactics. Tim spotted one right away. His 14…Nd4 opened a discovered attack on the hapless knight, with his queen, whilst simultaneously attacking white’s queen on e2. The knight was vanquished on the next move. However, capturing the knight took white’s queen away from the kingside. White had no fewer than 4 pieces aiming at black’s king; his queen, knight and both bishops! White, hoping for a mating attack, then sacked his remaining knight with 16.Nxh7. Assessing the strength of sacrifices is never an easy task, but Tim calculated that he could weather the storm. Taking up his guage and smiting white firmly across the face, before casting it at white’s feet, he confidently accepted the sac with 16…Nxh7, with the battle cry ‘Show me what you’ve got, big boy?’ resounding through his mind. With 17.Qh5, white was eyeing down on black’s h7 knight with queen and bishop, but Tim calmly blocked the line of the bishop with 17…Nf5. With 18…Qh4, attacking white’s queen and forcing it into passivity, black repelled all boarders and the ‘storm’ fizzled out into a light shower! Tim went on to win, in 25 moves, with his own kingside attack, utilising the half open f-file, which led to the win of pawn and rook for a bishop, giving him an overwhelming advantage in material.

Board 2:-
Due to Pete being unable to play, I had to put Steve in on board 2, with white, facing Ian Mackay. This meant that Steve was giving away 2 handicap points. That said, it was no easy walkover for Ian.
Steve opened with 1.e4, best by test according to Bobby Fischer, and Ian replied with 1…c6, the Caro Kann. *The Caro–Kann is a common defence against the King’s Pawn Opening and is classified as a “Semi-Open Game” like the Sicilian Defence and French Defence, although it is thought to be more solid and less dynamic than either of those openings. It often leads to good endgames for Black, who has the better pawn structure.The opening is named after the English player Horatio Caro and the Austrian player Marcus Kann who analysed it in 1886. Kann scored an impressive 17-move victory with the Caro–Kann Defence against German-British chess champion Jacques Mieses at the 4th German Chess Congress in Hamburg in May 1885: * [Ref:-Wikipedia] With 2.d4 d5 3.e5, Steve decided to close the center and grab some space. White’s pawn structure is the same as in the advance variation of the French. Once the center is closed, play, necessarily moves to the wings, with White playing for a kingside attack and Black looking for counterplay on the queenside. By move 5, the game has indeed transposed into an advanced French. Steve played 5.Bb5. However, for the next two moves this bishop remained UNDEFENDED, and we all know what can happen when there are undefended pieces in the position. Ian, after breaking the pin on his c6 knight with 6…Bd7, set a small trap for White. After 7.0-0, Black sprung the trap and played 7…Nxe5 attacking the undefended bishop on b5. If 8.Bxd7 then 8…Nxd7 and Black has won an important, central pawn. Play continued until White lost a second pawn. Black then traded down to a queen + pawns versus queen + pawns endgame. Black, with  passed d and g pawns, then managed to infiltrate with his queen and forced Steve’s resignation on move 48.
Hard luck Steve, but there’s always next time!!

Board 3:-
Here, Bruce, with black, took on Dave Willey, who was conceding one handicap point.
The opening played, as I later managed to discover, was the classical Reti opening, with 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4. My database contains 14340 games using this opening, of which 57.8% were won by white. *White plans to bring the d5-pawn under attack from the flank, or entice it to advance to d4 and undermine it later. White will couple this plan with a kingside fianchetto (g3 and Bg2) to create pressure on the light squares in the center. The opening is named after Richard Réti (1889–1929), an untitled Grandmaster from Czechoslovakia. The opening is in the spirit of the hypermodernism movement that Réti championed, with the center being dominated from the wings rather than by direct occupation.*[Ref:- Wikipedia].

After a couple of tactical oversights by white, which, lets face it, we are all prone to, Bruce was able to penetrate white’s position with his queen and secure an overwhelming, material advantage. White sportingly capitulated on move 17.

Board 4:-
Dave Foster met Christine Moorecroft, both with a handicap of 6. Due to errors and omissions on both score sheets, I can’t give a very detailed account of the game. Dave opened with 1.d4 and Christine replied with 1…d5. From here, there are many highways and byways along which both sides can travel. White can stick to Queen’s Gambit territory or play for the Colle System, which turns into a sort of Caro Kann with colours reversed. The pawn structure remained symmetrical for quite a while, which often signals a possible draw. Dave managed to go a pawn up, but then came a series of exchanges that led to a bishops of opposite colour ending. Dave’s extra pawn was firmly blockaded by Christine’s king on d5 but Dave’s bishop was the wrong colour do drive it away. Dave’s three kingside pawns were on light squares. Christine had a dark squared bishop. So, with the kings in front and behind the passed pawn, we had a classic drawing scenario, and a draw was agreed at move 46.

Summary

So the Monarchs won 28-23 on handicap. Taking down last seasons league champions was no mean feat, and I extend my heartiest congratulations to the team.

The next outing for the Monarchs is scheduled for 21Feb19, our home, return match against our start-of-season nemesis, the Austins.

As its that time of year again, let me wish everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and continued success in the new year.

Dave Humphreys 09Dec18

Gosforth Ivy v Tans

Another hard match, but this time lady luck was smiling on us. Tim was completely outplayed by John Wheeler, but John made one mistake, and lost a bishop and the game. Elsewhere James was short of time, and accepted a draw when offered by Dave Stebbings. Ian was lucky to escape with a draw after misplaying a 2R v R&B ending. So, lucky point for the Tans.

Match Played at Gosforth Mon 3 Dec 2018
Gosforth Ivy		Tans
John Wheeler	0-1	Tim Wrigley
Dave Stebbings	½-½	James Ross
Paul Costello	½-½	Ian Mackay
Bob Heyman	½-½	Peter Crichton
Ted Jarah	1-0	Dave Humphreys
	2½-2½

Tans v Tynemouth B

 

Match Played at Corbridge Tues 22 Nov 2018
Tans		Tynemouth B
Tim Wrigley	1-0	Keith Rockett
Peter Crichton	0-1	Paul Edwards
Steve Larkin	0-1	Steve Burnell
Bruce Reed	0-1	Dave Hair
Dave Humphreys	1-0	Ray Garside
	2-3

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