BECKENHAM & BROMLEY FIDE RATED CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS

With one round to go, the scores are: 3/4 John Duggan and Ian Snape, 2 Graeme Plato and Richard Selway, 1 Nick Briggs and Andrew Ponting. The final round is on 6 February 2014 and the pairings are: John Duggan v Richard Selway, Graeme Plato v Andrew Ponting and Nick Briggs v Ian Snape

FIDE RATED BLITZ ON 21 NOVEMBER

The whole of the County Cup team turned out last night for the 7 round blitz, along with 6 other members, making a total of 12. Top positions were: 6½/7 Ian Snape 5½ John Duggan and Jon Griffiths 4 Andrew Ponting 3½ Graeme Plato. However, the stand out performance of the night was undoubtedly that of Jon Griffiths. Had he held a drawn R + P ending in the first round against me, he would have tied for first. As it was, he beat John Duggan, Richard Selway, Nick Briggs and Andrew Ponting.

FIDE RATED BLITZ ON 21 NOVEMBER

A reminder that the club is holding its first FIDE Rated Blitz tournament this Thursday, 21 November and the details are: (a) Start 7.30pm; estimated finish 10.25pm. (b) Rounds - 7. (c) Time control - 8 minutes + 2 sec a move (digital) or 10 minutes flat (manual) per player. (d) Entry fee £5 (£10 if not a member). If you have not yet confirmed entry, please turn up by 7.20pm at the latest.

Another Excellent Performance at Golders Green

Following on from Douglas's result at the Golders Green Rapid a few weeks back, this time it's Reenen Du Toit who's making the news with second equal in the U170 section of this popular quickplay. Details here.

Interviewed for this esteemed blog - OK, that's not true, it was an email to Douglas - Reenen said:

Thanks. I would have won the major section was it not for the last game which I lost.  Nevertheless it was an inspirational tournament showing that I can get close to the no 1 spot.

Ambition!

For what it's worth, your correspondent played in the excellent Torbay Major this weekend, and thrilled the crowds with four draws and a loss.  Alan Fraser was there too, and he was on 2/4 (no draws, at least) at the beginning of the last round.  The winner of the Major - whose name I sadly cannot recall, despite supping beers with him on Sunday night - is an ex-Beckenham player from the 1970s.  He couldn't remember anyone from those days apart from Alan Sands, which goes to show the impact our legendary member must have been making, even then.

Andy Heard

Douglas Vleeshhouwer Takes 2nd Place at Golders Green

This is the regular monthly quick play run by the estimable Adam Raouf, and Douglas won 2nd place with 4.5 from 6 in the U170 section. 

I managed to checkmate Roshal Patel in round 1 and Martin Cheung in round 6, something happens in quickplay a lot but I didn't think it would happen in rapidplay matches.

Full results here.

Anyone who fancies going to another tournament, just post a note here and maybe we can get a small posse organised?

Andy

BECKENHAM & BROMLEY FIDE RATED CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS

After 2 rounds, scores are as follows: 2 Ian Snape 1½ Graeme Plato 1 John Duggan ½ Richard Selway, Nick Briggs and Andrew Ponting

Annual Quickplay Tournament

The Rose Bowl.

On 27th June [our last night for this season], 15 members took part in our annual quickplay handicap tournament. Initially, two groups played each other and the top 3 from each group then went through to the final round.

The top 6 were Ian Snape, John Duggan, Stephen Lowe, Nick Briggs, Doug Vleeshhouwer and Jon Griffiths.

John Duggan was the eventual winner and was presented with the "Rose Bowl".

Malcolm Mourant

FIDE RATINGS

Congratulations to Richard Selway who obtained his first rating in the FIDE list at 1 June. A very creditable 2038 it is too.

Graeme Plato and Stephen Lowe both now have partial ratings.

Bckenham vs. Bromley

Our annual Beckenham v Bromley freindly match took place last night. It finished with an equitable 5 all draw. See result below:

Board
		Beckenham					Bromley
	Grade	first name & surname		Game Results*			first name & surname		Grade
1	213	Ian Snape		0		1.0	Nick Briggs		183
2	171	Alan Sands		0		1.0	Graeme Plato		180
3	170	Andrew Ponting		1		0.0	Doug Vleeshhouwer		158
4	146	John Alderson		0.5		0.5	John Lewin		157
5	129	John White		0.5		0.5	Malcolm Mourant		132
6	125	Stephen Cousins		0.5		0.5	James Kinsella		121
7	116	Howard Walden		1		0.0	Tony Foreman		114
8	111	Fred Wellings		0.5		0.5	Geoff Kelsey		108
9	109	Mike Spencer		0		1.0	David Vigus		100
10	40	Stephen Roberts		1		0.0	Anthony Barnett		58
	1330	Grades Total	Team Total	5		5.0	Team Total	Grades Total	1311
	10	no. of players						no. of players	10
	133.0	Av.Grade						Av.Grade	131.1
							Played on 6th June 2013
Comments
Beckenham had White on Odd Boards
										Bitmap

From Mr Charles Nightingale

Came across the Beckenham and Bromley Chess Club website on Google, by accident. Took me back to 1955...when as a shy sixteen-year-old I waited outside Verney's restaurant in Beckenham High Street, where they met at the time, too nervous to go in, until an old buffer (younger than I now am!) who was just going in took me with him. Played at the club for two years until I was called up.

I was so glad to see it still going. In those days it had a large membership, and was very lively: lots of members of all ages. I look back with painful nostalgia on those happy days, and took the trouble to find as much information as I could about the now merged Bromley and Beckenham Chess Club.

The website itself doesn't work at the moment [don't know how this happened.  Ed.], but I found various related sites, including a blog by Andy Heard where he complained that it was his  players - the 16 chess men - rather than his management that had led to a bad patch of form! I knew what he meant. My queen has a penchant for finding squares where she can ogle the opposing knights and pawns, and then usually gets trapped. My bishops are not as sly as the ones my opponents have which seem to slither through my kings castle with impunity; and my king is not match fit, and gets out of breath when chasing pawns down the board in the end-game, even when it seems to me that he starts off well within striking range.

I haven't played seriously since my sons gave the game up in favour of beat 'em ups and Warcraft ten years ago, but I sometimes fill a half-hour or so playing through a game on chessgames.com.

My sincerest good wishes to all of you who keep the chess flag flying in South-East London: long may you reign.

I replied, of course, thanking Charles for his interest; and after suggesting he might like to come along to the club for the B v B match, I also pointed out that he'd apparently resolved the origin of the Verney Cup.  I then received the following:

A quick ramble down Beckenham High Street on Google Earth shows that Verney's is now a Prezzo's - one of which is about to open in Felixstowe, where I live now. Somehow I'm glad to see it is still a restaurant. The 6th of June, which you kindly invite me, to is my wife's birthday. Much though she would like a celebratory trip to London, I doubt I could convince her to spend the evening at a chess match.

Bromley were great rivals to us when I played, but many players belonged to both clubs, and Bromley always seemed to be slightly better than us. I could launch into a lot of ancient anecdotes about the personnel of the day e.g. the heavily bearded Mr Thompson, who dressed in an outfit which appeared to be designed to play Fagin in the musical Oliver. and who, when I was with him in a waiting room en route to a match, would save expenditure by lighting a dead match, stored in his matchbox, in the waiting room coal fire, to light his pipe. He was a good player though, but handicapped himself by starting b3, an opening he called The Hippopotamus. Move 2? Kb2! He was beside me in a simul against Paul Keres and essayed this against the Soviet grandmaster who gave me a knowing look as he passed; but it took him some time to dismantle the weird setup, which was too much for many a player in the 'Lewis Cup' in Kent.  And then there was Mr Hobbs and...no no, I must stop!

Charles Nightingale

Club Results

We have almost finished all the matches against other clubs in the various leagues that we participate in and the results are set out below. The only competition where there is promotion and relegation is the London League and have narrowly missed out on promotion by coming 3rd, 4th or 5th depending on results of matches still to be played by other teams.

We were unlucky to lose in two of the three Kent League finals that we played in [as we did last year also] but produced a superb performance to retain the division 6 (Tom Fuller) Cup which we won last year.

In the Croydon League, we won the first division trophy [the Croydon Shield] for the first time, but had less luck in the other divisions.

A trophy is awarded by the club to the player who has scored most points for the club against other clubs and this year it has been won by Ian Snape, our highest rated player.

More details of the games played in the London League and the Croydon League are available at:
www.londonchess.org.uk and www.croydonchessleague.org.uk

Opposition	Date	Venue	Result
London League, Division 2
Cavendish 2	Thu 18-Oct-12	CAV	Won  5½ - 4½
Mushrooms 1	Mon 12-Nov-12	GL	Drawn  5 - 5
Metropolitan 1	Thu 29-Nov-12	MET	Drawn  5 - 5
Wanstead & Woodford 1	Wed 12-Dec-12	GL	Won  7½ - 2½
Athenaeum 2	Mon 14-Jan-13	ATH	Won  8 - 2
Albany 1	Mon 21-Jan-13	ALB	Won  7½ - 2½
Kings Head 2	Mon 04-Feb-13	GL	Won  5½ - 4½
Battersea 1	Wed 20-Feb-13	GL	Lost  3½ - 6½
Woodbridge	Mon 04-Mar-13	GL	Lost  4½ - 5½
Greater London 1	Tue 09-Apr-13	GLCC	Won  6 - 4
Hackney 2	Mon 22-Apr-13	GL	Lost  1½ - 8½
Dulwich 1	Mon 13-May-13	GL	5 - 3 ( 2 adj.)
Kent League, Division 1
Charlton 1	Tue 20-Nov-12	Away	Lost  1½ - 4½
Maidstone 1	Thu 22-Nov-12	Home	Lost  2½ - 3½
Maidstone 1	Wed 09-Jan-13	Away	Won  3½ - 2½
Charlton 1	Thu 24-Jan-13	Home	Won  5 - 1
Maidstone 1	Sun 12-May-13	Dartford	Drawn  3 – 3 lost on b/c	Final
Kent League, Division 2
Gravesend 1	Thu 04-Oct-12	Home	Won  4 - 2
Petts Wood 1	Thu 25-Oct-12	Home	Lost  2 - 4
Lewisham 1	Wed 30-Jan-13	Away	Won  3½ - 2½
Dartford 1	Thu 14-Feb-13	Away	Drawn  3 - 3
Petts Wood 1	Fri 22-Feb-13	Away	Lost  2 - 4
Lewisham 1	Thu 07-Mar-13	Home	Drawn  3 - 3
Dartford 1	Thu 14-Mar-13	Home	Won  4 - 2
Gravesend 1	Mon 25-Mar-13	Away	Won  3½ - 2½
Hastings 1	Sun 21-Apr-13	Away	Won  4½ - 1½	Semi-final
Petts Wood 1	Sun 12-May-13	Darford	Lost  2 - 4	Final
Kent League, Division 4
Lewisham 4	Thu 01-Nov-12	Home	Drawn  3 - 3
Chislehurst 1	Wed 14-Nov-12	Away	Lost  1 - 5
Charlton 2	Thu 13-Dec-12	Home	Won  4 - 2
Dartford 3	Thu 10-Jan-13	Away	Lost  2½ - 3½
Petts Wood 2	Fri 01-Mar-13	Away	Drawn  3 - 3
Gravesend 3	Mon 11-Mar-13	Away	Won  4 - 2
Kent League, Division 5
Lewisham 5	Wed 17-Oct-12	Away	Lost  1½ - 4½
Petts Wood 3	Fri 09-Nov-12	Away	Lost  1 - 5
Chislehurst 2	Wed 23-Jan-13	Away	Lost  2 - 4
Gravesend 4	Mon 25-Feb-13	Away	Lost  1 - 5
Sidcup 1	Wed 13-Mar-13	Away	Won  4½ - 1½
Kent League, Division 6
Petts Wood 4	Thu 18-Oct-12	Home	Won  3½ -½
Sidcup 2	Wed 31-Oct-12	Away	Won  3 - 1
Lewisham 6	Thu 13-Dec-12	Home	Won  2½ - 1½
Sidcup 3	Thu 17-Jan-13	Home	Drawn  2 - 2
Gravesend 5	Thu 21-Feb-13	Away	Won  3 - 1
Sittingbourne 2	Thu 02-May-13	Home	Won  2½ - 1½	Semi-final
Snodland 2	Sun 12-May-13	Dartford	Won  2½ - 1½	Final
Kent League, Division 7
Lewisham 7	Wed 03-Oct-12	Away	Won  3 - 1
Petts Wood 5	Fri 26-Oct-12	Away	Won  4 - 0
Sidcup 4	Wed 14-Nov-12	Away	Drawn  2 - 2
Gravesend 6	Thu 22-Nov-12	Home	Won  2½ - 1½
Petts Wood 5	Thu 10-Jan-13	Home	Won  3½ -½
Sidcup 4	Thu 07-Feb-13	Home	Drawn  2 - 2
Lewisham 7	Thu 28-Feb-13	Home	Won  2½ - 1½
Gravesend 6	Thu 14-Mar-13	Away	Lost  1 - 3
Medway 3	Thu 25-Apr-13	Home	Lost  1 - 3	Semi-final
Croydon League, Div 1
Crystal Palace A	Thu 15-Nov-12	Home	Won  4 - 0
Coulsdon A	Thu 06-Dec-12	Home	Won  2½ - 1½
Crystal Palace A	Mon 10-Dec-12	Away	Won  2½ - 1½
Coulsdon A	Wed 23-Jan-13	Away	Won  3 - 1
Streatham A	Thu 31-Jan-13	Home	Lost  1 - 3
Streatham A	Tue 12-Feb-13	Away	Won  3½ -½
Croydon League, Div 2
Coulsdon B	Wed 07-Nov-12	Away	Lost  0 - 4
South Norwood A	Thu 15-Nov-12	Home	Won  2½ - 1½
Streatham B	Thu 28-Mar-13	Home	Lost  0 - 4
Wallington A	Wed 17-Apr-13	Away	Won  3 - 1
Crystal Palace B	Mon 29-Apr-13	Away	Lost ½ - 3½
Croydon League, Div 3
West Wickham D	Thu 25-Oct-12	Home	Won  2½ - 1½
South Norwood B	Thu 29-Nov-12	Away	Drawn  2 - 2
Crystal Palace C	Thu 06-Dec-12	Home	Lost  1½ - 2½
Streatham C	Thu 31-Jan-13	Home	Lost ½ - 3½
Coulsdon C	Thu 07-Mar-13	Home	Drawn  2 - 2
South Croydon Bus Garage	Thu 25-Apr-13	Away	Won  4 - 0
Wallington B	Wed 03-Apr-13	Away	Won  3½ -½
West Wickham C	Thu 25-Oct-12	Away	Lost  1½ - 2½
Streatham C	Tue 27-Nov-12	Away	Drawn  2 - 2
South Croydon Bus Garage	Tue 10-Jan-12	Home	Won  3 - 1
Crystal Palace C	Thu 31-Jan-13	Home	Won  2½ - 1½
Coulsdon C	Wed 20-Mar-13	Away	Lost  1 - 3
South Norwood B	Thu 04-Apr-13	Home	Lost  1½ - 2½
Wallington B	Thu 11-Apr-13	Home	Lost  1 - 3