Christmas break - time for another update

Things are heating up for the Verney Cup!

As you can see in the table below, Ian has been doing rather well; with 6 wins out of 7 matches he is catching me fast and is surely going to overtake me in the New Year. Alan Fraser has unfortunately lost his unbeaten status but is still in a good position to challenge for the cup. 2 members yet to lose a game are:

• Joel Newman, who joined us this year, is doing rather well so far, with 3 wins and 1 draw, and
• Andrew Ponting, with 3 wins and 2 draws.

Laurie also deserves a special mention. He currently boasts an impressive 75% (3 wins and 1 loss). Lastly, Artem, another new member, is doing rather well too, scoring 4 points out of 6 matches so far!

Douglas Vleeshhouwer	7½/12	63%
Alan Fraser	6½/10	65%
Ian Snape	6/7	86%
Graeme Plato	5½/8	69%
John Lewin	5½/10	55%
Howard Walden	5½/10	55%
Nick Briggs	5½/11	50%
Alan Sands	5/8	63%
Andrew Ponting	4/5	80%
Artem Naumenko	4/6	67%
Joel Newman	3½/4	88%
Stephen Roberts	3½/5	70%
Laurie Roberts	3/4	75%
Malcolm Mourant	3/5	60%
Richard Selway	3/5	60%

Team competitions

Now let's look at how our teams are doing in the competitions.
Our Surrey League team have so far scored 2 wins and 1 draw plus have 1 match that stands at 4.0 - 3.0 with 1 adjournment that we should at least draw, giving us another match win and putting us on top of the leaderboard.

Our London League team have got 2 wins and 2 losses, plus 1 match undecided. However, we're 4.0 - 5.0 down with my game adjourned with a drawn ending.

In the Kent league, our first team followed their initial loss with 3 strong wins, one of which resounding 5.5 - 0.5 victory over Dartford!
Our second team managed to get 2 hard fought draws from of their 2nd and 3rd matches.
The Tom Fuller team lost their 3rd match and managed to draw their 4th. That first match win will surely come in the New Year!
Last but certainly least, Stephen Roberts' Intro team, which followed their 3 wins with a draw against Petts Wood.
Standings:

• County & Lewis: 3/4
• En Passant: 1/3
• Tom Fuller: 1½/4
• Intro: 3½/4

In the Croydon League our Martin Cath and Dave Luckin A team doing well. The standings are as follows:

• Croydon Shield: First match scheduled for 5th Feb 2015
• Martin Cath: 2½/3.
• Dave Luckin A team: 1½/2.
• Dave Luckin B team: 0/3.

Club Championships

In the non-FIDE rated championship, on 4.5 points, the current leaders are: John Lewin and Malcolm Mourant.

In the FIDE rated tournament Michael tops the leaderboard, with an unbeaten record of 3 wins out of 3:

• Michael Prizant 3/3.
• Ian Snape 3/4.
• John Duggan 2/3.
• Richard Selway and Andrew Ponting 2/4.
• Nick Briggs and Douglas Vleeshhouwer 1½/4.
• Graeme Plato 0/4.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Missing Mate in One

Black has just played Rf5 in this quickplay finish.  How long does it take to see white's "best" move? 

Well, I missed it!  It was only in post-match analysis with an engine that I realised what had (not) happened.

Luckily, the game turned out OK in the end as black was reduced to completely random moves in his last few seconds.

Andy H

Teams and Verney Cup standings after 7 weeks

Dear all,

7 weeks and 17 team club matches in and we've got a mixed bag of results.

Our Surrey League have got 1 win and 1 embarassing draw againts a much weaker Guildford 2 side.

Our London League team have got 2 out 3 match points.

In the Kent league, a special mention for Stephen Roberts' Intro team is required. They've managed to win all of their 3 matches so far this season! Our Tom Fuller team started with two good draws against strong opposition. Unfortunately our top 2 teams are not faring so well:

• County & Lewis: 0 out of 1
• En Passant: 0.5 out of 2
• Tom Fuller: 1 out of 2
• Intro: 3 out of 3!

In the Croydon League our first team is yet to play a match. Our second team has started well, as has our A team in the Dave Luckin division. The B team in the Dave Luckin were unlucky to start their campaign against a strong CCF C1 team:

• Croydon Shield: First match scheduled for 5th Feb 2015
• Martin Cath: 2 out 2!
• Dave Luckin A team: 1 out of 1.
• Dave Luckin B team: 0 out of 1.

For those interested in the illustrious Verney Cup, the trophy handed to the club member with the highest score against other clubs, I'm embarrassed to write that yours truly is currently leading the pack, but that is more thanks to the large number of matches I've been asked to play in, than actual results. Much more impressive is Alan Fraser's start to the season of 4 wins out of 4!

At the other end, Jon Griffiths finally managed to score a draw on Friday, after losing his first 4 games of the season. Unfortunately Geoff Kelsey is still pointless after 4 matches.
Top of the Verney Cup leaderboard is follows:

Douglas Vleeshhouwer	5.5 out of 8	69%
Alan Fraser	4.0 out of 4	100%
Howard Walden	4.0 out of 6	67%
Alan Sands	4.0 out of 6	67%
Nick Briggs	3.0 out of 5	60%
Stephen Roberts	2.5 out 4	63%
John Lewin	2.5 out 5	50%

KENT SUMMER QUICKPLAY FINAL: BECKENHAM v FOLKESTONE ON 9 OCTOBER

After a somewhat calamitous start in round 1, including me blundering a piece, we clawed our way back to be slightly down after 3 rounds at 5½-6½. The last round went our way 3½-½, resulting in a 9-7 win.
Nick Briggs was the star, and indeed the only light in the first two rounds, with 3½/4.

	Match between BB and Folkestone.  Folkestone had White in Rounds 2 and 4.
	Round 1 Results
	B		G	M	Home Team		Result			Away Team		G	M
	1		207	12	H1	Ian Snape	0.0	v	1.0	A2	Jim Bayford	188	18
	2		194	15	H2	Richard Selway	0.0	v	1.0	A1	Andrew Hammond	201	15
	3		191	9	H3	John Duggan	0.5	v	0.5	A4	John Atherton	163	21
	4		185	15	H4	Nick Briggs	0.5	v	0.5	A3	Jo Schultz	179	15
			SUB-TOTAL FOR ROUND 1				1.0	v	3.0	SUB-TOTAL FOR ROUND 1
	Round 2 Results
	B		G	M	Home Team		Result			Away Team		G	M
	1		207	5	H1	Ian Snape	0.5	v	0.5	A4	John Atherton	163	25
	2		194	12	H2	Richard Selway	0.0	v	1.0	A3	Jo Schultz	179	18
	3		191	15	H3	John Duggan	0.5	v	0.5	A2	Jim Bayford	188	15
	4		185	18	H4	Nick Briggs	1.0	v	0.0	A1	Andrew Hammond	201	12
			SUB-TOTAL FOR ROUND 2				2.0	v	2.0	SUB-TOTAL FOR ROUND 2
	Round 3 Results
	B		G	M	Home Team		Result			Away Team		G	M
	1		207	9	H1	Ian Snape	1.0	v	0.0	A3	Jo Schultz	179	21
	2		194	7	H2	Richard Selway	0.5	v	0.5	A4	John Atherton	163	23
	3		191	18	H3	John Duggan	0.0	v	1.0	A1	Andrew Hammond	201	12
	4		185	15	H4	Nick Briggs	1.0	v	0.0	A2	Jim Bayford	188	15
			SUB-TOTAL FOR ROUND 3				2.5	v	1.5	SUB-TOTAL FOR ROUND 3
	Round 4 Results
	B		G	M	Home Team		Result			Away Team		G	M
	1		207	15	H1	Ian Snape	1.0	v	0.0	A1	Andrew Hammond	201	15
	2		194	15	H2	Richard Selway	1.0	v	0.0	A2	Jim Bayford	188	15
	3		191	12	H3	John Duggan	0.5	v	0.5	A3	Jo Schultz	179	18
	4		185	9	H4	Nick Briggs	1.0	v	0.0	A4	John Atherton	163	21
			SUB-TOTAL FOR ROUND 4				3.5	v	0.5	SUB-TOTAL FOR ROUND 4
			MATCH TOTAL FOR HOME TEAM				9.0	v	7.0	MATCH TOTAL FOR AWAY TEAM

Great start to the season!

3 matches into the season and we've got 3 wins under our belt!

Last week our Beckenham & Charlton team played its first match of the London League season and beat Dulwich's first team 5.5 - 4.5.
On Monday we played our first ever match in the Surrey League. We played a weak Ashstead 2 and thrashed them 8 nil. I think I was the only one who struggled a bit, until my opponent overlooked a simple pin, resulting in the loss of a minor piece, after which I checkmated him with rook and knight:

Last but not least, yesterday our 4th team scored a convincing victory against Eynsford's second team in the Kent League: 3.5 - 0.5.
A truly great start to the season.

KENT SUMMER QUICKPLAY

Beckenham was away to Weald of Kent in the semi final of the Kent Summer Quickplay on Monday, 29 September. After a nail biting finish, we won 8½-7½. We will be at home to Folkestone in the final which will be held at Parklangley next Thursday, 9 October, starting at 8pm.

Beckenham 2nd FIDE Rated Blitz

The above was held on 4 September.
10 players participated and after a very closely fought evening the final top positions were:

1st= 5½/7 James Foster, Graeme Plato and Ian Snape
4th 4½/7 Nick Briggs
5th 4/7 Jon Griffiths

Pos	Player	ECF Grade	Code	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	A	B	C	D
1	Foster, James	186E	234589E	+	b8+	b3=	w2-	w4+	w7+	b6+	5½	6	1259	210
2	Plato, Graeme	184C	220365A	w9+	b5-	w8+	b1+	b3+	w4=	w10+	5½	7	1379	197
3	Snape, Ian	211A	220905G	w6+	b4+	w1=	b7+	w2-	b9+	b8+	5½	7	1468	210
4	Briggs, Nicholas	185B	107270F	b10+	w3-	b5+	w6+	b1-	b2=	w7+	4½	7	1348	193
5	Griffiths, Jon	151C	111727A	-	w2+	w4-	b10+	b8+	w6-	w9+	4	6	1184	197
6	Ponting, Andrew	183A	117274J	b3-	w9+	w7-	b4-	w10+	b5+	w1-	3	7	1157	165
7	Selway, Richard	188A	269802L	b8-	w10+	b6+	w3-	w9+	b1-	b4-	3	7	1169	167
8	Vleeshhouwer, Douglas	158E	244145H	w7+	w1-	b2-	b9+	w5-	b10+	w3-	3	7	1102	157
9	Naumenko, Artem	103s	298016C	b2-	b6-	w10+	w8-	b7-	w3-	b5-	1	7	735	105
10	Mourant, Malcolm	127s	115916B	w4-	b7-	b9-	w5-	b6-	w8-	b2-	0	7	730	104

Index:
A = Player's score
B = Number of graded games played
C = Total grading points
D = Grading performance

Team Captains for 2014-2015

Dear all,

Please find below the list of team captains for the various team competitions that we'll be playing in this year.

Association	League	Grade Limit	Captain	Boards	Matches
Surrey	Beaumont	None	Ian Snape	8	8
Kent	County & Lewis	None	Graeme Plato	6	10
Kent	En Passant	560 max	Malcolm Mourant	6	6
Kent	Tom Fuller	440 max	Laurie Roberts	4	8
Kent	Intro	380 max	Stephen Roberts	4	8
Croydon	Croydon Shield	None	Nick Briggs	4	6
Croydon	Martin Cath	625 max	Douglas Vleeshhouwer	4	7
Croydon	Dave Luckin - Team A	500 max	Howard Walden	4	8
Croydon	Dave Luckin - Team B	500 max	Mike Spencer	4	8
London	Division 2	None	Andy Heard + Alan Hanreck	10	12

Following yesterday's Kent Fixtures meeting, please click here to access the current Beckenham team match schedule, containing all London League, Surrey League and Kent League matches, as well as some of the Croydon League matches that have already been scheduled in.

Regards
Douglas

4th September: FIDE Quickplay tournament

The Committee has decided to start this season with another FIDE Blitz tournament rather than the usual AGM.

The objective is to get the season off to a fun start.

Details of the tournament are as follows:

• Start 7.30pm; estimated finish 10.25pm
• 7 rounds
• Time control - 8 minutes + 2 sec a move (digital) or 10 minutes flat (manual) per player
• Entry fee
1. Members - £4 in advance or £5 on the day.
2. Non Members - £8 in advance or £10 on the day.
• ECF Membership – You need to have Gold or Platinum membership

Payment can be made in advance; either to Jon Griffiths or directly into the club’s bank account.

For those choosing to pay on the night, it would be appreciated if you would arrive by 7.20pm to enable a prompt start.

Last time there were 12 players with grades ranging from 110 to over 200.  Hopefully, we will manage more this time.

I look forward to seeing you.

Regards Ian Snape

P.S. As per previous the previous blog, if blitz isn't your thing, you are of course to play a Club Championship match of few friendly games instead.

SEASON 2014/2015: First dates for your diary

4th September: Start of the season!

• Ian Snape is organising a quick play competition for that evening. It is open to all strengths so don’t be put off if you think your grading is too low.

• For those who do not enjoy quick play, the Club tournament will also be running from the first day of the season. Unlike previous years, the tournament will not be split into two groups, so you can play whomever you wish without worrying that you might accidentally be playing someone from the wrong group.

11th September: Normal club night.

18th September: AGM.

25th September: Normal club night + first round of Beckenham FIDE Rated Club Championship.

1st October (Wednesday): First London League match of the season, versus Dulwich 1 at Golden Lane.

The club meets on a Thursday evening during the months of September to June inclusive. We take a short break during July and August.

REVIEW OF 2013/2014

Kent Leagues
For the first time in our history, we won the County Cup, beating Maidstone in the final. This is the competition to find the best team in Kent.

Croydon Leagues

We won both the Croydon Shield (div 1) and the Martin Cath Trophy (div 2).

We also entered a team for the Bielski Cup for the first time and won it. This is a blitz team tournament of 4 players in each team.

London League

We finished 7^th out of 13 in Division 2.

The Verney Cup

This is awarded to the person who scores the most points for the club against other clubs in all competitions. This year, it was won by Nick Briggs with 12.5 points out of 19.

Internal Tournaments
Our FIDE rated tournament was won by John Duggan. The non-FIDE rated club championship was won by Doug Vleeshhouwer.

The Rose Bowl
This is awarded to the winner of the club’s annual handicap quickplay competition. It was won by Ian Snape.

Committee Changes

After 15 years, John Lewin is standing down as Club Secretary.

The Club does not run itself and we are all grateful for the work that John has put in behind the scenes.  Malcolm Mourant is taking over from John as Secretary.  His place as Club Captain is being taken by Doug Vleeshhouwer who has been co-opted on to the Committee.  These new appointments will be open to ratification at the AGM.

Fred Wellings
Chairman

KENT - COUNTY CUP - Beckenham v Maidstone

Well, would you believe it. A first time win of the County Cup (as far as I am aware) by 3½-2½. Congratulations to everyone but me on an amazing performance. We were outgraded on every board and by an average of 11 points a board. Full results: Ian Snape 0-1 Martin Taylor, Richard Selway ½-½ Andrew Mayhew, John Duggan ½-½ Paul Talsma, Nick Briggs 1-0 Ian Watson, Graeme Plato ½-½ Chris Howell, Andrew Ponting 1-0 Dave Mumford.

Bielski Cup

The Bielski Cup is a quickplay competition run annually by the Croydon Chess League. This year it was hosted and organized by the Coulsdon Chess Fellowship on 27^th February. It is an all-play-all competition between teams of 4 with a total grade under 750. Nine teams entered and so it was an 8 round all-play-all with seven minutes on each clock in each match.

It was a close run thing but Beckenham & Bromley (under the team name West Wickham) eventually ran out winners with 25.5 game points ahead of Crystal Palace 1 (24.5 points) and South Norwood 1 (23.5).

This was the first time Beckenham and Bromley have entered a team.

Our team was:

1.  Ian Snape - 7 out of 8

2.  John Duggan (captain) - 7 out of 8

3.  Nick Briggs - 5 out of 8

4.  Douglas Vleeshhouwer - 6.5 out of 8

Hobell Library has a New Home

Andrew Ponting has agreed to host the Hobell library and to make it available for club members to borrow.  He's also agreed to make his own library available to borrow (one at a time!).

Members wishing to borrow something should contact Andrew in advance (see a committee member if you don't already have his email - it contains the word makiko) and arrange either to pop round to his place, or to meet on a club night.

The Hobell library books (see index) will remain property of the club, whilst Andrew's library (list to follow) will remain his property.

If other members are willing to make their libraries available, please do so.  Between us this could become a valuable resource.

John Lewin,
(Secretary)

Hobell Library

The club has a library of chess books which were donated by the family of Richard Hobell, who died some years ago.  There is a listing of these books on the site.

As we are no longer able to store the books, the committee has agreed that they should be distributed to club members.  It is hoped that members taking books would make a donation to club funds, but this is voluntary.

I will be bringing the books to club evenings over the next few weeks.  If you are interested in any specific ones, I will endeavour to reserve them.

John Lewin