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Saturday 22 November 2014

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

Sunday 16 November 2014

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%