Annual Handicap Quickplay Competition for the Rose Bowl

On 25th June 14 members gathered for the final night of our season to test their skill in 5 minute chess - only in this competition, some of our stronger players had as little as 2 minutes while their weaker opponent had 8.

The event ended in a tie between Ian Snape and Joel Newman with Ian winning the play off, thus putting his name on the cup for the second year running.

Bromley v The Rest on 18th June 2015

I have had to rename our annual match between the Bromley members and Beckenham members as Bromley v the Rest because of the number of members from outside those two district and also to try and improve the equality of ratings. Even so, this year Bromley (seated on the right) won again.

The team scores were:

Board		Bromley				The Rest
	Grade			Result				Grade
1	193	Ian Snape		1	0	Graeme Plato		178
2	189	Nick Briggs		1	0	Alan Sands		167
3	165	Joel Newman		1	0	John Gibb		160
4	150	Jon Griffiths		0.5	0.5	John Alderson		152
5	129	Michael McNaughton		0	1	John Lewin		150
6	128	Malcolm Mourant		1	0	Howard Walden		113
7	109	Tony Foreman		0.5	0.5	Fred Wellings		110
8	107	Dave Vigus		1	0	Artem Naumenko		102
	1170	Grades Total	Team Total	6	2	Team Total	Grades Total	1132
	8	no. of players				no. of players		8
	146.25	Av.Grade					Av.Grade	141.5

Club Championship [non FIDE rated]

John Gibb and John Lewin came through the semi-finals to face each other in the final on 11th June. This was a very close contest resulting in a draw. The two players agreed to decide the contest with a 10 minute quickplay game with colours reversed. John Lewin eventually won and is our new non-FIDE rated club champion. He previously won it in 2002.

Nick Briggs retains the Verney Cup!

I topped the leaderboard for a long time this season, but in March Nick started to score heavily, quickly overtook me and build up an unassailable lead.
Thus, despite finishing the season with 3 draws and 2 losses (sorry Nick, I couldn't resist it ;-)), Nick tops the table with 20 points. Congratulations! A well deserved champion, playing an whopping 34 games for the club!!
I managed to hold on to 2nd place, with 17 points. Alan Sands completes the podium with 14 points, pipping John Lewin to third place thanks to a higher scoring percentage.
I'd like to also draw your attention to some very impressive percentages:

• Joel, in his first season for Beckenham: 79% (11 out of 14)
• Ian: 75% (13.5 out of 18)
• Michael Prizant: 75% (4.5 out of 6)
• Alan Sands: 74% (14 out of 19)
• Stephen Roberts: 72% (6.5 out of 9)
• Laurie Roberts: 68% (7.5 out of 11)

I cannot wait to find out what that has done for their ECF grades!

Here is the full table:

Name	SUM	COUNT	%
Briggs, John Nicholas	20	34	59%
Vleeshhouwer, Douglas	17	27	63%
Sands, Alan VH	14	19	74%
Lewin, John H	14	22	64%
Snape, Ian L	13.5	18	75%
Fraser, Alan R	13.5	22	61%
Plato, Graeme	12	21	57%
Newman, Joel	11	14	79%
Selway, Richard P	10.5	16	66%
Walden, Howard	9.5	21	45%
Roberts, Laurie B	7.5	11	68%
Naumenko, Artem	7.5	12	63%
Hanreck, Alan E	7	12	58%
Roberts, Stephen	6.5	9	72%
Ponting, Andrew	6.5	10	65%
Foreman, Anthony	6.5	15	43%
Griffiths, Jon M	6	16	38%
Vigus, David	5.5	9	61%
Spencer, Mike Peter	5.5	10	55%
Mourant, Malcolm P	5.5	14	39%
Gregory, Philip J	5	8	63%
Prizant, Michael	4.5	6	75%
Duggan, John E	4.5	8	56%
Heard, Andrew H	4	11	36%
Foster, James C	3.5	7	50%
Cousins, Stephen P	3.5	8	44%
Alderson, John KA	2.5	5	50%
McNaughton, Michael F	2	6	33%
Hill, Robert G	1.5	4	38%
Davey, Adrian	1	4	25%
Kelsey, Geoff M	0	8	0%
Barnett, Anthony	0	3	0%
Kevan, Jason	0	3	0%
Hurst, Martin	0	1	0%

And West Wickham A win division 1 as well - again!

Our Croydon league 1st team emulates our 2nd team by winning its division, the Croydon Shield, for the 2nd year running as well!

A full match point behind Streatham A (and 1 board point behind) meant a win in the last match against CCF A was needed to steal the title away from Streatham, again!
Luck was on our side: CCF A were a player short and defaulted on board 4.
Ian had a good win on board 1. Jon needed a bit of luck and got it when his opponent overlooked a double attack on his rook and knight. Game over and the match was ours!
Unfortunately 4 nil wasn't to be. Nick lost for a second time this weak, a rare thing as you'll find out shortly!

West Wickham B win Martin Cath Trophy for second year in a row!

Despite suffering its first loss in two years, our West Wickham B team manages to retain the title

With 5 wins, one of which a 4 nil win against Streatham B, one draw and one loss (against Lewisham), our 2nd team ends on top of division two with 5.5 points, half a point ahead of South Norwood A and Lewisham.
Congratulations!!
I'd like to thank everyone who has played for team (10 different players!) and especially those who stood in for me as captain, namely John Lewin (twice!) and Laurie Roberts - very much appreciated.
Great scoring by Alan Sands (4.5 points out of 5), John Lewin (4 out of 6) and Andrew Ponting (2.5 out of 3).

THE TROST TROPHY 2015

MONDAY 08 JUNE at 7.45 PM

AT CRYSTAL PALACE CHESS CLUB

Venue: The Church of St Philip the Apostle

Coombe Road Sydenham SE26 6QW

A HANDICAP LIGHTNING TOURNAMENT

9 Rounds Swiss System (UTU Swiss pairing programme controlled)

 

ENTRY FEE £3

First Prize: £40

Second Prize: £20

Third Prize: £10

Grading Prize: £10

Entries:
Email: david.hodgson30@btinternet.com   or
David Hodgson tel: 020 8663 2553

Games have a total time of 12 minutes divided between the two players according to the grading difference as follows:

Lower Grade                Higher Grade

Less than 10 pts difference:      6 minutes each player                                                                 

11-20 points difference:           6.30sec minutes plays    5m 30 secs

21-30 points difference:           7 minutes plays             5 minutes

31-40 points difference:           7.30 minutes plays        4 m 30 secs

41-50 points difference:           8 minutes plays             4 minutes

51-60 points difference:           8.30 minutes plays        3 30 minutes

61-70 points difference:           9 minutes plays             3 minutes

71- 80 points difference           9 30 minutes plays        2.30 minutes

80 +  points difference             10 minutes plays           2 minutes.

Normal Laws of chess apply except that an illegal move loses.

Club championship semi-finals matches set

The following 4 people all ended up with 6.5 points:

• John Gibb 6.5 out of 7
• John Lewin 6.5 out of 8
• David Vigus 6.5 out of 9
• Malcolm Mourant 6.5 out of 12

The matchup for the semi-finals is as follows:

• John G vs Malcolm and
• John L vs David

The matches will be played 28th May or 4th June.
Best of luck gentlemen!

Club championship standings

One day left in the competition to determine the semi-final players!

Coming Thursday, 21st of May, is the last day of the competition.
The following 5 people are still in the running for the semi-finals:

1. Malcom Mourant, John Lewin 6.5 points
2. Dave Vigus, Fred Wellings 6
3. John Gibb 5.5

Photos from Kent County Finals

Our 4th team getting ready for the action

Beckenham team on the left (obviously):

1. Howard
2. Alan
3. Mike
4. Stephen (captain)

Chess is serious business for the 1st team

Board order, from left to right:

1. Ian
2. Nick
3. Richard
4. Graeme (captain)
5. Joel
6. Alan

Beckenham 4 win Kent Intro Cup!

Kent finals results

Stephen Roberts' Beckenham 4 team score a convincing 3-1 victory over Maidstone 7 and thus win the Intro Cup!

Unfortunately our first team couldn't retain the County trophy; sadly we lost by tiebreak, again!

More details to follow later.

Ian Snape wins the Beckenham FIDE rated championship

Ian takes the crown by winning a thrilling rapidplay play off against John Duggan!

Unfortunately Michael had to default his last 2 games due to health issues, which took him out of the running.
John had to win his final game against yours truly last night to force a playoff against Ian and have a chance at regaining his title.
Unfortunately for Ian, I played an absolutely shocking game and John took full advantage.
Ian and John decided to play the deciding rapidplay games immediately after and played 2 very complex games. Ian managed to win his game with white and draw his game with black, taking the title from John 1½-½.
Final standings:

1. Ian Snape, John Duggan 5½
3. Michael Prizant 4
4. Nick Briggs and Richard Selway 3½
6. Andrew Ponting and yours truly 2½
8. Graeme Plato 1

First team wins Beamont Cup in Surrey League!

Promotion to Surrey Trophy division gained

Congratulations to our first team: In its first year in the Surrey League, the team has managed to win the Beamont Cup (division 2), winning an impressive 6 matches and thus has gained promotion to the first division, called the Surrey Trophy.
A great achievement!

Final division standings:

Individual scores of the team in the Surrey League:

Player	Score	# of games	%
Briggs, John Nicholas	5.5	7	79%
Newman, Joel	4	4	100%
Snape, Ian L	4	5	80%
Prizant, Michael	4	5	80%
Plato, Graeme	4	7	57%
Vleeshhouwer, Douglas	3	4	75%
Foster, James C	2.5	6	42%
Gregory, Philip J	2	3	67%
Ponting, Andrew	2	4	50%
Selway, Richard P	1.5	4	38%
Sands, Alan VH	1	2	50%
Duggan, John E	1	3	33%

Dates for the diary:

Beckenham versus Bromley match: 18th June 2015 

This is a match between members living in Beckenham or closer to Beckenham than Bromley and a team of members living in Bromley or closer to Bromley than to Beckenham.
However, to make make sure we have two teams that are roughly equal in strength, we usually ask some people to play for the other team.
It is an informal, friendly event and all B&B club members are invited to participate.
Start time is 7:30pm.
I'll email everyone nearer the time to get numbers (and postcodes) so I can start putting the teams together in advance.

Rosebowl Tournament: 25th June 2015

The other annual event taking place at the end of our season is our internal quickplay tournament called the Rosebowl tournament.
This is a handicapped event, meaning that lower graded players will get more time than higher graded players.
Again, this is an informal friendly event, usually with quite a bit of banter. All club members are welcome!
Please arrive at 7:15pm for registration, to allow for a prompt start at 7:30pm.

Thrice Pinned!

I'm playing black - phew! - on chessworld.net.

Casual Chess - London's New Chess Cafe

Some bright young things have very laudably put some money and effort into starting off a new drop-in chess club in Central London.   Its first event is an opening "party" starting 6pm on 26th January at the BFI lobby, 21 Stephen St, off Tottenham Court Rd, W1T 1LN.  Or if you're on Facebook, click here.

More details at www.casualchess.org (You might need to page to the bottom of the screen).


Every woodpusher in town is invited, along with some others who have graduated beyond that self-deprecatory accolade.  I hope it succeeds.
Maybe see you on the 26th?

Andy H