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