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Thursday, 12 March 2015

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.

Friday, 23 January 2015

Friday, 16 January 2015

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

Saturday, 20 December 2014

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!

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%