The 3rd place play-off was also the decider for the Club Shield (awarded to the under-120 graded player with the best result in the club championship). In the game, Mark showed that he knew how to handle Brian's Grob Attack and a well-timed attack by the central pawns led to a decisive material advantage.
The top 3 in the club shield were:
| 1st | Mark Johnson (49) |
| 2nd | Brian Remmer (109) |
| 3rd | John Duff-Cole (90) |
Overall, 19 players entered the club championship this year - this is significantly higher than in recent years. The play-offs for places 5-8 in the club championship have been completed and the results are shown below.
| 5th | Martin Harris (139) |
| 6th= | Phil Daley (124) |
| 6th= | Pete Smith (122) |
| 8th | John Duff-Cole (90) |
Phil and Pete proved impossible to split - below is the first of the draws in the games between them. The advantage keeps switching back and forward after a speculative sacrifice from Black.
The top four in the plate competition were:
| 1st= | Clive Bellinger (139) |
| 1st= | Dave Chatfield (ungraded) |
| 3rd | Ed Goodman (72) |
| 4th | John King (26) |
The Colchester Chess Club Annual General Meeting will be on Wednesday 25th June at 19:30. If you are interested in taking on one of the roles in the club committee, or want to find out more about what the roles entail, please speak to Clive. The committee positions are:
Presentations will also be made to the winners of the 2013/14 season club competitions.
The A and C teams have had their final matches of the season - both postponed from the end of April. The C team drew 2-2 with CRGS, finishing 3rd in their division. The A team completed their 4th 4-0 whitewash in a row against Baddow B; the A team also finished 3rd in their division.
| Date: 14-May-2014 | ||||||
| NECL League: Division 2 | ||||||
| Brd | Col | COLCHESTER A | Result | BADDOW B | Col | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | b | Ian Gooding (176) | 1 | 0 | Richard Parker (148) | w |
| 2 | w | Eldar Lachinov (e155) | 1 | 0 | Michael Spurr (151) | b |
| 3 | b | Nathan Barnes (e145) | 1 | 0 | Tony Rawlins (88) | w |
| 4 | w | Phil Daley (124) | 1 | 0 | David Gold (76) | b |
| (avg=150) | 4 | 0 | (avg=115) | |||
| Date: 14-May-2014 | ||||||
| NECL League: Division 3 | ||||||
| Brd | Col | COLCHESTER C | Result | CRGS | Col | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | b | Martin Harris (139) | ½ | ½ | Gorak Rajesh (161) | w |
| 2 | w | Brian Remmer (109) | 0 | 1 | Jeremy Hadcock (140) | b |
| 3 | b | John Duff-Cole (90) | 1 | 0 | Peter Harris (57) | w |
| 4 | w | Mark Johnson (49) | ½ | ½ | Lakdinu Peries (68) | b |
| (avg=96) | 2 | 2 | (avg=106) | |||
Here is Eldar's game from the match against Baddow. A kingside pawn-storm leads to a well-calculated finish in the endgame.
Two Colchester Chess Club members took part in the Southend Congress over the Easter weekend - John Duff-Cole and Martin Harris. Martin finished on 1/5 in the Intermediate section and John on 2.5/5 in the Minor. Here is one of John's wins - the shortest game this year for a Colchester player?
With this narrow win over Maldon C, Colchester C are now guaranteed to finish in 3rd place in NECL Division 3 (behind the B team and Galleywood Knights). There is still one match remaining (against CRGS next week) - if the C team win they will have the same number of match points as the B team, but even a 4-0 win would not be enough to beat the B team's board points (the tiebreaker for teams on the same number of match points).
| Date: 23-Apr-2014 | ||||||
| NECL League: Division 3 | ||||||
| Brd | Col | COLCHESTER C | Result | MALDON C | Col | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | b | Martin Harris (139) | ½ | ½ | Keith Cook (136) | w |
| 2 | w | Brian Remmer (109) | 1 | 0 | Doug Mothershaw (111) | b |
| 3 | John Duff-Cole (90) | 1 | 0 | Default | ||
| 4 | w | Jake Stones (e75) | 0 | 1 | Frank Sealey (102) | b |
| (avg=103) | 2.5 | 1.5 | (avg=116) | |||
The 2013/14 season Tony Locke Rapidplay was won by Eldar Lachinov with a score of 5/5. Below is the cross-table of the results.
| Name | Rd1 | Rd2 | Rd3 | Rd4 | Rd5 | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eldar Lachinov | + 6 | + 3 | + 2 | + 4 | + 5 | 5 |
| 2 | Nathan Barnes | + 4 | + 7 | - 1 | + 3 | + 6 | 4 |
| 3 | Martin Harris | + 5 | - 1 | + 7 | - 2 | + 8 | 3 |
| 4 | Mark Johnson | - 2 | + 8 | = 5 | - 1 | + 7 | 2.5 |
| 5 | Mohammud Jaufarally | - 3 | + 6 | = 4 | + 8 | - 1 | 2.5 |
| 6 | Ed Goodman | - 1 | - 5 | + 8 | = 7 | - 2 | 1.5 |
| 7 | John Duff-Cole | + 8 | - 2 | - 3 | = 6 | - 4 | 1.5 |
| 8 | John King | - 7 | - 4 | - 6 | - 5 | - 3 | 0 |
Following the Tony Locke rapidplay, the current top ten players in the club grand prix are:
| Points | Percentage | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Eldar Lachinov | 16.5 | 97 |
| 2nd | Nathan Barnes | 15.5 | 78 |
| 3rd= | Peter Smith | 10 | 73 |
| Martin Harris | 10 | 56 | |
| 5th= | Brian Remmer | 8.5 | 77 |
| Mike Wagstaff | 8.5 | 77 | |
| 7th= | Phil Daley | 7 | 70 |
| John Duff-Cole | 7 | 50 | |
| Mark Johnson | 7 | 47 | |
| 10th | Clive Bellinger | 5.5 | 69 |
With only the knockout stages of the club championship and four NECL matches left (2 for the A team and 2 for the C team), there are only two players who can now win the club grand prix - but the competition for the other places is close.
