January ECF grades

The January 2015 ECF Grading List has been published. The standard play grades for active Colchester players are:

Ref	Name	Age	Standard	Previous
256466L	Gooding, Ian		189B	190B
302172L	Voelker, Norbert		182E
186371L	Stemp, Matt		172D	174E
301977A	Schnell, Felix		167E
297026A	Orava, Aleksandr		163D	165E
299554C	Kjenner, Svein		154D	147E
120924D	Wagstaff, Michael		148C	147C
140673F	Barnes, Nathan		146A	158B
250046C	Bellinger, Clive		133C	130D
155695C	Daley, Phil		121C	120D
150405J	Harris, Martin		118A	120A
213710A	Smith, Peter		111C	119C
117812L	Remmer, Brian		107C	109D
301854E	Gonzales, Denzel		105F
293018D	Johnson, Mark		104B	100B
298130A	Jaufarally, Mohammud		102A	100A
283272A	Harris, Peter	17	95D	91D
227455D	Duff-Cole, John		93B	89C
256466L	Goodman, Ed		84C	74B
290797F	Wood, Dave		26A	24A

A few players have increased their grades - with Ed Goodman (+10) and Svein Kjenner (+7) having the most significant increases.

 

The following players have a standard play grade for the first time (or reappear on the list) - Félix Schnell, Norbert Voelker and Denzel Gonzales.

 

The rapidplay grades for active Colchester players are:

Ref	Name	Age	Rapidplay	Previous
186371L	Stemp, Matt		180F
140673F	Barnes, Nathan		155E	160F
299554C	Kjenner, Svein		148D	151F
250046C	Bellinger, Clive		136F	136F
293018D	Johnson, Mark		109D	107D
150405J	Harris, Martin		101D	94E
298130A	Jaufarally, Mohammud		91B	101A
227455D	Duff-Cole, John		87F
155695C	Daley, Phil		85F
256466L	Goodman, Ed		74F	78F
283272A	Harris, Peter	17	68E	39F
301407B	Parker, Leon	16	54F	46F
290797F	Wood, Dave		58A	52A

There are also a number of other Colchester players who have played some rapidplay graded games in the last half-season (but not enough to have a grade yet).

 

A few players have increased their grades - with Peter Harris (+29), Leon Parker (+8), Martin Harris (+7) and Dave Wood (+6) having the most significant increases.

 

The following players have a rapidplay grade for the first time (or reappear on the list) - Matt Stemp, Phil Daley and John Duff-Cole.

Club Championship - round 3

The draw for the third round (out of 5) of the club championship has been made. Clive Bellinger is the only player on 2/2 from the first two rounds, though there are a number of incomplete games so others could join him. For the purposes of making the draw, incomplete matches have been counted as being draws - scores will be updated as matches are completed. Third round matches should be completed by 30th March at the latest.

 

Round 3

WHITE		BLACK
Clive Bellinger (2)	V	Felix Schnell (1.5)
Nathan Barnes (1.5)	V	Svein Kjenner (1)
Norbert Voelker (1.5)	V	Phil Daley (1)
Mark Johnson (1)	V	Martin Harris (1)
Brian Remmer (0.5)	V	Pete Smith (1)
John Duff-Cole (0)	V	Ed Goodman (0)

 

Incomplete matches from previous rounds

WHITE		BLACK
Svein Kjenner	V	Mark Johnson
Phil Daley	V	Pete Smith
Pete Smith	V	Nathan Barnes
Brian Remmer	V	Svein Kjenner
Felix Schnell	V	Phil Daley

Premature resignation

After a poor result in their first game, Colchester A have won four matches in a row. The most recent match was a 3-1 away win against Witham A to move them up to 2nd place in Division 1. Svein was first to finish, while he was definitely winning was his opponent's resignation premature?

[Event "NECL League div 1"] [Site "?"] [Date "2016.01.06"] [Round "?"] [White "Kjenner, Svein"] [Black "Pearce, Dave"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B11"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "r2qr1k1/1b2bppp/1p3n2/p1pp4/2P5/2BQ1N2/PPB2PPP/3R1RK1 w - - 0 19"] [PlyCount "1"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] {This game ended fairly quickly. After} 19. Bxf6 {Black resigned. Some commented that it was premature. I also had that feeling, even though I knew Black position should be lost. But there is still room for mistakes...} ({After } 19. Bxf6 Bxf6 (19... gxf6 $4 {is mate in two with} 20. Qxh7+ Kf8 21. Qh8#) 20. Qxh7+ Kf8 21. Rfe1 {[%csl Rb7][%cal Re1e8] Black has difficult problems. Important is the Bishop on b7, allowing the following variations: If} Rxe1+ { my plan was} (21... g6 22. Bxg6 fxg6 (22... Rxe1+ 23. Rxe1 fxg6 24. Qxb7 $18) 23. Qxb7 {White is winning. But I think Black should have continued the fight.} ) 22. Rxe1 g6 23. Bxg6 ({According to the machine} 23. Ng5 {was better. The Knight can of course not be taken. The engineline goes} Bg7 24. Nxf7 Kxf7 25. Bxg6+ Kf8 26. Re5 $1 {it would have been fun to play this move, but I am afraid I would not ever even consider these lines. That is more for engines and postal players.} Bc8 27. Re8+ Qxe8 28. Bxe8) 23... fxg6 24. Qxb7 $18 { If Black tries} dxc4 {White can play} 25. Re6 {with the idea} Qd1+ 26. Ne1 Bxb2 $4 27. Qe7+ Kg8 28. Rxg6+ Kh8 29. Qh4+) 1-0

Xmas Blitx Results

Eight players took part in the Xmas Blitz, games were played with 5 minutes on the clock plus 3 seconds per move.

After the all-play-all Nathan and Norbert were joint leaders with 6.5/7; Matt recovered from a slow start (losing to Nathan and Norbert in the first two rounds) to finish in 3rd with a score of 5/7. The 6th round game between Nathan and Norbert had seen Nathan gain a material advantage which was sacrificed back to expose the king, however Norbert successfully held the position and a draw was agreed with both players running out of time.

Dave Wood finished in 6th place after two good results against higher-graded opponents.

	Matt	Nathan	Norbert	Clive	Pete	John	Ed	Dave	POINTS	POSITION
Matt Stemp	-	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	5	3rd
Nathan Barnes	1	-	0.5	1	1	1	1	1	6.5	1st=
Norbert Voelker	1	0.5	-	1	1	1	1	1	6.5	1st=
Clive Bellinger	0	0	0	-	1	1	1	1	4	4th
Pete Smith	0	0	0	0	-	1	1	1	3	5th
John Duff-Cole	0	0	0	0	0	-	0.5	0	0.5	8th
Ed Goodman	0	0	0	0	0	0.5	-	0.5	1	7th
Dave Wood	0	0	0	0	0	1	0.5	-	1.5	6th

An Armageddon game was used to decide the overall winner (White had 5 minutes, Black 4 minutes - but a draw would mean that Black wins). Norbert won the toss and chose to have the Black pieces. Nathan played a wing gambit against the Sicilian and won a piece for two pawns fairly early on. He held the advantage into the endgame but sped up to avoid losing on time. Norbert was able to successfully improve his position and by the time Nathan lost on time the position on the board was also lost. Therefore, Norbert won the blitz tournament.

Xmas Blitz

The club will be open as normal on the 23rd December. There will be an all-play-all blitz tournament - everyone welcome.

Colchester B

Colchester B have had a good start to the season in Division 2 of the NECL. They finished in 2nd place last season (behind Colchester A) and are currently top after a 3-1 away win against Braintree B and a 4-0 win over Dunmow.

Last minute reserve Martin Harris had a quick win in the match against Dunmow, annotated in the viewer below.

[Event "Colchester B v Dunmow"] [Site "?"] [Date "2015.11.18"] [Round "?"] [White "Harris, M."] [Black "Birdi, P."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C21"] [WhiteElo "120"] [BlackElo "110"] [Annotator "Harris, M"] [PlyCount "35"] 1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3. c3 {As I am sure you know, I hate gambit openings but just this once I thought I would try it out!} dxc3 4. Bc4 d6 5. Qb3 (5. Nxc3 Nf6 6. Qb3 $11) 5... Qf6 (5... Qd7 6. Nxc3 Nc6 7. Nf3 Na5 $11) 6. Nxc3 c6 7. Nf3 Bg4 $4 8. Bg5 Qg6 9. Qxb7 d5 10. Qxa8 {I didn't want to goof up here and spent a relatively long time over this move. But really there was no need to be concerned because here, all roads lead to Rome.} (10. h3 f6 11. hxg4 fxg5 12. Qc8+ Ke7 13. exd5 Nf6 14. O-O-O cxd5 15. Rhe1+ {was a better way to win but I could not see this variation clearly over the board, though I did look at it in part. There were a great many sacrificial lines and I didn't want to allow some finesse that would lead me to disaster.}) 10... Bd6 11. exd5 (11. e5 Bxf3 12. exd6 Qxg5 13. Qxb8+ Qd8 14. d7+ Kxd7 15. Qxa7+ Ke8 16. gxf3 dxc4 {was something I looked at but it didn't seem totally conclusive even though I had a clear material advantage. So many options!}) 11... c5 (11... Bxf3 12. h4 {was better for Black but White still has an attack so Black's actual move was understandable in a way.}) 12. Bb5+ Kf8 13. O-O (13. Qxa7 { might have been better but I didn't want to reveal my hand too early as I had seen some interesting options with the rook, sacrificing the knight and even sacrificing the queen. Style over matter!}) 13... Bxf3 14. Rfe1 {Take that!} f6 (14... Nf6 {was the only way to keep the game going but after the following sequence, Black is hopelessly boxed in.} 15. Qb7 Kg8 16. Qc8+ Bf8) 15. Re8+ Kf7 {I was honestly expecting 15...Qg6xe8 here, because the alternative is a complete rout.} 16. Qxa7+ Ne7 17. Rxh8 Qxg5 18. Be8# 1-0

Colchester C

Colchester C have played 3 league matches and won all 3 (a 2.5-1.5 win over the D team and 3-1 wins against Chelmsford C and Chelmsford D) so they are currently top of Division 3. Rest of this post is from Clive.

Here is a position from a league game, White is already a piece up and has a winning position with plenty of options, but can you find the crushing move?

Did you find it? The answer is: Qd1-a1 The threatened loss of the g pawn is overwhelming (computer gives this as +8). If you picked Rc6xd6 (I did) that is still pretty good at nearly +7.

Following Qd1-a1, if black castles, Ne4-c5 Bd6xc5, b4xc5 white is 2 pieces up, game over. If : Ke8 (to give the rook room) Ne4-c5 Bd6xc5, b4xc5 Rh8-g8, c5xb6 a7xb6, again 2 pieces up If: e6-e5 (to try and block in centre) Rc6xd6 c7xd6, Ne4xd6+ Ke8-f8, Be3xb6 Rc8-c2, Bb6-c5

If: Bd6-f8 then white has Ne4-c5 Bf8xc5 (forced) Qa1xg7 Bc5xe3 Rc6xe6+ f7xe6 Bg2-c6+ Nb6-d7 Qg7xh8+ Ke8-f7 f2xe3+ Kf7-e7 Qh8xh7+ Ke7-d6 Qh7xd7+ Kd6-e5. Lovely line this... Black King all alone in the middle of the board!