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Tony Locke Rapidplay 2022

The club's internal rapidplay championship (Tony Locke Rapidplay) was held on Wednesday 17th August. The competition was won by Nathan Barnes with a score of 5/5 (his fourth consecutive win). Mae, Michael and Rezin Catabay tied for second with 3.5/5. Twelve players took part.

Note: some of the ratings shown in the crosstable are estimated ratings or are provisional ratings based on very few games so are not always accurate.

In round 1, the games went with rating with the exception of Rezin Catabay who won following his opponent's queen blunder. Rezin also won in round 2 to join Michael Catabay and Nathan Barnes on 2/2. The latter had a lucky escape against Mae Catabay who would have won if there had been a longer time control. Round 3 saw Rezin have a slight edge most of the time in his game against Nathan until the endgame was reached when things turned around. Felix was the unlucky player to get the upfloat to play against Michael. David York won his first rated game, playing against Ed Southgate (also in his first tournament). Max Conley and Mae Catabay's game was level throughout, though it took a while for the draw to play out. Rob Petrovai and James Martin won their games to move to 2/3.

Round 4 saw the two player's on a 100% score play each other. Following a pawn sacrifice, Michael chose the wrong way to try to hold onto the material advantage and his king got stuck in the centre. A position from the game is below, White to play and win (answer in the comments).

Wins for Rezin and James saw them join Michael on 3/4, one point behind Nathan and with a chance to finish the competition in a tie for the lead. Mae won her second match of the evening; Andrew English won his first game of the evening.

Round 5 saw a father-son match-up, the result was a draw so Rezin and Michael finished on 3.5/5. Mae won her game against Felix to match her brother and father's final score. Strong opening play saw Nathan struggle in his game against James, losing a pawn for no real compensation. Active rook play and a removal of the guard tactic saw the game turn and meant Nathan was able to maintain his 100% record.

Simul game from 1981

Below is a game from a simultaneous display given in Colchester in Autumn 1981.

[Event "Simultaneous match"] [Site "?"] [Date "1981.11.29"] [Round "?"] [White "Basman, M."] [Black "Davies, W. J. N."] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A00"] [Annotator "Nathan"] [PlyCount "70"] [SourceVersionDate "2021.07.29"] 1. g4 {A move often played by IM Michael Basman who was well-known for his off-beat openings.} c5 2. Bg2 Nc6 3. h3 e6 4. c4 d5 5. Nc3 Nge7 (5... d4 { is better. While it opens the h1-a8 diagonal for White's bishop, the black pawns give White a cramped position.}) 6. Nf3 Ng6 7. d3 h6 8. Bd2 Be7 9. a3 a5 10. Rc1 b6 11. e4 d4 $6 (11... dxc4 12. dxc4 Nd4 13. Nxd4 cxd4 14. Nb5 e5 $17 { both of White's bishops are hemmed in.}) 12. Ne2 e5 13. Ng3 O-O 14. Nf5 Bxf5 15. exf5 Nf4 16. Bxf4 exf4 17. O-O Ra7 18. Re1 Qd6 19. Nd2 Bh4 20. Ne4 Qc7 21. Qb3 Ne5 22. Nd2 Bg5 23. Bd5 f3 $1 {Cutting off the bishop's retreat and pinning the d2 knight.} 24. Rcd1 (24. Nxf3 $2 Nxf3+ 25. Bxf3 Bxc1) 24... a4 $2 (24... Bxd2 $1 25. Rxd2 Nxg4 26. hxg4 (26. Bxf3 Qh2+ 27. Kf1 Qxh3+ $17) 26... Qf4 27. Bxf3 (27. Rc2 $4 Qxg4+ 28. Kf1 Qg2#) 27... Qxd2) 25. Qb5 $4 {Annotated on the original scoresheet as ?} Ra5 {The queen is trapped.} 26. Qxa5 bxa5 27. Ne4 Bf4 28. Rb1 Nxd3 29. Red1 Ne5 30. b3 Rb8 31. bxa4 Rxb1 32. Rxb1 Nd3 33. Rb7 Bh2+ 34. Kf1 Qf4 35. Rb1 Nb2 0-1

6th April Closure

Colchester Chess Club will be closed on Wednesday April 6th - open again on the 13th.

Reopening

Colchester Chess Club will be open again on Wednesday 8th September. Hope to see you all there!

Reopening

Update: we are intending to have our first, post lockdown, club session on 19:00 Wednesday 1st September (19:00 start) - as building works at the Belle Vue should be completed by then.

HOCCC: 1904 correspondence match part 2

In the 1903-04 season two correspondence games were played between the chess clubs of Colchester and Tunbridge Wells. The first match can be found here. According to a newspaper article about the match "In game two White (Colchester) lost a pawn in the opening, but by using the knights to best advantage regained the pawn on move 20, and capturing two pawns shortly afterwards secured a winning advantage, black resigning on the 35th move. The Tunbridge Wells Chess Club is a strong one, having won the county trophy in Kent two years in succession. They also drew against Hastings, a notably strong club."

[Event "Correspondence match"] [Site "?"] [Date "1904.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Colchester"] [Black "Tunbridge Wells"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D37"] [Annotator "Barnes, Nathan"] [PlyCount "69"] [SourceVersionDate "2021.07.29"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 Be7 5. Bf4 Nbd7 6. e3 O-O 7. c5 Ne4 8. Rc1 (8. Nb5 {is a meaningless threat.} c6 9. Nc7 e5 $1 10. Nxa8 Qa5+ 11. Nd2 exf4 { White's knight is trapped on a8 and will eventually be captured.}) 8... c6 9. Bd3 f5 10. O-O (10. h3 {Giving the bishop the option of retreating to h2 seems sensible.}) 10... g5 11. Be5 $6 (11. Bg3 {is the computer's suggestion to roughly maintain equality. On the surface it looks like it just loses a piece but an unbalanced material balance is the result.} f4 12. Bxe4 dxe4 13. Nxg5 Bxg5 14. exf4 Be7 15. Qg4+ Kf7 16. Qh5+ Kg8 17. Qg4+ Kh8 18. Qxe6 {White has lost a bishop but has a lot of pawns to compensate.}) 11... g4 12. Bxe4 dxe4 13. Nd2 Nxe5 14. dxe5 Qc7 15. b4 Qxe5 16. Nc4 Qg7 17. Ne2 Rd8 18. Qc2 e5 19. Qc3 $17 b5 $2 (19... Rd5 {holds onto the extra pawn and maintains black's advantage. Be6 and Rd3 are also fine.}) (19... Be6 20. Nxe5 $4 (20. Qxe5 $2 Qxe5 21. Nxe5 Bxa2) 20... Bf6) 20. Nxe5 $16 Bd7 $2 {Temporarily protecting the pawn on c6 but it doesn't work.} 21. Qb3+ $1 Kf8 22. Nxd7+ Rxd7 23. Qe6 Bf6 24. Qxc6 Re8 25. Nf4 Qf7 26. Qxb5 Rb7 27. Qc4 Be5 28. c6 Rc7 29. Qxf7+ Kxf7 30. a4 Bxf4 31. exf4 Rd8 32. Rc5 Kg6 33. b5 Rd3 34. a5 Rb3 35. g3 1-0