Start of season handicap tournament

To warm-up for the new season, Colchester Chess Club held a rapidplay handicap tournament. The bigger the rating gap between two players the bigger the time difference on the clocks.

Rating difference	Clock times (lower-rated player first)
0-50	10 v 10
51-100	11 v 9
101-150	12 v 8
151-200	13 v 7
201-250	14 v 6
251-300	15 v 5
301-400	16 v 4
401+	17 v 3

Eleven players took part, the two highest-rated players Panagiotis Kanellopoulos and Adam Taylor won with a score of 4.5/5. In the table below, the values in brackets are the number of minutes that player had on the clock.

Pos	Name	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Total
1	Panagiotis Kanellopoulos	+6 W (3)	+7 B (3)	+4 W (3)	=2 B (10)	+3 W (4)	4.5
2	Adam Taylor	+10 B (3)	+5 W (3)	+8 B (5)	=1 W (10)	+10 B (3)	4.5
3	Nathan Barnes	-7 W (3)	+9 B (3)	+8 W (3)	+4 B (6)	-1 B (16)	3
4	Michael Haywood	+11 B (4)	+8 W (16)	-1 B (17)	-3 W (14)	+10 W (64)	3
5	Harry Donegan	+BYE	-2 B (17)	-7 W (5)	+11 B (5)	+9 W (5)	3
6	Matt Bennett	-1 B (17)	+11 W (6)	-9 B (5)	+11 (8)	+BYE	3
7	John Duff-Cole	+3 B (17)	-1 W (17)	+5 (15)	+8 W (17-3)	-2 W (17)	3
8	Ian Gooding	+9 W (3)	-4 B (4)	-2 W (15)	-7 B (3)	+11 W (3)	2
9	Pete Smith	-8 B (17)	-3 (17)	+6 W (15)	+BYE	-5 B (15)	2
10	John Roberts	-2 W (17)	+BYE	-3 B (17)	-6 B (12)	-4 B (14)	1
11	Andrew English	-4 W (16)	-6 B (14)	+BYE	-5 W (15)	-8 B (17)	1

Division 1 Summary

Colchester A finished in 7th place (out of 9) in NECL Division 1, with three wins, one draw and four losses (two of the losses were on default).

However, Colchester B finished in 1st place - meaning Colchester have won Division 1 for the first time since the 1996/97 season. It is also the first time ever that the league has been won by a B team. In a very close league, Colchester B won four games, drew three and only lost once. This gave them the same number of match points as Writtle but Colchester had one more board point.

The player statistics (by board) are:

Board 1 (Total 8/14)
Panagiotis Kanellopoulus	4/5
Ruqayyah Rida	2.5/5
Nathan Barnes	1/1
Zia Mohammed	0.5/1
Palitha Konara	0/1

Board 2 (Total 7/14)
Ruqayyah Rida	4/4
Rob Petrovai	1/1
Rezin Catabay	1/4
Nathan Barnes	0.5/2
Zia Mohammed	0.5/2
Mike Wagstaff	0/1

Board 3 (Total 8.5/14)
Rob Petrovai	3/3
Rezin Catabay	2/2
Clive Bellinger	1/1
Mae Catabay	1/2
Zia Mohammed	0.5/1
Mike Wagstaff	0.5/1
Ian Gooding	0.5/2
Andrew English	0/1
Palitha Konara	0/1

Board 4 (Total 7.5/14)
Dan Thompson	3/3
Rob Petrovai	2/3
Nathan Barnes	1/1
Kitt Simms	1/1
Mae Catabay	0.5/1
Matt Bennett	0/1
Seha Konara	0/1
Ed Southgate	0/1
Palitha Konara	0/2

Duck chess tournament

Old news now, but just before Xmas the club held it's second duck chess competition (results from the first one can be found here).

Ten players took part, Nathan Barnes won with a score of 5/5. No record was kept of which results were in which round, so each row just lists the results of each player in no particular order.

Position	Name						Total
1	Nathan Barnes	+3	+4	+5	+6	+8	5
2	Ian Gooding	+5	+9	+10	=3	-6	3.5
3	Rob Petrovai	+7	+8	+9	=2	-1	3.5
4	Matt Bennett	+7	+8	+10	-1	-5	3
5	Clive Bellinger	+4	+8	-1	-2		2
6	Kitt Simms	+2	+9	-1	-4		2
7	David York	bye	=8	-3	-4	-9	1.5
8	Andrew English	bye	=7	-1	-3	-5	1.5
9	Phil Daley	+7	-2	-3	-6		1
10	Jess	-2	-4				0

New URL

The website is back!

Note the URL has changed from colchesterchess.org.uk to colchesterchess.org

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.