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.

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.

Congresses

Martin Harris has won his first game in the Minor Section of the PokerStars Isle of Man International Chess Tournament - you can follow his progress here. He has been playing a lot recently as he also played in two events at the Paignton Chess Congress - The Walker Minor (U135) and Reg Thynne 5-round morning event (U135) where he won the U125 grading prize.

Coming up soon is the Bury St Edmunds Chess Congress on October 24th-25th with two Colchester players entered so far - Nathan Barnes (Open) and Mark Johnson (Minor).

Bury St Edmunds Chess Congress

Six Colchester players took part in the annual Bury St Edmunds Chess Congress.

In the 50-player Minor (U120) Section, John Duff-Cole scored 2.5/5 to finish in 29th place. Shazia Jaufarally's 2/5 included a win over John. Also on 2/5 were Mark Johnson (whose results included a win over former Colchester player Dave Wood) and 10-year-old Nadia Jaufarally who lost her first three matches but finished strongly.

Playing up a section in the Intermediate (U145), Mohammud Jaufarally finished on 0.5/5.

In the Major (U170), Nathan Barnes finished in 15th place with a score of 2.5/5 - all five games were against higher-graded opponents. Two annotated games are given below - a win from round 2 against one of the players who finished in joint 3rd and one of Nathan's two defeats (the two players who beat Nathan finished in joint 1st).

 

 

 

[Event "Bury St Edmunds Congress 2014: Major"] [Site "Bury St Edmunds"] [Date "2014.10.25"] [Round "2"] [White "Barnes, Nathan"] [Black "Kirkham, Ed"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A22"] [Annotator "Barnes, Nathan"] [PlyCount "65"] [EventDate "2014.10.25"] {Board: 4 White ECF: 146 Black ECF: 155} 1. c4 d6 2. g3 e5 3. Bg2 Nf6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. d3 Nbd7 6. e4 {White has the Botvinnik system setup with pawns on c4, d3 and e4.} c6 7. Nge2 Nc5 8. O-O Bg4 9. f3 Bh5 {e6 or d7 would be better squares for the bishop as it would help to support advances in the centre.} 10. Be3 Ne6 11. d4 exd4 {Slightly inaccurate - this allows White to get a strong knight on d4.} 12. Nxd4 O-O 13. Nf5 {Winning the bishop pair} Bg6 14. Nxe7+ Qxe7 15. b4 Nd7 (15... a5 $5 {effectively neutralises White's advance on the queenside.}) 16. b5 (16. f4 $142 f5 17. exf5 Rxf5) 16... Nec5 17. bxc6 bxc6 18. Re1 (18. -- f5 {I thought this would be good for Black and so decided to play a move that prevents this.}) 18... f6 (18... f5 $4 19. exf5 {and White wins a piece} Qf6 (19... Bxf5 20. Bxc5 Qf6 21. Bd4) 20. fxg6) 19. Qd2 Ne5 20. Bxc5 dxc5 21. f4 $5 {Forcing the knight away from its strong position in the centre. Black wins a pawn - but this is likely to be only temporary as Black's doubled c pawns form an easy target. A well-timed push of the e pawn will release the bishop on g2 and could cause Black some problems.} Nxc4 22. Qe2 Bf7 23. e5 $1 { every other move means Black keeps his one pawn advantage} fxe5 (23... -- 24. e6 $1 {wins a piece} Bxe6 (24... Bg6 25. Qxc4) 25. Qxe6+ Qxe6 26. Rxe6) 24. Bxc6 Rad8 25. Rad1 Nb6 (25... -- 26. Nd5 $1 {is White's threat - gaining a substantial material advantage.} Qe6 (26... Bxd5 27. Bxd5+ Kh8 28. Bxc4) 27. Qxc4 {The bishop is safe as if Black takes it then the white knight can fork Black's king and queen - leading to White winning a rook.}) 26. Rxd8 Rxd8 27. Qxe5 Qd6 $6 28. Rd1 $1 Qf8 29. Rxd8 Qxd8 30. Qxc5 { White is now a pawn ahead} Bxa2 $2 {In severe time pressure Black miscalculates and doesn't see that the white queen can come back to f2.} 31. Nxa2 Qd1+ 32. Kg2 Nc4 $2 (32... Qd2+ 33. Qf2 {is the move that Black missed - leaving White a piece up}) 33. Bd5+ 1-0

 

[Event "Bury St Edmunds Congress 2014: Major"] [Site "?"] [Date "2014.10.25"] [Round "3"] [White "Daugman, John"] [Black "Barnes, Nathan"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D18"] [Annotator "Barnes, Nathan"] [PlyCount "95"] [EventDate "25.??.??"] {D18: Slav Defence: 5 a4 Bf5 6 e3} {Board: 2 White ECF: 169 Black ECF: 146} 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. e3 e6 7. Bxc4 Bb4 8. Qb3 a5 9. O-O Nbd7 10. Na2 Be7 11. Nh4 (11. Qxb7 {is safe, but leads to a forced draw} Rb8 12. Qxc6 $4 (12. Qa6 Ra8 13. Qxc6 Rc8 14. Qb5 Rb8 {and the only way to avoid losing the queen is to take a draw by repetition}) 12... Rb6 {traps the queen}) 11... Be4 12. Nc3 Bd5 13. Nxd5 (13. Bxd5 Nxd5 14. Nxd5 cxd5 15. Nf3 Qb6 16. Qxb6 Nxb6 17. b3 f6 18. Bd2 Kd7 19. Rfc1 Rhc8 20. Ne1 Rxc1 21. Rxc1 Ba3 22. Rc2 Nc8 23. Nd3 Ne7 24. Nc5+ Bxc5 25. Rxc5 b6 26. Rc2 h5 27. f3 Nc6 28. Kf2 Rb8 29. Ke2 b5 30. axb5 Rxb5 31. Ra2 Rxb3 32. Bxa5 Nxa5 {1/2-1/2 (32) Ivanchuk, V (2781)-Anand,V (2798) Bilbao 2008}) 13... Nxd5 {with a discovered attach on the h4 knight} 14. Nf3 Qb6 15. e4 $146 (15. Qd1 O-O 16. e4 Nb4 17. Qe2 Rad8 18. Be3 c5 19. Bb5 cxd4 20. Bxd4 Bc5 {1-0 (51) Mirzoev,A (2529)-Camarena Gimenez,R (2376) La Roda 2005}) 15... Qxb3 16. Bxb3 Nb4 {The knight occupies a strong position here.} 17. Rd1 Nf6 18. e5 Nfd5 {Black's knights dominate the board - White's minor pieces lack coordination.} 19. Ng5 h6 20. Ne4 O-O 21. g3 Rac8 22. Bd2 Rfd8 {looking to start targeting the weak pawn on d4} 23. Nc3 {Black has come out of the opening better and has comfortably equalised.} c5 $6 {the c5 pawn push is often a vital move in the Slav defense - but the timing is not quite right here.} 24. Nxd5 exd5 {Nxd5 was the better choice - but I hadn't yet realised how I had weakened my position with c5.} 25. dxc5 d4 $5 {the best chance for counterplay} (25... -- 26. Bxb4 axb4 27. Rxd5 {wins a pawn for White }) 26. Bxb4 axb4 27. e6 d3 28. exf7+ Kf8 29. Rd2 (29. -- d2 {and Black has no problems}) 29... Rd4 30. Be6 Rxc5 31. b3 Rc2 32. Rad1 {White had to move one of his rooks to d1 to prevent Black from winning} (32. Rxc2 $4 dxc2 33. Bg4 Rxg4 34. Rc1 Rc4 35. bxc4 b3 {and White can't prevent a pawn from queening}) 32... Re4 33. Bf5 Re2 $2 {Missing the chance to equalise with Re1+ - I forgot to check all checks} (33... Re1+ 34. Rxe1 Rxd2 35. Bg6 Rb2 36. Rc1 Rc2 37. Rxc2 dxc2 38. Bxc2 Kxf7 {and Black will easily hold the opposite-coloured bishop endgame}) 34. Rxd3 Rxf2 35. Rd8+ $1 {and White went on to win} 1-0

 

Photos are from the pool of photos taken by tournament organiser Bob Jones. Further photos from the event can be found here and the full tournament cross-tables are available for the Minor, Intermediate, Major and Open sections.

On the same weekend, Martin Harris scored 2/5 in the Foundation (U121) Section of the Scarborough Chess Congress.

Essex U135 rapidplay

Three Colchester players entered the Essex U135 rapidplay - and all did well. Mark Johnson, in his first chess tournament, finished in joint 2nd with a score of 4 out of 6. Mohammud Jaufarally came joint 5th with a score of 3.5 out of 6. Nadia Jaufarally, one of the lowest graded and youngest players, finished on a score of 2 out of 6.

Martin Harris at Paignton

Martin Harris had strong results in two tournaments at the Paignton Chess Congress. He came joint 2nd in the U-130 morning competition and 4th in the U-130 afternoon competition (picking up the grading prize). Below he has annotated three of his wins from these competitions.

[Event "Paignton 2014"] [Site "?"] [Date "2014.09.04"] [Round "?"] [White "Harris, M"] [Black "Carnie, E"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C53"] [PlyCount "31"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 {I'd played a lot of slow strategic games at the tournament so far. Even the previous 4 games with white and I played the Smith Morra, three of my opponents played the slow d3 on move 3, avoiding all the juicy traps and complications. I still won all those three (and the other one) - 3 d3 is after all a bad move. But I was tired of the long games so I wanted something a little more fiery to revive my interest. I thought of the Halloween Gambit but felt it was too risky so I decided to just freelance with moves that I have never played or practised before.} exd4 4. c3 Bc5 {Obviously my opponent was out of his depth as well. But this was just a bad move by any strategic consideration as it gives me a strong centre with initiative.} 5. cxd4 Bb4+ 6. Nc3 {Bd2 was arguably better but I was willing to consign the queen knight to history so as to get a strong dark square bishop into play. It was also unlikely that my opponent would swap the piece any time soon as it was too early to tell if it was a worthwhile sacifice.} d6 {I was happy with this move as my opponent's dark bishop would remain away from the king. d5 was probably the best in the position to make best use of the pin on my knight while it was still possible.} 7. Bc4 {I wasn't interested in positional moves like Bd2 or d5. I wanted 19th century style play to cheer me up.} Nge7 $2 {My opponent certainly gave me what I wanted! I thought for 45 minutes working out all sorts of gory sacrifices that didn't quite work before settling on my next move. And pretty much all my following moves were adjudged the best in the position by the tactical Fritz12 afterwards so I was quite pleased with myself.} 8. Ng5 d5 9. exd5 Bxc3+ 10. bxc3 Nxd5 11. O-O O-O 12. Qh5 Bf5 (12... Nf6 13. Bxf7+ Kh8 14. Qh4 h6 15. Ba3) 13. Qf3 Nce7 14. Ba3 c6 $2 {A blunder. But working out all the other possibilities was obviously telling on my opponent. Bg6 was probably the only move that gave any kind of stability to Black's position.} 15. Bxd5 cxd5 (15...Qxd5 (15... Nxd5 16. Qxf5) 16. Bxe7) 16. Bxe7 Qxe7 17. Qxf5 {Black decided to hand in the towel. He said that not taking on c3 was his mistake but it was really Bc5 giving me a tempo and strong centre and his weak defensive move Ne7 that did it.} 1-0 [Event "Paignton 2014"] [Site "?"] [Date "2014.09.01"] [Round "?"] [White "Harris, M"] [Black "Jones, R"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B21"] [PlyCount "79"] 1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 d3 {One of the three where this was played. I've had it often before at the level I play at. People just don't like the early complications and fine strategic play of the Smith Morra. So they go for stodge instead. However, what they get is a Maroczy Bind. Esserman says in this kind of position try to avoid swapping pieces and just keep cramping the opponent until he lashes out wildly and then you kill him. I won't make too many comments on the game. Just so you can see how it cooks.} 4. Bxd3 Nc6 5. c4 d6 6. Nc3 Nf6 7. Nf3 g6 8. O-O Bg7 9. h3 {This move is necessary before playing Be3 to stop the opponents knight wreaking havoc.} O-O 10. Be3 b6 11. Rc1 Bb7 12. Bb1 Rc8 13. Qe2 Nd7 14. Rfd1 Nce5 15. Nxe5 Nxe5 16. b3 Nc6 17. Nd5 Nb8 18. Nc3 a6 19. f4 Qc7 20. Nd5 Bxd5 21. exd5 {Better than cxd as it opens up the line for my bishop. Blacks heavy pieces are beginning to concentrate on his queen side, which suggests an attack on the king eventually. It happens slowly without any fireworks or fuss.} Nd7 22. Qf2 a5 23. Re1 Nc5 24. Qh4 Rfe8 25. f5 Bf6 26. Qg3 Kg7 27. h4 h5 $2 28. Qf4 Rh8 29. Bd4 Bxd4+ 30. Qxd4+ Kh7 $2 31. Rc3 Rhg8 32. Rce3 {That was sneaky of me wasn't it! I kept my eyes on the king side all that while and then attacked a centre weakness instead of pursuing the attack.} Rce8 $2 33. Qf4 Rg7 $2 34. Qg5 $6 (34. fxg6+ fxg6 35. Bxg6+ Kg8 (35... Kxg6 36. Qg5+ Kf7 37. Qxh5+ Kg8 (37... Kf8 38. Qh8+ Kf7 39. Rf1+ Kg6 40. Rg3#) 38. Qxe8+) 36. Bxe8) 34... f6 $2 35. fxg6+ Kg8 36. Qxh5 Nd7 37. Bf5 Nf8 38. Qg4 Qc5 39. h5 e6 40. dxe6 {The time control gave black his cue to go no further. The h pawn cannot now be stopped and the rook is trapped.} 1-0 [Event "Paignton 2014"] [Site "?"] [Date "2014.09.05"] [Round "?"] [White "Farrell, J"] [Black "Harris, M"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A01"] [PlyCount "58"] 1. b3 c5 2. Bb2 Nc6 3. e3 e5 {I had played black against my opponent (grade 126) only a couple of days before in the morning tournament and we played out a draw after both making mistakes in a slow positional game. Not my style. Also as this was the penultimate round of the minor proper, I needed the points. I already knew of the opening from Igor Smirnov so I did some research in Fritz12 to see how I could avoid the slow death by draw permutation.By the way, I hope you don't mind me being verbose here. When else do I get the chance?} 4. Bb5 Nf6 5. Bxc6 dxc6 6. Bxe5 {What turned out what nothing like I imagined, however, I felt good being a pawn down in an open position where I was obviously going to have a game with a bishop against a knight and two good rooks in the centre. The computer seems to agree. It only gives a .3 disadvantage to black here so it seems quite a dynamic position. My plan was the old simple idea to put pressure on until the complications get the better of him.} Qd5 7. Nf3 Ng4 8. Nc3 Qe6 9. Bg3 Bd6 10. Bxd6 Qxd6 11. h3 Qh6 {Not ideal but I was not interested in positional play and I wanted to keep surprising him so as to unnerve him.} 12. Ne4 b6 13. Ke2 {His first mistake. Probably he was petrified of castling, with the possibility of being subjected to a strong attack. But castling was better. With the king in the open, my rooks are just itching to get moving.} Nf6 14. Nxf6+ Qxf6 15. d3 Bf5 {I thought ages over this. I was trying to draw him out with an overstretching pawn advance. I had to get castled queen side even though the computer wanted to go the other direction and Be6 would only block the rooks.} 16. Re1 O-O-O 17. Kf1 {You can run but you can't hide.I've got some nice possibilities with pins on both queen and king here. It's not the action but the threat that wins, as they say.} Rhe8 18. Qc1 {Bingo! Got him.Worried about his queen, he misses the obvious. Now my pawn is won back and I have all the benefits of the position as well.} Bxh3 19. Ng1 Bg4 20. a4 {At this point I had to justify my positional advantages tactically so I spent a long time concocting a plan and analysing where his weaknesses really were. In the meantime, he seemed oblivious of any danger looming as I massed my pieces for a hopefully glorious sacrifical attack.} Rd5 21. f3 Rde5 {The threat is to win the a rook after a swap on e3. Again, I probably wouldn't have followed through with that because winning an extra pawn didn't seem to do much with queens still on board. But I did this anyway to lure his pawns further.} 22. e4 Bd7 {I really did this for psychological reasons. I thought I probably couldn't maintain the bishop there so I put it where it wouldn't be noticed, giving my king some comfort. But I knew in the long plan I was working on that it would play a big role later. My opponent afterwards said that it was his mistake to forget about the bishop. So my psychology worked!} 23. Qe3 Rh5 24. Qd2 {He must have changed his mind. He wanted to get his own counterplay. But he totally misunderstood how strong my attack was.} Rh1 25. c3 Re5 26. b4 $2 Rg5 27. bxc5 $4 {I'm losing a lot of pawns here for the sake of an idea. Great fun!} Bh3 $1 28. Re2 {If the bishop is taken, the queen will be lost.} Qxf3+ {But now, it's the king that will be lost.} 29. Rf2 Bxg2+ 0-1

Recent tournament results

Some of the club's junior members have been taking part in a few competitions in the last month and achieved good results.

• 7th Nadia Jaufarally 4/6 - Saffron Walden Junior U11 Section
• 10th Shazia Jaufarally 2/6 - Saffron Walden Junior U18 Minor Section
• 5th Nadia Jaufarally 4.5/6 - Delancey UK Schools Chess Challenge – Southern Gigafinal U10 Girls
• 9th Shazia Jaufarally 3/6 - Delancey UK Schools Chess Challenge – Southern Gigafinal U13 Girls
• 30th Tor Leijon 2/6 - Delancey UK Schools Chess Challenge – Southern Gigafinal U8 Boys "B"
• Nadia Jaufarally 3.5/5 - UKI Girls Chess Championship U10 (1/2 a point behind the winner)
• Shazia Jaufarally 2.5/5 - UKI Girls Chess Championship U13

If I have missed anyone out please let me know!

Colchester Junior Chess Tournament

Several Colchester Chess Club members took part in this tournament, part of the Essex Junior Grand Prix.

In the Under 18 Minor event Shazia Jaufarally won the grading prize for the best performance by an ungraded player with a score of 3/6, finishing in 6th place. Luke Tatchell came 16th in this event - he was one of the youngest competitors in this section.

In the Under 11 section, Alex Welge scored 3 out of 6 to finish in 15th and Nadia Jaufarally scored 4 out of 6 to finish in 6th. Nadia won the prize for best newcomer (for a player in their first Essex Junior Grand Prix event).

Club Grand Prix

22 players took park in the Colchester Chess Club Grand Prix - points are awarded for results in the club championship, Tony Locke Rapidplay and NECL matches. The top ten players this season were:

Position	Player	Points
1st	Eldar Lachinov (ungraded)	21.5
2nd	Nathan Barnes (ungraded)	18.5
3rd	Martin Harris (139)	12
4th	Peter Smith (122)	11
5th	Brian Remmer (109)	10.5
6th	Mark Johnson (49)	9.5
7th=	Phil Daley (124)	9
	John Duff-Cole (90)	9
9th	Mike Wagstaff (145)	8.5
10th	Clive Bellinger (139)	6.5

Club Championship - part 3

The final of the club championship was between two players taking part in the event for the first time - Eldar and Nathan. During the game both players held the advantage at different stages but Eldar managed to win - maintaining his unbeaten season.

In the game (shown below) Black obtained a strong, probably winning, advantage in the opening but White slowly equalised as the game went on. Two inaccurate moves by Black let White go into a won endgame. Black made winning the endgame tricky but accurate play from White avoided any chance of Black snatching the draw.

The top 8 in the club championship were (19 players took part):

1st	Eldar Lachinov (ungraded)
2nd	Nathan Barnes (ungraded)
3rd	Mark Johnson (49)
4th	Brian Remmer (109)
5th	Martin Harris (139)
6th=	Phil Daley (124)
6th=	Pete Smith (122)
8th	John Duff-Cole (90)

Club Championship - part 2

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)

Club championship - part 1

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)

Southend

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?

Tournament Results

Colchester players have been competing in a few tournaments recently. Eldar Lachinov came 2nd in the FIDE-rated Hendon Blitz competition (results not on the website yet) and also got a good result at the Norfolk Rapidplay. Martin Harris scored 50% in the FIDE-rated Major section e2e4 High Wycombe and followed this up with a 3/5 score in the Intermediate section of the St. Albans Congress.

With the (relatively) local Southend Congress taking place Easter weekend there will be more Colchester players in action soon.

Here is a miniature from the 4th round of the St. Albans Congress. Martin makes a mistake that loses material on move 13 but then gives a good demonstration of how, even when you have a lost position, making all your pieces have activity can cause significant problems for your opponent.

Club handicap results

11 players took part in the club handicap competition. The first four rounds used random pairings with the top four players then going through to the knockout phase.

The rules for the handicap were:

1. Grading difference of 1-10: lower-graded player has white, higher-graded player starts without their b7 pawn
2. Grading difference of 11-20: lower-graded player has white, higher-graded player starts without their b7 and c7 pawns
3. Grading difference of 21-30: lower-graded player has white, higher-graded player starts without their b8 knight
4. Grading difference of 31+: lower-graded player has white, higher-graded player starts without their a8 rook
5. Each player has 10 minutes on the clock

After the first four rounds Eldar Lachinov was the only player to win all his matches, and there were four players with a score of 3 out of 4 (Clive Bellinger, Mark Johnson, Ian Gooding and Javier Ruano Marco).

In the semi-finals, Mark beat Ian and Eldar beat Javier. In the final Eldar finished off the match with a queen sacrifice to beat Mark - so a victory for Azerbaijan.

 

ROUNDS 1 TO 4
WHITE	Result		BLACK	Handicap
Mark Johnson	1	0	Martin Harris	No rook on a8
Ed Goodman (82)	1	0	Nathan Barnes	No rook on a8
Phil Daley (124)	0	1	Javier Ruano Marco	No rook on a8
John Duff-Cole (91)	0	1	Eldar Lachinov	No rook on a8
Clive Bellinger (143)	1	0	Ian Gooding (167)	No knight on b8
Pete Smith (111)	1	0	BYE
Mark Johnson	1	0	Pete Smith (111)	No rook on a8
Ed Goodman (82)	0	1	Javier Ruano Marco	No rook on a8
Nathan Barnes	0	1	Eldar Lachinov	No handicap
John Duff-Cole (91)	½	½	Clive Bellinger (143)	No rook on a8
Martin Harris	0	1	Ian Gooding (167)	No rook on a8
Phil Daley (124)	1	0	BYE
Pete Smith (111)	1	0	Javier Ruano Marco	No rook on a8
Ed Goodman (82)	0	1	Phil Daley (124)	No rook on a8
John Duff-Cole (91)	0	1	Martin Harris	No knight on b8
Clive Bellinger (143)	½	½	Nathan Barnes	No pawn on b7
Mark Johnson	0	1	Eldar Lachinov	No rook on a8
Ian Gooding (167)	1	0	BYE
Phil Daley (124)	0	1	Ian Gooding (167)	No rook on a8
Pete Smith (111)	0	1	Clive Bellinger (143)	No rook on a8
Ed Goodman (82)	0	1	John Duff-Cole (91)	No pawn on b7
Mark Johnson	1	0	Nathan Barnes	No rook on a8
Martin Harris	0	1	Eldar Lachinov	No rook on a8
Javier Ruano Marco	1	0	BYE

 

STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 4
Pos	Player	Points
1st	Eldar Lachinov	4
2nd=	Ian Gooding (167)	3
	Clive Bellinger (143)	3
	Javier Ruano Marco	3
	Mark Johnson	3
6th=	Phil Daley (124)	2
	Pete Smith (111)	2
8th	John Duff-Cole (91)	1.5
9th=	Martin Harris	1
	Ed Goodman (82)	1
11th	Nathan Barnes	0.5

 

SEMI FINALS
WHITE	Result		BLACK	Handicap
Mark Johnson	1	0	Ian Gooding (167)	No rook on a8
Javier Ruano Marco	0	1	Eldar Lachinov	No handicap

 

FINAL
WHITE	Result		BLACK	Handicap
Mark Johnson	0	1	Eldar Lachinov	No rook on a8

Martin Harris wins Minor Section of 31st Bury St Edmunds Congress

Three Colchester players took part in the minor section of the 31st Bury St Edmunds Congress - John Duff-Cole, Martin Harris and Dave Wood.

Martin Harris, in his first chess tournament as a Colchester player, led throughout and finished joint 1st. Below is his win from the 3rd round - a game with a slightly farcical finish! Annotations (apart from the !s and ?s) are by Martin.

Summer Quickplay Results

Ten players took part in the Summer Rapidplay (rules for the competition can be found here). The first round of matches all finished 2-0 with Clive, Nathan, Ed, Dave Chatfield and Juan beating Phil, Dave Wood, Pete, Roger and Mark respectively.

The second round of matches also all finished 2-0 meaning that going into the last round Dave C, Nathan and Juan were in the lead with 4 points each.

In the final round Dave C drew with Clive twice, Nathan beat Ed 2-0 (though had to rely on a swindle in the first game to avoid losing) and Phil picked up an excellent draw against our Spanish visitor (the highest rated player by a considerable margin), Juan.

The tournament used random pairings which did mean that some players had a considerably harder draw than others (Clive probably being the unluckiest) - final standings shown in the table below.

After the tournament Roger presented the winners of last season's club competitions with their trophies - Pete Smith won the Club Championship and Ed Goodman won the Club Shield.

 

Position	Name	NB	JH	DC	RS	CB	PD	EG	MJ	PS	DW	Total
1	Nathan Barnes							2.0		2.0	2.0	6.0
2	Juan Hernandez					2.0	1.5		2.0			5.5
3	Dave Chatfield				2.0	1.0			2.0			5.0
4	Roger Sharman			0.0						2.0	2.0	4.0
5	Clive Bellinger		0.0	1.0			2.0					3.0
6	Phil Daley		0.5			0.0		2.0				2.5
7=	Ed Goodman	0.0					0.0			2.0		2.0
7=	Mark Johnson		0.0	0.0							2.0	2.0
9=	Pete Smith	0.0			0.0			0.0				0.0
9=	Dave Wood	0.0			0.0				0.0			0.0