Chess Puzzle - Week 5

Another easy one this week (I like the easy ones!) and following on from last week's puzzle, it is another standard mating pattern to learn:

Arkhipkin - Podanov, Albena 1977

White to play.

Solution to last week's puzzle: 1. Qh6! and if 1. ... gxh6 then Nxh6 is mate. Nice one, Boris.

Wigston 5 v. Wigston 6

The 5th team gained adequate revenge for their earlier loss to 6th team on Thursday night.

 

	25-Oct-07	v.	Wigston 6 (H)
1.	R. Townsend	1		F. Hulford	0
2.	B. Shuter	1		D. Wilkins	0
3.	D. White	1		P. Winterton	0
4.	P. Gray	0		P. Turland	1
		3			1

 

Neil

Wigston 1 v Braunstone 1

The first team edged past Braunstone 3 - 2. Alan Ward, making his debut for the season - the possibly his swan song for the season ! - lost to Dave Sandrovitch, Phil Horspool beat Paul Colburn, Martin drew with Mike Salisbury, Alan Byron beat John Robinson and I agreed a draw (in a winning position, but with some possible complications) with Jim Bingham to give us the match.

Andy.

Match Result - Scraptoft Valley 1 v Wigston 3

The Wigston 3 team played against the strongest team in Division 2 last night:

1     Edwards, Alan 181  1-0  134 Dodds, Iain
2      Burgess, Ray 161 Drawn 130 Harlow, Phil
3   Pattinson, John 132  0-1  129 Smith, Stephen
4        Tate, Mick 131  1-0  112 Pike, Andrew
5 Collins, RF (Bob) 128  1-0  113 Cooper, Barrie
--------------------------------------------------
                      3.5 - 1.5

The match was closer than the score suggests; with very close games on Boards 1 and 4 that should have given us something. Phil Harlow continues his good form with a draw against Ray Burgess; but man of the match was Steve Smith, who outplayed his opponent, gaining the exchange and finishing the game off with an impressive attack against the king.

All in all, although a loss, still a good performance by the team.

Regards,
Phil.

Chess Puzzle - Week 4

After the hard puzzle last week, an easy one this week, but remaining with Boris Spassky at the same tournament:



Spassky - Marsalek, Leningrad 1960

White to play

This is a standard mating pattern, so needs to be understood and memorized.

Solution from last week: The killer move from Boris was Bd3! threatening Bd5 to win either Peter's knight or the exchange. Ouch.

And here is a photograph from that tournament - Boris (on the left) is playing William Lombardy, 1st Board of the USA team.

LEAGUE RESULTS - WEEK 4

Division 1 - W2 lose away to Littlethorpe 1 (with a very strong Birstall influence!)

 

	15-Oct-07	v.	Littlethorpe 1(A)
1.	M. Hebden	1		A. Morley	0
2.	G. Sharpe	0.5		P. Horspool	0.5
3.	D. Bray	0.5		P. Gibbs	0.5
4.	D. Evans	0.5		I. Dodds	0.5
5.	S. Hewitt	1		P. Watkinson	0
		3.5			1.5

 

Division 3 - W4 draw with Hinckley

 

	18-Oct-07	v.	Hinckley (H)
1.	J. Daniel	0.5		D. Moore	0.5
2.	B. Cooper	0		G. Compton	1
3.	R. Townsend	1		T. Clay	0
4.	B. Shuter	1		B. Radesk	0
5.	D. White	0		D. Opie	1
		2.5			2.5

 

Division 4 - W6 well beaten by Spinney Hill 2

 

	18-Oct-07	v.	Spinney Hill 2(H)
1.	P. Gray	0		P. Deacon	1
2.	N. Beasley	0.5		J. Colver	0.5
3.	P. Winterton	0		S Preocanin	1
4.	C. Eastlake	0.5		R. Davis	0.5
5.	P. Turland	0		A. Butler	1
		1			4

 

Neil

Chess Puzzle - Week 3

This week's puzzle is a position from a game by our own Peter Gibbs; his match against Boris Spassky in the 1960 Student Team Championship :




Spassky - Gibbs, Leningrad 1960
White to play and win

I found this puzzle quite difficult - I would be interested to know if the first team players thought so too. For the rest of us, here is a hint. At first glance, it looks as if Peter is doing okay against the future world champion, however, looking closer, you can see that one of his pieces is vulnerable - how did Boris expose this weakness so clearly that Peter resigned?

Full marks for initiative, but no bananas if you ask Peter for the answer (or Boris Vasiliyevich for that matter). Solution next week.

Solution to last week's puzzle: 1. Qxh4! Kxh4 2. Rh7+ Kg5 3. h4 mate.

Wigston 1 v Loughboro' 1

Hi,

The result of the top of Division 1 clash has already been reported; but the match was really a lot closer than that. Until a quarter of an hour to go it looked as though my game could go either way, and Phil Horspool's looked difficult to win.

Regards,
Andy.

LEAGUE RESULTS - WEEK 3

Division 1 - 1st team easily beat Loughborough 1 at home

 

	11-Oct-07	v.	Loughborough 1(H)
1.	A. Byron	1		S. Sheahan	0
2.	M. Burrows	0.5		J. Mitchell	0.5
3.	W. Dehnen	1		A. Jex	0
4.	A. Morley	1		J. Dawkins	0
5.	P. Horspool	1		J. Glover	0
		4.5			0.5

 

Division 2 - 3rd team crush Mkt Harboro (already posted)

 

Division 4 - 5th team have big win at Syston

 

	9-Oct-07	v.	Syston 2(A)
1.	R. Stone	0		D. White	1
2.	S. Hollingworth	0.5		P. Gray	0.5
3.	R. King	0		C Eastlake	1
4.	M. Martin	0		P. Turland	1
		0.5			3.5

 

Neil

Market Harboro' v Wigston 3 match result

Hi,
The Wigston 3 team went over to Market Harborough last night to wish them welcome to Division 2:

1   Ilersic, Romilly 153 Drawn 134 Dodds, Iain
2 Oppenheim, Charles 125  0-1  130 Harlow, Phil
3      Thomson, John 117  0-1  129 Smith, Stephen
4  King, Robert (Bob) 95  0-1  123 Watkinson, Phil
5     Bradford, Keith 85  0-1  113 Cooper, Barrie
Total                   ½ - 4½ 

Iain had the toughest job, in which he succeeded with a draw. The rest of the team had comfortable wins. This gives us two wins out of two; however the next match, on Thursday 25th October, is away at the likely winners of the Division this year - Scraptoft Valley 1.

Wish us luck
Regards,
Phil.

Chess Puzzle - Week 2

Hi,

Here is a chess puzzle, courtesy of The Times, for you to try. An easy one this week; it is from

Plaskett - Velimirovic, Banja Luka 1985

White to play and win

Here is another instance of an English player beating up Velimirovic; Plaskett has sacrificed a piece to drive the Black king up the board; how did he now finish it off?

Solution next week.

SUBSCRIPTIONS DUE

A reminder to all members that your 2007-8 season subscriptions are now due.
Full Membership - £36 ; Reduced Membership - £18

(A reduction of £9 is available for members who already are Direct Members of the ECF).
Please Pay Neil or Martin asap

County Individual Championship

2007 Leics Chess Champion is Martin Burrows

For the 3rd consecutive year a Wigston member has won the County Individual Chess title.
After the scheduled 5 rounds Martin Burrows and Birstall's Graham Sharpe were level on 4 points. In the first two quick play games they had two draws and so a further two games were played and Martin ran out as champion by winning one of those games

Neil

LEAGUE MATCH RESULTS - WEEK 2

Div 1 - Wigston 2 give Wigston 1 a good fight:

 

	4-Oct-07	v.	Wigston 1 (H)
1.	A. Morley	0.5		A. Byron	0.5
2.	I. Dodds	0.5		M. Burrows	0.5
3.	P. Watkinson	0		W. Dehnen	1
4.	S. Smith	0		P. Gibbs	1
5.	A. Pike	0.5		P. Harlow	0.5
		1.5			3.5

 

Div 3: Wigston 4 get excellent Draw away to Braunstone 2

 

	2-Oct-07	v.	Braunstone 2(A)
1.	P. Colburn	0		P. Watkinson	1
2.	D. Sandrovitch	1		J. Daniel	0
3.	P. Hogan	1		B. Shuter	0
4.	G. Young	0.5		D. White	0.5
5.	A. Robinson	0		P. Gray	1
		2.5			2.5

 

Div 4: Wigston 6 lose away to Ashby 2 - Bd 4 at best is drawn

 

	4-Oct-07	v.	Ashby 2(A)
1.	P. Gibson	0		D. White	1
2.	V. Armstrong	1		P. Gray	0
3.	T. Rossell	1		P. Winterton	0
4.	R. Evans	a		C. Eastlake	a
		2			1

 

Neil

 

 

 

Tony Peterson Chess Books

Hi,

As you may know the Club recently sold some of it's older, unwanted, chess books. The buyer was Tony Peterson, who runs a mail order business in secondhand and rare chessbooks from his house in Southend-on-Sea in Essex. I went down to see him with the chess books and we did a good deal which I think both parties were very happy with. Tony is a modest man, with a modest lifestyle and I can recommend him if you are looking for a particular book and prefer to do business directly with a person rather than through the anonymity of eBay.

He has a website - www.chessbooks.co.uk - with a catalogue and all the information to make a purchase.

Regards,
Phil.

Wigston 4 v Braunstone 2 : Match Report

Hi,

The boys did good! Outgraded on every board, we managed a fighting draw:

1 Paul Colburn    (135) v Phil Watkinson(123) 0-1
2 David Sandovitch(124) v John Daniel   (120) 1-0
3 Pat Hogan       (121) v Brian Shuter  (112) 1-0
4 Gavin Young     (118) v Dave White    (109) draw
5 Tony Robinson   (107) v Paul Gray     (103) 0-1
total                                       2.5-2.5

John and Brian were well beaten by much stronger opponents; Dave managed a good draw without any pawns being exchanged (!); I easily beat Paul Colburn who didn't play anywhere near his strength; leaving Paul Gray to make an excellent fight back to win his game and so draw the match!

Ray popped in later (having been to the Braunstone Social Club first and wondering why nobody was there) and so has the score sheet for submission to the LRCA.

Regards,
Phil.