The Joy of Sacs

January 2012 ECF Grades

2012-01-29T12:04:00.000Z

As you are no doubt aware, the preliminary grading list has been published, with the welcome inclusion of the underlying game results data (from 2003 onwards) and a snazzy chart to boot.

In-form David Weston deservedly climbs the Trowbridge table, and he is now the highest graded of our currently active players. Also improving is Dave Marshall, whose grade now more accurately reflects his playing prowess. Louis Burton continues his inexorable climb to the world of 3 digit ratings and Anthony Ransom is also up a couple of points. However everyone else has suffered a set-back. Roy Ludlow in particular appears to have been hard done by. He had below-par results in 2011 and I'm sure he will bounce back in the next grading list.

Indeed it is surprising how easily a handful of results can affect the rating calculations. So that you may judge the accuracy of the ECF's new grading assignments, I have reproduced the January figures below. In the right-most columns I have compared the January 2012 grades with the known performance of each player, using the data available on the Trowbridge website (up to and including the 26th of January).

	2011	Standard ECF	Performance	Diff
David Weston	149	155	162	-7
Mark Leonard	153	151	154	-3
Derek Rothwell	152	147	144	3
Dave Marshall	141	143	149	-6
Tim Woodward	155	137	143	-6
Gareth Williams	131	129	128	1
Roy Ludlow	131	111	120	-9
Louis Burton	82	91	92	-1
Anthony Ransom	73	75	73	2
Nigel Crucefix	71	67	64	3
Richard White	ung	59	56	3

Of the 14 games I've played this season, 11 took place in 2011, but only 6 have been submitted for grading. For some reason the Wiltshire league and the Frome internal club games do not appear in the list of interim results. The grade given to me by the ECF happens to be 3 points less than my actual performance over the last 30 games.

I think the conclusion we should draw is that the ECF grades should be taken with a pinch of salt. They are just numbers, after all, and are not meant to be viewed as an absolute indicator of someone's playing strength. I've long held the opinion that the values should carry a confidence interval of ±10, and this fits the numbers above rather well.

Andrew Martin Training Weekend

2011-10-28T13:51:00.000+01:00

Ganger vs Armstrong

2011-10-23T14:29:00.000+01:00

The following "Spot the Continuation" position was given in the July 2011 edition of the British Chess Magazine. Black has just blundered with 45...Bc3? Can you find a strong move for White?

5k2/2r1q3/2p2pQ1/1pP1p3/1P3PBP/2b5/3R2K1/8 w - - 0 45

I.R. Ganger vs W. Armstrong

&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;your web browser and/or your host do not support iframes as required to display the chessboard&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

A Knight in distress

2011-10-21T11:51:00.004+01:00

White is threatening to capture the Black Knight, what is Black's crushing reply?
Black to move:

r6r/1p2bpk1/1q6/p2pP3/3n1P2/P1BQ4/1P4PP/R4R1K b - - 0 1

WWYD? #3

2011-10-19T01:14:00.000+01:00

Club champion Louis fought his way to this position last night and uncorked a monster move (if you'll forgive the mixed metaphors).

r2r1bk1/pp1b1p1p/1q1N1np1/4pP2/2PnP3/BPN3PP/P5BK/1R1Q1R2 w - - 0 19

White's first move is not that hard, but can you find the crushing continuation?

Somerset Division 2: Frome vs Norton Radstock

2011-10-12T19:46:00.002+01:00

Exactly one year ago I participated in the season's opening Division 2 match featuring Frome at home facing a weaker Norton Radstock team. To shamelessly plagiarise from an esteemed co-author it was déjà vu all over again. Needless to say the outcome was much the same as before. It seems quite clear that it's all just a little bit of history repeating.

The Frome team have swapped their boards 1 and 2 this year, owing to Chris's remarkable 18 point grading drop. The other big news is my shocking defection to the Trowbridge team. I'm sure Dave Weston is breathing a sigh of relief. Time will tell if this results in the Somerset trophy spending more time in sunny Wiltshire. Anyway, as a consequence Kevin and John moved up to boards 3 and 4 this time around.

For the visiting team boards 2 and 3 swapped places and their boards 4 and 5 swapped with entirely different people. Thus the scene was set for another unpredictable chess league offering. Norton Radstock are known for playing above expectations on occasion. They only narrowly lost the fixture last year and that was against a stronger Frome side.

Board 6 was first to finish. John Nicholls won against a Scandinavian Defence with an early outing for Black's queen. John decided to swap this off causing some damage to his own pawn formation. However the decision turned out to be a wise one, with White gaining a nice lead in development as compensation.

Chris was next to taste victory, winning a piece and the game. You can review this for yourself using the PGN viewer below. Note that Chris is an exponent of the Petroff Defence and is obviously comfortable taking either side.

Paul Humphreys proved that his defeat of Chris Purry last year was no fluke with an impressive attacking display, causing Gerry Jepps to think so hard that he forgot his queen was attacked. This was duly captured by a bemused Mr Humphreys thus causing immediate resignation. So Frome's lead was cut from 2-0 to 2-1.

Kevin had an interesting game, playing aggressively with Black against White's solid set-up. The opening and middlegame passed by without incident and the game turned into a battle of White's queen and pawn versus Black's rook, knight and bishop. Both players seemed to be uncomfortable with the unusual material imbalance. Kevin eventually broke his opponent and converted to a winning B+2P vs. 3P ending. He then proceeded to snatch a half-point from the jaws of victory having completely forgotten about the "wrong-coloured bishop" drawing idea. Kevin took this change in fortunes graciously, remarking that earlier in the game he had offered to split the point. When queried about this refusal of a draw, it transpired that Geoff Cooper had actually failed to hear the offer!

John Fisher, who had somehow gained a bishop early on, finished his game around this time to win Frome the match. Finally Geoff Berryman converted an opposite coloured bishop ending with apparent ease to wrap things up.

Frome	4½-1½	Norton Radstock
Jepps, Gerry	0-1	Humphreys, Paul
Purry, Chris	1-0	Cook, Stephen G
Paine, Kevin	½-½	Cooper, Geoff G
Fisher, John	1-0	Carrick, Peter
Berryman, Geoff	1-0	Grist, Ivor
Nicholls, John	1-0	Cooper, Catherine

&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;your web browser and/or your host do not support iframes as required to display the chessboard&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;

WWYD? #2

2011-10-12T01:21:00.000+01:00

I hate to rub salt into what must be a very sore wound, but a team-mate had this position (or near enough) last night.

8/6k1/6p1/2b4p/P5P1/6KP/8/8 b - - 0 1

Black to play and not throw the win away...

Coaching weekend

2011-10-08T21:33:00.000+01:00

Are any readers available this weekend - 15th/16th October (either for one day only or for both)?
Please leave a comment if you are interested in top-class coaching at the Trowbridge Chess Club.
We have a limited number of spaces to offer on a first-come first-served basis.

Endgame Study

2011-10-08T12:41:00.004+01:00

Here's a nice little study I saw in this weekend's Daily Telegraph. The solution's moves are hidden but once you've given up(!) use the arrows and you'll see a very eloquent ending. The only clue - White's first move is not check but forces the sequence for a lovely checkmate!

White to move and win.

Play Online Chess

Clarke vs Jerolim 1954

2011-10-04T14:06:00.002+01:00

I found this remarkable game in my copy of 202 Surprising Checkmates by Fred Wilson and Bruce Alberston. If you don't like the pgn4web viewer below then you can play through the game on chesgames.com or NicBase.

&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;your web browser and/or your host do not support iframes as required to display the chessboard&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;

The book contains many such unusual checkmating moves. Here's another example. Spot the tactic #2. Black to play and win.

WWYD? #1

2011-10-01T00:25:00.000+01:00

The admirable Streatham & Brixton Chess Blog carries a series of posts entitled Blue or Red Pill?. The premise is simple: sometimes chess offers you a stark choice. For example, trade down to a bishop ending or a rook ending? Continue the attack or swap off the major pieces?

Imitation is the sincerest of flattery, so here is Trowbridge's equivalent. In this game (played on Thursday) White has a choice of square for his queen. Should he keep the queens on with Qe2/e1 or should he force an exchange with Qe4? I've conveniently ignored Qd3 which appears to be a weak alternative allowing ...Qxd3 followed by ...Rxd4.

What would you do?

Spot the tactic #1

2011-09-16T11:23:00.000+01:00

A new theme of posts inspired by The Streatham & Brixton Chess Blog's Miss Easy Tactics! series.

In this position as White (to move) I somehow failed to spot a fairly obvious continuation. Can you do better?

Chippenham (Westinghouse) have a new website

2011-09-11T15:38:00.002+01:00

OK guys just keeping you informed that Chippenham (a.k.a. Westinghouse) have a new website.

Take a look guys it is cool.....

http://www.chippenhamchessclub.org.uk/

Keynsham Rapidplay

2011-09-10T22:45:00.000+01:00

A Mr Lawrence Wilmshurst has contacted Trowbridge Chess Club to inform us of the annual one-day Rapidplay event at Keynsham on Sunday 25th September 2011. This event is already listed in the ECF calendar but we are more than happy to remind our readers of local chess events.

This tournament comprises six 50 minute games. The venue is roughly half way between Bristol and Bath and is apparently "easily accessible from both the M4 and M5". From Trowbridge it is less than an hour's drive via the A36 or A4. Round 1 starts at 11:00 and round 6 finishes at 17:20.

The competition is open to all and the application form (in either PDF or Word format) is available on the Bristol and District web site. There are three sections: Open, under 150, and under 110 ECF. The entry fee is £12 (£10 for juniors). If you require further information please contact Lawrence on 01275 834659.

Kamsky - Svidler, World Cup 2011

2011-09-07T23:57:00.000+01:00

Kamsky,Gata (2741) - Svidler,Peter (2739) FIDE World Cup 2011

This game was contested today. What did Black play here?

Somerset League Fixtures 2011-12

2011-09-05T17:07:00.000+01:00

Here are the new season's fixtures (subject to change). Please refer to the Somerset County Chess Association for any official updates.

Somerset Knock-Out
In the annual 8 board Somerset Knock-Out Cup holders Taunton receive a bye directly into the semi-final. Trowbridge find themselves away to Frome in what could be a very close match.

Day	Date	Home	Away
Mon	14 November	Glastonbury	Norton Radstock
Tue	15 November	Frome	Trowbridge
Thu	17 November	Sedgemoor	Yeovil
Semi	13-17 February 2011
Final	12-16 March 2011

Somerset Division 2 East
Trowbridge are hopeful of winning back the Charles Marsh (East) trophy from Frome.
For this 6 board league there has been a change to the grading limit: the average grade per player in the team may not exceed 145. This could give team captains a selection headache: last year's 165 ECF cap on boards 2-6 was a lot easier to plan for. However there shouldn't be any significant change to the shape of teams as a result of this rule adjustment. All 4 teams are used to fielding a low graded board 6.

Day	Date	Home	Away
Wed	12 October	Bath	Trowbridge
Thu	10 November	Trowbridge	Norton Radstock
Tue	13 December	Frome	Trowbridge
Thu	12 January 2012	Trowbridge	Bath
Thu	23 February 2012	Norton Radstock	Trowbridge
Thu	22 March 2012	Trowbridge	Frome

Somerset Division 3 East
In Division 3 no player graded over 145 is eligible and the sum total for the team must not exceed 500. Players graded under 95 are deemed to be 95 ECF. Ungraded players are considered to be graded 110.

Day	Date	Home	Result	Away
Tue	18 October	Frome	vs	Trowbridge
Thu	17 November	Trowbridge	vs	Bath
Thu	8 December	Norton Radstock	vs	Trowbridge
Thu	19 January 2012	Trowbridge	vs	Frome
Wed	15 February 2012	Bath	vs	Trowbridge
Thu	15 March 2012	Trowbridge	vs	Norton Radstock

Trowbridge Club Championship 2011-09-01

2011-09-02T15:09:00.001+01:00

Club champion Louis gets off to a great start with this sparkling win against Roy in a main-line Winawer French. 13.Re1 was a brave gambit that paid off after 14...Rh7? This move defends against everything except the breakthrough sacrifice 14.e6!! preventing Black from consolidating with ...Be6. The finish is clinical. Louis is on a 172 ECF performance for this season.

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Wiltshire Yeoman (Broadmead)

2011-08-06T00:32:00.000+01:00

A friendly couple of chaps (Yeomen?) visited Trowbridge Chess Club this Thursday and I hope we made them feel welcome. Apparently they can be found at the Wiltshire Yeoman and are partial to a beer and a game of chess.

2011-12 grades

2011-07-30T01:21:00.005+01:00

Congratulations to Tim, Dave Marshall, Roy, Adrian, and Louis who each achieved a grade increase of 6 points or greater. Tim becomes the highest graded of the currently active Trowbridge players; albeit by a very small margin.

Player	ECF (new)	2010 ECF	League Results (2010-11)
Woodward, Tim	155	148	+13 =3 -4
Leonard, Mark	153	152	+21 =14 -12
Rothwell, Derek	152	154	+8 =3 -6
Weston, David	149	150	+9 =5 -7
Marshall, Dave	141	131	+11 =9 -3
Ludlow, Roy	131	125	+17 =10 -8
Williams, R Gareth	131	134	+9 =5 -9
Davis, Adrian	122	116	+4 =3 -3
Burton, Louis	82	69	+10 =9 -20
Ransom, Tony	73	79	+0 =3 -13
Crucefix, Nigel	71	84	+2 =3 -17

Wiltshire 4-a-side

These grading changes do not greatly affect Trowbridge's strongest Wiltshire team as Tim (who leapfrogs from 4th to 1st) is not a regular player. It is likely that Derek and Mark will continue to alternate playing boards 1 and 2. Dave Marshall is a welcome addition as the club's 5th strongest player and will hopefully feature on board 4 next season.

Now for the opposition teams: Swindon's Mark Jones is still their board 1 despite dropping some grading points. Infrequent squad player Anthony Lake pips Richard Carver for the number 2 spot and Steve Reynolds overtakes Gordon Chapman and could easily feature on board 4 or higher (perhaps as an alternative to Mike Walters). P.S. I smell another Carver vs Marshall match!

For Brown Jack, Adam Burroughs overtakes Jon Coats but their standard team is otherwise unchanged. Nationwide's team is also unaltered.

Wiltshire Minor

Dave Marshall should continue to feature in the Minor team. This year he will take board 1 ahead of Gareth. Trowbridge's strongest team would appear to (additionally) comprise Roy, Gareth and Louis. A formidable arrangement!

Brown Jack have Jon Coats available and Wayne should play ahead of Luke Burroughs. Otherwise their squad is not affected. The Westinghouse team is also unchanged, as is Swindon's except Anthony Lake could feasibly play ahead of Richard Carver.

2010-11 Review : Somerset Divison 3 East

2011-07-22T17:17:00.004+01:00

Bath are this year's Division 3 East champions albeit on a tie-break with Trowbridge.

Year	Division 3E
2004-5	Trowbridge
2005-6	Frome	Trowbridge did not enter a team
2006-7	Trowbridge
2007-8	Yeovil B	Trowbridge =2nd-4th
2008-9	Trowbridge
2009-10	Bath
2010-11	Bath	Trowbridge =1st

Somerset Division 3 East 2010-11

Team	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Points
Bath	3	2	1	14	10	8
Trowbridge	4	0	2	12½	11½	8
Norton Radstock	2	1	3	11½	12½	5
Frome	1	1	4	10	14	3

Cross-Table

Team	Bath	Trowbridge	N / Radstock	Frome	Home Pts
Bath		3 - 1	2 - 2	2 - 2	4
Trowbridge	2½ - 1½		2½ - 1½	2½ - 1½	6
Radstock	1 - 3	3 - 1		2½ - 1½	4
Frome	1½ - 2½	1 - 3	2½ - 1½		2
Away Pts	4	2	1	1

Trowbridge won all 3 of their home matches and also beat Frome away. However Bath did not lose any of their remaining fixtures and showed good Away form. A key result was Bath's home match against Trowbridge where they managed a win even without the unbeaten Dave Allen on top board.

Bath	3-1	Trowbridge
Dimond, Peter	1-0	Williams, R Gareth
Norton, Hugh	0-1	Marshall, Dave
Brown, Christian	1-0	Ludlow, Roy
Burrows, John	1-0	Ransom, Anthony

Player Results

For more details you can view Roger Fenton's Somerset team results.

Frome

Frome did not fare well on boards 1 and 4:

Board	W–D–L	Points	Players
1	1-2-3	2	Gerry Udell (1½/2), Geoff B (½/1), John Fisher (0/2), Mike White (0/1)
2	1-4-1	3	Nick Jones (½/2), Gerry Udell (1½/2), Mike White (1/2)
3	3-2-1	4	Christy Blance (½/1), Mike White (2/3), John Nicholls (1½/2)
4	1-0-5	1	Christy Blance (1/3), Nick Jones (0/1), Rhys White (0/2)

Club Secretary Gerry Udell was unbeaten with a 142 ECF performance (exactly the same as his performance in Division 2). Captain Mike White also played well: his two losses were to Trowbridge's Roy Ludlow.

Trowbridge

Board	W–D–L	Points	Players
1	2-3-1	3½	Gareth (1½/3), Dave Marshall (½/1), Tim Woodward (½/1), Roy Ludlow (1/1)
2	3-3-0	4½	Dave Marshall (2½/3), Roy Ludlow (½/1), Adrian Davis (1½/2)
3	1-1-4	1½	Roy Ludlow (1/2), Nigel Crucefix (½/4)
4	3-0-3	3	Louis Burton (2/4), Anthony Ransom (1/2)

This was very much a team effort from Trowbridge, but arguably their top player was Dave Marshall who was undefeated in 4 matches.

Bath

Board	W–D–L	Points	Players
1	3-3-0	4½	Hugh Norton (½/1), Peter Dimond (1/1), Dave Allen (3/4)
2	2-0-4	2	Angus Plumbly (1/1), Hugh Norton (0/2), Christian Brown (1/3)
3	3-1-2	3½	John Burrows (0/1), Christian (1/2), John Leon (1/1), Angus Plumbly (1½/2)
4	4-0-2	4	William Wilshere (1/1), John Burrows (2/2), Max Cox (0/1), Hugh Norton (1/1)

Bath's star player was Dave Allen with a 152 performance including a draw against Tim Woodward.

Norton Radstock

Returning player Peter Horne did very well this season after a break of over 10 years!

chess post

2011-07-21T18:27:00.000+01:00

Yet another game replay service.

2010-11 Review : Somerset Divison 2 East

2011-06-29T12:47:00.011+01:00

The first in a short series of posts looking back at the recently completed season.

The Somerset County Chess Association website now lists Frome as Division 2 East champions for 2010-11. Therefore Frome win the Charles Marsh trophy back from Trowbridge. In recent years these two teams have dominated the division and their 6 board matches are hotly contested.

2001-2	Frome
2002-3	Trowbridge B
2003-4	Norton Radstock
2004-5	Trowbridge
2005-6	Frome
2006-7	Frome	(Unconfirmed)
2007-8	Frome
2008-9	Frome	On tie-break with Trowbridge
2009-10	Trowbridge
2010-11	Frome

A full list of the trophy holders can be found here.

Somerset Division 2 East 2010-11

Team	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Points
Frome	4	1	1	22	14	9
Trowbridge	3	1	2	20½	15½	7
Bath	2	0	4	16	20	4
Norton Radstock	2	0	4	13½	22½	4

Note that although the SCCA site incorrectly shows Frome scoring 10 points, the true results (with individual player records) can be found here.

A key match this season was Trowbridge's home fixture against Frome. This turned out to be the only drawn result in the division.

Trowbridge	3-3	Frome
Rothwell, Derek	0-1	Purry, Chris
Hibbitt, Arthur	1-0	Jepps, Gerry
Weston, David	0-1	Leonard, Mark
Woodward, Tim	1-0	Paine, Kevin
Davis, Adrian	1-0	Berryman, Geoff
Ransom, Anthony	0-1	Fisher, John

The outcome on board 1 was unexpected... Derek had started the season brightly;drawing the occasional game but only losing to Sven Zeidler (204). However his last five games of 2011 were all losses. Conversely, Frome's strongest player Chris Purry had an uncharacteristically poor start taking only 2 draws from his first 10 games. This was his only win in Division 2 all year.

On board 2 Arthur faced the combative Gerry Jepps who essayed a From's Gambit. Unforunately for Gerry he played the same sub-standard move that I had erroneously used against Arthur exactly one week previously! Gerry held out longer than I had managed, but the loss seemed almost inevitable.

On board 3 I found a nice tactic winning a piece and eventually swapped off enough material to force a win in the endgame. This gave me a 7th straight win against Dave Weston. The remaining boards were true to form, with team captain Kevin unable to match a Tim Woodward flushed with victory (and following 4 straight wins) at Blackpool Congress.

Cross-Table

Team	Bath	N / Radstock	Frome	Trowbridge	Home Pts
Frome	4 - 2	3½ - 2½		4 - 2	6
Trowbridge	3½ - 2½	5½ - ½	3 - 3		5
Bath		4½ - 1½	3½ -2½	1½ - 4½	4
Radstock	4 - 2		1 - 5	4 - 2	4
Away Pts	0	0	3	2

The table above illustrates how much of an advantage the home team enjoys, with 9 out of 12 fixtures lost by the visiting side. For example, Trowbridge were able to defeat Norton Radstock by 5 points at home. However what was arguably a stronger team away to a weakened Radstock side subsequently lost 4-2 in a remarkable reversal.

Player Results

Glastonbury player Roger Fenton has compiled a list of Somerset team results, with player breakdowns. I will highlight the top performers in Division 2 East below.

Frome

Frome performed very well on the lower boards as shown in the following table:

Board	W-D-L	Points
1	2-2-2	3	Chris (+1=2-2) + Gerry Jepps (+1=0-0)
2	2-2-2	3	Gerry/Kevin/Mark
3	3-3-0	4½	Mark/Geoff/Kevin
4	2-1-3	2½	Geoff/Kevin/John F
5	3-2-1	4	John F/Geoff/Gerry U/Mike
6	5-0-1	5	Gerry U/John F/John N/Mike/Rhys

Arguably the best showing came from boards 5 and 6 player and Club Secretary Gerry Udell with a 100% record and a 142 ECF performance. I expect to see a significant increase in Gerry's grade this year. Also impressive was the undefeated John Fisher who was not out of his depth even when promoted to board 4. I believe that these two players made the difference to the Frome squad. Match results can easily turn on the outcome of the bottom board. Yours truly was unbeaten with a 160 performance. Gerry Jepps was surprisingly defeated by Trowbridge members in both the Home and Away fixtures.

Trowbridge

Board	W-D-L	Points
1	1-2-3	2	Derek + David Weston (with 2 draws)
2	3-2-1	4	Tim/Arthur/David W
3	4-1-1	4½
4	3-1-2	3½
5	3-2-1	4
6	2-1-3	2½

Backbone of the Trowbridge team was undoubtedly Tim Woodward. Tim appeared in every match, covering boards 2 to 4 (playing behind the higher graded Derek and/or David Weston and also Arthur in the second half of the season). Tim produced 5 wins, including one against the formidable Gerry Jepps in a lost Away match.

Another notable player was Nigel Crucefix on board 5 or 6 who performed 30 points above his current ECF grade. His one loss was to the in-form John Fisher of Frome. Roy Ludlow also scored well on boards 4 and 5, doing the double on Bath's John Leon.

Bath

Bath's star player had to be Ron Gregory on board 1, with 3 wins and a 199 performance. Ron beat both Derek and Chris Purry.

Norton Radstock

Board 1 player Paul Humphreys put in a very solid 166 performance. Last year he scored W1-D2-L3 drawing with Chris Purry. This year he won 3 and lost 2, beating Chris and Derek in the process.

Frome Major Rd 3 : Weston vs Price

2011-06-10T22:17:00.000+01:00

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Wiltshire 4-a-side : February update

2011-02-14T12:11:00.001Z

Trowbridge fielded a somewhat weakened team last week against Nationwide and suffered their first loss of the season. Unfortunately for Trowbridge both their boards 1 and 2 were unavailable on the night. This left the team out-graded by 117 points (in total). Dave Marshall held in-form Adrian Champion to a draw, but the other players couldn't match their opponents.

First place is now in the hands of Nationwide, should they win their remaining fixtures. The full table and results can be found here.

Team	Won	Drawn	Lost	Pts	Max
Trowbridge	3	1	1	7	9
Nationwide	1	1	0	3	11
Swindon	1	0	2	2	8
Brown Jack	0	0	2	0	8

Trowbridge results

Day	Date	Home	Result	Away
Thu	21 October 2010	Trowbridge	3-1	Swindon
Thu	2 December 2010	Nationwide	2-2	Trowbridge
Thu	9 December 2010	Trowbridge	2½-1½	Brown Jack
Thu	6 January 2011	Swindon	1-3	Trowbridge
Thu	10 February 2011	Trowbridge	½-3½	Nationwide
Mon	28 March 2011	Brown Jack		Trowbridge

Wiltshire 4-a-side update

2011-01-11T15:11:00.000Z

Trowbridge have now played 4 matches: 2 at home (wins) and 2 away (a win and a draw). Mathematically speaking this is only sufficient to guarantee third place in the league. However a draw against Nationwide (next month) would put them in a strong position. A win would guarantee equal first place (although Trowbridge could still lose out on a tie-break.)

The only other fixture contested so far resulted in a win for Swindon away to Brown Jack. It seems that some clubs have been struggling to field a full team. Let us hope that there is resurgence in Wiltshire chess during 2011.

Team	Won	Drawn	Lost	Pts	Max
Trowbridge	3	1	0	7	11
Swindon	1	0	2	2	8
Nationwide	0	1	0	1	11
Brown Jack	0	0	2	0	8

Trowbridge results

Day	Date	Home	Result	Away
Thu	21 October 2010	Trowbridge	3-1	Swindon
Thu	25 November 2010	Nationwide	2-2	Trowbridge
Thu	9 December 2010	Trowbridge	2½-1½	Brown Jack
Thu	6 January 2011	Swindon	1-3	Trowbridge
Thu	10 February 2011	Trowbridge		Nationwide
Mon	28 March 2011	Brown Jack		Trowbridge

Somerset East Chess - November round-up

2010-11-30T13:33:00.000Z

It appears that we are without a blog entry for November, so here's a summary of the Somerset (East) chess played so far this season. As ever, please refer to the Somerset County Chess Association for any official updates.

Somerset Knock-Out
Congratulations and good luck to the first round winners.

Day	Date	Home	Result	Away
Wed	17 November	Yeovil	2-6	Taunton
Thu	18 November	Trowbridge	2½-5½	Norton Radstock
Thu	18 November	Sedgemoor	4½-3½	Frome
	14-18 February	Glastonbury	vs	Sedgemoor
	14-18 February	Taunton	vs	Norton Radstock

Somerset Division 2 East
Both Trowbridge and Bath are on 100% but have yet to play each other. A key match (Frome vs Trowbridge) will take place on the 14th December. This is usually hotly contested!

Day	Date	Home	Result	Away
Tue	12 October	Frome	3½-2½	Norton Radstock
Wed	~~13 October~~	Bath	(Postponed)	Trowbridge
Wed	10 November	Bath	3½-2½	Frome
Thu	11 November	Trowbridge	5½-½	Norton Radstock

Somerset Division 3 East
Trowbridge are the clear leaders at this stage with 2 wins out of 2 matches.

Day	Date	Home	Result	Away
Tue	19 October	Frome	1-3	Trowbridge
Thu	21 October	Norton Radstock	1-3	Bath
Tue	16 November	Frome	2½-1½	Norton Radstock
Thu	25 November	Trowbridge	2½-1½	Bath

Somerset Division 3 East: Frome vs Trowbridge

2010-10-19T23:55:00.001+01:00

Somerset Division 3 (East) got rolling tonight (19th October 2010) as Frome welcomed an experienced Trowbridge squad propped up by relative newcomer Louis Burton on board 4, who was paired against youngster Rhys White.

Frome

Grade

Trowbridge

ung

Board 4 had all the action, starting with a well-played Closed Sicilian opening. Louis set up a Dragon formation, but White responded by (also) fianchettoing kingside. After this solid opening set-up the game quickly became tactical with White winning the exchange and a pawn with a knight fork. However Louis fought back and his opponent committed a mistake in return dropping a bishop. In the resultant endgame Black was very comfortable and won with nearly an hour to spare.

Roy Ludlow won a pawn in the middlegame. After some exchanges more of Black's pawns disappeared to leave White with an overwhelming advantage in a King and pawn ending.

Frome 1 - 3 Trowbridge

Board	White	Result	Black
1	Ludlow, Roy	1-0	White, Mike
2	Jones, Nick	½-½	Davis, Adrian
3	Crucefix, Nigel	½-½	Nicholls, John
4	White, Rhys	0-1	Burton, A Louis

Somerset Division 2 East: Frome vs Norton/Radstock

2010-10-13T00:33:00.000+01:00

The opening Division 2 match was contested last night (12th October 2010) as Frome played host to an under-strength Norton Radstock team. On paper Frome were clear favourites to win on the top 4 boards.

Frome	Grade	Grade	Norton Radstock
Purry, Chris	169	147	Humphreys, Paul
Jepps, Gerry	162	123	Cooper, Graham
Leonard, Mark	152	119	Cook, Stephen G
Paine, Kevin	139	106	Horne, Peter
Fisher, John	118	95	Parish, Graham
White, Mike	ung	82	Cooper, Catherine

On the night, however, it was a different story. Although Gerry Jepps won quickly, both Paul Humphreys and Peter Horne punched above their weight to turn the tables. Stephen Cook put up stiff resistance but eventually succumbed to lose a king and pawn ending. So the fixture was decided on boards 5 and 6:

Frome 3½ - 2½ Norton/Radstock

Board	White	Result	Black
1	Humphreys, Paul	1-0	Purry, Chris
2	Jepps, Gerry	1-0	Cooper, Graham
3	Cook, Stephen G	0-1	Leonard, Mark
4	Paine, Kevin	0-1	Horne, Peter
5	Parish, Graham	½-½	Fisher, John
6	White, Mike	1-0	Cooper, Catherine

Wiltshire League Fixtures 2010-11

2010-10-11T15:37:00.004+01:00

Wiltshire 4-a-side

Day	Date	Home	Result	Away
Thu	21 October	Trowbridge	3-1	Swindon
Thu	25 November	Nationwide		Trowbridge
Thu	9 December	Trowbridge		Brown Jack
Thu	20 January 2011	Swindon		Trowbridge
Thu	10 February 2011	Trowbridge		Nationwide
Mon	28 March 2011	Brown Jack		Trowbridge

Wiltshire Minor
In this league no player graded over 148 is eligible. Swindon have entered two teams.

Day	Date	Home	Result	Away
Tue	12 October	Westinghouse	2.5 - 1.5	Trowbridge
Mon	25 October	Brown Jack	1.5 - 2.5	Trowbridge
Thu	4 November	Trowbridge		Swindon A
Thu	2 December	Trowbridge		Swindon B
Thu	27 January 2011	Trowbridge		Brown Jack
Thu	3 February 2011	Swindon A		Trowbridge
Thu	24 February 2011	Trowbridge		Westinghouse
Thu	24 March 2011	Swindon B		Trowbridge

Mark Leonard vs Roy Ludlow (2010.09.30)

2010-10-01T01:40:00.001+01:00

Spot the tactic #0. White to play and win.

Move 28 will be played and you have 5 minutes left to reach the first time control (move 35). I had missed a number of ways to win up until this point, but I am very pleased to have found a nice continuation here.

Louis Burton vs Roy Ludlow (2010.09.09)

2010-09-23T13:25:00.004+01:00

Just another ordinary day......

2010-09-11T19:47:00.007+01:00

When we look at our chess opponents we obviously can't ever know what history lurks behind the frowns and smiles that emanate from our opponent throughout the course of a game. Last week I played in the 5 minute 'all play all' championships at the Brown Jack pub in Wroughton. The eventual winner was Peter Richmond with an excellent score of 12 wins, 2 draws and 0 losses. Most of Wiltshire's chess loving fraternity know how strong Peter is, so it came as no surprise, albeit one of his draws came against his wife Jane, talk about keeping it in the family!

In second place with 11 wins and 3 draws was a polite elderly gentleman by the name of Jim. In my game against Jim I blundered a pawn in a Reti opening, then another, before finally resigning in a bad position with over a 30 seconds left on my clock. Nothing remarkable here, but having spent several hours refreshing my knowledge of the 'ins' and 'outs' of this opening during the previous week I was disappointed that I couldn't seem to pose any valid threat or gain any 'momentum' throughout the game. I felt that he was particularly strong and was curious to know a bit more about him, and hence asked Peter who he was, - the answer came 'well if I told you he once played against Fischer and is featured in my 60 memorable games '.......Amazingly enough the previous evening with absolutely nothing else to do I had by chance picked up a book I had purchased from the stall at a local chess congress some years ago but never really studied in depth, - Learn from Bobby Fischer's Greatest Games by Eric Schiller, and instantly I thought maybe Jim = James? A story had stuck in my mind of a 'James Sherwin' who had played against Fischer over 50 years ago (February 1957 to be more accurate), and on a certain move the young James (albeit slightly older than his opponent) had moved a Rook with his little finger ('pinky') as if to 'emphasize the mystery of the move', as Fischer subsequently wrote. Sadly in that match the move proved to be a waste of a tempo, but the anecdote and Fischer's narrative were firmly etched in my mind. Fortunately, at the moment computers simply are not able to exercise such 'psychological tactics' otherwise we might be beaten by them even quicker!

Anyway on completion of my research sure enough the elderly, but mentally very agile gentleman I played against was indeed James Sherwin who moved from the USA some time ago and now resides near Bath, or so I am reliably informed. Obviously if I'd known this at the time of my match I wouldn't have been able to resist moving a piece with my small toe or left ear, but sadly I think I can safely say the result would have remained the same.

Fortunately as we are not obliged to write down all our moves in 5 minute encounters, and as I do not possess the mental faculties to recall all 14 games, I deemed it appropriate to include Sherwin's attempt to beat the up and coming World Champion - well 15 years later anyway.

FISCHER V SHERWIN.........THE FABLED PINKY AFFAIR - ALL THOSE YEARS AGO

Somerset League Fixtures 2010-11

2010-09-08T18:10:00.010+01:00

A sneak peek at the new season's fixtures (subject to change). Please refer to the Somerset County Chess Association for any official updates.

Somerset Knock-Out
First off, we have the 8 board Somerset Knock-Out Cup, where holders Glastonbury receive a bye directly into the semi-final. Trowbridge have a favourable home draw and will be confident of making it safely through the first round.

Day	Date	Home	Away
Wed	17 November	Yeovil	Taunton
Thu	18 November	Trowbridge	Norton Radstock
Thu	18 November	Sedgemoor	Frome
Semi	14-18 February 2011
Final	14-18 March 2011

Somerset Division 2 East
Trowbridge are hopeful of retaining the Charles Marsh (East) trophy. For this 6 board league there is a grading limit: only one player in the team may have a grade exceeding 165. Frome will push hard this year, as Gerry Jepps' grade has dropped to 162 for this season.

Day	Date	Home	Away
Wed	~~13 October~~ (Postponed)	Bath	Trowbridge
Thu	11 November	Trowbridge	Norton Radstock
Tue	14 December	Frome	Trowbridge
Thu	13 January 2011	Trowbridge	Bath
Thu	24 February 2011	Norton Radstock	Trowbridge
Thu	24 March 2011	Trowbridge	Frome

Somerset Division 3 East
In division 3 no player graded over 145 is eligible and the sum total for the team must not exceed 500. Players graded under 95 are deemed to be 95. Ungraded players are considered to be graded 110.
Bath were the winners last season, but Trowbridge are in with a shout. 2 matches have been played thus far.

Day	Date	Home	Result	Away
Tue	19 October	Frome	1-3	Trowbridge
Thu	25 November	Trowbridge		Bath
Thu	9 December	Norton Radstock		Trowbridge
Thu	20 January 2011	Trowbridge		Frome
Wed	16 February 2011	Bath		Trowbridge
Thu	17 March 2011	Trowbridge		Norton Radstock

Wiltshire 5 Minute Championship

2010-09-05T11:31:00.004+01:00

Monday 6^th September 2010

£3.00 per adult / £1.50 juniors

Cash entries will be accepted on the night only (no cheques).

This will be an Open tournament with prizes comprising 100% of the entry fees received.
7 rounds will be played (time permitting).

Please arrive between 19:15 and 19:30 to allow for a prompt start.

The Brown Jack Pub
1 Priors Hill
Wroughton
Wiltshire
SN4 0RT

A chilli con carne is being provided free of charge by the public house management.

Contact: chesssalsa AT aol DOT com

Chess and other things....

2010-08-27T22:16:00.008+01:00

When I was young, in between dreaming of playing for Liverpool FC (or more reasonably elevating myself to first sub for the school football team), becoming a Rock-star, or simply drooling over the girls in the upper sixth, life seemed to be so simple. I had been interested in chess for a few years and when a certain Mr. R Fischer started his fun and games at Reykjavic, that was it I was hooked.

At the time I remember one of the big questions posed to me - Is Chess an art or a Science or both? Even then armed only with the arrogance of youth and an ill fitting uniform I thought this was absurd, surely it is about logic? - You may have an infinite amount of moves, but because all white or black responses are not reasonable then it is infinity minus a few. Of course that leads to more confusion and I confess here and now that I do not understand infinity, and certainly cannot comprehend any old monkey writing the complete works of Shakespeare. In my mind he always gets the very last letter wrong, and on the next attempt the second to last is incorrect, ad nauseam, until he starts all over again and simply never finishes it. If he does complete it does that not mean it is the end of the definition of infinity making it finite? A true paradox indeed.

Okay aplologies to all supporters of Morphy, Alekhine, Tal, Capablanca and many other notable chess characters who without doubt were artists in their own way and provided great entertainment, (I wonder if they ever drooled over the upper sixth girls?) but come on guys is it not pure logic? Below I think is what a Super Computer will say in 2019 after we have moved away from Silicon and start to harness atomic power. This unit has 1,000 gig of RAM with 50.000 gig hard-drive in a mini pc the size of an ipod.

White to Move, unavoidable mate in 57 moves

This always reminds me of another amusing quote -

If God was playing God at chess, white would probably win.

You guessed it I am rambling now, but let's go back to 1972 game one Spassky v Fischer and witness one of the classic 'miscalculations' of all time from the man himself, Mr Fischer. Was it a blunder or just pure shock tactics, - or both? The only person who can answer that is now dead, but interestingly even now (prior to atomic computers), the same black move is made by Fritz and Rybka at deep levels Bxh2? Fischer hated draws and would rather lose? The ''artistic' temperament of the chess genius.

Why not even try it on your computer? - There are definitely drawing chances!

Science or Art, who really cares?... just enjoy.

Okay that's all for now, take care and see you soon.

en prise

2010-08-27T00:54:00.003+01:00

Let me first point out that this is a purely personal rant and does not necessarily express the views/opinions of Trowbridge Chess Club (or its other members).

For those unaware, the phrase en prise is used by chess players to describe an unprotected piece (or pawn). It derives from the French verb prendre (to take) and can be translated as 'within grasp' or 'able to be taken'. Now those of you with a passing knowledge of French will recognise prise as having a feminine form. This is because it agrees with the generic word for a piece (une pièce in French), which is feminine.

The excellent Edward Winter in his Chess Notes (#4463) observes that en prise is often incorrectly pronounced "on pree", particularly in the United States. I am not especially surprised or alarmed by this. American language does tend to diverge from the original source and from International standards. One might even say it is à la mode.

What does bother me is (British) English speakers who not only fail to pronounce the s in en prise but also have the temerity to castigate others (who aren't so ill-educated) for their perceived inadequacy. Witness one well-known British player advising a fluent French speaker to "learn sone (sic) French pronounciation (sic)". When I politely enquired about his usage I received the following response from another user: "it's french. You don't pronounce the 's'."

In spoken language one might be excused as mistaking the phrase to be en pris or en prix. But when the words are correctly spelled this behaviour simply cannot be condoned. Perhaps (some) people are dimly aware of the rule that (in French) s as a final consonant is usually silent. However, to extend this rule to the ise suffix is a monstrous hypercorrection.

Is it really that troublesome to consult a dictionary? (Or dictionaries, if you prefer.) I'm tempted to offer a bottle of Moët et Chandon (it's not Mo-ay) if you find a genuine dictionary supporting the pree variant. Not that this would prove anything in particular.

Au Revoir!

Warminster Chess Club

2010-08-16T17:25:00.000+01:00

Several intrepid chaps are looking to start a new chess club at the Bell and Crown pub in Warminster. The intention is that the club will initially meet on a casual basis each Monday from 7:30 pm.

Depending upon numbers and level of interest the club may seek to enter teams into the local Wiltshire and Somerset Leagues, though this is unlikely to happen until the 2011/12 season.

Contact details will be provided as soon as I have them

For directions to the Bell and Crown please follow this link

Trowbridge Squad 2010-11

2010-08-06T13:33:00.010+01:00

Player	ECF (latest)	2009 ECF	League Results (2009-10)
Girdlestone, Paul	204	194	+2 =0 -1
Cooper, Andrew	174	172	+1 =2 -0
Rothwell, Derek	154	161	+2 =1 -5
Leonard, Mark	152	145	+7 =4 -3
Weston, David	150	142	+5 =0 -1
Woodward, Tim	148	140	+3 =2 -0
Hatvany, Paul	144	150	+0 =4 -2
Cooper, Thomas	144		+0 =0 -0
Williams, R Gareth	134	138	+4 =3 -1
Marshall, Dave	131	138	+2 =2 -0
Ludlow, Roy	126	124	+9 =3 -3
Davis, Adrian	116	114	+2 =1 -0
Crucefix, Nigel	84	85	+0 =4 -6
Ransom, Tony	79	80	+3 =1 -4
Burton, Louis	70		+0 =0 -4

Marshall Attacks - Season Preview 2010-2011

2010-08-06T11:57:00.002+01:00

A new chess season dawns and once again Trowbridge will be striving for victory against the finest that Somerset and Wiltshire can muster. Club Captain Tony Ransom can call upon a squad mostly unchanged since last season. Roy Ludlow (player-manager and chief scout for the minor league team) will be looking to repeat last year’s success and unearth another promising new target to rival Louis Burton.

One noticeable absence will be Paul Hatvany who has completed his high profile switch to bridge. Also unavailable for most of last season and unlikely to return are Andy Cooper and Paul Girdlestone. Paul’s loss will be felt all the more with his grade soaring back above 200. All of which will leave Trowbridge looking somewhat light on the upper boards. The ever reliable Derek Rothwell will once again be called upon to lead the line alongside Mark Leonard who comes fresh from a strong 2009/10 season that has raised his grade above 150.

If this year is to be a success then Trowbridge will probably be heavily reliant upon the middle boards, fortunately Tim Woodward is preparing to join Roy and Tony on the professional circuit. The mercurial talents of Dave Weston (chess maverick!) will no doubt come in useful and keep the fans entertained. With Gareth Williams providing witty banter and psychoanalysis in equal measure the spine of the team looks strong.

Whilst Tony Ransom may have only limited choice with his selection Roy Ludlow can continue to call upon an all star line up across the lower boards and minor leagues. Nigel Crucifix was solid throughout last season and Louis Burton is many pundits tip for the player to watch this year. With super-sub Adrian Davies lurking in the wings with his menagerie of animal based openings it is no surprise to find that Trowbridge are the bookies early favourites in both minor divisions. After a transitional season under the new grades Tony will surely be targeting league glory and an extended cup run to keep the fans happy.

Trowbridge’s pre-season warm up was badly affected with high profile tours to Russia and China both falling victim to the Icelandic volcano. A series of friendlies against the combined forces of Westinghouse and Swindon were scheduled instead. The first found a confident Trowbridge on inspired form sweeping all before them with a show of aggressive free flowing play. Was this the first fruit from Paul Girdlestone’s new Dutch football inspired ‘Total-Chess’ coaching system? We may never know.

One thing the fans will enjoy this year is the introduction of electronic clocks on multiple boards in Trowbridge home matches. After several contentious clock based results during the last few seasons, this technological step forward should help silence some of the critics. Reports of slo-mo video replays being made available to the match referee are as yet unconfirmed.

So once again there is plenty to look forward to as we enter the 2010/11 season. Your faithful reporter will endeavour rather more than he managed last season. Best of luck to all our competitors.
Come on the Bridge!!

Welcome

2010-08-06T00:10:00.002+01:00

This is a new blog for Trowbridge Chess Club members. Feel free to post anything you like.