Wiltshire 4-a-side : February update

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

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

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

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	Grade	Trowbridge
White, Mike	ung	126	Ludlow, Roy
Jones, Nick	94	116	Davis, Adrian
Nicholls, John	92	84	Crucefix, Nigel
White, Rhys	40	70	Burton, A Louis

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

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

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)

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.