Braunstone Chess Club

Match Report January 27th 2011

Braunstone second team played Market Harborough in round 3 of the league cup (minor section) on Thursday night. The match took place at the Catholic Club in Harborough at what turned out to be a reasonable venue. Because of the grading difference we had an advantage of 3 points, Guy & Paul battled hard against Messrs Ilersic & Thomson despite the difference of 50 points but after 30 moves or so, class told. However Steve played well,again, to secure a draw which meant overall a drawn match. Report by Guy Closs.

27 Jan		Market Harborough 1		v	Braunstone 2		GD
				3½ - ½			-150
Handicap				0 - 3
				3½ - 3½
1	B	160	Ilersic, Romilly	1 - 0	Closs, Guy	104	-50
2	W	142	Thomson, John	1 - 0	Martin, Paul	94	-48
3	B	113	King, Robert	½ - ½	Barlow, Steve	88	-25
4	W	107	Johnson, Graeme	1 - 0	Tangney, Vince	80	-27

Match Report January 25th 2011

The first team took a bit of a beating against Heathcote Arms in round 3 of the league cup (major section) on Tuesday night, with no-one distinguishing themselves. To save our blushes, its best not to report on individual games.

25 Jan		Braunstone 1		½ - 3½	Heathcote Arms 1		GD



1	W	167	Colburn, Paul	0 - 1	Sharpe, Graham	192	25
2	B	170	Robinson, John	0 - 1	Bray, Dave	168	-2
3	W	167	Salisbury, Michael	½ - ½	Cowley, Michael	156	-11
4	B	158	Gonem, Sherif	0 - 1	Booley, Graham	153	-5

Match Report January 20th 2011

Braunstone second team travelled to league leaders Shepshed and came away with a thumping 4-1 win. All Braunstone players arrived between 5 and 20 mins late, the clocks having been started at 7.20pm.(The official start time at Shepshed is 7.15pm, which I, as captain, had overlooked).

My game was agreed a draw after 24 moves and a short while later, Jeremy also secured a draw. At that time the remaining games all looked fairly equal, but as the evening wore on, they all swung in our favour, with first Tony winning, then John and Dave.Somehow we had contrived to win the match 4 - 1, a reversal of the same score when the two sides met at the start of the season. Afterwards, there was much celebration in the Richmond Arms, with the 75 year old landlord joining in! Report by John Oliver.

20 Jan		Shepshed 2		1 - 4	Braunstone 2

1	B	165	Farrall, David	0 - 1	Robinson, John	170
2	W	151	Toothill, Neil	0 - 1	Sandrovitch, David	148
3	B	150	Simpson, John	½ - ½	Wells, Jeremy	136
4	W	139	Rice, Stephen	½ - ½	Oliver, John	131
5	B	129	Bennett, Kevin	0 - 1	Robinson, Anthony	124

Match Report January 19th 2011

The first team played away to a strong Loughborough team and came away with a hard fought 2½-2½ draw. First to finish was Paul who had a level position against Sean Sheahan and agreed a draw. Mark had a fine win against Loughborough's new board 1, Ilian, first sacrificing the exchange for a strong attack and then winning a rook. Jim had a real ding dong battle with Jim Miller, whose king side attack turned out to be stronger than Jim's queenside pawn march. Mike and Greg Eagleton had a complex position with chances for either player, but with each having 10 moves to make in 3 minutes a draw was agreed before further blood was shed. That left John with a queen and pawn ending whereby he managed to manoeuvre a perpetual check and so the match was drawn.This was our most hard fought match of the season with every game keenly contested, so a draw was perhaps a fair result. Report by Mike Salisbury.

19 Jan		Loughborough 1		2½ - 2½	Braunstone 1
1	B	195	Mladenov, Ilian	0 - 1	Hebden, Mark	242
2	W	172	Sheahan, Sean	½ - ½	Colburn, Paul	167
3	B	162	Mitchell, John	½ - ½	Robinson, John	170
4	W	161	Eagleton, Greg	½ - ½	Salisbury, Michael	167
5	B	158	Miller, James	1 - 0	Bingham, James	157

Match Report January 18th 2011

The third team lost away to Syston 2 - report to follow hopefully!

18 Jan		Syston 2		2½ - 1½	Braunstone 3

1	B	119	Leonard, John	0 - 1	Lathwood, Roy	117
2	W	107	Hollingworth, Stuart	½ - ½	Hill, Cyril	103
3	B	109	Gist, Elizabeth	1 - 0	Read, Barry	104
4	W	95	Mitton, Judith	1 - 0	Martin, Paul	94

Match Report January 13th 2011

The second team went away to Spinney Hill and came away with a comprehensive win by 3½ - 1½. Jez was quickly out of the blocks to win a piece and the game was soon over. Dave was always on top against Brian Slater and his passed pawns ensured the win. Tony was two pawns up in the endgame, then lost one and when his opponent offered him "a pint and a draw" Tony accepted"! Mike accepted a draw against Karl in a level position as Sherif was about to mate his opponent. Sherif decided to simplify instead into an ending two pawns up but then contrived to lose one pawn, then another and accepted a draw in a level position. Report by Mike Salisbury.

13 Jan		Spinney Hill 1		1½ - 3½	Braunstone 2

1	B	161	Potter, Karl	½ - ½	Salisbury, Michael	167
2	W	144	Wylie, Stephen	½ - ½	Gonem, Sherif	158
3	B	133	Slater, Brian L	0 - 1	Sandrovitch, David	148
4	W	129	Gurney, Roy	0 - 1	Wells, Jeremy	136
5	B	131	Colver, John	½ - ½	Robinson, Anthony	124

Match Reports January 11th 2011

It was a great night for the club as three teams were in action on the same night, two at home and one away, and all three teams won.

The first team had a home match against Wigston 2 and came out 3 - 2 winners. John went astray in a tricky ending against Phil Watkinson, Mark took advantage of some hesitant play by Andy Morley to win comfortably, Mike was lucky that his opponent missed a winning line in the opening and went onto win a pawn and an easy endgame. Paul seemed to have the better of things against Iain Dodds but lost the thread of the game, which left Jim to bring home the full point with a victory that always looked likely. Report by Mike Salisbury.

11 Jan		Braunstone 1		3 - 2	Wigston 2

1	B	242	Hebden, Mark	1 - 0	Morley, Andrew	178
2	W	167	Colburn, Paul	0 - 1	Dodds, Iain	157
3	B	170	Robinson, John	0 - 1	Watkinson, Phil	152
4	W	167	Salisbury, Michael	1 - 0	Harlow, Phil	145
5	B	157	Bingham, James	1 - 0	Wilkins, Denis	110

The third team had a fine win against Ashby 3 as we were outgraded on every board. Unfortunately as I was struggling with my own game, I didn't see any of the games except Barry's superb ending which he played with great skill. It was enough for the team to win 2½ - 1½. Report by Mike Salisbury.

11 Jan		Braunstone 3		2½ - 1½	Ashby 3

1	B	117	Lathwood, Roy	½ - ½	Reynolds, David	137
2	W	103	Hill, Cyril	1 - 0	Wyld, Nick	117
3	B	104	Read, Barry	1 - 0	Williams, Richard	111
4	W	94	Martin, Paul	0 - 1	Jones, Peter	100

The 4th team travelled to Syston and won comprehensively.It was another terrific performance by the team to win an evenly matched contest by 4½ to ½ , and go joint top of the league . All the games were hard fought against experienced league players & in most cases a narrow advantage proved to be decisive in the game. A word of congratulations to Syston social club for the excellent cask ales as guest beers & to mention that they will be holding a beer festival in June. Report by Guy Closs.

11 Jan		Syston 3		½ - 4½	Braunstone 4

1	B	100	Martin, Maurice	0 - 1	Closs, Guy	104
2	W	95	Mitton, Judith	0 - 1	Barlow, Steve	88
3	B	97	King, Ron	½ - ½	Tangney, Vince	80
4	W	82	Agger, Reg	0 - 1	Hoch, Toby	80

Match Reports January 4th 2011

The new year got off to the worst possible start with defeats for both the first and third teams. To make matters worse our third team didn't turn up for their match at Heathcote Arms, thus defaulting! Actually, one of our players Cyril Hill did turn up but the captain had forgotten to organise the team the match so there were no other team members present.

The first team went down to a disappointing 3-2 defeat to Scraptoft Valley despite outgrading our opponents on almost every board. John succumed to a king side attack from Roland Graf, whilst Mike had to conceed a draw in a level end game to Paul Deacon. Sherif had a level position with Bob Collins when Bob forgot about his clock for 5 minutes and lost on time with 6 moves to make. Paul had a double edged position but it all went wrong against Ray Burgess leaving Jim with an advantage against Mick Tate but Mick was able to force perpetual check. Report by Mike Salisbury.

04 Jan		Braunstone 1		2 - 3	Scraptoft Valley 1

1	B	167	Colburn, Paul	0 - 1	Burgess, Ray	173
2	W	170	Robinson, John	0 - 1	Graf, Roland	162
3	B	167	Salisbury, Michael	½ - ½	Deacon, Paul	159
4	W	157	Bingham, James	½ - ½	Tate, Michael	145
5	B	158	Gonem, Sherif	1 - 0	Collins, RF (Bob)	129