Braunstone Chess Club

Match Report - Minor League Cup Round 1 - for John

25 Oct		Braunstone 3		3½ - 2½	Market Harborough 1		GD
				1½ - 2½
Handicap				2 - 0

1	B	118	Closs, Guy	0 - 1	Ilersic, Romilly	155	37
2	W	101	Read, Barry	0 - 1	Thomson, John	134	33
3	B	91	Barlow, Steve	½ - ½	Kennedy, Sean	79	-12
4	W	76	Tangney, Vince	1 - 0	DEFAULT

The evening began with a minute’s silence for John Impey and it seemed right somehow that a seat at the bottom board for this Minor League Cup match was vacant. We had a default win on Board 4 as Vince’s opponent had injured his foot, which I assume did not happen during a chess match. Guy advised that because of the grading handicaps we only needed one draw to win the match. Barry lost with white on Board 2 and then on Board 3 Steve’s opponent offered a draw as the position on the board became extremely crowded. This offer was gratefully accepted even before his skipper had quite finished the sentence “You can accept that if you want”. Guy battled on to the bitter end defending against the Ruy Lopez before running out of time and options.

I think John would have been pleased that the match was won but we now have to manage this without his customary victory on Board 4, which was a remarkable series of results last season and a fitting tribute to John. Report by Steve Barlow.

Match Report - Major League Cup Round 1

25 Oct		Braunstone 1		3½ - ½	Loughborough 1		GD
Handicap				0 - ½
				3½ - 1
1	B	169	Robinson, John	1 - 0	Sheahan, Sean	170	1
2	W	167	Salisbury, Michael	½ - ½	Eagleton, Greg	167	0
3	B	161	Bingham, James	1 - 0	DEFAULT	?	?
4	W	155	Colburn, Paul	1 - 0	Hickman, Peter	130	-25

The first team beat Loughborough 1 in the first round of the Major league cup in what will now be played as a 4 team all play all home and away. We got off to a flying start when the Loughborough team defaulted board 3 due to "a mix up" over travel arrangements, then Mike drew with Greg as the other two boards looked promising. Next to finish was John who played superbly to beat Sean and then, despite some tricky moments, Paul won to complete a fine team victory.

Match Report - Loughborough 2 v Braunstone 2 19th Oct 2011

The second team made the journey to Loughborough and kept up their unbeaten start to the season with a good win by 3½ - 1½. First to finish was John who trapped his opponents queen. Then Jez agreed a draw, and after a middle game skirmish Mike agreed a draw in a level endgame. Paul won a pawn in the opening and simplified the position to a won ending. Tony was the last to finish and with both flags about to fall in a dead ending a draw was agreed.

19 Oct		Loughborough 2		1½ - 3½	Braunstone 2

1	B	167	Eagleton, Greg	½ - ½	Salisbury, Michael	167
2	W	155	Adcock, Gregory	0 - 1	Colburn, Paul	155
3	B	136	Fraser, Michael	½ - ½	Wells, Jeremy	143
4	W	122	Adcock, Terry	½ - ½	Robinson, Anthony	135
5	B	58	Gordon, Stewart	0 - 1	Oliver, John	130

Match Report – Like lambs to the chessboard

11 Oct		Braunstone 4		½ - 3½	Braunstone 3

1	B	118	Closs, Guy	0 - 1	Sandrovitch, David	144
2	W	101	Read, Barry	½ - ½	Wells, Jeremy	143
3	B	100	Hoch, Toby	0 - 1	Robinson, Anthony	135
4	W	91	Barlow, Steve	0 - 1	Hill, Cyril	110

When faced with a non-playing opposition captain who maximised the squad system to his advantage Barry sneaked a draw on Board 2, but the rest of us played our part by dutifully losing. End of! Report by Steve Barlow.

Match Report – A rookie error?

04 Oct		Braunstone 5		1½ - 2½	Oadby 1

1	B	118	Closs, Guy	0 - 1	Pettitt, David	130
2	W	100	Hoch, Toby	0 - 1	Thornton, Mike	100
3	B	93	Martin, Paul	1 - 0	Williams, Ted	96
4	W	91	Barlow, Steve	½ - ½	Jagdev, Sam	80

A fairly strong Oadby line-up gave us a good run for our money. Toby was the first to depart from Board 2 whilst Guy was eventually ground down by a higher graded player on Board 1. Paul got a win as his opponent failed to meet the first time control. This left Steve on Board 4 who offered his opponent a draw. This was a bizarre decision as apparently there was an extra rook on the board that he had overlooked.

However, following a lengthy debate in the bar, it was agreed that the new 5th team skipper should have advised his young player of the match situation. This may have resulted in the team scraping a share of the points! Lessons learned all round. Report by Steve Barlow.

Match Report – The only way is up

18 Oct		Braunstone 5		2 - 2	Ashby 4

1	B	101	Read, Barry	0 - 1	Jones, Peter	111
2	W	93	Martin, Paul	1 - 0	Roberts, Neil	80
3	B	91	Barlow, Steve	1 - 0	Holmes, Stephen	80
4	W	76	Tangney, Vince	0 - 1	Holmes, David	80

A better performance than last time out for the fifth team. Paul was the first to win on Board 2 followed by Steve, who made fairly hard work of beating his opponent. Vince looked to be in a good position but his rook got in trouble and the game slipped away. Barry was last to finish and reached a point where he was trying to defend both sides at once. This sort of thing rarely works out well. First point on the board though. Report by Steve Barlow.