SCCA - Somerset Chess News

Somerset Chess News (2012-13 Season)
10/06/2013	2013 SCCA AGM Minutes of the SCCA AGM held on 03/06/2013 and League Rules for 2013-2014 season.
05/06/2013	Ron Gregory Bath chess club are sad to report the death of long-time club member Ron Gregory. Ron had been a stalwart member of the Bath club since 1949 and a distinguished member of the Somerset County team. He will be greatly missed.
30/05/2013	2013 Frome Open All the games from the 2013 Frome Open. Here is Somerset Champion David Buckley's final round game.
22/05/2013	Somerset v Lancashire Somerset were heavily outgraded on most boards and lost their Quarter-final match against Lancashire 5.5-9.5. See Roger Knight's match report. Here is Peter Chaplin's win for Somerset.
21/05/2013	Somerset Cup Taunton won the Somerset Cup final against Trowbridge 4.5-3.5.
14/05/2013	24^th Frome Congress Results and pictures of the 24th Frome Congress
21/04/2013	Somerset v Gloucester 20/04/2013 Somerset defeated Gloucestershire 11-5 yesterday in the final match of the WECU County Championship Division 1 season. The result sees Somerset retain the Harold Meek Trophy. See Roger Knight's report.
15/04/2013	ECF Finance Meeting 13-04-2013 Ben Edgell's report on the ECF Finance meeting
10/04/2013	Adrian Hollis Here is an interesting article on Adrian Hollis with examples of his games, including a fascinating correspondence game played for Somerset that ended with four Queens on the board.
09/04/2013	Somerset League Somerset League: Glastonbury win the Division 3 West title.
01/04/2013	2013 Candidates Tournament in London After having slipped behind by losing to Ivanchuk, Carlsen catches up with Kramnik in the penultimate round of the Candidates tournament with an exhausting and dogged marathon game against Radjabov. See this full report.
24/03/2013	2013 Candidates Tournament in London Carlsen and Aronian lead after 8 rounds with 6 rounds to go. Follow the live games on the ChessBomb web-site.
22/03/2013	Somerset League: Taunton win Division 1, Trowbridge win Division 2 East, Bath win Division 3 East, and Yeovil win Division 3 Central. Divisions 2 and 3 West are not yet decided.
22/03/2013	Adrian Hollis, Somerset's correspondence chess Grandmaster Adrian Hollis, who passed away in Wells on 26th February, had strong Somerset connections. He was for many years a Vice President of the County Association and played for the County correspondence team in the 1970's. He won the British Correspondence chess championship three times and was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1976. Here is a more complete appreciation of this distinguished gentleman of chess.
10/03/2013	Somerset v Cornwall 09/03/2013 Somerset defeated Cornwall 9-3 in yesterday's Division 1 County match. See Roger Knight's report. Here is the game on Board 1: Rudd v Menadue
05/03/2013	The County match against Gloucestershire has been re-arranged for the 20^th April
16/02/2013	Final of the Somerset Cup is Taunton v Trowbridge on March 26^th.
13/02/2013	Somerset v Devon 09/02/2013 Somerset 1^st team beat Devon 9-7 in an exciting closely fought match whilst 2^nd team were beaten 7.5-4.5. See Roger Knight's report. Here are two of the games: Buckley v Stephens and Krzyzanowski v Regis.
30/01/2013	Please help to make this web-site more interesting by sending games, reports of club competitions etc. to Here is an interesting recent game from Division 1 of the Somerset League.
27/01/2013	Somerset Primary Schools Chess Association - Frome 27-01-2013 Somerset Junior Chess ran another successful tournament but in a new venue. St John's School kindly offered to host the tournament and there were many local players, mostly new to tournament chess. We had a good turnout as the weather leading up to the day has been appalling. The conditions were excellent and we were very luck to have British Championship arbiter, Geoff Gammon, on hand to do the pairings. Also, local hero Megan Owens, came along to offer tips and encouragement. Megan has been British Champion since Year Dot, played in the adult Olympiad aged 11 and represented Wales at World and European Championships. In the U8 section, there looks to be only one winner but things were not so straightforward as Ken Greenshields looked totally lost in the first round. His opponent finished with a Queen, Rook and Bishop against a lone King. No prizes for guessing that stalemate was the actual outcome. It was a feat that he was to repeat in the final round. Ken, however, took stock and won all his matches in fine style with a 5-move demolition in the last game. The U9s looked a tight section on paper and so it proved for the minor places. Barney Pridmore played the tournament of his life to remain unbeaten. On the way he beat Bertie Adams and Conrad Perry both of whom could have won on another day. The older section saw the U11s and U10s combined. The standard was pretty high with many experienced players. In the end there was a tie for both age groups as the lead changed regularly. Results are here. Chris Strong 27/01/2013
18/01/2013	Gloucestershire v Somerset county match on 19/01/2013 has been postponed because of the weather.
11/01/2013	Chess news from just across the border Ilfracombe Chess Club's fight for survival
29/12/2012	Somerset League half-year results have been submitted for grading Player performances in the first half of the season are here.
14/12/2012	Sedgeless have withdrawn from Division 3 West This means that for league purposes all of the matches they have already played this season are now void. However, the individual games played in them will remain graded.
06/12/2012	Somerset Primary Schools Chess Association Next tournaments are the Christmas and New Year events at Ash and Frome
02/12/2012	Somerset v Dorset 02/12/2012 Somerset won their Division 2 match against Dorset 10.5 - 5.5. See Roger Knight's report.
27/11/2012	Details of Millfield Open Chess Tournament 27th January 2013
18/11/2012	Somerset Primary Schools Chess Association - Millfield 18-11-2012 There was a very close finish in the Under 18s with Zoe Strong and Adam Dickinson playing right to the wire in the final round. A draw by perpetual repetition proved they couldn't be separated. The Under 12s proved more decisive as Henry Righetti stormed to his best tournament result and finished unbeaten although Nick Cunliffe gave him a fight along the way. King Edwards School also provided the winners of the Under 10s, although the Perry twins had to share the title with Bertie Adams in a three way tie. Kenneth Greenshields kept up his winning ways as he comfortably secured victory in the Under 8s. Results are here. Chris Strong 18/11/2012
22/10/2012	Somerset v Hampshire 20/10/2012 Somerset drew their Division 1 match against Hampshire, but lost the Division 2 match. See Roger Knight's report.
14/10/2012	ECF AGM October 2012 See Ben Edgell's report
11/10/2012	Matthew Turner Simultaneous Norton Radstock chess club celebrated its 40th anniversary on 6th October at Norton Radstock school with a simultaneous display given by Grand Master Matthew Turner of Millfield School. He played against 27 chess players drawn from Radstock and other local chess clubs including Frome, Trowbridge and Bath. One family of four also played and the two young children gave a good account of themselves by lasting longer than several other players. The match began at 3pm and lasted almost three hours with a final impressive result of 26 wins for Matthew Turner and just one loss to Norton Radstock chess player Andrew Gredziak, who was awarded the cup for the best game played on the day. Several other players looked as though they might win or draw, but one lost on time when a piece up and in a good position and the rest succumbed to the grandmaster by the end. The match was organised by the Secretary of Norton Radstock, Peter Carrick, with help from other members of the club and their wives. A vote of thanks was made to Matthew Turner for his hard work and skill over the afternoon together with the presentation of a token of the club’s appreciation, which reminded him of his Countdown trophy. Peter Horne 11/10/2012
07/10/2012	2012 WECU Jamboree The 2012 West of England Chess Union Jamboree took place on Sunday 16th September at the Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre in Taunton. The event would not have taken place without the tireless efforts of Ben Edgell and Martin Worrall, for which I am extremely grateful. Devon claimed first place in the Open Section, with 8 out of 12. Somerset finished a decent second with 6, and Gloucestershire came third with 4. Somerset’s victors were Jack Rudd, David Buckley, David Littlejohns, Peter Chaplin and Andrew Footner, with Terry Stuttard and David Wood drawing their games. The Torbay League (8 out of 12) won the Graded Section, pipping Dorset (7.5). The Exeter League came third (5.5), with Somerset finishing fourth (4). Colin Stanton, Mike Cooper and Geoff Berryman recorded wins for Somerset, with Mark Baker and Stan Hill drawing their games. Many thanks to all who represented the county. It was my first event as captain and I didn’t give anybody much notice at all, so I am pleased that the players still showed enough enthusiasm for Somerset to field two teams. This season will be a steep learning curve for me, and I hope to do a better job as I become more experienced. Finally I would like to thank my predecessor Roger Morgan, who led the county team to considerable success last season and has been a source of tremendous encouragement. Scorecards from the WECU Jamboree can be found on the superb Chess Devon website. Roger Knight 07/10/2012
04/10/2012	Somerset Junior Chess The new junior season in Somerset got under way on 30th September with the first Grand Prix at Blagdon Primary School. This is a series of 5 matches spread around Somerset to give juniors their first taste of tournament chess. It consists of two main sections (U11 and U9) in which the children play 6 rounds in a normal Swiss match. A Swiss match is where everyone plays 6 rounds (or more) and no-one gets eliminated from the competition. The time limit is 30 minutes on each player’s clock, giving a game time of 1 hour maximum. In the Blagdon tournament there were many fine games and the U16s went down to the last minute on Board 1 with Nathaniel saving a lost position against Zoe and eventually getting a draw by repetition. The Under 11s saw a 3-way tie as the long-time leader, Rufus, lost his final game to Laurence in an exciting tussle. The next stage of the Grand Prix series will be at Ash School on 27th October and then Millfield School on 18th November. For more details please contact Chris Strong in Blagdon on 01761 462277 (home) or email cms121@btopenworld.com. Chris Strong 04/10/2012
01/10/2012	SCCA Officers Roger Knight is the new County Match Captain and Chris Mckinley is the new Treasurer. Thanks to both for taking on these roles and to the retiring officers Roger Morgan and Chris Barratt.
01/10/2012	Scorechecker The Somerset web-site makes use of the Score Checker League Management System developed by Malcolm Peacock of Preston for recording and grading results. Thanks to Malcolm for offering this System and for his help in setting it up for the Somerset League.

SOMERSET COUNTY CHESS ASSOCIATION