SCCA - Somerset Chess News

Somerset Chess News (2014-15 Season)
15/06/2015	Somerset v Essex All of the games from the Somerset v Essex match are now available. Somerset v Essex
14/06/2015	English Minor Counties Semi-Final Somerset narrowly lost their semi-final match against Essex by 7.5-8.5, the match determined by the last game to finish. Full results. The Essex web-site contains an excellent blow-by-blow report on the semi-final match.
04/06/2015	2015 AGM Minutes and Officers' Reports from the 2015 AGM are now available here.
01/06/2015	Somerset v Cambridgeshire Most of the games from the Somerset v Cambridgeshire match are now available (thanks to Stephen Appleby). Somerset v Cambridgeshire
18/05/2015	Frome Congress A very successful Frome Congress took place at the weekend. All the results and prize winners. Somerset trophies were won by Matthew Turner (Millfield) in the Open, Andrew Gregory (Bath) in the U170, Chris Snook-Lumb (Clevedon) in the U140 and Ivan Stringer (Yeovil) in the U115. Eva Goldie (Millfield) won the trophy for ungraded players.
10/05/2015	English Minor Counties Quarter-Final Somerset won their Minor Counties quarter-final match against Cambridgeshire yesterday by the narrowest of margins 8.5-7.5 with the match being decided by the last game to finish, Chris Purry pulling off an unlikely win. Full results are here. Somerset now go on to play the winners of the Lincolnshire v Essex match (taking place next next weekend).
03/05/2015	Junior Chess Chris Strong reports on last weekend's Last Chance Saloon qualifier for the UK Chess Challenge at Ash Primary School. A good turnout saw some big guns from Bristol and some of the county team where their school does not run the competition. In the U14 section we saw the top two seeds split the winning post with Jack Tye taking it on tie-break from Chirag Hosdurga. The group after the top 10 saw a difference of 3 points(1 win) between them. In the U9 section, the two U7s proved way too strong for everyone but still had to share first prize. Well done to Ernie Fields and Joseph Pagmanenta. Full standings attached: U9's U14's
26/04/2015	ECF Finance Council Ben Edgell has produced a report on the ECF Finance Council meeting held on the 18^th April. Headline news is that fees are being increased as follows: a) Membership: Platinum £60; Gold Adult £32; Silver Adult £22; Bronze Adult £15; Gold Junior £26; Silver Junior £16; Bronze Junior £11. b) Game fees (standard-play): Adult/County/Club games £2.50; Junior events £0.60.
20/04/2015	Junior Chess Chris Strong reports on the Junior tournament held at King Edwards School in Bath on Saturday 18th April. We were blessed with marvellous weather and a great venue for the tournament. There were three sections, U11 U9 and U8 with 65 children taking part. Most of the county squad were playing, which made it probably the toughest tournament of the year. Those missing were representing the Girls Squad in Gloucester in the County Finals. They did very well for our first team for around 10 years. Back to KES. The U8s was very keenly fought with any of the top 12 in with a good chance. In the end Finn Doyle triumphed after fending off Toby Pridmore in the final round. It was a close call as Toby had his own checkmate lined up but Finn got there with one move to spare! Matthew Timbrell starred to win the U7 title. The U9s had there own competition and all the top players are in the county squad which is nice to see. Samir Khan was super cool all day and the only player to win all his games. He was actually 1.5 points clear of second place where only 1/2 point separated the next five players. This was definitely a tough group. However, it was the U11s that provided most of the drama. Even the first round had some shocks with Barney Pridmore, almost unbeaten during the season, fell down. Ken Greenshields also found the competition hard and would normally be much higher up. The thing is, he played well and still ended up outside the top 10. Congratulations to Fedor Turketskiy on winning the U11s with a flawless performance. He was pushed hard throughout the day but remained unbeaten on 5.5.
20/04/2015	Somerset League Congratulations to Weston-super-Mare for winning Division 2 West.
01/04/2015	Somerset League Congratulations to Trowbridge, Norton Radstock and Weston-super-Mare clubs for winning the Division 2 East, Division 3 East and Division 3 West leagues respectively.
27/03/2015	Somerset League Congratulations to Weston-super-Mare for winning the Somerset Cup. The final of the knock-out competition between Yeovil and Weston was tied 4-4, but Weston won on board count.
19/03/2015	Somerset League Photo of the Glastonbury team celebrating winning the Division 1 championship. .
08/03/2015	WECU County Championship The top-of-the-table clash between Devon and Somerset featured many fought hard-fought games. In Division 1, Somerset won 10 - 6 to retain the Harold Meek Cup for another season. In Division 2, Devon won 6.5 - 5.5 to retain the Wayling Cup. Full results and Stephen Appleby's report. First team games; second team games.
04/03/2015	Somerset League Glastonbury are confirmed as Division 1 champions after Yeovil lost to Frome last night. Glastonbury host second-placed Frome in their final match of the 2014-15 season on 17^th March.
04/03/2015	Junior Chess The Wales and West Jamboree was held at at the weekend. It is a team event for U14s, U11s and U9s. Five counties took part: Devon, Somerset, Gwent, Glamorgan and Wiltshire. Chris Strong reports: Thank you to everyone who came and played in the Somerset teams on Saturday and to all the parents, relatives, brothers and sisters who came to support us. I think that it went well and we all seemed to enjoy the day. We were very lucky to have Grandmaster Matthew Turner to support us and many children benefitted from his extensive knowledge. What Matthew doesn?t know about chess is probably not worth knowing. He gave individual feedback on games that were recorded and group sessions on the openings. Onto the results. After a promising start the U14s had a nightmare in round 2 before coming back strongly in the final round. Unfortunately this still left them in last place with the top three teams split by the smallest of margins (half a point). This was a really tough section with the top boards having grades of 180; ie strong adults. Luckily, all of the team will still be eligible to play next year and our strongest U11s will be too. The U11s were in great shape. After totally crushing everyone in round 1 they lost the top five boards in the second. A magnificent team talk by Adam prepared them well for the final round and they stormed every board again, losing only on board 13. This put them in 2nd place by half a point which, if they had achieved this in any drawn or lost game, would have given them outright 1st! We are looking good for the trip to Sussex in a few weeks. The U9s, my team, were in buoyant mood. After a shaky start they just kept going. For all of them this was their first outing at county level and nerves were bound to play a part. The main thing that the U9s can learn is that they need to slow down and look closely at their moves. Also, I didn?t quite know what the board order should be and some were out of position. Sorry for that. But, the team spirit was very high and the parents were always having lively discussions which is a great sign. I was enjoying one conversation so much that we almost missed the final round. We came fourth missing third by just one point. The highlights were having an unbelievable board 1 who played his first round as well as I could and seeing everyone fight for the final points in the last round. The presentation was held up because Eben was still searching right at the end to get that win that he deserved. The arbiters called a draw when the players repeated the moves. It was so exciting. I would like to also thank Robert Chandler, Pete Saunders, Peter Strong, Berit Greenshields and Sally Somers for their help and support getting the teams to Devon. The next trip is the U9s going to Glamorgan on 14th March and the U11s to Sussex on the 21st March. Finally, dates for your diary: 18th April a Grand Prix in King Edwards School in Bath and 26th April a ?Last Chance Saloon? for the UK Chess Challenge at Ash School.
02/02/2015	Junior Chess Chris Strong reports on a thriving Somerset junior chess scene. The start of February saw the largest group of players in a junior tournament in Somerset for many years. Sally Somers organised the Frome event to which over 90 children turned up. The sections were U8, U9, U10 and U12. Only two players scored maximum points; the ever brilliant Ken Greenshields in the U10s and new boy Yuvraj Kumar in the U9s. There were many children taking part for their first competition and they all seemed to enjoy it thoroughly. Results tables are here: Under 8s, Under 9s, Under 10s, Under 12s.
21/01/2015	County Chess For the third county match of the season, Somerset faced Gloucestershire on Saturday 17th January 2015 at the Lecture Hall in Stone, Gloucestershire some 20 miles north-east of Bristol. Somerset once again fielded a strong line-up of 16 players. The starting time was 2-00 p.m. prompt by which time one of the Somerset players had failed to find the venue. It was clear after 15 minutes this game would have been forfeited. The team captain Roger Knight acting as a reserve stepped in to avoid this loss and forewent his non-playing role. The match was more fiercely contested than the last one against Hampshire with some games in the balance for some time. In the end Somerset weathered the storm to win 10 ? 6. Full results are here. The final match to decide the Division 1 title will be in March against Devon. Stephen Appleby has inputted all 15 games for which scores were available and they can be downloaded here. Stephen Appleby
30/11/2014	County Chess Somerset's first team defeated Hampshire by the convincing margin of 12 points to 4 in yesterday's County match. Full results are here. Games from the the Somerset v Hampshire match (PGN format) are here thanks to Stephen Appleby, whose report for the Blackmore Vale Magazine contains a photo of the match.
14/11/2014	ECF October AGM Ben Edgell has produced a very full report on the ECF October AGM.
10/11/2014	Junior Chess What a brilliant tournament we had today in Wells. Thanks to Berit and her team of helpers. On Remembrance Sunday 66 children from around Somerset competed in the first junior tournament of the season. The standard was particularly high through each section with the Under 10s being the most competitive. In the Under 9s, 3 of the top 5 were girls and this reflects the increasing dominance of girls shown nationally in the UK Chess Challenge. Fiona Thet came from Oldfield Park and finished top in her first tournament. The outstanding favourite, Nina Nissim, could only manage 4th! As mentioned earlier, the U10s was the fiercest battle and any one of 5 players could have won. The honours this time went to Chirag Hosdurga ahead of newbie Jamie Keil. Some strong players finished mid-table, notably Simon Kouparis who started the first three rounds so strongly but fell away after lunch. It was not that he played badly either. His opponents were outstanding. The only full marks came from Barney Pridmore in the U14 section. He cruised to victory despite being the youngest in the group. Results tables: Under 9s Under 10s Under 14s Chris Strong
19/10/2014	Somerset v Cornwall Somerset's first team defeated Cornwall 11-5 in yesterday's County match and the second team also won by 8 points to 3. Full results are here.
17/09/2014	WECU Jamboree The WECU Jamboree was held on Sunday the 14^th September. The Open section was won by Devon with Somerset second. In the Graded section Wiltshire and the Torbay League tied for first place. Full results are here and all the games from the Open Section are here.
05/09/2014	Grading Changes in 2015 The ECF grading team have announced planned Grading Changes for January 2015. These are aimed principally at reducing the effect of incorrect game dates (usually club tournament games). The most visible effects will be that 'X' grades will disappear and that there will be new 'F' grades requiring only 5 games or more.
19/08/2014	Taunton Club Taunton Club now meet at Heathfield School in Monkton Heathfield. Details are on the club contacts page.
14/08/2014	Weston-super-Mare Club Weston-super-Mare club have a new venue and will now meet at the First floor of the Conservative Club, 24-26, Alexandra Parade, Weston-super-Mare BS23 1QX. The club will continue to meet on Thursdays. For matches, opposing team captains are asked to contact the appropriate Weston captain a few days beforehand with the names of their players (this is to ensure entry to the premises).
06/08/2014	Sedgemoor Club Sedgemoor club have a new venue and will now meet on Wednesdays at The Admirals Landing, The Docks, Bridgwater TA6 3EX.
24/07/2014	July 2014 ECF Grades The new season's grades are now published. The 2014-15 season starts here!
18/07/2014	Good Performance by Millfield Student Congratulations to Stephen Whatley who defeated grandmaster Francisco Vallejo Pons the Spanish number one and world number 51 rated player in a simultaneous display held at the public launch of Chess24.com, a new online chess platform based in Gibraltar. Stephen has just completed his first year as a chess scholar at Millfield school in Somerset. - Lawrence Cooper, ECF Junior Director (posted on ECF web-site)
14/07/2014	119^th AGM (02/06/2014) Minutes of AGM Treasurer Report Match Captain Report Tournament Secretary Report Results Officer Report ECF Delegate Report
18/06/2014>	New Laws of Chess The 2014 revision of the Laws come into effect on 1^st July. Among other changes, there is a tightening up of rules relating to mobile phones and other electronic communication devices, modifications to the way irregularities (illegal moves etc.) are dealt with and a relaxation of the prescribed procedure for promoting a pawn. Here are the new Laws with changes marked in red and some comments from the Chess Arbiters Association on how the Laws should be interpreted for English events.

SOMERSET COUNTY CHESS ASSOCIATION