SCCA - Somerset Chess News

Somerset Chess News (2015-16 Season)
29/06/2016	St. John's First School, Frome Congratulations to St. John's First School in Frome which has been awarded a British Chess Educational Trust Award for 2016. Here is the citation.
13/06/2016	SCCA AGM Minutes of the 2016 AGM.
07/06/2016	SCCA AGM At the SCCA AGM Guy Greenland was appointed Secretary in place of Jim Fewkes. The meeting thanked Jim for his lengthy service. Somerset are currently seeking a match captain to replace Roger Knight who has stood down. Anyone interested in filling this role can contact Roger for details of what is involved. Full minutes of the meeting will be available in due course. However, one decision to note was that commencing next season Division 1 matches will be played over 4 boards instead of 6. It is hoped that this will encourage more teams to enter. Additional boards can of course be played by prior agreement between the teams.
22/05/2016	Minor Counties Quarter-final A greatly weakened Somerset team were demolished 14.5 - 1.5 by Suffolk in the Minor Counties quarter-final in Milton Keynes. The full grisly results can be seen here.
22/05/2016	Somerset Cup Taunton defeated Yeovil 4.5-3.5 to win the Somerset Cup.
16/05/2016	27th Frome Congress The 27th Frome Congress held last weekend was a great success with a near record total entry and the largest number ever in the Open. Results Summary. Detailed results - Open, Major, Intermediate, Minor
16/05/2016	Somerset League Glastonbury are Division 2 West winners and Yeovil have won Division 3 West.
20/04/2016	ECF Finance Council Meeting The ECF Finance Council meeting on Saturday voted to keep membership fees unchanged next season. However, perhaps unusually for a Finance meeting, there were a great many other matters discussed that would be of interest to most players. Ben Edgell has produced an excellent report which is well worth a read.
16/04/2016	Junior Chess Chris Strong writes: What a really lovely day today. We went to Swindon for a 3 Counties Girls Match against Wiltshire and Oxford. The final standings were Wiltshire 17.5 points Somerset 13.5 points Oxford 5 points The match was played with 12 boards over two rounds and the Somerset girls were brilliant. The final result was in the balance right down to the last two games. Everyone played slow, sensible chess and it paid off. To think that 3 years ago we only had two girl players this has been a wonderful finale. Luckily there are only a few Year 6 girls so the next two or three years look really encouraging. The top two boards for Oxford and Wiltshire were incredibly strong and so that was always going to be the first challenge. We managed 2.5 points out of 6 for the first three boards which is fairly solid. Our real bonus was the massive strength of the bottom 6 boards where we picked up 8 points from 12. The whole match was played in a very friendly way and many new friends were made within and outside the county.
08/04/2016	Somerset Cup The cup-final between Taunton and Weston-super-Mare that was scheduled for 22nd March did not take place because Weston were unable to fulfil the fixture. The notice given was in effect less than 24 hours. Weston have therefore been defaulted. In fairness to Weston’s previous opponents, Yeovil and Sedgemoor have been offered the opportunity to play-off for a re-arranged final against Taunton. Sedgemoor have declined and so the final will now be between Taunton and Yeovil on the 17th May.
22/03/2016	Junior Chess The Somerset Under-11 team has qualified for the finals of the EPSCA inter-Asociation team Championship by a strong performance in last weekend's Zone South competition. Full results are here. A photo of the successful team (courtesy of Monika Khan). Chris Strong writes: We came with high hopes of qualifying for the finals and we did this with space to spare. The players did amazingly well and finished 4th with 2nd in our sights until the very final two games of the day. Sashank and Ken were the final players still battling in the hall but neither could secure that last half point. Chirag was outstanding on board 1 winning two hard games and drawing an even tougher one. All 24 players contributed to the squad performance. I was particularly impressed by Ava who spent 10 minutes checking, double checking and triple checking that forcing Queens off was her best chance in the second game. Her opponent, from the unbeatable Sussex team, made life as difficult as possible and created so many complications that they agreed a draw with one minute left on the clocks.
22/03/2016	English Minor Counties Championships Somerset's opponents in the Quarter-finals of the English Minor Counties Championships will be Suffolk.The match is to be played on the 21st May.
18/03/2016	New Club A warm welcome to the new club started in Wells by Chris Snook-Lumb. Contact details have been added to the club contacts page. Wells are hoping to enter a team in the Somerset League next season. In the meantime Frome and Wells have agreed to play a graded friendly in April.
17/03/2016	Somerset League Yeovil are Division 1 champions, Trowbridge have won Division 2E and Frome have won Division 3 East. Divisions 2 and 3 West are still undecided. In Division 2 West Glastonbury currently have a 3 point lead over Yeovil and Wellington, whilst in Division 3 West Yeovil hold a 2 point lead over Sedgeless and Weston-super-Mare.
07/03/2016	WECU County Championship Somerset had a comprehensive win 13.5 - 2.5 against Cornwall in last weekend's Division 1 County match. Full results are here.
08/02/2016	Junior Chess Chris Strong writes: Once again we travelled to Frome for a well organised Grand Prix and the best café on the circuit. Numbers were well down on last year but the quality was phenomenal. Most of the county squads turned up to do battle and it was tough in every section. Starting with the youngest group we considered that the U8s were strong enough to mix it with the U9s. And so it proved, with the top two spots taken by Matthew Timbrell and Ernie Fields. The top three U9s could not be separated in the next positions on 4.5 points. Some players were having off days and slipped down the rankings at the end of a long day. Others, like Thomas Cummins and Sophie Lyons rose to the occasion after getting a call up to the county squad. The U7s were also in this large group and, in their first tournaments, Joseph Pagnamenta and Gabriel Walsh got their first tournament points to finish first and second. Next up, the U10s had a stand-alone section and it was really difficult to foresee the final outcomes. In a very tight section Fiona Thet finished top without losing a game. Her tenacity against Samir Khan to save half a point when she sacrificed the exchange (Rook for a Knight) was epic. Aabha Kurtkoti was unlucky in the last round losing out to Fiona as the two friends battled it out on the top board. Alex Timbrell and Samir secured final round victories to leapfrog into second and third places. The most exciting game was Maddie Millar’s against Ava Delves-Broughton where Maddie uncorked a cracking tactic to win the Queen. After a tough fightback Ava launched a full-on attack on Maddie’s King. A nasty pin resulted in a deadly discovered check winning back the Queen. Maddie was shaken up and succumbed a few moves later. The largest section was the U14s with almost half of the entries. Almost all of these games went the full distance and we witnessed a few time scrambles. Ken Greenshields and Fedor Tureyskiy went down to 50 seconds each with Ken eventually losing an even game on time. Start of the day was seen by Dario Hosdurga who dispatched top players in the first two rounds but was unable to convert another point. This group had county players all the way down to 23rd! The pressure was intense and many games attracted lots of spectators as players battled bravely. I found it encouraging that they were prepared to keep tension in the matches. By this I mean, having tight positions where threats were met by counter threats. No-one backed down and the resulting games were very double edged. Max Walker kept his cool to win all six games ahead of Lawrence Fields. The three U11 heavy weights of Ken, Fedor and Chirag Hosdurga were only just behind. Final results: Under 9s, Under 10's, U14's. Next up are the county games and I hope that we are well prepared. Last week we were lucky to get top coaching at Millfield School with GM Matthew Turner and three of his best pupils. They gave master classes on openings, tactics and endgames with a “find the best move” competition. An impressive day.
07/02/2016	Somerset v Devon Devon won a hard-fought Division 1 match yesterday against Somerset 8.5-7.5. The Division 2 match was much more one-sided, with Devon winning resoundingly 9.5-2.5. Full results are here.
17/01/2016	Somerset v Wiltshire (U 160) In a close match yesterday, Somerset's U160 team narrowly defeated Wiltshire U160. Full results and most of the games.
11/01/2016	Junior Chess West Chinnock Tournament 10/01/2016 Chris Strong writes: The third round of the Somerset junior Grand Prix was held at a new venue in West Chinnock; a beautiful small school just outside Martock. Even though it was just after the Christmas break we had 65 entries in total and there was stiff competition in all sections. Also, it was a qualifier for the UK Chess Challenge so there were plenty of prizes up for grabs and the gold badges were worn with pride throughout the day. The Under 8s provided the organisers with a massive headache as the top three all ended on 19 points and had beaten/lost to each other. In the end they were declared as joint winners. Logan and Annabel were not too far behind either. The Under 9s was much clearer with daylight between the top three and Eben was the only child to win all his games. Tom Grogan was very close in second while Bentley repeated his strong showing from the last tournament and secured third spot. Milly started well but was clearly ill through the day and had to go home early. We wish her all the best and get well soon. Sophie made massive progress from the Bath games and finished very strongly by winning her final two games. The Under 11s always is the toughest section and this time was no different. Lots of talented players were on show and they fought every game. This was one of the reasons why we finished later than usual but anyone lucky enough to watch the games were treated to some fine duels. Fedor was peerless but still had to battle hard for the draw in the final round against Fiona. Ken came second and there were a small group in joint third. Anyone finishing in the top ten can be immensely proud and even the top 20 was cause for celebration. With the county games coming soon I think we have the strongest squad for almost 15 years. The final section was the U14 group and Jonathan Lee dominated that with some ease although Max had a winning position in the final game when he offered a draw. Jon looked relieved and surprised. Jack was a strong second place and Nick did well in third. Thanks must go to Liz Herbert for letting us use her school and helping with the day. Also, we had many helpers with the pairings, refreshments and general tidying. Everyone had a great time and the whole day was very friendly. By now all the parents are getting to know each other as well and I finally managed to get round and chat as well. Full details are here: Under 8's; Under 9's; Under 11's; Under 14's.
07/12/2016	Junior Chess Oakfield Park Tournament 06/12/2015 Chris Strong writes: What a lovely venue we had for the second Somerset Grand Prix of the season. David Groucher, headteacher at Oldfield Park, could not have done more to make us welcome. The PTA also made great bacon butties and coffee. Firstly, I would like to thank all the parents for helping me out today. Many of you were quietly getting on with things and I was too wrapped up in the prize giving at the end to say “thank you“ properly. The caretakers were very impressed with how clean and tidy everything was. There were 76 children for this tournament and we were very close to the maximum seating. Luckily the sections were easy to split and, again, we shortened the time for the U7s and U8s so that they finished all their games by 1 o’’clock. This did not dim the intensity of the competition and the title battle was a repeat of that at Blagdon. Matthew Timbrell once again proved unstoppable easing out ahead of Joseph Pagnamenta. Top U7 was Anna Doyle in her first tournament!!! The Under 9s was pretty close with a three-way tie at the top separated by the smallest of tie-breaks. Harry Donald sent down shock waves early on as he beat one of the red hot favourites in Round 1. He never looked back and, although a new name to our tournaments, is clearly a strong player. Milly Hughes also had her best tournament only losing to two players directly above her. Milly’s progress in the last few games has been impressive. What a tough section the Under 10s proved to be. I thought any one of 12 could win the whole thing. Many were County players from the U9 team last year that reached the national finals. In the end Sasha winged his way in from Wiltshire to remain the only unbeaten player on the day. Samir came a good second while Fiona was the first of four strong girls in the top 9. Finally, we saw some super impressive games in the U14s. All the top 4 tables were set up on the stage. This seemed to spur them on to produce a real show. The lead changed hands many times and nearly all the games went to the full time limit. A real treasure for me was Max offering his Bishop to Chirag who would probably pause for a bit longer next time. However, even I did not forsee the forced 6 move checkmate that followed. I also like the time pressure game that Max and Fedor played out in round 3 with the latter keeping very cool and keeping Max’s queened pawn under control before queening his own pawn and then hunting the King all across the board. He just saw a stalemate before delaying his win by that crucial one move. Jack Tye showed his experience in the local adult league as he finally won the section by half a point on the way. Chirag followed up his impressive showing in the British Championships in the summer by being the top U11 ahead on tie break of Kenneth Greenshields and Fedor and Jack Frith. Full details are here: Under 7s and 8s; Under 9s; Under 10s; Under 14s
05/10/2015	Junior Chess (Blagdon Tournament 04/10/2015) Chris Strong writes: We had a really good day at the first Grand Prix of the season at Blagdon Primary School. The sun shone all day and some of the chess was sparkling too. We were lucky to have a professional video maker as one the parents. Gabriel Gilson is doing a short documentary on chess tournaments for children. He got some wonderful "action" shots and great interviews from very articulate children. Hopefully, he will be at future events so that we can have a montage of the different venues and put the video together early in the new year. There were just 4 players in the U7s and 8s so they played a double round robin. A lot of these games were very competitive with many interesting positions coming out of the openings. The group was won fairly easily by Matthew Timbrell who joined the U9s in the afternoon and proceeded to win all those games too!. The U9s themselves were having their own battles and it was very encouraging to see the more experienced players from last year's county games putting in the hard work and thinking. No-one fully dominated although Finn looked like a good bet as overall winner until he came across Matthew in the last round. That loss let Eben take his final game win and finish with 5/6. However, as he had not played Matthew and Finn won their earlier joint encounter I awarded both Eben and Finn joint first place. Riley and Bentley could not be separated on 4 points for joint third while Matthew had second spot. The U12s, 11s and 10 were all in one big group. The competition here was massively tight and there was no way I could tell the eventual winner even going into the last round. Almost half the games in each round were going the full time control which meant the top players were exhausted by the end as they had very little down-time. It was very pleasing to see that a third of the entries were girls and half of them were competing for trophies in the final round. Joint second were Aabha and Ava on four points in the U10s and Samir pipped them to the title merely on account of a better tie-break. The U11s were clearer with Chirag, Jamie and Robin taking the top 3 spots. Chirag won the whole section with 5.5 points making sure with his final win despite checking the tie-break situation in the final round. the U12s was also settled easily for me as arbiter and Jack took the honours closely followed by Max and Laurence. There are no dates yet for the next events but when anyone organises a tournament you will be the first to know. In the meantime, the final results and crosstables can be found here: Under 9s; Under 12s
01/10/2015	WECU Jamboree In the West of England Jamboree on 29^th September Somerset came second to Devon in the Open section. Somerset S&W came first in the Graded section ahead of the Torbay League, whilst Somerset N&E came equal third with Wiltshire. Full results are on the Chess Devon web-site.
17/09/2015	Somerset League Taunton have withdrawn from Division 1. Taunton contact details for the other competitions have been updated. Taunton are also opting for 5-board matches in Division 2 West.
30/08/2015	Somerset League All Somerset League fixtures for 2015-16 are now on the Score Checker web-site.
28/08/2015	ECF Grading List The ECF revised August grading list is now published. Some minor errors such as double-counting of the Somerset v Essex fixture have been amended.
18/08/2015	County Match Fixtures 2015-16 Here is the County match fixture list for 2015-16.
24/07/2015	ECF Grading List The July 2015 grades have been published on the ECF web-site. The 2015-16 season starts now!

SOMERSET COUNTY CHESS ASSOCIATION