2023/24 Somerset Chess League Fixtures

Div 2 West Div 3 West
Taunton v Wellington Tues 3rd Oct
Sedgemoor v Taunton Mon 16th Oct
Taunton v Weston Tues 31st Oct Sedgemoor v Taunton Mon 30th Oct
Taunton v Wellington Tues 7th Nov
Glastonbury v Taunton Mon 13th Nov
Taunton v Wells Tues 28th Nov
Yeovil v Taunton Wed 6th Dec
Taunton v Weston Tues 12th Dec
Taunton v Yeovil Tues 9th Jan 2024
Wellington v Taunton Wed 24th Jan
Taunton v Sedgemoor ** Tues 30th Jan 2024
Taunton v Sedgemoor Tues 6th Feb
Taunton v Yeovil Tues 13th Feb
Weston v Taunton Thurs 22nd Feb
Wellington v Taunton Wed 28th Feb
Taunton v Glastonbury Tues 5th Mar
Yeovil v Taunton Wed 20th Mar
Weston v Taunton Thurs 28th Mar
Wells v Taunton Thurs 11th Apr
** may need re-arranging because of KO cup semi-finals

Somerset Knockout Competition

Yeovil v Taunton Wed 22nd Nov
CUP SEMI FINALS                                                   Week of 29 Jan 2024

First 2022/23 Match

The first match of the 2022/23 season on Tuesday 11th Oct starred the Taunton Knights against visitors Yeovil.

The gradings suggested that Taunton would win 2 ½ to 1 ½ but you will have to read on to discover the actual result.

Ioannis on Board 1 unexpectedly lost following a slight miscalculation (blunder?), whilst Richard on Board 2 duly won against his lower graded opponent. Even though you outrank your opponent you still have to play well to win. Well done, Richard.

On Board 4 Mike Ward was easily beaten by an opponent who outgraded him quite significantly so no real shame in losing that one Mike.

On Board 3, Phil who was playing with the Black pieces made a poor start but recovered to finish in an end game with a Rook and Bishop versus White’s Rook.

At one point there seemed to be loads of pawns but the next time I looked they had all gone. I thought this was going to be a draw and we would lose but he played very well and his opponent resigned before an inevitable mate.

2-2 was the final result. Well done everyone. It is great to be back playing OTB matches against other clubs.

And good luck to our Bishops who visit Weston Super Mare on Thursday.

Beware decommissioned oil rigs!

2022/2023 – Division 3 Fixtures / Results

Click here to download a copy of the fixtures for yourselves.
Click  (awaiting link) to see Somerset League Division 3 results so far.

BISHOPS TEAM FIXTURES:

(Captain – David Graham)

DATE DAY HOME AWAY RESULT
13 Oct 22 Thurs Weston-S-M v Taunton Bishops  1½ – 2½
25 Oct 22 Tues Taunton Bishops v Sedgemoor match postponed
08 Nov 22 Tues Taunton Knights v Taunton Bishops  ½ – 3½
23 Nov 22 Wed Wellington v Taunton Bishops  2 – 2
07 Dec 22 Wed Yeovil v Taunton Bishops  1½ – 2½
09 Jan 23 Mon Sedgemoor v Taunton Bishops  1½ – 2½
24 Jan 23 Tues Taunton Bishops v Weston-S-M  2½ – 1½
07 Feb 23 Tues Taunton Bishops v Yeovil
21 Feb 23 Tues Taunton Bishops v Taunton Knights
07 Mar 23 Wed Taunton Bishops v Wellington

KNIGHTS TEAM FIXTURES:

(Captain – Chris Greenaway)

DATE DAY HOME AWAY RESULT
11 Oct 22 Tues Taunton Knights v Yeovil  2 – 2
26 Oct 22 Wed Wellington v Taunton Knights 1½ – 2½
08 Nov 22 Tues Taunton Knights v Taunton Bishops  ½ – 3½
22 Nov 22 Tues Taunton Knights v Weston-S-M  1 – 3
05 Dec 22 Mon Sedgemoor v Taunton Knights  1 – 3
10 Jan 23 Tues Taunton Knights v Wellington  1 – 3
25 Jan 23 Wed Yeovil v Taunton Knights  
07 Feb 23 Tues Taunton Knights v Sedgemoor
21 Feb 23 Tues Taunton Bishops v Taunton Knights
09 Mar 23 Thurs Weston-S-M v Taunton Knights

Match versus Sedgemoor 17th Nov

Ok. So this was our second friendly match. We had had to postpone the match twice owing to non-availability of players but finally agreed on a mutually convenient date and Sedgemoor were good enough to visit us.

Joshua Acibar, in his first match for the club. played, as usual, at lightning speed but unfortunately also lost at lightning speed.

Niall won a protracted and fairly close game thanks to a superior pawn count.

Richard won, fortuitously I thought, in a close game when his opponent, playing too quickly, was obliged to continue a move having touched his piece, a rook. Richard was able to fork the King and Rook leaving him a bishop up.

Fernando lost a close game agin showing the advantage of a superior number of pawns.

Arnold, playuing against a much higher rated player fought for and got a draw in a position I thought was lost. Well done Arno;d.

Mike’s game I didn’t see much of and he lost graciously.

Well done Sedgemoor. 3½ v 2½

Bishops v Weston Knights

Happy New Year to one and all and especially to our gallant and brave team who ventured out last Thursday. David Graham lost a closely fought match with Malcolm Dinham having also lost to him in the previous match. Congratulations to Vic for once again beating Steve Miles, rated 30 points above him, Mike Ward drew and Chris Greenaway accepted his opponent’s offer of a draw to level the match at 2-2.

Afterwards he said he could have won, but we all say that don’t we? In this case though I think he could have. Anyway, I was pleased with a draw after our last outing to Weston ended in a 3-1 defeat against the Weston Bishops team  and a 1.5 to 2.5 defeat when the Weston Knights visited Taunton in September.

DG.

Knights v Wellington – 17th Dec 19

The Knights welcomed Wellington to St Michaels Church on the 17th December. Wellington brought a strong side as expected, but no Chris Barratt on board one unlike the previous week when they faced and lost to the Bishops who triumphed 2.5-1.5. They drafted in A.Walker a 140 player to play Arnold 126 grade (a bit un-expected to say the least). To the match Knights Arnold, Chris, Martyn, Stan. The first game to finish was Stan v Robert Harris board 4 a draw agreed in the middle game which seemed premature, but there were no Pawn breaks to be had no easy way to break through with out weakening ones position. This in turn put added pressure on the other boards
0.5-0.5
Chris board two was next to finish playing a much improved Alan Stonebridge had a battle on his hands. Alan with two passed Pawns versus Chris passed pawn in the end game a clear advantage for White un-expectedly offered a Draw, which Chris gladly accepted as he felt his position was lost, his reputation obviously goes before him. 1-1
Martyn next to finish Board 3 v John Jeremiah who played his unusual opening e4 b4 against Martyn’s Sicilian which triumphed in a previous encounter. White had the better of the opening Blacks defence held.
Momentum changed move 22 White missed a tactic Black sacrificing a Rook for the pair of Bishops, Whites attack nullified. 2-1.
Arnold board 1 v A.Walker played superbly White having no answers to Blacks attacking play. Move 14 Ng4 trapping Whites Black squared Bishop was missed by his opponent and was the turning point of the game. A piece and Pawn up there was only going to be one winner. With precise play Black won comfortably. 3-1.
Game on web site press Shift F keys to flip board to view game from Arnolds perspective.

A. Walker 140 v A. Acibar 126.

[pgn]
[Result “0-1″]
[Date “17.12.2019”]
[Round “Division 3″]
[Event “Knights v Wellington”]
[White “A. Walker”]
[Black “A. Acibar”]
[Site “Taunton Chess”]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Be7 5.0-0 d6 6.c3 Bg4 7.Qb3 Bh5 8.d4 h6 9.Be3 a6 10.Nbd2 Nf6 11.Nh4 O-O
12.Nf5 b5 13.Bd3 Re8 14.f4 Ng4 15.fe5 de5 16.Nf3 Ne3 17.Ne3 ed4 18.cd4 Nd4 19.Nd4 Qd4 20.Kh1 Qe3
21.Ra-e1 Qd4 22.a3 Ra-d8 23.Bb1 Bd6 24.Ba2 Qe5 25.g3 Bg6 26.Rf2 Qd4 27.Rfe2 Re4 28.Rd1 Qe5 29.Re4 Qe4+
30.Kg1 Re8 31.Kf1 Qh1+ 32.Kf2 Qh2+ 33.Kf1 Bg3 34.Qf3 Bd3+ 35.Rd3 Re1# [/pgn]

John Jeremiah 109 v Martyn Maber 109

[pgn]
[Result”0-1″]
[Date “2016.12.17”]
[Round “Division 3″]
[Event “Knights v Wellington Board 3″]
[White “John Jeremiah”]
[Black “Martyn Maber”]
[Site “Taunton Chess Club”]

1.e4 c5 2.b4 cb4 3.d4 e6 4.c4 bc3 5.Nc3 a6 6.Qa4 Nf6 7.Nf3 Be7 8.Bb2 0-0 9.Bd3 d6 10.Qc2 Nc6
11.a3 e5 12.de5 de5 13.Rd1 Qa5 14.0-0 Bg4 15.Nd5 Bf3 16.gf3 h6 17.Ne7+ Ne7 18.Kh1 Ra-c8 19.Qe2 Ng6
20.Bc1 Nh5 21.f4 Nf4 22.Qg4 Rc1 23.Rc1 Nd3 24.Rb1 b5 25.Rb3 Nh-f4 26.Qh4 Qa4 27.Rc3 Qe4+ 28.f3 Qe2
29.Qg3 Qf1+ 30.Resigns[/pgn]

Bishops V Weston Bishops 7th November

Well, we got there eventually. There was a lot of traffic on the A370 into Weston; probably carnival traffic parking up for the next day we were told.

Arnold had kindly agreed to be our top board and he was evenly matched with Ollie Isaac. David (100) was playing Malcolm Dinham (106) so fairly even there too. Both Mike Ward and Vic were outgraded by 20 points or so (against John Parsons and A Keen) but I was quietly confident. Last year we came away with a victory against similar grades.

David finished first; an absolute disaster. How can anyone allow an h7 mate after 17 moves. Well you’re just going to have to guess because I’m too embarrassed to put the game up on the website.

Mike succumbed to a mass of pawns (and pieces) bearing down on his King which had nowhere to go but into danger.

Vic looked to have a reasonable chance and his opponent’s King was well exposed, but after Queens were exchanged he was playing with 2 Rooks against 2 Rooks and a Knight. And then that nasty Knight was threatening to fork Rooks and the King and he bravely capitulated.

Arnold finished last and it was an evenly and fiercely fought contest. It eventually came down to a Rook and pawn ending, an isolated white pawn on a5 which black had to defend with his Rook allowing Arnold to win a pawn on the other side of the board and leaving him, eventually, with King and Pawn against King. No slipping up and allowing a stalemate and Black resigned. Well played, Arnold.

A disappointing 3-1 loss. Damp squibs and other firework metaphors are wholly inappropriate. Hope springs eternal though, so we’re back in December against Wellington.

 

David v Ernie Fields

[pgn]
[Event “Taunton Bishops v Wells”]
[Site “Taunton”]
[Date “2019.10.29”]
[Round “NA”]
[White “David Graham”]
[Black “Ernie Fields”]
[Result “Draw”]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bf4 Bg7 5.Nf3 O-O 6.Qc2 Bf5 7.Qb3 b6 8.Ne5 dxc4 9.
Qxc4 Be6 10.Qd3 Bf5 11.e4 Bc8 12.Be2 Ba6 13.Qd2 Bxe2 14.Kxe2 Nh5 15.Rhd1 Bxe5
16.Bxe5 Nc6 17.Bg3 Nxg3+ 18.hxg3 Qd7 19.Rh1 Qxd4 20.Qh6 Qg7 21.Qxg7+ Kxg7 22.
Nb5 Rac8 23.Rac1 a6 24.Rxc6 axb5 25.Rhc1 Rfd8 26.Rxc7 Rxc7 27.Rxc7 Ra8 28.a3
e6 29.Rb7 Ra4 30.f3 b4 31.Rxb6 bxa3 32.bxa3 Rxa3 33.Rb2 Ra1 34.f4 Ra3 35.Kf2
h5 36.Re2 {Draw agreed} *
[/pgn]