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!

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.

 

Bishops v Wells

Wells had postponed our original scheduled meeting as they had a few players off sick. They emailed me details of their likely team but when they turned up on Tuesday last the composition of their team was different. Conspiracy theorists suspected an attempt to make us field a weaker team but I had already decided on the team anyway. I innocently believed their excuse.

A full house at the club with a new junior meant that we started a little late as I had to call for silence.

Off we went. I think Mike Ward finished first, falling to a Knight smothered mate in the corner. Surely he’s old  and ugly enough not to fall prey to that sort of checkmate, I hear you say. Sadly no. 0-1.

Phil finished next and lost reasonably quickly. His believable excuse was that he had been having exhaust problems on his car and was thinking more about the return journey to Minehead than the really important matter at hand. 0-2.

David was next to finish playing White. His queen got chased round a bit, his King got out of position and didn’t castle. Queens were exchanged, and rooks, and pawns. With 4 pawns and a rook each left, a draw was agreed. Well done David for not losing on time this week. 1/2 – 2 1/2.

Jerry, playing black and I think he said an advanced French, seemed to be a bit cramped but with Rooks bearing down on the King side with White’s King well advanced. After the King retreated to safety neither player seemed to be able to or want to risk making a breakthrough and potentially weakening their position so a draw was agreed. 1-3.

A fair result but a bit disappointing. I think we could have done better. Maybe next time.

 

David v Stan

[pgn]
[Event “Taunton Knights v Bishops”]
[Site “Taunton”]
[Date “2019.10.22”]
[Round “NA”]
[White “David Graham”]
[Black “Stan Wojcik”]
[Result “0-1″]
1.d4 d5 2.Nc3 Bf5 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3 c6 5.Bg2 g6 6.O-O Bg7 7.Bf4 Nbd7 8.Nh4 Be6 9.
Re1 h6 10.Nf3 g5 11.Bc1 Qc7 12.e4 dxe4 13.Nxe4 Nxe4 14.Rxe4 Nf6 15.Re1 O-O-O
16.c3 Nd7 17.b3 g4 18.Nd2 h5 19.Ne4 Nf6 20.Ng5 Qd7 21.Ba3 Bf8 22.b4 Rg8 23.
Nxe6 fxe6 {now b5 is strong} 24.Re5 Bh6 {b5 is now essential} 25.Qb3 Rg5 26.
Rxe6 Bf8 27.Bc1 Rf5 28.a4 Nd5 29.Bxd5 Rxd5 30.Re4 Bg7 31.b5 e5 32.bxc6 Qxc6
33.Rb1 Bf6 34.Bd2 Kb8 35.Qb4 Ka8 36.Be3 Rb5 37.axb5 Qxe4 38.Ra1 exd4 {Bf4 should be played}
39.cxd4 b6 40.Qa3 Qe7 41.d5 Qxa3 42.Rxa3 {White now loses on time! Too many chances wasted}
0-1
[/pgn]

Major Tournament DG v PR

I don’t think White ever got going
[pgn]
[Event “Taunton Major”]
[Site “Taunton”]
[Date “2019.10.15”]
[Round “na”]
[White “Phil Reed”]
[Black “David Graham”]
[Result “0-1″]
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6 3.Bf4 Bb4 4.e3 O-O 5.Bc4 d6 6.Qd3 Re8 7.O-O-O a6 8.d5 e5 9.
Bg5 Nbd7 10.Ne4 Nc5 11.Nxc5 Bxc5 12.Qb3 e4 13.Qc3 Re5 14.Bh4 b5 15.Be2 Bb7 16.
Qb3 g5 17.Bg3 Rxd5 18.f3 Rxd1+ 19.Kxd1 Bd5 20.Qc3 b4 21.Qd2 Bxa2 22.b3 a5 23.
Bb5 d5 24.Ba4 Qe7 25.Ne2 Rd8 26.Nc1 d4 27.Ke2 dxe3 28.Qe1 Rd2+ 29.Kf1 Rxc2 30.
Ne2 Qd8 31.Be5 Rd2 32.g4 Rd1 33.fxe4 Rxe1+ 34.Kxe1 Qd2+ 35.Kf1 Qd1+ 36.Kg2
Qxe2+ 37.Kg3 Qxg4# 0-1
[/pgn]